August 5, 2009 - Note to Self

Do not, I repeat, do not breast-feed the baby shortly before serving rice cereal for dinner (for the 2nd time) because the baby will not be interested in eating it at all, even though the books you've read told you not to feed the baby on an empty stomach the first several times. Rather, listen to friends and other moms you know who feed their babies on empty stomachs and then top them off with breast milk AFTER they've eaten.

Lesson learned: Grace took a few bites of her food tonight and then gave the signals: pushing the spoon away, tight lips, looking in the other direction. I congratulated her and didn't push the issue. Tomorrow night, however, she will (as she did the first night) eat her rice cereal on an empty stomach and then get filled up with breast milk before she goes to sleep for the night.

The good news is that Grace napped today from 10am - 11am and then again from 3:30 to 4:50. I put her down to sleep tonight after her bed time routine and she made a few peeps but no crying. She is sound asleep now (15 minutes later). We feel like our life has completely changed in just 3 days!

Kristoffer came home from work today sick with potential salmonella. Yuck. We hope he is better tomorrow but if not he will go to the UN clinic. The first UN staff person here came down with the H1N1 virus in Nairobi so now everyone is on alert. WFP has ordered tamiflu for each child of a WFP staff person - which means that, God forbid, if Grace gets H1N1 she has medicine just for her. Not sure if they have ordered it for staff and spouses though! Anyway, his symptoms are of the stomach-problem variety so hopefully it was just some bad food he ate a government office yesterday (that happened to me once before) and nothing more.

And even though he isn't feeling great he is leaving in a few minutes to go pick up Jean and Jen at the airport!

LMW