On Strike?

Last week I dropped our afternoon feeding for a bottle of milk instead. It was a bit liberating really. I could run errands and go out after her afternoon nap and not worry about finding a dark closet to feed her in (since she refuses to breastfeed in public -- embarrassed to be seen with mom already...). That had been going pretty well overall, but then this morning... well, she decided to take control.

Normal nap routine... get upstairs to feed her breakfast... sit down in her comfy chair and she SCREAMS. Downright screams. Geesh. I think, okay, maybe she's got an air bubble. Bounce, pat, bounce, pat. Nothing. Okay, maybe she just wants to go straight to sleep. So we skip the book and I put her down. Louder screaming. Okay, huh. Bottle? Yep. Sat down with her on the chair with her curled up into my arm but so she can see the room and she guzzled that thing down and fell asleep doing it. I couldn't rouse her at all to burp or read a story or anything. Out cold.

This morning, I got up to feed her at 6:30am before putting her back down for another hour of sleep and I sat there and enjoyed the moment. Noted how big she was getting. How when I burp her she takes up my whole body now and her feet dangle and fold since she is so long. I rocked and cuddled and burped her after she ate and just enjoyed the snuggly moment.

Now I'm wondering if it was a good thing I did...! We shall see! I can't decide how I feel about it. I think I'm okay with it if this is what happens. She wants to be so independent and involved in her world, you can see how resistant she is to having to put her back to it all to eat. It's so funny. Every noise she hears she tears (and this word choice is deliberate) around to see what is happening behind her and grudgingly returns to eating. I think we had a good run of it. I'm leaving it up to her.

We added bananas to our list of foods today. So far we have acorn squash, sweet potatoes, peas, and apples that were big hits. Avocado she didn't particularly like. And banana seems to be a hit, too. I have a fridge full of zucchini that was on crazy sale that I need to cook up soon (planning on throwing it on the grill with our dinner tonight to save on cooking) and freeze for her after our banana trial is over.

She's getting back to her old self slowly. The rash is fading, and her temperature is down. She's insisting on standing almost all the time and even tries to move her feet around. It usually ends in her cascading to the floor, but she's a trooper and insists (as in, whining and reaching for my fingers) on standing again.