Now the fun really starts!

My baby is starting to approach weaning-territory! Since she stopped sleeping through the night, she's been dribbling more, constantly has her fingers in her mouth and watches me eat like a hawk. I read the Mother&Baby special on weaning and noted that Isabella ticks all the boxes, even if she is a couple of weeks early. Then, I got on Google and checked out 4-5 different baby websites (just to be on the safe side) and went out and bought organic baby rice and a weaning bowl and spoon to make sure that I was prepared.
Of course, like everything else baby-related, everybody has an opinion. Some say to start weaning when they show all the signs, others say just to give them more milk and wait until they're 6 months. But these latter people aren't the one with a baby attached to their boob 24/7.
Then Monday came around and after an hour of feeding Isabella and her STILL grizzling and chewing her fingers, I decided to go for it. I called my mum, who said "For goodness sake, she's starving, just try a bit, it won't hurt and she'll just spit it out if she doesn't like it". I got the bowl and spoon cleaned in boiling water, measured out the baby rice, made up some formula to mix it with and got ready for the big adventure that is solids to begin.

She hated it.

Seriously, for a baby who normally wants to eat constantly and has her mouth open 90% of the time, she clammed right up. She tried to escape from her bouncy chair, she dribbled it out and then she managed to put her foot in the bowl that I was holding and got it everywhere. The only bit that I got her to actually eat was a splodge from my finger.
A couple of days later, my health visitor came over and one of the first things that she suggested was to start on solids. As she's still young, I was told to try baby rice for the first couple of weeks, then move on to veg and because she's so big, to try it twice a day.

My mum sent me a food parcel for her AND an extra flannel for cleaning her with

 

(The sticker says "food parcel for my poor        starving grandaughter")

Soooo, I tried again, this time with the pre-made baby rice that my mum sent me. Still no joy! I have a couple of mummy friends who have also tried giving their babies solids recently and they say that they loved them and gobbled them right up! 

I've just got to presume that even though she's so much hungrier and showing all the "signs", Isabella just isn't ready quite yet. I've got some more stream-line spoons, so I'm going to try again Monday and see how she goes, wish me luck!

TTFN xx