Oh, DROOL!!

That's supposed to be one of the first signs of teething. We have the motherlode of drool in our house now, and Ben is its fountain. Gnawing and refusal to nurse are other symptoms. We've got that action going on too.

And our previously amazing little sleeper, who was sleeping 12 consecutive hours at night, has now been waking at around midnight, screaming bloody murder. To be fair, last night he was actually really hungry - I think because he hadn't eaten well before bed because of his gummy woes.

So tonight I loaded him up with solid foods, since eating with a spoon doesn't seem to bother him as much as sucking. He's getting really good at it, too (as opposed to his first experiences eating from a spoon, where he looked like a bowl of porridge had exploded all over him). He's an alarmingly wonderful eater. Tonight he mowed through half a container of bananas, half a container of prunes (which, hilariously, he loved), a full tablespoon of single grain oatmeal mixed with breastmilk, and 5 ounces of mixed formula & breastmilk. (We're officially supplementing now.)

And after I cleaned him up, burped and changed him, he wanted to nurse!!

So now begins a new era - teething rings, frozen washcloths, and miscellaneous plastic objects for him to chew on. I assembled his high chair, and he loves it - it's much easier to feed him solids in it than his Bumbo. I'm going shopping tomorrow for some more formula, rice cereal, and baby food. I might try him on some more single veggies - so far he's just had squash, which, like his mother, he's not all that enthused about. ;)