Creating the New "Full"

I introduced Marty to solids when he was four months old.  An all night scream-fest inspired me to try something new.  I figured he was teething and the spoons I have are coated and good for gnawing on, so I made up some rice cereal and launched a spoonful toward his red, tear-streaked face into his wide and wailing mouth.  It was the only thing that calmed him down.  Thus the journey had begun.

I only started giving him cereal in the morning.  He was getting constipated (oh joy) and I thought about switching him to oatmeal, but someone told me to try bananas; later I found out this was a binding agent.  The pediatrician told me greens would do the trick, so I gave him some sweet peas--also a binding agent.  Finally the pediatrician recommended prune juice mixed with rice cereal.  This has seemed to work really nicely. 

Upon the 5 month mark, I introduced him to new foods: sweet potatoes, squash, and carrots--which stain everything.  Spoons, clothes and even Marty's face have an orange tint to them and the aftermath looks as if I fed my son Cheetos.  At the 5 month mark we were up to two meals a day, breakfast and lunch, and I was going to hold off on the third meal, dinner, until he reached 6 months.

Well lately I've been waking up with my son at what seems like "ungodly" hours.  And he's hungry.  So I nurse him and it would usually be enough to lull him back to sleep.  Not so, now that I have created the new "full."  I only got smart to this last night after I tried dinner.  He couldn't get enough.  Where he would normally stop chowing at a tablespoon's worth of veggies, his typical consumption during the day, he ate a jar and a half of sweet potatoes and finished it off with 3-4 oz of breastmilk.  Needless to say, I didn't have to feed him during the night.  While he did wake up early a little gassy, a soothie and some rocking was enough to send him back to dreamland.  I've got a growing boy on my hands.~*