Playin' around on the couch
& sitting up all by himself

My new favorite.

After tubby time (which we like a lot
more than tummy time)!

Here he is sticking out that tongue

Little cowboy

It seems that Eli is growing up faster and faster these days. He's doing new things all of the time. He enjoys sticking out his tongue and doing "raspberries" (aka blowing spit bubbles all over the place), sitting up on his own, grabbing anything and everything, putting things in his mouth, rocking back and forth, trying to stand up, finally rolling over well, and the list goes on.... I think he will be crawling by sometime in March, and we are getting ready to start solid foods.

Thus far, Eli has eaten only breast milk, aside from the times in the NICU and shortly after homecoming when he had a few bottles of breast milk fortified with formula. As I recently returned to work, I realized that I just can't pump enough to keep him fed while I'm at work. He's still getting satisfied when he breast feeds directly, but there is a huge difference between nursing and pumping, and I just can't express enough milk. We decided to start supplementing with formula while I'm at work. He gets a bottle of half breast milk and half formula--Similac Advance, as his pediatrician doesn't believe he needs the premie version any more--and it's been working out just fine. I was a little sad at the fact that I wouldn't be his only provider of food anymore, but obviously his full tummy if more important than my full ego.

As far as solid foods go, I haven't started them yet for a few reasons. First, starting solids too soon has been linked to food allergies. Second, I didn't see any real reason to start. He was getting full on breast milk, gaining weight, wasn't sitting up well or trying to put anything in his mouth. I just didn't see any reason to rush something that he has his whole life to learn how to do. If he's getting everything he needs from milk, why start on food? I'm starting to feel that now is the time. I was wanting to start him at a corrected age of 6 months, and he's getting close to that. He's sitting up very well, and notices when people are eating and often acts as if he wants to eat when others are doing so. I'm going to be making my own baby food and freezing it. So far, I have carrots, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash, so his first food will be one of those things. Of course, I'll post pictures!