Don't feed a hungry child?

I don't give Noah enough credit. On the very few occasions we have taken him out into the world I have felt panicked the entire time. I'm absolutely stressed out that he is going to start crying inconsolably. People will be staring, pointing and complaining that I obviously don't know how to calm my child. And I'll be too busy having a nervous breakdown to get it together enough to even make an attempt. This is a ridiculous scenario because not only has Noah never cried inconsolably, but every time we have taken him out into the world he has just stared wide eyed at all the chaos with his mouth hanging open. So I really need to give the boy a break and expect better from him.

Eating solid food has a TREMENDOUS impact on diaper contents. My God. I've never seen anything quite like that before. 'Nuff said.

Yesterday we did something that I'm sure was truly futile. We made Noah a schedule. Both his pediatrician and our First Year book said that by now he should be transitioning into two longer naps from three. And the book said that there should be a four hour gap between his second nap and bedtime. Based on that info and the fact that during the night he typically sleeps from roughly 8pm until 6 am, we penciled in a daily schedule with a two hour nap at 9 and a second two hour nap at 2. We even went so far as to include times for his feedings and possible bath times. There is no way in hell that he's going to follow it at this point, but I like to have something to aim for.

Of course sleeping at night still isn't 't perfect. It's been getting progressively better, but when I called the pediatrician about it this morning she said she isn't convinced that his problem is reflux related. She doesn't want to up his dosage any further because it is getting high for his weight, so she made some other suggestions. When he wakes up at 1:30 am and wants to be fed, she suggested I don't feed him. That's right - don't feed him. WHAT? I'm supposed to try to settle him back to sleep without feeding him. Also she suggested that during the day that I start trying to put him down for a nap when he seems sleepy but before he has fallen asleep. She said he needs to learn to soothe himself to sleep and that this too will help him in the night. I'm so tired right now. And I think making these changes will make things worse for the time being, but hopefully in the long term it'll get better. Yawn.