Help with purées- long post

My baby is 6 months old and is my first. He started exclusively breastfeeding at 2.5 months, prior to that I exclusively pumped due to latching issues. With our delay on nursing I think I enjoy it a lot more than I expected. We did get the clear from our doctor at 4 months to introduce purées, but she specifically said “just give it a try and it’s no big deal if you forget to give purées to him for a few days”. Well we did it here and there and he seemed to like it. I figured I would be more consistent at the 6 month mark. We went for his 6 month check up with the nurse and basically said we were way behind with food and he should be eating a lot more and now he will be delayed eating actual solids because he hasn’t learned how to swallow. So I feel terrible that I enjoy nursing and haven’t been focused on solids (he’s in the 80th percentile for weight so we have no issues there). I obviously decided to refocus and get solids into the schedule. Well my baby had other ideas. He was taking purées like a champ. But he got a stomach bug two nights ago and threw up about 9 times in an hour. Well now he is completely refusing purées. He literally gags if I bring the spoon towards him (there is no food in his mouth). I’ve given him the spoon to play with and he loves it and sticks it in his mouth on his own. I’ve tried cereal, veggies and even introduced apples, with no luck. I’m not sure if he’s not refusing because he got sick or other reasons. Any tips on getting him to like them again?

Also, we are on a loose schedule because he’s had some rough nights. I just really focus on him going down for a nap between 11-12:30 following his cues and then another in the later afternoon and bed at 8:30 (sometimes this takes 2 hours to get him to sleep for bedtime and a nap). Depending on how bedtime goes he wakes anywhere from 8-10 am. I feel like I don’t have enough hours to space it out to eat/nurse every 2-3 hours. How do you guys squeeze food in?

Sorry for the long post. Any positive advice would be appreciated. Thanks!