Here I was all set to take advantage of the 1 hour nap Sadie now reliably takes from about 4:30-5:30 by cooking up a week's worth of pork chops and vegetables -- until I realized I'd forgotten to defrost the chops. And these are ridiculously huge Costco pork chops, we're talking like 2-3" thick pork chops that are going to take hours to defrost, so while they're floating in a sinkful of hot water, I'll post here.
This past week, Sadie's been grappling with a growth spurt that she's been due for for, oh, quite some time now. I don't think she put on any weight through a month-long span, and now suddenly she's eating like a starving man (or a starving baby, I guess) and is suddenly bursting out of all of her 6-month clothes. This made for a few very fussy days during which I was basically tied to the glider because she wanted to feed every hour ON TOP of three servings of solid foods.
The solids themselves, by the way, are sometimes well received and sometimes met with horrible grimaces and choking. This one time? Scott tried to feed her apples and I walked out of the room for like thirty seconds and the next thing I hear is "HONEY SHE'S CHOKING I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO." By the time I'd rushed back into the kitchen yelling, helpfully, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S CHOKING? IT'S PUREE," she'd already regurgitated up an entire mouthful of apple mess back
onto her bib.
All of this nonstop feeding has finally helped me understand why so many women give up on this breastfeeding thing around now. It's definitely more difficult than it used to be; she's more distract-able and consumes more; meanwhile I'm producing less because she sleeps through the night so regularly. I've been determined to keep going through the end of the first year, but I find myself fantasizing about weaning her onto a permanent diet of water and mashed avocado, her new favorite meal.
In other news, we finally got a rollover last weekend. Two, in fact -- both back to belly, the hard way to do it. It's funny, but since then she's become overall much more mobile, rolling this way and that (though she hasn't achieved the full roll again since that one day) and trying to push herself up on her arms and to fit her legs beneath her, the first signs of learning how to crawl.
She sits very, very well considering the prohibitive size of her massive cranium, and also handles it gracefully when she inevitably pitches over to one side. I'm so proud of the sitting that I can't help but show it off to everyone, like I did yesterday when we went over to my grandparents' for Seder dinner. Sadie wasn't at her best -- it was six already by the time we got there, and her bedtime is now reliably 7:30, but she put on a good face and impressed everyone with her sitting and grabbing skills for a good half hour until Scott took her home and put her into bed.
Both you and your sister stopped breastfeeding between 5-6 months. It was 100% a mutual decision between Baby and Mom. You were showing all the signs that Sadie is, and I was perfectly happy to take that as a cue. You were still on a bottle-a-day, though, until about 7 months; your Dad didn't want to give that up, which I thought was neat.
ReplyDeleteBut every Mom is individual. Some need more weaning time than others, and you should indulge yourself as much as you like in deciding when to stop. Just don't be surprised when Sadie appears much more interested in getting her avocados directly delivered. It doesn't mean she loves you less, as indicated by her new-found love of kissing (or gumming) you all day long.