Size Matters

My daughter is 3.5 months old. Last week, she weighed 14 lbs, 15 oz. Whee! I am so excited that she is gaining weight at such a steady pace. It is still amazing to me that my body provided that sustenance for her.

However.

I am frequently getting comments about her weight, how she looks "bigger" for her age, how she is a "big girl", how she will "slim down" once she starts crawling. Why does this bother me?

Because she only weighs one ounce more than my son at the same age. ONE ounce!

Yet, I rarely got such comments about my son's weight. Oh no, folks commented on his hair, his big eyes or how healthy and husky he was. Rarely about his weight.

Good grief - my poor girl is just over 3 months old and already has to worry about her waistline?? This after I was told by a variety of folks throughout my pregnancy that Anjali would probably weigh less than Arun since girls are "always smaller".

I am calling bullshit on this.

Hair. Here, There, Everywhere.

Yessiree, folks. It is that time of the Post-Partum Year. You are innocently taking a shower, minding your own damned business while rinsing conditioner out of your hair when you notice that big, huge, clumps of your lovely locks are also being rinsed. And even though this is my 2nd go around with this, it is still a little horrifying. Oh My God. There is hair EVERYWHERE. Fortunately, this is perfectly normal at around 3-4 months post-partum and it is NOT caused by breastfeeding, either. According to Kellymom,

Postpartum hair loss is a normal - and temporary - postpartum change that is unrelated to breastfeeding. Most women will return to their usual hair growth cycle between 6 and 12 months after birth.

In other news, there is a wonderful article about co-sleeping titled Shhh...My Child Is Sleeping (in My Bed, Um, With Me)" in the New York Times. As it states, co-sleeping:

".....is far more common than many people think. Nearly 13 percent of parents in the United States slept with their infants in 2000, up from 5.5 percent in 1993, according to a report last month in the journal Infant and Child Development. Countless children start the night in their own beds, only to wake up a few hours later and pad into their parents’ bedrooms, crawling into the bed or curling up nearby on the floor.

Ask parents if they sleep with their kids, and most will say no. But there is evidence that the prevalence of bed sharing is far greater than reported. Many parents are “closet co-sleepers,” fearful of disapproval if anyone finds out, notes James J. McKenna, professor of anthropology and director of the Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame."

This was a pretty standard, catch-all co-sleeping article, but I thought it was still interesting to read. In particular, I LOVE the title and the fact that it addressed the perceived shame/embarrassment parents feel when having to "admit" they co-sleep. I still suffer a bit from this embarrassment, even 2 years later.

Also, I would like to clarify something - yes, I am a huge co-sleeping advocate. However, I cannot claim that co-sleeping is always easy. It is not. There are some nights when I wish my kids would just sleep by themselves already. Furthermore, we are having a tremendous amount of trouble getting my son to sleep these days. Let me stress the "getting to sleep" part, once he is asleep, he is doing fine. It is the "getting there" that is pushing us to some dark, dark places. It could be a lot of things - he is hitting a developmental explosion of language. He is cutting some molars. He has a new sister. He just started a Mother's Day Out program a month ago. And he is two. Did I mention that? I am not sure what the solution is, but I will say that co-sleeping has totally saved our sanity. It is hard enough to deal with all of this, I cannot imagine doing it sleep deprived.

Nutrionally Deficient

Bah Humbug. This is like the 3rd or 4th time that I have heard Allison Sweeney, the Days of Our Lives star and host of the Biggest Loser, go on and on about infant nutrition and in the same breath mention Gerber. Coincidence? No, she is a spokesperson for Gerber. For example, in the interview, she says:

He almost never has processed sugar, but we always have fresh fruits around. And I love that the Graduates snacks are his favorites because they are so easy to take with me on the go, because it's also important to have a snack available so that a) he doesn't get moody! And b) we aren't stuck with needing to get fast-food.

and

Ben loves peas and corn. Gerber taught me that you have to let them try foods at least 10 times if not more before they might grow to like certain foods, so not to give up too easily.

I wish I had something profound to say, but I do not. I simply find it sad and false for a celebrity to use what is purported to be a personal interview as a vehicle to pimp a product.

Semantics

In our house, we have 3 types of milk:
Mama's milk
Cow's milk
Soymilk

Part of me feels as if I should just say "milk" for my own milk, but I also do not want to create any confusion when he is out and about.

In other news, I was lying on my side on the floor playing with Arun the other night. He ran over my nipple with his car.

Oh. My. God. The agony. It is a good thing he is weaned because I suspect Right Girl will be holding a grudge over this.

Feed me!

I have my own little Audrey Jr. in the house these days.

When one says "experienced" mom, it only means you know slightly more than you did the 1st time around. And not much more. Trust me on this, Grasshopper.

My sweet, adorable, easy-going baby morphed into a fussy, demanding little gremlin overnight conveniently as her daddy boarded an airplane for a week-long business trip. Her behaviour had me totally baffled until my friend Mojavi pointed out that Anjali was probably hitting her 3 month growth spurt.

Lightbulb? It is On, baby.

Kellymom has some great info on this and yes, it appears that Anjali is probably in the throes of her 3 month growth spurt. The site also mentions this can happen when a baby is hitting a new developmental milestone. Can you say "rolling over", kiddies? She has been able to get to her side quite easily for awhile now, but is working on the stomach. I feel like telling her to not bother because that would just only serve to piss her off. Particularly considering how she loathes tummy time anyway.....

However, babies these days? Do not listen to their mothers.

Taking Sides

Which side do you prefer to nurse on?

Personally, I prefer my Right Girl. For whatever reason, when I am nursing Anjali while galavanting around the house, this leaves my left hand free to do things like surfing the web, opening doors for cats, stirring cooking pots, answering phones, handling remote controls, sending text messages, turning pages on open books, and feeding ravenous toddlers. I also like nursing on my Right Girl while sleeping. I will even "schedule" nursing on my Left Girl to ensure that we will be ready for the Right Girl to pony up the nighttime nursing so that I can snooze for that 5am feeding. Because Sleep? She is Sacred.

However, I am a right handed. It seems sort of weird that I would prefer my left hand to be free while my Right Girl is busy. Odd.

Got Milk?

Holy crap, Batman. I was pumping on Saturday while reading a book. I looked down and had well over 5 ounces. I do not pump very often, so I was a little shocked.

So, we gave Anjali her first bottle that evening. It actually went okay. Our son only took a bottle under extreme duress or from my cousin the babysitter. So, we have been scarred from that experience and dreaded giving Anjali a bottle. However, Anjali is quickly earning her title as The Easy Baby and took well to the bottle as well. She sucked down 2 ounces like nobody's business.

It may seem odd that we waited 12 weeks to give Anju her first bottle, but really, we had no reason to hassle with it otherwise. However, in a few weeks I have a social event coming up that I would really prefer to go to sans progeny, so it is best to start with the bottle now.

Here are some tips for giving your baby a bottle. These are my tips, nothing "expert". If you have any to offer, I am most certainly open to ideas.

1. Do not wait until the baby is ravenous, begin with the bottle about the time the baby is just getting hungry.
   
2. It is best if someone other than the nursing mother give the bottle. Trust me on this. It is even better if the nursing mother can leave the room.
3. When inserting the nipple of the bottle, point it towards the baby's palate to urge/stimulate the baby to suck.
4. Try feeding the baby while the baby is sitting in a bouncy chair or highchair. This is the one that will drive grandmothers NUTS because they want to HOLD the baby. However, if a baby is being held while eating, he/she may expect her mother. My husband always had the best luck while our son was in the bouncy chair.
   
5. If possible, borrow nipples/bottles from friends, then you will have a wide selection to test to figure out which your baby takes best rather than investing a chunk of change in one kind.

Here are some other great links for bottle feeding.
Breastfeeding.com
Dr. Sears
BabyCentre UK (Yes, this is the UK site, which I have always preferred to the US site, quite frankly. It is in the "formula" section, but still has good tips for breastfeeders. Particularly someone like me who little experience giving babies bottles)