All About Valerie!

Sunday, December 17, 2006

7 Months

Val, you have got to be kidding me. It cannot possibly be 7 months since that crazy day when you made your arrival in this world. Maybe like 3 or 4 months, but not 7. No way.

When I was pregnant with you, 7 months was an eternity. How is it that now that you're here, 7 months is the blink of an eye?

But here we are. Me lying with you as you take a nap, periodically glancing over to admire you, then touch your soft hand to my cheek. Sort of like pinching myself to make sure you're real.

You've got so much going on these days, but I'll start with the almosts:

- you almost have teeth. So far you have al the Signs Of Teeth but no teeny tiny pearly whites.

- you almost can crawl. But at the last second you pull yourself up like you're going to just start walking instead.

- you almost sleep through the night. But you're holding steady at a 5 hour stretch followed by a 3 hour stretch. I still dream about getting a full night's sleep.

Here's what you are doing:

- eating more solid foods. After a brief but horrible weekend of constipation caused by us giving you too many non-fibrous foods, we seem to have reached a balance. And discovered along the way that you love peaches.

- making fart noises. The books call this 'blowing raspberries' but I know the truth. Them are fart noises and I am so proud.

- falling asleep with less and less drama. You're getting to a point where it's okay to just sleep without all that crying leading up to it.

- yes, still breastfeeding. This last month, it's become a real comfort thing for you and there's no way I could deny you something so easy that makes you feel better.

Your first Christmas is almost here. I am ready, I think. I know that there's really nothing I want, dear baby, because I have your mom and now, we have you.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Bring On The Foods!

Val's eating a bunch of different foods now: rice cereal, green beans and now squash and tofu. She's really gotten the hang of the eating off a spoon business, opening her mouth and bouncing in her seat until we feed her another bite.

She's still breastfeeding, too. But the addition of 1-2 meals made of solids takes a ton of pressure off me.

Why? Because I managed to completely mess up my milk supply while we were in Columbus. I've been taking domperidone to increase my supply. It totally worked. Until I dared to take 3 days off from it while we were on vacation.

Since we returned I've been doing everything I can to get it back up. I'm pleased to announce that it's creeping back up to where it was. But even better is the solids replacing even a little of her milk needs.

She's growing up and I know one day I'll miss the closeness we have while she's breastfeeding. But I sure as hell won't miss the whirr of that goddamn pump or the pressure I felt about being her sole food source.