Growing bigger every day

Today I picked up the cat and realized with a start that the baby weighs more than the kitty. When did that happen!? She's getting big and strong and older every day. I'm a bit amazed that I've made her. And really, I have. She's completely composed of me plus air and whatever water she can suck off a washcloth during her bath. It's odd, really, to realize that you've not only created someone but are also continuing to help her grow. It'll be strange to start the transition to food in another few weeks.

The New York Times has a story about a study out that shows that fewer than 75% of women start out breastfeeding their babies and only about 40 percent were still breastfeeding at 6 months. Just about 21% were still breastfeeding at one year. You can find the link to the CDC publication here it's the second article in the publication). And those rates are not for exclusive breastfeeding but for moms doing at least some breastfeeding. I'm for some reason surprised at these numbers. On the one hand, 75% seems fairly high given the lack of moms I know who breastfeed around here. But I think it's particularly interesting how quickly the numbers drop. I'd suspect that work plays a big part of this. I'm fortunate that not only is my schedule amazingly flexible but that there are a few other nursing moms in my program. A retiring professor has loaned us her office to use for pumping which is nice. FarmU has lactation rooms across campus, but it's much easier to haul my stuff up one flight of stairs instead of to a different building. Continuing to pump without this support would be much more difficult.

We got permission from the pediatrician to start Froglette on solids at her four month check up, but he also said that there was no need to start her at that age. The AAP recommends exclusive breastfeeding for approximating six months and then a slow introduction of food at that time. She got a pea sized amount of avocado Monday night - and made the most ew-yuck face I have ever seen. She kept smacking her lips (not in a good way) trying to figure out what was this thing in her mouth. She did swallow it so it seems that she's lost her tongue thrust reflex which is useful. We don't have a clear plan for how we're going to start food at this point. There are a lot of useful websites that provide information about different approaches to introducing solid foods. Based on my reading, I think that we'll play with introducing avocado again in another week or so after the semester ends and then go from there. I'm not expecting her to all of a sudden love avocados (although seriously, why wouldn't you! yum yum) but to figure out how the whole eating thing works. I'm in no rush to get her eating more and more food and I'm happy to read that foods should be complementary to breastfeeding rather than replacing it. So - our next adventure is FOOD!