Gametes In Love

We had G’s 6-mo well check-up appointment.

His weight is on track: in the 3rd percentile (boo!), but he’s staying on the 3% curve consistently.

He’s shot up in height and is now in the 10th percentile (before he was in the 5th range).

But above all, his head is jumping curves. He’s in 35th percentile for head. Ya — my little dude’s got one big noggin’. That certainly explains why we can’t find hats that fit. His pedi was very excited about this, although I don’t really get why having a big melon’s a good thing. Feel free to enlighten me. He’s obviously making room for some big knowledge in there.

Overall, G got a clean bill of health. Dr. M’s very excited about him, and G in turn spent the whole appointment just grinning at him.

Best part? When G hot his shot today — NO TEARS!!!! Remember the crying video? Yeah… none of that! Not even a whimper. I had a bottle in his mouth which he was happily eating when the shot went in.  Kid did’t even flinch. A big relief for me since this was my first time taking him in on my own. I can’t watch when he gets poked, so it was a good thing that he just kept sucking on his bottle.

I’m so proud of my little man! We’ll be celebrating by cracking open a jar of sweet potatoes tomorrow. First “real” food, baby!

This Sunday (if there were 29 days in February) will mark G’s 6mo birthday. As special as this is (and I’ll devote a whole post about it) there’s another event I want to acknowledge: 6 months of me breastfeeding our son!

This may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but it’s HUUUGE for me. Coming from a family where neither my mother nor her mother were able to breastfeed successfully (and not for lack of trying, believe me), I was fully prepared that their condition would follow me as well. I had hoped to breastfeed, but knew that any day that I could do it was to be savored because the next day might not be. As a result, I’ve been extremely sensitive about baby feeding, G’s weight and his overall development.

I discovered early on that talking to mothers and mothers-to-be about breastfeeding is like talking to someone about religion. Just like religion there is no “right” or “wrong” choice — just the choice that each family has made given their situation. I try not to judge as I vividly remember a conversation (pre-birth) with a friend who laid in on me about breastfeeding G without listening to my concerns.

After G was born and I realized that I got lucky, I set my first milestone at 6 months. Getting G to be breastmilk fed for 6 months would make me thrilled. Getting to a year, ecstatic. And here were are: my first milestone.

I really AM thrilled! And to be quite frank, relieved. It’s given me hope about reaching a full year.

It hasn’t been easy. Keeping up supply has been hard work, and stressful, but it’s worth it to me because I really want to be “here” and this is something that was important (to me) to do.

Hurray for boobies!

I feel, by the way, as if I’m at a graduation ceremony listening to a speech about accomplishments and goals and the future. Except the graduates are my boobs.

Ok, enough pep-talk. Now… onto a year.