My one-year-old on her birthday!

My nursling now joins the 21.4% of American babies that are breastfeeding at the one-year mark according to the National Immunization Survey breastfeeding statistics. She falls at the 75th and 80th percentiles for height and weight, which puts her right in between her oldest sister who always topped out at the 95th and her other sister who hovered around the 50th.

If I add up all the months I have been breastfeeding — from this precious moment with my first born, through this funny moment with my second nursing toddler, up to my third baby — I have been lactating for seven years now, which is about 19% of my life. I have to say, that gives me a certain sense of accomplishment. It’s not because my nurslings and I breastfed for any particular length of time or met any particular milestone, but because I have the satisfaction of knowing I worked hard to overcome the challenges I faced along the way — the challenges that inspired me to start blogging about breastfeeding — and because I have had the satisfaction of providing my milk for my babies.

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Photo by Abdulaziz Almansour

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Photo courtesy of jessicafm

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Four baby teeth at nine months

Over the weekend she climbed the entire flight of stairs as I followed her right behind. It’s a new world and I definitely need to be extra vigilant now! She can stand unsupported for short periods of time, and seems poised to take her first steps. I am in no particular rush for that to happen, although both my older girls were actually easier to care for once they could walk and did not need to rely on me so much to get at the things that caught their fancy!

Breastfeeding continues to go well. She nurses as desired throughout the day and night. She naps 3-4 times per day — a catnapper as I said before — and wakes 3-4 times at night. I readily admit that I don’t enjoy getting up with her for even the minute it takes me to nurse her back to sleep, but we co-sleep and I fall back asleep quickly.

She enjoys solid food and eats a modified version of whatever the rest of us eat for each meal. Vegetables, fruit, beans, little bits of meat. She sits at the table with us, feeds herself, and makes a grand mess!

We follow a delayed and selective vaccination schedule based on The Vaccine Book. Nicole got two vaccinations today, and that went surprisingly well. The first was the oral rotavirus vaccine. After an unavoidable round of antibiotics for an ear infection a couple of months ago, she knows the drill about taking “medicine” and she swallowed this stuff just fine. Then came the dreaded shot. I got ready to nurse her, as breastfeeding helps with pain management, but she knew what was going to happen and decided she wanted to watch. I always warn her that she will get a shot, that it will be an “ouch,” and then it will be over. I fully believe she understands me and deserves to be told what to expect. Today she cried for a second after the shot, but stopped when I said it was “all done.” She then gave the nurse quite the evil eye!

Anyone else with a baby around this age? How is everything going for you?

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Photo by littleREDelf

Do I think all mothers need to be this discreet in order to nurse in public? Absolutely not. I believe a mother should do what is necessary and what she is comfortable doing to nurse her baby in public.

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As far as nursing goes, we are still going strong, day and night. Nursing has helped us get through a recent ear infection, and what seems like weeks of teething. I will be SO happy to see those top two teeth come in!

Nicole enjoys many solid foods now, but she definitely gets the vast majority of her nutrition through nursing. She also nurses for comfort. Baby on the Go gets her fair share of bumps, but she is easily soothed by nursing. Some women I talk to are surprised that breastfeeding becomes an invaluable part of the parenting arsenal, but there are many times I am so grateful to be able to comfort my child in that way. What about you? Are you nursing for the nutritional benefits only, or have you become a convert to the non-nutritional benefits of nursing as well?

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As I walked around the neighborhood I came upon an older woman who was walking her chihuahua (that 4-H report my daughter did on “How to Choose a Chihuahua” came in handy for that little detail, see?) The woman looked at me and exclaimed, “You have your hands full!” It’s a comment I hear a lot lately, whether I have one child or three in tow. I gave my standard reply, “Yes, she’s great!” even as I was juggling the baby, the keys, and the umbrella. The woman nodded and said wistfully, “You’re lucky. I wish I was younger.”

Intellectually I know that when the house is quiet someday, and my hands are free, I will miss these intense baby days. But in the thick of it, it didn’t hurt to have that little reminder to appreciate this time.

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I thought I would update how Nicole is doing at six months of age.

Solid Foods

Nicole continues to enjoy trying new solid foods. As you can see, mashed ripe avocado is one of her favorites! Just as with breastfeeding, I believe in baby-led solid food feeding. She feeds herself with her fingers or with a spoon that I have pre-loaded for her with food. She controls how much she gets, and I make sure to take her out of the high chair before she ever gets upset. I want that feeding chair to be a happy place! It must be working because she certainly is an enthusiastic eater so far!

Measurements

At six and a half months I took her in for her six-month well baby visit with the pediatrician. I would have taken her in earlier, but we both had rotavirus and I completely forgot about the appointment! So, at 6.5 months she weighed 17 pounds, 11.5 ounces, and was 27 inches in length. That puts her in the 75th and 90th percentiles on the CDC growth charts. I have yet to translate it to the WHO charts because that requires me to convert from pounds to kilograms and inches to centimeters, and that’s just too much math at the moment, even with on-line conversion calculators. I just look at Nicole and know that she’s doing fine — that’s all I need to know!

Sleep

When Nicole was getting her two bottom teeth in she woke up more often at night, every hour or two. Now that they are in and she’s not yet working on her top teeth, she is thankfully back to sleeping in four hour stretches or more.

She’s started crawling, and that could have contributed to the extra night-waking too. She wants to practice her abilities to roll around, push up on all fours, and crawl right off the mattress (which is on the floor for that very reason).

Reflux

For the record, and for all those mothers out there wondering when the spit-up will stop, please oh please make it stop, at six months Nicole only spits up occasionally rather than after every feeding. There was significant improvement some time after she turned five months old, both in the frequency and volume of spit up. She never had a problem to the point that I was concerned, especially in light of the fact that she was certainly growing well, not projectile vomiting, and not showing any worrying signs of food allergies. Still, I am not sorry to see the spit-up lessen!

And you?

Anyone else out there just starting to introduce solid foods? How is it going?

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Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3