Archives
Categories
- Blessings
- Blogging
- Books/Reading
- Celebrations
- College Hoops
- Computers
- Culture
- Food
- Friends
- Gadgets
- Girl Stuff
- Health
- House/Home
- Judaism
- Just for Fun
- Kirby Clan
- Kvetching
- Marriage
- Memes
- Movies
- Munchkins
- Music
- Nashville
- Politics
- Pregnancy: Eli
- Pregnancy: Sami
- Random Cool Stuff
- Scrapbooking
- Smith Clan
- Sports
- Teaching
- Ten On Tuesday
- Travels
- TV
- Uncategorized
- Wackosis
- Work
Favorite Political Sites
Jun
Today (technically yesterday now) was my first Father’s Day as a Mommy. That probably sounds a little strange, but I really love holidays – Hallmarky or not, they give us a chance to pause from the hustle and bustle of day to day life and remember all the things we have to be grateful for. I generally go out of my way to make holidays as special as possible, though sometimes I fail because I’m too unorganized, time pressured, etc. Craig said he thought Father’s Day was a fake day, and didn’t expect much. So I was determined to make his “first” Father’s Day (with Sami at least) fun for him. Since it was his day, I’ll prod him to write a blog tomorrow to say how it went…
The other big news is…my baby’s not a baby anymore!!! Well, perhaps that is a slight exxageration, but today she did take her first step toward independence – “solid” food.
On Friday she had her 4 month well-baby visit, and the doctor said it was time to start her on solids. Of course, the term solid is used very loosely in this case, since it is really just a tiny bit of cereal mixed with a lot of breastmilk. Anyway, we had known this was coming, since all the books, etc. still say to start kids on solids at around 4 months (though the American Academy of Pediatricians, recommends now that you breastfeed exclusively for 6 months). I was in favor of waiting myself, but I will be going away in August for 8 days (to a conference), and the doctor thought we should go ahead and start her on solids now, because she needs to be on them by 6 months, and if I am gone it will be harder for her to adjust to it. Also, since she will be starting daycare next month, we thought we should tackle on change at a time.
So, yesterday Craig bought some rice cereal from the store and left the box out on the counter so I could see it and start acclimating myself to the idea. I was still pretty reticent, but tonight we went ahead and tried it. We got out her special bib with her name on it that she got from my friend Amy, and we went out and bought a bowl for her. I made a videotape, which I will try to put up on the web page at some point – that allowed me to distance myself from it a little bit. Craig fed it to her, but she really didn’t like it at all. She spit almost all of it out, and she even choked on it a couple of times. The doctor said it would probably take a few times before she gets used to having anything besides milk.
It’s funny – it really is a small thing, her starting to have some other foods, but it has really unsettled me. I made a commitment to myself, and to her, before she was born, that I would nurse her for at least 6 months. After she was born and my milk came in, I realized that she wasn’t having any problems with the nursing, and I was really enjoying it to, so I made a commitment to nurse her for at least her whole first year, and hopefully to let her wean herself when she is ready (that is what doctors now recommend, though of course that doesn’t work for everyone). I guess I am afraid that she will decide that she likes the solid foods better than nursing. I genuinely believe nursing her as long as possible is what’s best for her. but I am realizing more and more each day that it is also what’s best for me. I feel like one day she’s going to start eating solid foods, and the next day she’ll be graduating from college or something.
My sister Terra and I talk a lot about being Mommys these days – she has been a great resource and role model for me. We both agree that having kids makes us wish we had been nicer to our parents. I dread the day Sami decides I’m stupid, or embarrassing, or annoying, or all three. And when I think that one day she will not want me to hug her or kiss her, or really have much to do with her at all, it just makes me want to bawl my eyes out. I know a lot will happen between now and the time she is a teenager to help prepare me for her becoming independent. But somehow, I think that when that day comes, it will still make me cry.
Related posts:
No Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
