Big Girl School aka Daycare
H and I have been stressing out, worrying about what to do with M in terms of choosing a daycare facility vs. in home daycare vs. nanny. We've been really lucky as H has been able to be home with her for nearly 2 months while studying for his board exams, but the time has come for him to bring home the bacon!! We weighed all our options, read reviews, searched the social services website, read forums, tours, interviews, and I think the right step for us as a family is sending M to a daycare facility. it's FAR more expensive than the other options, but we're really happy with the daycare we've chosen and the ratio is really great. M looooves being around other babies, and she's not so itty bitty anymore that I feel MUCH more comfortable than I would've even just 2 months ago. Thank God timing worked out perfectly and we're able to move forward with a place very close to H's new job.
Of course the typical Mommy worries are there...will she nap? will she eat? will she cry at drop off or ALL day missing us? sigh...but if i've learned anything these last 9.5 months is that babies/children are resilient and most everyone says babies adjust within the first 2 weeks, so cross your fingers, say a prayer for us.
Eats
It's a struggle to get M to eat, when she first started solids she would gobble everything up! Now that she thinks she's a big girl, she does NOT want baby purees, she wants the real good stuff. le sigh. She puts those lone 2 bottom teeth to WORK. Did i mention i was up til 10 making M some green beans for today's lunch that.she.HATES...? There are tons of books out there about helping kids eat, theories about how to encourage picky eaters, habits you should be weary of so they dont develop bad habits - I really hope we don't go down that road...but I really worry about getting her to eat a good, balanced meal. She's no longer a big B-milk drinker either, we really have to encourage her to drink the recommended minimum 18oz daily. I feel like a lot of my time is spent thinking about food she'll eat, buying new foods hoping that she'll love it and that it will be one of her favorite staple foods, any given day Daddy is pulling out several different types of foods every meal - cause Miss.M closes her eyes, and turns her head of course unless its cheerios. This girl is crazy though, one day she loooooves beans, the next day no beans. right now her go tos are:
- Pears
- Plums
- Mangoes
- Cous Cous
- Kidney Beans
- Blueberries
- Potato
- Any type of bread
- Colby Jack cheese
- Bagels and cream cheese
- Kalbi
and of course snacks foods - animal crackers, cherrios, baby cheese puffs. This girl is truly her mother's daughter, pass the bread, and cheese please. whoops. I know she won't go starving at daycare and often babies eat better in that setting since theyre around other babies eating, but I'm worried cause whatever we send has to be something she will eat.or.feels.like.eating.that.day - I'm crazy right?
Other Big Girl Things
M was sick for the first time 2 weeks ago, what we thought was teething turned out to be a mild ear infection :( she had a fever that we were monitoring and she was up.all.night. we were exhausted - everyone. M's been sleeping 12 hrs straight since...pretty much forever, and we were not used to getting up in the middle of the night, and it wasnt just the feed put back in crib and let her fall back asleep - it was the rock me, i need mommy, let me fall asleep on you, and dont put me back down kind of sleep. EXHAUSTING. But how could you say no to that wittle face, her fever broke on its own and the ear infection healed itself - her body broke out in a rash afterwards, but she's back to her normal self.
her 9 month appt was last week and M is:
- 50% in weight :( far from FTT (failure to thrive), but I'd really like to see this number go UP vs. down.
- 90% in height - we have no idea where this comes from, although H has no problem attributing her height to his super genes
- 75% in head circumference - we ALL know where THIS comes from. the dr. mentioned that around 6 months is when genes from parents start kicking in and the baby tends to follow 1 parent vs. the other...she was born around 50% then at 6 months was 65%...now 75%.
Pumping
I can finally see the light at the tunnel I'm an exclusive pumper - I stopped bfeeding pretty early on and that in and of itself is another posts, BUT i've lasted this long and I can proudly say that M has only had breast milk not including the bout with jaundice when we supplemented. I was really diligent in the early months and looking back i REALLY don't know how i did it - pumping every 2 hrs with a crying baby, but at the time if i didn't pump she had nothing to eat. Luckily my supply established itself early on and I was able to start freezing a stash - the stash grew and grew, my original goal was to stop pumping at 6 months, but i just didnt have enough to make it to the recommended 1 year so here I am at 9 months, granted i've cut WAAAAY back - I went from pumping every 2hrs, 3hrs, 4 hrs, and now just once a day. i could just flat out stop as we have enough milk to make it past her first birthday - but I cant but help feel a bit anxious - its not like she wouldnt have enough milk, or there's always the formula option. M did have a reaction to yogurt so we were worried she was allergic to dairy so I considered continuing to pump since she wouldnt be able to have cow's milk, but turns out she's not and were gtg. I think my days are numbered (probably after our family beach trip in the coming weeks- just cause traveling with frozen milk is a pain), I could write a whole post about my journey and maybe I will
ok enough of this word dump, but this is what happens when you're absent for 3 months, so many big changes in a baby's life. thanks for reading if you made it THIS far.
