In other related news, I re-aggrivated my back injury. I'm not sure how I did it, but the pain has been off and on for almost two weeks, so I think I need to schedule a session with the physical therapist at our gym. There were a few days where I needed a breakfast dose of Motrin and a Therma.care heat wrap just so I could make it through my work day. As my countdown to the big 4-0 is now approaching single digits, I really don't need any other prompt to feel old. At least I am very fortunate that I'll be spending my birthday in Hawaii, although I admit I'm trying to pretend that if it doesn't happen on the mainland, then it didn't really happen. While I don't think my current Bjorn carrier was a contributing factor to my back pain, I decided to upgrade to a new Bjorn carrier that has a back support. It was a good excuse to treat myself to an early birthday present. Surprisingly, my back actually feels better when I'm wearing her in the new carrier, so maybe Kate will keep me feeling younger.
Nicknames: Button, CupKate, Kater Tot
Stats: Weight 20 lbs 1.2 ounces. Lenth 27.5 inches
She's starting to fill out a bit and no longer looks like such a pudge ball.
Teeth: We're been stuck on just two bottom teeth, but at press time, she seems to be cutting an upper tooth. Although it's not one of the centre front teeth, it's an incisor. She's our little vampire.
Feeding: Unfortunately for Kate, when your mom makes your own baby food, you don't get much variety. I tend to make large batches to freeze, so she ends up eating a lot of the same meals. The consistency has been helpful for her signing, as I'm really convinced that she knows the banana sign, even if she can't perform it. I do need to advance her self feeding, and I'm hoping to do so while we're on vacation. My currents aims regarding breastfeeding are: provide breastmilk until 1 year, stop nursing before she can request the breast, lift my shirt, or bite. She's been a bit bitey (props to anyone who knows that movie reference) on a few occasions, but so far only at the end of the feed. If she ever draws blood, the boobs get put away for good. I dropped a pumping session at work as my schedule has been packed and it was just too much to fit it in between patient appointments, and more often than not, I've only been pumping once at night. I am going to miss nursing, but I'll be happy when I don't have to drag that pump around and when I can SSTTN.
I spend a lot of time planning my weaning stratagery, and spend even more time reminding myself that seldom does anything go according to plan. As we only nurse in the morning and before bed during my work days, my first step will be to bottlefeed during the day on Tuesday and on weekends. Then we'll have Husband give her a bottle before bed. The morning feed will be the last to go, and I think that may be harder on me than for her. As she's been waking up earlier, we've started bringing her back to our bed, where I'll nurse with her lying next to me and we'll both fall back asleep. I tried bringing her to bed and giving a bottle, but she figured out how to loosen the collar and dumped the milk all over our recently laundered sheets. I have the feeling this all may be a moot issue as I think my milk supply will dry up while going a Whole 30 challenge in June. In preparation for Whole 30, I started cutting things out gradually, so it won't be such a shock to my system. We got rid of Splenda when we heard the lastest report that it causes some kind of cancer. I cut out Coke Zero and replaced it with La Croix, which wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. I don't eat much dairy, but I stopped buying cheese and switched to unsweetend Almond Milk. I've only been drinking alcohol on special occasions. The last things to give up will be grains and sweets. I stopped the baked goods for a few days and was just barely pumping 3 ounces. I'm ready to let it go. I have enough frozen milk to last 25 days and I have some cans of forumla that my aunt gave us. If we have to use some, it will not be the end of the world. There is no trophy awarded for exclusive breastfeeding.
Sleep: Just around the nine month mark, she started sleeping through the night again. We refused to acknowledge this fact in the same way that no one says the words 'perfect game' when a pitcher has thrown out every batter that he or she has faced. However, she seems to waking up closer to 5 AM than her usual 6 AM. Sometimes, she'll fall back to sleep. Sometimes not.
Likes: To make a mess. I'm afraid we've hit the destructive phase. It started rather innocently. I've been using a pretty backing rack to store blankets and burp clothes. We came home from Day Care and as I was emptying her bag she started throwing the cloths on the floor. Hey, why not? I thought. It's keeping her busy and will be easy enough to clean up.
However... this lead to throwing all the cook books on the floor...
Okay, Kate. This means you take over meal planning..
As well as dumping out the cat's dry food, not once, not once, but a total of three times. She seems to be obsessed with cat food. I'm pretty sure she's eaten a few pieces of dry food. Myrtle and I ate some Milk.bones when we were young and we survived, so I'm not too worried. She's also put her hands in wet cat food a few times, which to be fair, it does look similiar to her purees. Tyler is not impressed. She also likes shoes. Not to wear of course, but for eating.
Dislikes: The Baby Ka'tan carrier. You have to have a PhD in engineering to figure out how to put it on. It's tight on one side, loose on the other. It bunches and slips. She can get out of it easier than Houdini. Absolutely fucking hates that piece of shit. Oh wait, that's me...
On a somewhat more serious note, she does not like to stay still. At all. Must.be.on.the.move.at.all.times. When we go to baby sign, she just wants to crawl around and explore, and to be fair, she is the most mobile of the babies in that class. However there are some walkers at baby yoga, but they go though 'tree pose' and 'Y pose" while Kate wants to crawl off on her own. I'm probably being paranoid, but I fear this will lead to a 'doesn't follow directions' comment on her pre-school report card. I'm also feeling a bit cautious as my cousin's son was allegedly diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. Two years ago, I wrote a post detailing my concerns how I perceived that my cousin and her husband were turning a blind eye to their son's ovbious language delays. Last year, my cousin revealed that he was diagnosed with ADHD. I am skeptical of this diagnosis for a few reasons.
During my medical training, I had the opportunity to ask a respected childhood behavioral expert his opinion on ADHD. "It's a real entity, which was once under-diagnosed and is now being over diagnosed." While he lacks the credentials, I often draw upon the words of my maternal grandfather regarding his opinion of ADHD, "In my day, there was no such thing as ADHD. If you didn't pay attention, the nuns hit you with a ruler." Not that I'm advocating using the treat of violence to cajole kids into cooperating with their lessons, but I have my own in my day experience. My 9th grade world civilization teacher commanded everyone's attention during his classes. You couldn't even slouch in your seat without being reprimanded, "Miss Allen! Please sit up straight." If you were caught passing notes or even day dreaming, you could be thrown out of class and that might go down on your PERMANENT RECORD! Of course I was in a class with other nerdy honour students. Maybe his tactics didn't work as well with some remedial students who didn't give a shit.
Getting back to my nephew, I just don't feel that an ADHD label explains his language delays (and motor delays, as I recently learned that he didn't walk until 18 months old). I still suspect his is on the autism spectrum, and that my cousin and her husband are calling it ADHD in public. Whatever his true diagnosis, the good news is that he is finally receiving some supportive services. I think his parents finally got their wake up call when he was rejected for kindergarden last year. His birthday is at the end of August, so he's one of those kids on the fence, but he was in no way ready for kindergarden. He started working with an occupational therapist and attends a social skills class. He seems to be doing better and was recently approved to enter kindergarden this year. I just wonder how much was lost during the years his parents had their heads buried in the sand. Kate is probably just a normal energetic baby for her age, but I don't want to be oblivious as my cousin was.
Milestones: I arrived to pick Kate up from Day Care, and surprisingly wasn't the last parents as there were two other babies present. One had taken his first steps that day. "Kate is next!" exclaimed one of my favourite attendants "She'll be our next walker! She's so close." Then my least favourite attendant spoke "Look at Lilly. She's only a few days older than Kate and she's already walking." Then, as if on cue, the tot walked a few steps on her own. Um, how about Fuck You? As they are both only ten months, they are both developmentally advanced, and please don't compare my daughter to others. (For those who follow me on Face.book, yes this is the woman who thought I was Kate's grandmother) Apparently, Kate did take a few independant steps at Day Care a few days later, and she's twice taken a few baby steps on her own with me, but we decided it doesn't count unless both mummy and daddy witness it. We're hoping that she does take her first offical steps in Hawaii, as it would be cool to report that location for such a milestone.
Walking Training
Clothes: She's wearing 9 month clothes and I'm buying 12 month items. I did note that the snaps on a onesie seemed a bit tight and when I checked, sure enough it was a 6 month size, but still fit pretty well.
Diapering: Still a nightmare. We often sing the strip teast song or The Hustle to try to entertain her. #SoInappropriate. Still so proud to be part time in cloth. We're still working on one of the disposable diaper boxes that I bought at the end of January.
Looking forward to: Not having to do any more monthly photos! This past one was especially challenging as I was on my own, but between timing the light in her room and when she's not hungry or sleepy, it's a narrow window. She just wants to tear off the sticker and eat it. I tried my mom's trick of putting it on the chair; didn't work. I tried sneaking it in the photo, didn't turn out so well...I
I'm a bit bummed as we just finished our second six week series of baby sign, but I'm looking forward to our next activity of swim lessons!
Tyler photo bombs her photos too!
I love these updates! Busy at work so don't have time for a more well thought out comment, but wanted to say hello and have a great trip!
ReplyDeleteJust want to note that you can always talk to your ped about starting Kate on regular milk early. I wish that my ped had told me that earlier (he said you can start as early as 9 months if your baby tolerates it) as we would have saved money on formula (his comment was that more babies have reactions to regular milk at 9 months than a year which is why the guidelines say a year).
ReplyDeleteUgh to the comment from that day care worker. 10 months is still early to start walking and why are you comparing the two kids? Especially in front of the parents.
I had the exact same ADHD concerns with Q at about 10 months, when he was crawling everywhere at his music class instead of all the other babies who were just sitting there listening politely. I still sort of do, but his day care providers assure me it's just what early walkers are like, they want to be on the move, and that even now at 13 months he's already starting to chill a bit and sit and enjoy circle time. As for weaning, I hadn't even really started to plan it yet and then BAM at 12.5 months he just flat out stopped. As in, went on a 2 week nursing strike (no idea why, I thought molars but nothing showed up) and when he finally wanted it again the well was dry.
ReplyDeleteKate sounds like so much fun! It's kind of terrifying to say goodbye to the baby rituals like breastfeeding but at the same time it's all good. I moped about it for a few weeks weeks but I don't think about it anymore. Ugh to the daycare worker comparing kids. I maintain babies just have different personalities and priorities and as long as there is evidence of progress at their own pace, then don't worry.
ReplyDeleteIt gets so much better! Babies are sweet and I was really sad at how fast they are growing, but having your toddler run up to you and give you a huge bear hug is the best! Also, my kids are going to be right there with the "doesn't follow directions" note. They never stop moving. Ever.
ReplyDeleteHave a great trip and happy almost birthday. Welcome to 40! (I turned 40 when my girls were 9 months old so not too different)
Ha ha I have those same photo problems with O too! Oy. Have a fantastic trip and birthday! (And thank you for the seriously adorable announcement!!)
ReplyDelete