9 month doctor's visit

Brooklyn had her 9 month well baby visit yesterday. She is 16lbs. 10oz. (30% percentile), 27 inches long (50% percentile), and has a 45.5 cm head circumference (90% percentile). They gave her the mandatory 9 month vaccines that she took like a champ and then did a blood draw to check for anemia as she is a breastfed baby and I guess anemia is quite common for breastfed babies. The blood draw came back negative for anemia and then we headed off to have her hips X-rayed to check for any issues related to her frank breech positioning while in the womb. Her hips checked out just fine which means we have a happy, healthy growing girl!

Yesterday also marked the end of our breastfeeding. I was getting to a point where I wasn't really producing much during my 3 pump sessions at work during the day and it was really starting to wear on me. Though I LOVED breastfeeding her and she made it ever so easy, we decided to start weening a few weeks ago and she had her last taste last night and it made me a little sad. It really is quite an amazing thing and it is incredibly empowering and I am quite proud of myself for making it so long. We kept on going through growth spurts and 3 outbreaks of excruciatingly painful thrush, and I am sure that it is the main reason she hasn't had anything but 1 cold in her first 9 months of life. Cheers to Boobies!

Wonder Boobies!

This may go on a bit, so forgive me...

When Luke was born, breastfeeding was more of a chore than anything else. I didn't know it at the time, but I had a pretty nasty case of thrush which made my nips feel like his mouth was full of razor blades. Instead of finding the time while he was feeding calming and bonding, I held my breath for much of it, watching the clock and praying he'd be finished soon. In the course of two months I cracked, I bled and I gave up. I was young, inexperienced and exhausted, and just didn't have the heart or the drive at the time to do what it took to right the problem and keep on breastfeeding. Though I know it didn't affect our bonding, I think the switch may have impacted his health and for that I will always feel a little guilty. It seemed like he was sick ALL the time when he was a baby. It was like a constant revolving round of croup, ear infections, colds and colic. My poor baby...

It's probably the largest reason I was so determined to breastfeed Miss Brooklyn. I actually got thrush again this time, but after a round of anti-fungal medication (that sounds fun huh?!)we were back up and running again. She's been a champ through the entire learning process and gave me the breastfeeding experience I was hoping to have. That said, I'm going to do my damnedest to give her breast milk for at least a year. I'm not sure if we'll be able to do the actual breastfeeding thing for that long (my pump and I are going to be the beast of friends), but I'm determined to express enough to keep it as the staple of her diet until her first birthday. I've got about 300 ounces chillin' in the deep freeze and if I can double that in the next few months, I may be able to stop feeding/pumping a few months early and still be able to finish out my 1 year commitment. By the way, I've been sneaking breastmilk into the Duke's cereal every once in a while, to help his tummy since he just finished a round of antibiotics for the latest ear infection. Maybe it can help him fight off getting sick... We'll see!