Hellobee

Winter had her six month check up recently where I was excited she would get her first flu shot! I had been exclusively breastfeeding up until this point, so when the doctor told me that she had dropped on her own growth curve, I was saddened. I plugged all her weights into an app and realized she was born at a whopping 38th percentile at 6lb 13 oz. She dropped down to 6lb 3 oz at her lowest within the first week, and then held out at 17th percentile at 1 month, 18th percentile at 2 months, and 19th percentile at 3 and 4 months. Her weight at the six month check up was only 14lb 4 oz, 14th percentile. The day before the check up was my first day back at work, and on that day she only managed to eat 3 ounces in the 10 hours I was gone, and I figured she missed out on at least 9-12 extra ounces that she should have had that day. Could that have affected her weight the next day? I forgot to ask the doctor. Although we were due back in a month for her second flu shot, the doctor didn’t seem to think the weight warranted another weight check, although I’ll be sure to get her on the scale when I go in just for my piece of mind.

When she had first dropped in weight right after birth and the doctor suggested supplementing bottled breastmilk, I made a big effort to nurse her every 2 hours around the clock, and every 3-4 hours at night. I managed to get her weight back up without the bottle. Winter took this as her cue to continue this pattern, and she would nurse every two hours like a clock for probably 3 months. After 4 or 5 months, I decided to follow the Sleep-Eat-Play order of events, and I no longer fed her before her nap. Now I’ll try and re-institute the before-the-nap feed, and maybe that will help some with her weight.

Her drop on her weight curve still worries me, because combined with me returning to working weekends and her refusing the bottle, the fact that weight traditionally plateaus from 6-9 months, and my approach to solids is baby led weaning, it sounds like a recipe for a deeper dip on the curve. I believe food before one is just for fun, and her nutrition should be coming foremost from breastmilk, but compared to her little comrades that will be getting measurable spoonfuls full of food each day, I don’t see her being able to shovel quite as much food down her hatch.

I had mentioned to the doctor at the four month appointment that I would be doing baby led weaning at 6 months, so she told me to read up on it and we could discuss it at the next appointment. She had mentioned that their pincer grasp doesn’t really develop until later, so she was skeptical about a young baby being able to pick up food. I read the Baby Led Weaning book, and the day before her birthday we made a go at trying some foods. Even I was surprised that she could not only pick them up, but get them to her mouth, chew them around with her gums, and have them come out her rear end and into her diaper hours later!

When I brought up my BLW efforts with the doctor at the 6 month appointment, she was mildly impressed, and then went on to say that my daughter will be her first patient in ten years to do BLW. I’m a firm believer that pediatricians are experts in diagnosing and treating illnesses, and I fully realize that this does not render them experts in breastfeeding, sleep habits, solids etc, but hearing that made me wonder if I had a “crunchier” doctor, they’d be more familiar with my apparently atypical approaches to parenting (I keep telling myself I’m not that mom). When I asked the doctor at the one month appointment if I should keep her out of her cloth diapers after she had her live oral rotavirus vaccine, I stumped her, and at this appointment when she said the baby could eat anything but honey and I asked if wooden toys coated in beeswax could also harbor botulism spores, and I stumped her again. Google can certainly give me the myriad of answers to such questions, but add in the voices of many concerned and confused parents, and there often aren’t any concrete answers.

The week before and the week after her 6 month birthday marked so many sudden new feats – like overnight and without warning or practice. Even I was impressed, and I’m the mom who didn’t get excited when she rolled for the first time at 2.5 months or so; then I realized she rolled well before all our baby friends – my mom friends saw her roll over on the couch and exclaimed that she was rolling, to which I was responded, oh yeah, she’s been doing that for a month or so now. I had kind of figured it was more of a function of her arm getting tired and giving way during tummy time than actually physically pushing herself over.

Suddenly at 6 months, not only can she pick up her Sophie the giraffe, but she can deftly bring it to her mouth. I realize other babies have done this for months, but the only thing she ever brought to her mouth before this were her hands and blankets and clothing. She can even pick up her pacifier and bring it to her mouth (although she still won’t suck it), and she can pass food from hand to hand. She can suddenly touch her toes, and somehow she became more flexible and can do the straddle splits. She can turn the pages on her books as we read her stories, and if we try to spoon feed milk, she takes our hands and guides the spoon in herself. Happy 6 months, Winter!