Archive for March, 2009
I keep starting to write posts and stopping. I’ve got at least half a dozen saved tidbits from the last week or so, and honestly I suspect none of them are going to see print.
I’ve been (over)reading a lot of the reactions online to the Hanna Rosin article about breastfeeding in The Atlantic, where a lot of what she says isn’t really new but is still creating a stir. It saddens me how ridiculously mean people can be to each other online. I’m well aware that this just falls under “John Gabriel’s Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory” but that brings me little comfort. I think all mothers deserve respect for the decisions they make regarding how to feed their baby – isn’t feminism in part about having options? And shouldn’t families have the freedom to figure out what works best for them as a whole? If we want to do something for positive change, I think supporting each other would be a good start. But enough on that – there are pages and pages of vitriol and hurt feelings out there for anyone who cares to perform a Google search.
I am currently looking up information on feeding solid foods, since Lana will be needing that soon, and that is almost as much of a quagmire, though not quite as highly charged. It’s a little difficult to figure out now since the American Academy of Pediatrics changed their guidelines late last summer, and it’s now pretty much okay to feed your infant any single food in any order with a very few exceptions. (Apparently waiting on allergenic foods doesn’t work to avoid allergies, and some of what I’ve read suggests waiting may even backfire to help create food allergies.) Heck, the AAP even suggests baby meat as a first food now between 4 to 6 months, since it has easily absorbed iron, which many babies (especially breastfed ones) may need.
Also? The AAP suggests diversifying the diet quickly (a new food every 3 days or so once you start), to help make sure babies get a balance of nutrition from solids. How’s that for shaking things up? Most of the sites I find are filled with intricate charts of what foods to feed in certain age-ranges, and it seems to me most of that isn’t considered important at the moment.
So yes, sorry I haven’t been posting much, I’ve been lost in Internet-land and arguments about what a baby should eat. And here I thought the most important point of all was just to make sure the baby got anything. Remember, whatever you decide, the most important rule is supposed to be: Feed the baby!
Did we catch a leprechaun?
We had some fun on St Patrick’s Day, thanks to the warmer weather. We went downtown to Maxwell’s for our customary St Pat’s Day meal; they always have deliciously moist and yummy corned beef and this year was no exception. I’m also a big fan of colcannon, which is tasty there as well. Cabbage and soda bread rounded out the meal (mmm, soda bread). And dessert was some of the loveliest bread puddings with whiskey sauce I think I’ve ever had.
Lana was wonderful, flirting with those who spoke to her, and mostly snoozing in Sean’s arms throughout the meal. She seems to enjoy going places, looking around. I think she liked the walks outdoors to and from places the best of all though, she enjoys the wind.
What did you put on my head, Mommy?
(No, we didn’t try to wear the hat out of the house.)
We were going to stop by the bar briefly but it was a bit early to see much of anyone. Bobby Lane and Ruby were performing at Black Bear, wandering through the crowd as they played, so we stopped to watch a moment through the window, and upon seeing Lana outside, Bobby and Ruby actually stepped out onto the street to serenade her for a moment. Lana liked it, her eyes got big as Bobby came up with the guitar and harmonica going and said hello. I suspect she’s going to really enjoy music.
I hope you had a lovely St. Patrick’s Day!
Curled up on the bed with baby and husband (and a random cat or two) watching Bugs Bunny cartoons until both baby and husband fall asleep. I think that’s a pretty fine Saturday moment.
Just after her two month appointment, Lana started vocalizing. For a few days she talked to anything, people, her toys, the ceiling fixtures: Anything that caught her eye, she was likely to try talking at. That settled down pretty quickly, and she’s become more judicious about what she speaks to, sometimes seeming shy about making noise, even. We’ve started singing vowel sounds to her, which she tries to repeat. Sometimes she studies the way our lips move, and she just moves her mouth, and pushes breath through without sound. Sometimes she actually does make the sound, which clearly tickles her (our amusement and praise probably help), and sometimes, also amusingly, she mimics the pitch of our voices instead of the sound itself. Still, she seems to be studying the way people move their lips and tongues to make noises. This girl wants to talk.
She’s been sleeping fairly well at night, and I know that typing that will probably doom me. The hard part is getting her to go to sleep initially, as she’ll often fight hard against falling asleep at night, but once she’s out she usually does well at staying out, and going back to sleep after her feedings (I do have to qualify that one with “usually” though). Don’t misunderstand and think she’s sleeping straight through the night or anything, but several good chunks of sleep separated by a few feedings is still really nice. That does mean that for the most part she is up during the day with only very short cat naps, but since her day has (oh my hubris in posting about this) been starting around 9:30 or so, that’s been okay with me. (Last time I mentioned that to anyone, she was up at 7 the next morning and wouldn’t go back to sleep – let’s hope I haven’t jinxed myself).
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