= FREEDOMDisclaimer: This post is all about babies and nursing. After 10 months of fussing/bottle-REFUSING, cutting date nights short, phone calls from a stressed Daddy or Grandma, excessive night wakings, etc. etc.Lily just spontaneously decided to take a bottle about a month ago......and it has changed our lives!I am not trying to bash nursing, because I believe in it and I will try to nurse all future children... and I am definitely not trying to bash my child, but I will just say that some things have a very steep learning curve and for us keeping Lily happy and satisfied via nursing has been one of them. It all started making sense to me ( the way-too-frequent feedings, inability to nap, slowed growth) and I have come to the frightening conclusion that she has been borderline starving for the last 10 months. She's been eating solids since 4 1/2 months, but she eats like a bird and her weight percentile has been steadily decreasing since her 4 month appointment--definitely a worry since she was a peanut to begin with. I think she just never got enough milk. I literally tried the bottle weekly and sometimes daily...to no avail for 10 whole months!! THAT STUBBORN LITTLE BUGGER!!!I'm not really even sure why I am posting this except that it has been this huge life-altering phenomenon as a fairly new mom to be able to leave for longer than an hour and a half and know that my child will be happy and full; to actually be able to go on a childless date with my husband- heaven forbid; to be able to go to my hair appointment and not have to leave the chair in a frenzy with wet hair when I get a frantic text!My sister tried to drill the concept of getting a nursing baby on a bottle asap so you aren't stuck as her only source of nutrition/comfort... and I just didn't listen. I'm sorry Whit! (boy am I sorry...)Anyway...I truly feel like Lily's whole temperament has changed this past month...not even kidding. EVERYTHING is now better, easier, less stressful and less dramatic than it used to be. I guess you have to learn some things the hard way...
Much to my surprise we are having a little girl!! We couldn't be happier!! We also got good news at our ultrasound that everything looks normal. It was an incredible experience to see the baby moving in there--we watched her do a complete summersault! I also felt the first fluttering of movement, probably because of all the poking and prodding. She is a very active little thing and was quite uncooperative when they tried to get pictures of her heart. Both the ultrasound tech and the doctor said we have a very mischievous baby. I wonder if that's any indication of her future personality?We can't wait to meet our baby girl!!
We find out what we are having tommorow!!I am almost certain that it's a boy...I'm not sure whyIt could be that every time I tell someone that I haven't been sick at all they go on and on and on about how they puked their guts out with all their girls and had smooth sailing with their boys...although I must say that my mom was never sick with me, and my grandma had four girls and wasn't sick once with any of them...It could be that I have an easier time thinking of girl names and I can all around just picture a baby girl better...so I figure it must be a boyEither way we will be thrilled!!!Oh and can I just tell you that we could've known last Tuesday!?! I originally scheduled my ultrasound for Tuesday, but Chris "couldn't come" because he couldn't "miss class" so I changed it to Friday...then last Tuesday rolls around and Chris was driving me to Trax and he hadn't showered or anything and I was like "you're going to school like that?" and he was like "oh I don't have that class anymore...it ended last week." I about died!Anyway if you are one of the 3 or 4 people that read our blog, and if you read this post before tomorrow I'd love to hear your predictions!
We are very excited to be expecting a little one in March!! The baby is due March 21st and we are thrilled!!We had our first ultrasound this week, and although the baby is only the size of a kumquat (that’s what they tell me in the books…what in the world is a kumquat?) it was amazing to see a little being moving around in there and to see the strong heartbeat. I am also excited to have escaped the wrath of my sister, who has been harassing us since we got married to “produce a cousin...or else…”Yeah for babies!
