7 Quick Takes-Tales of a Mommy
2. I've been concerned about Alessandra's weight gain (or lack thereof, specifically), and my suspicions were confirmed when we brought her to the pediatrician on Tuesday for her nine month checkup. She's in the tenth percentile for height, and the twenty-fifth for weight. Ouch. Not good for a baby who was born at 8lbs, 15oz and 20 inches long. To her credit, our pedi didn't immediately jump on the "whee! formula for everyone!" bandwagon, but she did warn that if Alessandra didn't start putting on weight, we would have to consider supplementing. Not that there's anything wrong with formula, but I desperately want to nurse my babies until they wean themselves. So, a-researching I went, and immediately set up an appointment with a lactation consultant.
3. She came by for a few hours yesterday afternoon, and I felt much better by the time she left. She determined that the problem had nothing to do with Alessandra's latch, but with my supply. Which is frustrating and infuriating, but fortunately it's not impossible to fix. I have all sorts of supplements, from Fenugreek to More Milk Plus to Go-Lacta, plus strict orders to keep myself hydrated and eat at least 1800 calories/day. (I'm really, REALLY bad about eating throughout the day. It drives Will crazy). So. I'm going to write a supply-boosting post in the hopefully not too distant future, once we up Little Miss's weight gain (we are also pushing the fatty solids with her, such as YoBaby yogurt, avocado, olive oil, meats for protein, etc). Part of the problem is up until very, very recently, Alessandra showed zero interest in solid foods. All she wanted to do was nurse, which would have been fine if my supply hadn't dropped, but...well, it did. So. That's the story with that.
4. I've seen this circulating on my Facebook and Pinterest feeds for the past few days.
I am certainly not going to debate the age-old "who works harder, the stay-at-home mom or working mom?" because I truly believe each has their struggles, benefits, feelings of guilt and all that good stuff. However, since I AM a SAHM, I started thinking about my title, so to speak. (Jennifer Fulwiler's comment about her Linked In page on her personal Quick Takes is what prompted this). Granted, right now things are out of sorts, since we're waiting on the Army to move us to Fort Benning and Will and I are splitting childcare duties pretty evenly, but on a normal day, Will goes to work and I'm in charge of the kiddos and the house.
5. So, what should my "title" be? CEO of casa di Tenney? Who is my assistant? Do I even get an assistant? And if I do, can I do the Dwight Schrute thing and refer to him/her as "assistant TO the CEO?" Hmmm. An assistant would most likely come in the form of a housekeeper or full-time nanny, and that ain't gonna happen anytime soon. So yes, I'll stick with CEO. Will already has a title-2LT Tenney. Which is still really cool to say out loud.
6. As part of my CEO duties, I'm beginning the process of doing a household purge of junk before another big move. We do a purge every.single.time before we move to a new location, so in theory, we shouldn't have a lot to get rid of. Nope. I swear, I don't know how we accumulate so much junk, but we do. And since we move pretty much every two years, you'd think I would be better at not being a hoarder. Again, nope. Granted, I don't belong on TLC or anything like that, but we still have enough stuff to donate to the Salvation Army or Goodwill (and not just one trip, either) every single time. Sigh.
7. Our dear friend Jenna is driving up from Baton Rouge tomorrow to spend the weekend with us. She's commented many times in the past about how much she enjoys staying at our house, because everything is "always so clean!" I'm so glad I have her fooled.
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Re the baby--if she's hitting all the developmental milestones, don't sweat it too much. My third child was a lazy eater, and by the time I was dealing with three kids--one of whom had significant delays--I wasn't going to do the short-order cook thing; he could eat what we ate or he could go without. Frequently he chose to go without, and I had all kinds of arguments with pediatricians who were flipping out about his lack of weight gain. Yet he did everything when he was supposed to and he's sharp as a tack and all-thrusters-go now. He wasn't a baby when we had this argument, of course, but I just wanted to offer that story by way of support.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely check out your calorie intake if your supply is dropping - I've noticed HUGE dips in supply when I don't eat enough, and actually had to totally give up fasting last Lent because my supply was down so drastically simply from not eating meat or sweets. Losing those calories was brutal, and it took a couple weeks to bounce back. It's not all that bad making sure you have a milkshake after the kids are in bed, though ;)
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
Thank you ladies!!! I appreciate the advice.
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