Weighty Issues

So unlike my last couple of posts, I have waited about six weeks to write on this topic. Over that time, the facts have evolved, I have had mini panic attacks several steps of the way, and have now reached my happy place...I think. I mentioned in LO's 7 mo post that he was having to eat a lot of avocado. In retrospect that was a little out of context. That post was so heavily edited that the avocado thing might not have made much sense. Now that the dust has settled a bit, I can explain.

LO had his 6 mo check-up appointment on April 20th where he weighed in at 16 lbs 5 oz. Just eight days earlier he was weighed at another office for his H1N1 vaccine and weighed 17 lbs 10 oz. The earlier visit was more than I expected, and the check up visit was less than expected. It didn't seem possible that both could be right, so I assumed the first weight was off by more than I thought since he was clothed and in a diaper. Our pediatrician said he was not happy with LO's weight gain as he had come slightly down on his weight and length growth curves. I was encouraged to nurse LO one more time a day. I left our check up visit with my head spinning. I saw the growth curve and knew that I would not have even mentioned it to a parent, let alone had a several minute conversation with them about it. At the same time, my job is to be LO's mom, not analyze his growth curve. I respect and trust our doc a great deal. He was just doing his job to take good care of LO. On the other hand, I AM LO's mom and I KNEW that boy wasn't going hungry. I went back and forth like this in my head for days. I called in a girlfriend/colleague consult. I talked DH's ear off about it. I felt like a bad mom. I felt like a bad patient. I wrestled with how to tweak our schedule to get in an extra feeding. It was ugly people! Then I came to peace with the issue. Then LO started getting distracted during nursing and I felt that peace slip away. Eventually I decided to nurse LO as we had been, but feed him avocado for his two meals a day instead of other veggies. I had been excited for him to eat it anyway. This felt like a happy medium while I struggled to decipher LO's new nursing agenda. So we went to town on the avocado. LO got enough of it a day to be roughly equivalent to eight ounces of breastmilk. The nutrients weren't the same, but they weren't bad either. In the meantime I wrote the seven month post, then I rewrote it until DH agreed that I didn't sound like a total basket case on the subject. I also showed LO's 6 mo portraits around and got lots of seemingly random (likely divine) comments on how well-fed my little guy looks. These should not have mattered, but they calmed my worried heart.

Not long after I posted, I humbled myself to talk to the lactation consultants who are also friends of mine at our local hospital. I vented the whole series of events to them and they told me to relax and listen to my baby. If he stops eating, let him stop, if he seems hungry feed him. They also told me to wait out the distraction stuff, it wouldn't last forever. It wasn't rocket science, but somehow it resonated with me when they said it. We turned over a new nursing leaf called "listen to the baby and forget the schedule." (I am SO type A that sometimes I lose the forest for the trees.) When I relaxed, things started to fall into place. LO has been a lazy nurser for over six months, so when he had become more efficient I didn't recognize it. He was looking around the room because he either wasn't hungry or was finished on a given side. I felt like a moron, but things were getting better. He was still easily distracted, but I resolved to stop spending forever trying to change that. (DH also got me a great necklace to help him focus long enough to get some nursing time in.) So, nursing was better and LO was turning into an avocado. Sounds good right?

Well, the H1N1 vaccine requires a booster in babies, so we headed back to that office on May 14th. This time I stripped LO down and we weighed him naked. He tipped the scales at 18 lbs 5 oz!! That is when I finally let go. I honestly have no idea how much this boy weighs. The measurements just don't make sense. What I do know is that he's growing and developing just like he should be. He has two chins and chubby thighs and is needing larger settings on his diapers. I don't know what his growth curve will look like next month when he goes back to our pedi, but we are nursing when he wants to nurse and the kid is getting to eat something other than avocado. In fact he officially loves sweet potatoes and peas as of this week.

Speaking of, LO says it's supper time!