the meanie weanie
one would think that i’d be stoked to be weaning jackson from his bottles now that he is 13 months old… and i think i am. yes, yes, i am. wait! jackson just started enjoying his bottles. shit! that throws a wrench into everything.
given our history with breast, bottle, and everything in between, i think back now and remember counting down the months, weeks, days until jackson’s 1st birthday when i could “officially” say PEACE OUT to the bottle.
i envisioned myself throwing the bottles at a wall while screaming out in the most animalistic cry. i imagined myself emptying drawers of bottles, bottle systems, nipples, etc, into garbage bags and yelling “FREE AT LAST! FREE AT LAST!”
i have been so ready to get rid of jackson’s bottle for so long.
and now he has begun to enjoy them. seriously. how do i take that away?
paul and i discussed weaning and we’re currently reading different methods, etc… but ultimately it’ll come down to us making a decision in the hopes that we’re making the “right” decision for our child.
a few weeks ago, jackson was taking 4 bottles a day.
i never thought i’d be able to say that.
he’s now weaned down to 3 bottles a day… and my goal this week is to work my way down to 2 bottles a day by friday.
i don’t want to be the meanie weanie when it comes to this process. i am terrified to go “cold turkey” with this bottle thing, but some books suggest it.
for some reason, i feel like these books weren’t written for children like mine…
so if you have suggestions, please send them my way. at the moment, jackson is taking 3 bottles a day, each one with 8 ounces of whole milk.
shit, i never thought i’d be able to say that either.
the first bottle is given to him before he goes down for his morning nap at 9:30, the second bottle before his afternoon nap at 2, and the final bottle before he goes down for bed at 7 pm. so yes, there is an obvious relationship that has been made between nice, warm bottle and sleepy time.
he’s doing well with eating throughout the day, though i’m finding he is a definite snacker, like his mama. (i eat two lunches a day just to give you an idea… the first is at 10 am the second is usually after jackson goes down for his afternoon nap. i eat constantly. no lie.) and jackson pretty much eats when i eat and what i eat. so that’s good. really good. i’m proud of him.
but this bottle weaning stuff has my head spinning… i don’t want to traumatize my child anymore than he already has been in terms of feedings.
suggestions… advice… weaning stories… i welcome them all.
feed me more!
good morning from atlanta! i’m briefly posting this from my parent’s house, as my mom and i are attempting to introduce more foods and “beef up” the magoo… jackson is getting his 1st year molars right now, and is not interested in eating much of anything. feeding him has been a struggle, which then leads to middle-of-the-night bottle feeds because he’s up and hungry.
(ugh! it SUCKS being up in the night to feed a friggin 1 year old… who does that?!)
anyway, 2 weeks ago i posted about this topic and got some terrific responses via comments and email. thank you so much for the input you shared, and thank you also to those of you who said “shit, i don’t know what to do either…”
so here’s a blog post i found that i’m going to check out and use as a guide with jackson, and i would encourage you to do the same (unless of course you have a child who eats… in which case, pay no attention to me).
thank you to the mom who writes this blog and posted this “sample one day menu for a one year old.” this helps me in more ways than you can imagine!
in other news, jackson and i head back to annapolis on wednesday and i’ll resume regular blogging at that time. awesome things have been happening for My Bottle’s Up! including a new design which will be relaunched (hopefully) in the very near future… stay tuned!
feed me
not yet ready to write about yesterday’s walk for maddie, i sit at my new mac book (paul’s birthday gift to me, hell yea!) and ponder what to post…
stats
i have been purposely delaying this post, putting it off and busying myself with other tasks, other writings, cute videos of jackson… not wanting to “go there,” and yet here i am.
jackson had his 1 year check up last friday, and i’m now just posting about it. he had his vaccines, his “wellness” exam, met his milestones… and was weighed.
current magoo weight: 21.2 lbs.
current magoo height: 31 and 1/4 in.
current magoo head circ: 48 cm.
percentile-wise, he’s ok… his friggin meat-head (thanks to paul) is in the 95th percentile. his height is in the 85th… his weight is in the 30th… and that’s when i hang my head and let out a low, groveling sigh.
for the last 3 months, we have intentionally not weighed jackson. paul and i worked hard to remove ourselves from the mentality that we were in for so long, of tracking everything, recording everything, monitoring everything. so we just didn’t do it. each month, of the last three, would pass and we wouldn’t do it. at his 9 month check-up, jackson weighed 19 and 3/4 lbs. and here we are 3 full months later…
it’s not so much that i’m discouraged right now. i’ve been there and done that. it’s just that i would almost rather not know. ya know?
i see my son every day. i see how successful his feedings are now. i see him eat spaghetti and chicken and sweet potatoes and chips and salsa… drink from a cup with a straw… and do absolutely anything for goldfish. and on top of that, he still takes 4 bottles a day with 6 oz of formula. he’s eating more now than he ever has.
and we’re “supposed to” start weaning jackson from the bottle because now he’s 1 year old.
yeah, right! like that’s goina happen! are you kidding me?! i just got him to friggin start taking a bottle! i don’t care if he’s 30-something, getting married, and his bride walks down the aisle to him and he has a ring in one hand and a baby bottle in the other… i’m NOT taking that away right now. suck it, doctors!
i digress…
to think of the days i spent on the computer and phone simultaneously, searching for pediatric feeding programs, filing paperwork with the navy, begging, pleading, and forcing our son to eat… i see that we have come so far.
but damnit, i hate knowing the weight… the number… the truth.
so i justify things to myself in my head. i tell myself “he’s really active and just can’t keep weight on.” which is true (?) he is all over the place, especially now that he’s walking. he can’t sit still to save his own life. paul and i can barely get him to stay in his highchair long enough to take a full meal before he’s squealing to get out and go play.
i mean, hell, i’ve lost weight just trying to keep up with him. (BONUS!)
we’re not worried… we’re not. i’m just updating everyone because people ask. you guys have gone through this with us as you have read our blog. you have been with us at the hospital. both times. you have been with us at jackson’s feeding therapy sessions. and you have been with us when we have been at our wits end.
and so the journey continues… we have a healthy, happy baby boy. long and lean. he rocks my world, and everything in it.
***i debated whether or not to turn off the ability for you guys to comment on this post, just because i don’t want the “oh, he’s fine, my child weighs bla bla bla….” type of stuff. but whatthehell… bring it on!***
blog shmog and shit
i’m struggling with this blog shit. and today it is shit for me because i’m frustrated and tired and without something interesting to write about. and though i hate to be so “bleh” about it, i am.
FEEL FREE NOT TO READ ON…
jackson puked last night. which sucks. i honestly felt my heart sink when it happened and thought to myself, “ah shit.” i don’t know if it was a fluke. i don’t know if he’s picked up a bug from traveling for a few days. i just know that he’s not feeling good, because he “tells” me that by puking.
he kept his bottle down this morning, which is good, but wasn’t really interested in eating much else, which is not good. he’s sleeping a lot, which one would think would be a nice break for me, but in the back of my mind it’s a red flag that says, “jackson’s not feeling good. PAY ATTENTION!”
aside from the occasionally puking magoo, i have this blog. this “other baby” that i am trying to nurture and raise (more or less) and it’s really frustrating me right now.
i want this blog to “go somewhere” and “be something” but i’m not sure what that “something” is yet… or not sure how to go about getting there. i’m just plain old not sure. and i don’t like not being sure. it’s scary.
this call that i had yesterday from johns hopkins ended up making me feel like i had been dooped. i started receiving emails from their communications department a few weeks ago, expressing interest in our story, our blog, our son. i was stoked. didn’t want to be too stoked, but c’mon, when you put something out there like this and get a response, you get stoked.
so i spoke with this woman yesterday, finally making human contact regarding our story and what we can do with it to help others… or so i thought. basically what they want is to consult with me and two other families (who have done something similar to what i have done) on blogging.
WHUT?!
instead of asking me about jackson and his current status, (ill. not ill. puking. not puking.) she asked me about my friggin blog design. she wanted to know how my blog started and where i’m going with it.
I DON’T KNOW LADY!
and then she wanted to know if i would consider consulting with them on a hopkins blog, which (in her defense) could potentially be a good thing. if this is a project that links parents together as a support system/community, then cool, sign me up. if this is just a bullshit way of expressing interest in my child in order to get me to “create” a blog for you, then leave me alone. i have a sometimes-puking child to take care of.
which brings me back to my original point, i don’t know what i’m doing with this. i don’t know where this is going or where i want it to go.
I WANT TO CONNECT.
I WANT TO HAVE A VOICE. and yes, it would be nice if that voice were heard.
but i don’t want to be messed with, especially when it comes to my son.
Have a Sip
