Solid

When Tera was in the hospital, breast milk was like medicine. In fact, in some cases, it was better than medicine. To prevent some intestinal diseases, the doctors recommended breast milk over any antibiotic they could prescribe. When I was barely more than a day out of my surgery, the neonatologist called me to say "Keep it up! Keep it up! We only have little milk from you now. We need lot of milk. Pump 10 minute on each side. Keep it up!" The term Liquid Gold took on a very literal meaning.

So you can imagine my hesitation as we slowly approached the 4-month (adjusted age) mark when baby food is supposed to be introduced. It is widely known that when the solids come in, the liquids quit coming in as much. For Tera, this would mean less breast milk (yes, I still have some left over from the 12 weeks I pumped in the hospital - that stuff lasts forever!), which in my mind still means less medicine. I thought that I would wait a few extra weeks before starting the solids just to keep as much milk in her as possible.

She must have heard my thoughts. The week before I should have begun starting them, Tera quit taking her last bottle of the day. She was decreasing her liquid-intake before I could let the solids do that for her! Of course, weight gain is typically my top concern, so I decided to go ahead and start the cereal. She didn't hate it, but she definitely didn't love it.





Since this first time, Tera has gone back to taking her bottle most nights. Though, there are those few magical moments when I get to bed a half hour early because she is clearly not waking up for that last little snack. Because of our schedule and the fact that she is usually very hungry and ready for a quick fill - i.e. a bottle - when we get home from school each day, she doesn't get her cereal every night, but we do the best we can. Within a couple of weeks of this first experience, I started adding fruit to the oatmeal to see if it would make it more appetizing. It didn't. She still fusses for her bottle when I put her in the high chair. To be honest, I'm not that concerned. I wasn't too thrilled about starting solids in the first place. I've got the rest of her childhood to shove healthy food down her throat. I like being able to give her something she loves!

6 Month Update

I really thought that I would be one of those moms who kept good records of all or her children, not just her first. Especially because of Tera's exciting entrance into the world, I just knew that I would write down every little detail immediately as it happened. But sadly . . . I am just like all the rest. Just trying to live each day as the best possible Working Mother-of-Two which, of course, leaves no room for writing things down.

So here I go, writing a few things down. This is Tera at exactly 6 months old:

And this is Tera a few days later when Barry took Canon to the lake for the weekend, leaving me with a few extra minutes to get some pictures of her in something more than a onesie or pj's. They're not great . . . definitely not as good as Canon's six-month pictures in the rocking chair on the porch . . . but they're something to be proud of.


And the feet that have been so famous since her first day of life:

After waking up a bit, we tried to take a few more, but with no great success.



Now on to what I really want to remember - what is Tera doing?

Tera has been smiling for weeks. She's a pretty easy audience. We can do the least funny thing you've ever seen, and she'll beam as if it's the best show she's experienced to date. At a birthday party this weekend, some friends and I began questioning when babies start to laugh. Tera caught some of our conversation apparently because, later that day, she gave her first little chuckle. Ever since then, she's been "talking" up a storm and smiling just as easily as ever.

As I've mentioned in an earlier post, Tera rolled over from stomach to back only a few weeks after coming home (she's so strong!), and she's done this a few more times since then. She continues to show her endurable strength as she pushes up on her arms and turns her head from side to side. Her head control is so good, in fact, that I am able to face her forward in the Baby Bjorn without too much trouble. We took her to her first high school football game this weekend (Daleville v. Slocomb), and she loved watching the cheerleaders and the fans (I'm not quite tall enough to help her see the actual game!).

At her six month check-up earlier this week, the pediatrician was very impressed with her development. She weighs 13 pounds 1 ounce and is 24 3/4 inches long. While her size is not quite on the charts for a six month old (she's about at the 50 percentile for a three-month-old though!), her development seems to be beyond what her pediatrician was expecting. When I told her of her rolling over and giggling, the doctor said that was more than she was expecting. When she flipped Tera over on her tummy to see what she could do, the pediatrician immediately extended her hands to keep Tera from rolling right off the table. She was so impressed which, of course, made me feel so much better. Lately, Barry and I have been worrying that Tera isn't growing like she should. Even though others say that they can tell she is getting bigger, it's hard to see from one day to the next. Her pediatrician actually showed me on the chart that Tera's weight gets closer and closer to the 6-month curve with every visit that she makes to the doctor. This is encouraging. Not only is she growing, but she's growing at a faster rate than I had originally anticipated.

As for me, I've quit thinking about Tera in terms of "catching up." Yes, she's six months old, but I think of the "start of life" in a different way now, I guess. For me, life used to start at someone's birthday. Since Tera was born, however, I've started basing the beginning of life at conception. Don't get me wrong . . . I've always believed that life starts at conception, but maybe what I'm trying to say is that I now think of Development as something that starts with conception. Even as embryos, these little nuggets are growing new parts and learning to do new things. Tera did pretty much the same as every other baby, just in a different environment. Though she's been a part of our world for six months, she's still a Newby in the Baby World. It's difficult not to compare her to other babies who were born around her due date. They are usually bigger than she is which, of course, makes me uneasy at first. But I have to remember - and friends constantly remind me of this - that her circumstances are different. And though we will never use that as an excuse for her, we can be proud that despite her circumstances, she's more than we could have ever hoped for.