Shots & Weaning

I haven't gotten around yet to uploading the photos from yesterday's trip up to SF for D's birthday, so I might wait and blog about all that tomorrow. Today, we took D in for his 12 month check-up. Zach had work stuff to do, but my dad came along. D's been gaining weight like a champ, up now to over 20lbs (after hovering at 18-19lbs for months) and is eating up a storm these days, I guess to make up for being sick for a week (and a half). He apparently looks healthy all around, good kiddo. He got 3 shots today, and I was worried about how the day would go, but he's handled his past shots really well and today was more of the same (watch, I say that and tomorrow he'll probably be a monster). I felt so so bad for him as they were sticking him with needles today, but after re-reading the Vaccines chapter in Toddler 411 last night, getting these done is just a no-brainer for us.... especially with all the news stories recently of outbreaks of diseases like measles and meningitis.

Daddy flies out tomorrow. He's been having a great time here with D, and I kinda have the feeling that of all the grandparents he might be the one to spoil D the most. Last weekend we were all out at dinner at that Argentinian restaurant and we ordered flan as a dessert, and when I gave D a bite he LOVED it and kept trying to shove the spoon back in his mouth to get another taste. I gave him 4 small bites and then figured that was enough, don't want to give him too much sugar. Well, D did not agree with this. He wanted more flan (it is in his blood, after all). And of course, Daddy's sitting there saying, "But you should give him more! It's good for him!" lol I can see the future now... ; )

It's kinda funny getting used to the idea of having a "toddler" instead of a "baby." Not that D's seemed very "baby-ish" at all for a while. It's nice knowing a lot of the dietary constraints are gone now that he's one (he seems to be loving cow's milk, btw). It's also really weird to start the process of weaning him. It seems most kids by 1 year are down to 3-4 feedings (BF or bottle) already, but b/c of worries about his weight and health we've held steady at about 5-7 feedings in 24hrs (about every 3 hrs during the day). Now I'm cutting that down to 4-5, and it feels so weird to be going even 4 hours between nursings, like I'm having to shake off the guilt of "depriving" him. And at the same time, it's pretty freeing. My biggest worry with weaning has been how to make sure he's still getting enough nutrition without the breastmilk, but the advice I keep finding is that kids will eat what they need, and to just make sure to offer healthy food all day long, and they'll take care of the rest. So that's what I'm trying to do. D doesn't seem terribly attached to nursing, so I don't think this process will be that difficult on him-- I honestly think I could just cut him off cold-trukey and he'd be ok. Also, I hardly ever seem to get engorged at all anymore even when I'm late on a feeding or missed one (which is part of what's made me question my supply to begin with) so I'm also benefitting on that front. The goal is to cut down to 2 nursings a day (morning and bedtime) as long as I still want to/my supply keeps up, since the health/immunity benefits are still pretty significant into the 2nd year of life. We'll see how that goes. I'm pretty much playing all this by ear (by boob? sorry, couldn't resist).