Works for Me!

It's interesting to me what we assume to be true about other mothers and their babies. I have several friends with kids right now (hi moms!) and it's always a nice reality check to hear how they deal with similar problems and issues. But no two babies are alike, and neither are their moms.

Lately Charlotte's two biggest challenges have been spitting up and sleeping. I know I should count myself lucky that these are the hardest things I have to deal with. Still, it doesn't make it any easier for me to hear "you think you had it bad, I had to deal with x, y and z..." Being a mom is hard work regardless of what you're dealing with. In spite of all the "encouragement" I seem to be figuring out a solution that works for me.

Charlotte had her 6-month well-baby visit last week.

Just as a side note, I want to point out that I've been so fogged in the head due to lack of sleep and stress that I went to her appointment and mine a day later than they were scheduled. I had to take her to a completely different pediatrician. I started crying when they told me I had to see a different doctor. I really like her doctor.

Anyway, I took her for her rescheduled appointment and the new doctor told me that she doesn't mind if a baby's small as long as they continue to grow regularly. Charlotte had only grown half an inch and a little more than half a pound. I'll admit I went in with the mindset that I was done dealing with the spit up. So when the doctor prescribed medication for it I didn't protest too much. I think the medicine is supposed to help digest dairy proteins or something like that. Whatever it's supposed to do, it's helped cut down the spit up quite a bit. She still spits up, but it's nothing like it was.

So far with the sleep I've tried a whole slew of different approaches and I think I've finally found a winner in attachment parenting. The last two nights I've just had her in the middle of my bed all night. She went to sleep right away. She stayed asleep longer than she's ever stayed asleep. I may be digging my grave in terms of my kid sleeping in our bed, but this is the most sleep I've gotten since she was born and I would rather share my bed and get some sleep than be miserable.

Even though it has nothing to do with Charlotte, it has made a big difference in my stress level. Yesterday we discovered The Hannah Society. For a couple months we've been told we either needed to come up with $1000 to amputate Bailey's broken leg or we needed to give him up to the humane society. The Hannah Society offers affordable pet insurance that includes delivered food, training classes, and all medical care. Because he has a preexisting condition we have to pay a little more per month the first year year and the payments come out to $75 a month.

The payments are a bit of a strain for us in lieu of our trying to pay down bills etc.. but it's far more doable than the options we were given at Banfield. The best part is that I took Bailey to the Hannah vet today and not only does she think his leg doesn't need to be amputated, it may not even need surgery. He's gotten pretty fat though so they want him to roam free in the house to get some exercise and to see how he does with his leg before they do any more tests.

I will do a post holiday summary next time, I'm just so relieved about these issues I felt the need to talk about them first!