Meeting the New Pediatrician

Chuck's first butternut squash

Charlotte had her first appointment with her new pediatrician, Dr. Monique Pritchard at the Sellwood Medical Clinic. The lactation consultant at Andaluz, Sonja Horowitz, recommended her to me after I had talked to her about some of the concerns I had about my previous pediatrician. Well I'm happy to say that I loved her, and so did Charlotte.

Charlotte's 11lbs 9oz and 24 inches long. She's in the 75th percentile for length, 80th percentile for head size and 10th for weight. Dr. P was very encouraging saying that Charlotte's development and strength was a good indication that her percentile rating wasn't really that big of a deal. I was happy to hear this because I know my baby is plenty healthy and she's gaining weight pretty steadily.

I also found it very encouraging that she validated some of my instincts. She recommended starting Charlotte on solids now, but to skip rice cereal. I can only guess at my reasons, but I've had an aversion to rice cereal and it was nice to hear that I'm not crazy. She suggested that I feed her organic nutrient rich fruits and vegetables very gradually. She said that there have been a bunch of studies recently that show earlier exposure to foods led to fewer food allergies. I fed Charlotte some butternut squash when I ate my dinner and she had no problem wolfing it down. In fact, she kept trying to grab the spoon and feed herself! I think she's ready.

The bib is stiff so she leans back so it won't push on
the Bumbo.

Besides the numbers we got today, it's pretty obvious Charlotte is growing. I bought her a 6 month size outfit thinking she'd wear it later, but put it on her just to see how big it is. It's a bit baggy but it almost fits her. This is rather surprising considering she didn't fit into the 3 month sizes until recently and when I bought her last round of 3 month clothes they were all on the big side. It's kind of exciting :) Mostly just because I like shopping for baby clothes.


This weekend Charlotte and I are going with my parents on a choir retreat. It should be a bit of an adventure spending a weekend with a group of high school kids. I'm looking forward to it. I got Chuck some fuzzy jammies for the cold weather ahead and a poofy ladybug costume for halloween! Should be fun.

3 Months 4 Weeks

Ever since I was pregnant I feel like I have an ongoing discussion going in my head about what to tell people in terms of time. What I mean is, when people asked me "how far along are you?" I debated between giving them a month or a week, and if I gave them a month, is it based on 10 months or 9 months? Now I debate about it with Charlottes age. Right now she's 3 months and 4 weeks, in a few days she'll be 4 months. I've been saying she's almost 4 months for about a week and a half now. I almost feel guilty for jumping the gun!

I took Charlotte to another mom group Monday. She weighed in at 11 pounds 5.5 ounces, so she's gained more than a pound in the last month. I'm pretty satisfied with that. I chatted with the lactation consultant, Sonja, about her being 4 months and what her opinion was on giving her solids. She's in the "wait until 6 months" camp. I'm going to talk to her pediatrician about it at her appointment next Tuesday as well to get her opinion before I decide what to do.

I also spent some time talking to Sonja about the stress I've been feeling. It was nice to hear that my frustrations weren't unreasonable. She offered me some ideas for ways that I can get a break every once in awhile and that it wasn't wrong for me to be so frustrated about being completely tethered to my baby 24/7. I hate to do it, but I can't pump enough to cover the feedings while I'm working, so I'm going to try formula and check in with Charlotte's pediatrician about it.

On that note I have a new obstacle to figure out. Childcare. I have high school girls watching Charlotte while I teach the five hours of lessons I have scheduled. The problem is that so far they haven't always been very dependable and I end up having to refund money for lessons spent on calming down my crying baby instead of teaching my students how to sing. It's a weird balance and I really need to get it figured out so I'm not losing money every week.

Stay-At-Home Mom

I've heard the term "stay-at-home mom" for most of my life. My mom was a stay-at-home mom as were both my grandmothers. I've always known that I would be one too. For some reason, I have always pictured myself staying at home with my kids, but also working some of the time too. So,more like a 3/4 time mom and a 1/4 time worker.

Charlotte's baby Converse
are just a little bit too big.
She's still pretty gangsta.

Unfortunately I feel like I'm swimming upstream and it's rather frustrating. Today I had a voice lesson. Years ago, going to my voice lesson was as simple as walking up the park blocks with my music notebook. Now it's a 45 minute drive, pumping, arranging for someone to watch my baby, making sure I feed her before I leave, worrying about how she's doing the entire time I'm gone, and then a 45 minute drive home. Today it even included a stop off to the high school to grab the music that I'd forgotten whilst packing up my baby's stroller to leave last night. I finally feel like I'm in a place where I can grow professionally, it's just 10 times more work because I have a baby to care for.

I keep finding myself rather bitter at my assumed role. I didn't picture my baby needing to be held and played with and changed and fed every second of every day for this long. Surely she should be able to sleep without being held by now! Surely she should be able to play with toys for more than 5 minutes before getting frustrated and worked up into a tizzy. Apparently not.

The thing that keeps me sane is when I stop and enjoy the moments with my baby that I wouldn't have if I was working. Now she's rolling over on a daily basis. Paul finally saw her roll over for the first time today. She's growing and we just switched her into medium sized gDiapers today. She's also much more talkative, and much more responsive to her environment. I feel so conflicted when I send her off with babysitters while I'm teaching. On one hand it's really nice to do something besides cleaning or caring for my baby. On the other hand, it's all I can do not to run down the hallway to console my screaming kid. (She's always returned to me sleeping and happy, so it's really just me being paranoid) The video is of her playing her new favorite game.