This Week in Mommyhood

There hasn't been a more exciting week in the food department since Cati started solids two months ago. I'll admit to not adhering to the "wait 3 days between new foods" rule. But I have been lucky in that there are zero food allergies in our gene pool and Cati has reacted positively to everything I have introduced to her. I know if things were different then I would be more cautious. I'll also admit to creating my own food schedule with Cati since my pediatrician felt Cati should stay on a mostly breast milk diet until she's 10 months old. I got no direction from him so I've been relying on books and the internet. Thankfully I'm doing something right because Cati is still thriving and growing.

So this week I made Cati cauliflower and pumpkin. But what was really exciting was sharing my meals with her. She had a little bit of egg yolk when I ate hard boiled eggs and she had some of my sweet potato and toast when I went out to lunch with my mother-in-law on Friday. I love that we've reached this point and I really look forward to introducing Cati to all the delicious foods that exist beyond the special food I make her.

I wouldn't feel comfortable with sharing my food were it not for the fact that she started chewing her foods last week. I say it all the time but it amazes me how things come naturally to babies. Everything we take for granted was something we didn't know at one point. Then one day something clicked in our brains because we were developmentally ready and we started doing things differently.

Which brings me to the ever increasing need to stand up. Last week Cati felt comfortable standing up on only a few things but this week she will pull herself up on everything from her bouncer to a pack of diapers. This has us in an anxious mess as we struggle with how much independence to give Cati. At least she has learned how to best fall back and land on her cushioned butt.

Cati has also become a full blown crawler. The only time she army crawls now is when she is wearing something that prevents her from getting on all fours (like jeans or really cute shoes). She's become such a quick crawler and I love the sound of her hands hitting the floor as she crawls.

I've begun the process of weaning myself from the pump. I pump 3 times a day and I'm currently working on getting rid of my midday pumping session. I'm cutting that session down slowly by decreasing the amount of time I pump every few days. I'm taking it slow since I've been sensitive to clogs in the past. I figure the midday session will be completely done with over the next 2 weeks. Once that session is gone and my body has adapted I'll work on cutting out my morning pumping session. Then I'll cut out the evening session and be done with pumping. It will be a slow process but it needs to be slow so that I can physically and mentally cope with the end of what has defined my feeding relationship with Cati.

Looking back on this week and writing this post made me realize how food-centric the week was. Now all Cati has to do is have her first word be "snickerdoodle" like Alex wants and this week will forever be known as food week in Cati's development.