Feeding July 5, 2009

As you might have guessed, I’m not planning to breast feed this time around. Some stuff has changed since Gatito was born, though. For one, there are now BPA-free bottles, and we are going to give these silicone bottles a shot. There’s also more affordable organic formula available. My primary concern is the hormones in milk. It seems the cans have BPA in their lining, though, so I guess there’s always something.

You know what’s super annoying, though? Practically every review on shopping web sites or elsewhere online begins with a woman providing an excuse for why she is not breast feeding. The baby naturally weaned herself, the baby didn’t like the taste of the mother’s milk after the mother got pregnant again, supply is getting low and need to supplement, blah blah blah. Failing an excuse, and announcement that the mother did breast feed exclusively for however long.

I think it’s great that there is so much more support for breast feeding today than there was for our mothers. But I hate hate hate how much pressure and judgment and guilt surrounds the whole thing. Enough that it even invades the reviews of formula itself!

I say, breast feed if you want to and it works for you and your baby. Don’t if it doesn’t. The first four weeks of Gatito’s life were a misery for me because of it, and I’m so looking forward to that not being an issue this time around. What a relief to look forward to feeding my baby, not to dread it.

July 4th July 5, 2009

Took some awesome pictures of Gatito under the sprinkler yesterday, using the real camera instead of the iPhone. Imagine that. I love this one where I caught him mid-stride.

A and I also spent much of the time trying to hide our horror at this kids’ ribs. Obviously we seem him every night in the bath, but normally when we are swimming we have a shirt on him to protect him from the sun, so I feel like we don’t see this view, and I have to admit the words “concentration camp victim” flashed through my mind.

“Are we feeding him enough?” we asked, almost simultaneously.

Dear lord.

He has plenty of energy, though, and the funny thing is he kind of has a six-pack, too. And he was just at the doctor for clearance prior to the anesthesia. He measured 43.5 inches and 37.5 pounds and the doctor didn’t declare him malnourished or call CPS or anything, so I guess it’s okay.

He used to not eat much with us but eat tons with Tata. They’d go to a restaurant and he’d clean his plate and half of hers. (This actually started in babyhood, where he’d finish his bottles with his old nanny and not with us.) Now he eats well with us, too, most of the time. I’m just going to think about getting more healthy fats into his diet, like nuts and avocado and stop spraying the pan with canola or olive oil and instead just pour some in when I’m cooking for him. I doubt it will help, though. He comes from a line of skinny men.

Isn’t it ridiculous how much we worry about our kids, whichever end of the spectrum they’re on?