and that the love would be all-consuming?
Every time I look at Amelia, my heart swells with joy. It's amazing to think that this miracle came from my body, and despite my imperfections, she is perfect in every way. Being able to watch her grow every day is a privilege that I don't take for granted. It's funny how much your priorities change once you have a child. For example, when I came home from work pre-baby, it was a race against the clock to eat dinner, iron my scrubs, get ready for the next day, and get in bed before 9:30 so I could get enough sleep (which isn't really possible when you work 12-hour shifts). But now, what time I get in bed doesn't really matter as long as I get to spend time with my girl. Even though I don't get home from work until after 7:30, we have established a bedtime routine and it seems to be working for us. When I get home, I don't touch Amelia until after I've had a shower (which is so hard because all I want to do is hold her after being gone for 12 hours!), but I also don't want to expose her to God knows what germs that are on my clothes. After my shower, we have a little bit of play time until around 8:30 when she gets her bedtime bottle. Once she finishes her bottle, she digests a little and gets Daddy time while I eat dinner. She then goes down to sleep around 9:15 or 9:30. She's slept in her crib since day 1, so luckily we haven't had a hard time getting her to sleep in her crib. And we've been just laying her down for a while now, so she usually goes right to sleep. Some nights, she talks to herself a little and on the rare occasion that she does fuss, it only lasts a few minutes and we don't have to do anything.
I started writing this post about a month and a half ago, but as any parent knows, projects often go unfinished due to the daily happenings in the house. Amelia is just waking up from her afternoon nap and as I write, I can hear Thomas talking to her as he changes her diaper. He likes to turn the radio on while he's changing her, so he also intersperses some singing into his changing routine. Watching my husband with our daughter is something I will never tire of. The way she looks at him makes my heart smile. When he carries her, she just looks up at him like he's her hero. Amazing.
Amelia is 6 months now, almost 7. I cannot believe more than half a year has passed since she was born. I know time will only pass by faster as she gets older. It's bittersweet to watch her reach milestones. We had to take out the car seat insert recently because it was pushing her shoulders forward. She's almost sitting up on her own. We just put 2 bins of clothes she's outgrown in the attic. She's learning how to use a sippy cup. At her 6 month check-up, she weighed 16 pounds, 15 ounces (65th percentile) and was 26.5 inches long (75th percentile). She loves peaches, mangoes, bananas, pears, apples, prunes, sweet potatoes, carrots and tolerates peas and green beans. She hasn't hated anything to the point where she absolutely won't eat it, so hopefully we won't have a picky eater!! Unfortunately, we've had reflux issues and after starting her on Neutramigen formula from week 1 and then having to start on Zantac plus adding rice to her bottles, we've finally settled on Prevacid and it seems to be working well. She still spits up, but it's not like 20 times a day and it's usually not huge amounts. She was never to the point where she wasn't gaining weight, so Dr. Vernon wasn't too worried about it. He says she'll grow out of it eventually. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later!
The breastfeeding and pumping has come to an end. My goal was to nurse her until at least 6 months and I accomplished that, so I guess it's not as sad as it could be. After I went back to work, I was usually able to pump twice at work, nurse her when I got home, and then pump before I went to work in the morning. There was one night in February where she wouldn't nurse when I got home from work. I was devastated. I thought surely she was finished for good. And it seriously felt like the end of a relationship. Like I had broken up with someone. Those were the types of emotions I was feeling. But she ended her nursing strike and we went back to our normal routine for another month and a half. It's been a few weeks now since she last nursed and probably about 2 since I last pumped. I don't regret going to all the trouble of pumping at work (and believe me it was a chore!), but I'm glad that part is over. Luckily, I had a pretty good supply in the freezer, so she's still getting breast milk in her bottles for awhile.
Well, it's been about 3 hours since I wrote the part about her waking up from her afternoon nap, and now she's just finished getting her bedtime bottle. She'll be going to bed soon and dreaming her sweet dreams. I'll be right behind her dreaming of my sweet girl and how blessed I am that she is in our lives....
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