Kent and I are both adjusting to his school routine. He has demonstrated his adjustment by having two great days in a row, both with good eating and good naps and no crying when I came to pick him up. He cries hard when I leave him, but he always stops after I've walked away (I know because I wait and listen in the hall). He's seeming to have a fun time. Yay.

I have demonstrated my adjustment today by taking a nap. Since he was born, I've probably taken only a dozen or so naps, because his nap lengths are so unpredictable that I have a hard time lying down only to be awoken 10 or 20 minutes later. When that happens, I feel worse than before I tried to fall asleep, and I'm usually resentful of him as well. So I skip naps most of the time and have learned just to push through the day. This morning, though, I felt so tired when I was getting him ready for school that I decided to skip my morning coffee and just try to sleep when I got home. I lay down around 9:30 and took a few minutes to fall asleep, and before I knew it, I was waking up and it was almost 11. I felt a little groggy, but I was so glad to have gotten a nice nap that I put on a happy face and had a great rest of the day, amazingly refreshed.

I've noticed this week that he's nursing less and I'm producing less, partly because of school and partly because he's started drinking cow's milk at lunch and dinner. I don't even leak at night anymore (I know you wanted to know that), even on nights like last night, when he sleeps 9 or 10 hours straight. He still nurses a handful of times during the day and gets in a good feeding just before bed — I'm not sure how we'd get him to sleep otherwise. He and I are still a happy nursing couple, so unless something comes up, we'll probably continue on with it as long as it's working for us both. I like the idea of child-led weaning, and though I used to think that a 2- or 3-year-old still breastfeeding was pretty odd, I've come to realize that it's normal in most of the rest of the world and that Americans just have kind of a weird hangup about it. He continues to get nutritional benefits and my antibodies from it, as well as bonding/comfort, so it's good for us. Having the support of my other LLL moms, most of whom nurse 2- and 3-year-olds, has helped immensely.

In an unrelated story, Kent had his one-year checkup earlier this week. He's grown to 29 inches, putting him at the 50th percentile for height (a drop from his previous 75th), but his weight has almost dropped off the chart. He's barely 19 pounds, but he always has a ton of energy and doesn't seem to be lacking nutrition. I was a little concerned before our visit, but his doctor said she wouldn't worry yet but that we'd revisit his weight at his 15-month checkup. He had two shots again this time, and after a brief protest from the pain, he got two matching Peanuts bandaids on his little thighs. So cute.

So our little boy continues to grow and change. I was telling my grandmother today that every couple of months or so, it seems like he's a completely different person because of this lightning-quick development in the first few years.

Also, he's eating crayons. I guess we'll stick to fingerpaint as his main mode of expression, at least for a little while.

Labels: Kent, LLL

• posted by erica 7/10/2008 07:55:00 PM
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