Ouch!

Bright had his 6 month shot series today. Andy took off a little time from work to go with us- so nice to have an extra set of hands to pass him back and forth while we were waiting for them to get things set up. He was 17 pounds, 7 ounces today. I can't remember exactly how long- the sheet is in the car- but he was long for his age. No wonder his sleeper outfits don't fit him. He took his shots pretty well- lots of tears, but settled right down after he got a chance to nurse and then fell asleep in the car. Thank goodness for the boob and its calming abilities! Those shots must just send his system into overdrive and exhaust him. We seemed to have gotten an A on everything except, you guessed it, sleep. Things seem to have taken a gigantic leap backwards lately with very little sleeping happening for any extended amount of time here. All three of us are tired and I think the cat is getting annoyed that we keep getting up and down in the night too. So we have some new strategies to try... I guess and we will see if things get any better. The other thing we need to step up is how much food we are feeding him. We need to start giving him more solids and cereal, and crackers too. That sounds fun and messy. Still planning on breastfeeding him until at least a year old. The other day I was reading a breastfeeding website, looking for some kind of answer to the sleep situation. I was thinking that maybe if we caved in and gave him a bottle for formula around bedtime he would sleep better, like other babies we know. Nothing I read supports that idea so I guess we won't need to open up those sample cans we were flooded with when I was pregnant. It's interesting how the manufacturers market their products- they sent us lots of samples- 4 large containers of formula: soy, advanced, easy to digest etc, and also sent us "checks" regularly for 7-8 dollars to get reimbursed for buying the stuff. On the website I was reading, it said that if I was breastfeeding him exclusively for these past 6 months, I would have saved about 1000 dollars because we did not need to buy formula. That sounds crazy to me! Thank god we were successful with the process, I don't know how poor mothers can afford to not breastfeed. Not that it came easy- his tongue tie made it incredibly painful each time he latched on for the first week, until we had it clipped. Nothing like having bruises there to make you not want to stick with it at all. Luckily we had the most excellent midwifery group with 24/7 lactation consultation for a year that made home visits if needed. Janie was amazing and I miss her and the group terribly. We have made a promise to try to stick with it for a year and so far it is going well. Thanks again Andy for going with us.