Well Documented

A photo from the archives: three days old, post-bath with Dad.

In browsing through the photo archive today, I realized that the first day there are no photos of Matilda is May 22nd. Note this is a weekday so we can clearly see who was slacking off in the RD Mama household that day! The next occurence is in June when she is almost 3 months old, also a weekday. She's nothing if not well documented this daughter of ours.

More Breastfeeding Press

I read an interesting article on controversy over a picture of a mother nursing her child on the cover of a parenting magazine today. It reiterated many of the topics that came up at the LA Leche League meeting I attended last night. I was shocked to read that in one survey almost 50% of people felt mothers shouldn't even have the right to nurse in public.

This is my favorite quote: "Gross, I am sick of seeing a baby attached to a boob," wrote Lauren, a mother of a 4-month-old.

4 Month Report

First here are the stats:

Weight:
15lb 12 oz
90% weight for age
(down from 95% at her 2 month visit, poor girl is slimming down)

Height:
24 1/4"
55% height for age
(up slightly from her 2 month appointment)


Matilda also got four more shots at her four month check up this morning. She did really well with the shots, better than last time. She was smiling again and trying to climb out of her Dad's lap within minutes. We were pleased to hear Dr. Kramer report that she is "precocious" and "chubby" and "fantastic." She also talked to us about baby proofing (while watching the lap gymnastics), sleeping issues, and starting solid foods. Dr. Kramer agreed with my preference to wait until six months to start with foods and sympathized that it may be hard to watch Matilda in the meantime, as she is so clearly interested in our plates. I expressed my interest in making Matilda's baby food and wondered whether iron supplements would be necessary if we chose not to use the boxed, iron fortified baby cereal. Dr. Kramer, bless her, encouraged me to just used the boxed powdered stuff, she said, "it is not Mc Donald's." I think many people make their own pureed baby fruit and vegetables, but it takes a special, deranged person to go so far as to make their own baby cereal too. I am glad Dr. Kramer could step in and nicely prevent me from that compulsion.

As the doctor said, four months is when the fun really begins and Matilda is showing us that already. She is so enjoyable and rewarding right now with all her new tricks and happy personality.

At four months she can: smile and laugh for any silly noises or funny faces - especially raspberries and horse lips, stand supported, sit up using her hands for balance, gather toys in with both hands, amuse herself endlessly with her hands - sucking on them, looking at them, folding them together like she is plotting something, blow bubbles in her spit or better yet Dad's water glass, grab her toes and hold them during diaper changes, roll over both ways, screech loudly with joy, and best of all she will periodically stop nursing to look up and give me a HUGE smile.

Mall Rat

"Do these make my cheeks look too fat?"

Matilda decided she needed some accessories to survive the heat wave so we headed to the mall this morning. Baby clothes are too cute and it took a fair amount of restraint for me to not buy too much. Note she is also demonstrating her newest skill here..... sitting up! Albeit sitting up very monkey like - but baby steps people!

Weight Loss Plan

Sorry for the nasty photo without warning. I couldn't resist sharing how freakish my tongue looked with the crazy swelling from the anesthesia. It was almost twice as big initially. I was sad that by the time I got home to photograph it the swelling had already subsided a lot. As a dietitian, I am experimenting with different diets to test their effectiveness on post partum weight loss. I have found that having stitches in your tongue is positively correlated with shedding some pounds.

One Year Ago Today

One year ago today Tim & I found out we were pregnant. Early that week I remember feeling like I thought I was pregnant with a few of the telltale signs, but I wasn't sure. I thought I might just be tricking myself into feeling those early pregnancy symptoms. Tim & I had agreed we would wait until the 21st to take a pregnancy test because we didn't want to be over-anxious, testing too soon and get a false-negative result. That Thursday morning I woke up at 4:30a.m. to pee (the classic over-active bladder symptom) and since I remember hearing the pregnancy hormones are more concentrated in your first morning pee I thought I should test then. Plus I was too antsy to wait.

I took the test and then stood there the indicated number of minutes with my back turned to the test. Although the line looks fairly solid in the photo, I remember feeling like it was too faint and I didn't quite believe it. I could barely contain my excitement. I left the bedroom so I wouldn't wake Tim until a more reasonable hour. I really cannot recall what I did to pass the time, I think I just sat and reflected on the impending changes and excitement. I think I must have sat right outside the bedroom door because the first stirring I heard I went busting back in to lie next to Tim in bed. As he woke up I remember him giving me a funny look - I am sure because I was sitting there, wide awake, staring at him with my own funny expression. He immediately asked if I had taken the test and I confirmed his suspicions. He was so sleepy and seemed to be unable to process it all. He seemed even more excited than I was once he had a few minutes to process the information. We both walked around at work that entire day like we had the biggest secret in the world with goofy smiles on our faces. It felt unreal for quite some time since we didn't tell anyone for weeks.

It is strange now to think back about how we felt that day and to know that Matilda is the person we were expecting.

Ponytails are all the rage

Matilda is SO grabby. I am afraid to wear earrings now and almost always have my hair in a ponytail lately. She also was very close to getting a handful of scallop chowder at dinner last night. We now have to eat with our plate halfway across the table, as to keep the food out of her reach.

Officially Unemployed

Or as I prefer to think of it: employed full time as Matilda's mom. I gave notice at work today, as I was to return to work in two weeks. It is a strange feeling. I am of course really excited to be able to stay home with Matilda, and feel privileged that we can do that for our family. However, I will also miss my work, I really enjoyed it. I liked my co-workers, I liked the clients, I enjoyed the daily challenges, and I will miss the stimulation. Most of my staff got teary today as I told them which made it even harder; they were a wonderful bunch of people to work with everyday.

Salary.com has an interesting piece on stay-at-home moms and estimated that a fair wage for the typical stay-at-home mom would be well over $90,000 for executing all of her daily tasks. This is not including overtime, which could bump my new salary up by around $25,000. They used the chart below to calculate this figure. Looking at all the components of my new job it seems as though I will still be building skills on my resume!

Mom jobs

Job title	Annual salary
Child Day Care Worker	$20,259
Teacher	$44,824
Taxi Driver	$27,346
Facilities Manager	$73,239
Short-order Cook	$27,477
Laundry Attendant	$17,917
Janitor	$22,440
Counselor	$27,638
CEO	$545,268
Administrative Assistant III	$37,143
Accounting Clerk III	$34,842
Licensed Practical Nurse	$38,111
Plumber I	$33,155
Automotive Mechanic I	$30,725
Cake Decorator	$21,340

Jobs listed in order from largest to smallest component of a stay-at-home mom's job. All salaries are national averages. Source: Salary.com, 2004.

Party All Night

Taken at 3:39 a.m. last night

Matilda had one of her rare night wakings last night. I think she decided it was time to party. She was so smiley and happy it was too funny. She woke up screaming like she was hurt or something but as soon as we picked her up and turned the light on she was all smiles. I took a while changing her (due to some unforeseen peeing on the table) and Tim came in to see what was taking so long. As he showed up she let out a funny new squawk as if to say "wow, you're up too, what a coincidence!"

Build Your Own Meal

So the RD portion of this website has been severely neglected as the Mama part seems to take priority for now. However, I did find a fun interactive website where you can build a meal that I thought I would share. The choice for each meal is somewhat limited but it is still fun and gives you a sense of what's on your plate. It will also then give you a nutritional breakdown of the meal: calories, fat, sodium, etc.

Long Weekend

Matilda and I were spoiled with Tim home for four days over the holiday weekend.

We all did lots of relaxing and caught up on sleep.....













Played a bit......




















and smiled lots!!





















Matilda is smiling so much now and laughing even more each day. She is such a joy to have around and keeps us quite entertained. It seemed really hard for Tim to leave for work today after four days together. Matilda and I miss him too. What we really need is a benefactor so we can both stay home and enjoy the little miss full time! Any takers?