Flashback Friday - The 1st Half Birthday

Today, November 13, is my precious little Sarah's 6-month "birthday".  She's half a year old?  Honestly?  I can't believe it.

She told me all she wanted for her "birthday" was a fever so she could stay home with her Mommy.  She almost got her wish....she had a *very* low-grade fever last night, but it went away by this morning.  We (meaning me, Sam, and her daycare teachers) think that she's most likely teething.

Six months is fun.  We started rice cereal (she hates it).  We'll move on to some *real* food probably this weekend.  She's crawling around like a champ.  She smiles more deliberately now, instead of just *all* the time.  Even though she's a very happy baby, she's stingy with her laughs.  Although if you tickle her armpit, she may emit a tiny, "heh".  Next on the horizon (if she's anything like her older siblings, and I think she is), she'll be pulling up, cruising, and walking before she can sit unassisted.  Dang mobile children.  I'm more than happy to announce that we are still nursing and that I don't foresee an end to it any time soon.  My goal is one year, and I think, nay, know we can make it!

On that note, I welled up a little this morning when remembering the day that Abby turned six months old.  I don't know why things went so differently with her than they have with Sarah.  It's likely a combination of experience, stress, attitude, and how I take care of myself.  At any rate, my goal with Abby was to at least nurse until 6 months.

The very day she turned six months old, I quit pumping at work.  It had become such a burden that I couldn't take one more day.  I wasn't producing enough for the next day.  I had no stash in the freezer.  I was setting my alarm clock for the middle of the night so I could get up and pump in order to have enough to send to daycare, and then praying that she wouldn't wake up and be hungry right after I'd pumped.  It was nothing but stress.  I'd tried all of the increase-your-supply tactics from Fenugreek pills (which made my sweat and urine smell like maple syrup) to oatmeal to binging on water.  Nothing seemed to help.  In retrospect, I truly feel that it was my anxiety that caused the dip in supply. 

On April 2, 2007, my husband sent me one of the nicest emails I've ever received that included these words:

Also, a BIG congratulations goes to you for making it 6 months exclusively breastfeeding.  That’s a major accomplishment especially for a working mother and I am very proud of you.  I am sure I have no idea how hard it was or just how much time you’ve sacrificed for such a self-less gift for our little girl.  I just hope some day when she’s a mother that she will know just how much you love her.  You’re a great mother and wife.

I still well up when I read it.  It feels like that was just yesterday.

Then I think back to when Ben turned six months old.  It feels like a decade ago that we were new parents.  (Well it *has* been six years!)  I looked up the pictures from March 2004 this morning, and it made me smile.  The ones I found were beautiful and sweet.  Even though we were new parents and working, full-time college students, we sure enjoyed that little boy.  He was such a breath of fresh air to keep our minds off of "all that other stuff". 

Life goes by faster as you get older.  It's a fact that makes me sound like a grandma with a walking stick, but it's true.  These last six months have gone by in a blink, as have the last 3 and 6 years.  One of my biggest regrets from high school and college is not having more pictures of just plain old life.  So, let that be a lesson I learned the hard way that you all don't have to.  Take pictures.

Then you'll never forget these memories:

1.  The time you realized that your son's head was so big that his arms didn't touch on top (when he was six months old).

2.  How you used to take naps together when he was 6 months old...because he needed them and you wanted them.

3.  The first time you let your 6-month old baby girl sit unassisted in a chair so you could take her picture (and how happy she was about it). 

4.  How she had that evil grin, even at her half birthday.

5.  How she hated her first bites of cereal.

Enjoy some of life's little moments today.

Thank you for reading, and hope you have a blessed weekend!