10 Months In

An Update on Mothering a Teething Babe

It’s been 10 and a half months since this babe was pooped out of my lady parts. Today started with baby fingers in my mouth followed by occasional attempts to finger my barely opened eyes due to a rough night of tossing, turning and constant latching to my right boob. She has always latched better to my right boob, so in the cloudiness of postpartum fatigue and unnecessary stress from outside sources, I let my slacker boob be just that: a slacker. It was easier for me to just keep latching her to my right boob, at least that way I knew she’d stay on for the entire feeding. That’s just one of those decisions made out of pure survival. Those kinds of decisions happen a lot in motherhood, so I’ve learned. Those kinds of decisions happen a lot in life, in general, and come with consequences. Consequences like lopsided breastfeeding tits :)

Babe is teething. Her first two teeth began breaking the gums only a week ago, even though she’s been drooling and sticking everything in her mouth since about 3 months old. I have to remember that most babies don’t have teeth immediately, nor do they really know how to swallow their own spit on demand, which means they have nothing to keep the liquid inside their mouth, unless their lips are closed, and even then, it can slip through. So bib buying was something that happened weekly in our house the first 6 months, since keeping up with laundry was out of the question. And with keeping up with laundry being out of the question, so were cloth diapers. I handed them down to a friend of mine that seems to have more time and energy to keep up with the every-other-day washing. Another decision made out of pure survival (SEE — it happens a lot!).

She is quick and on the move: crawling, scooting, and demanding that she holds someone’s fingers as she runs through the house. She’s pulling up on furniture and has learned how to get down off of my bed (which I put on the floor after one too many accidents) pretty easily. She scared me a few weeks ago when she decided to begin climbing the stairs when no one was around. Luckily, her Uncle came to the rescue with perfect timing, before she could fall from 5 stairs up onto hardwood flooring. Guess that means we need a baby gate at the bottom AND top of the stairs, which most definitely fucks up the feng shui LOL.

I have finally begun Elimination Communication with her. We started just by doing a trip to the potty in the rising, but now I am picking up on her poop cues, so she’s been taking majority of her poops in her muted green top hat potty. Which is then followed by me taking a very proud iPhone photo :)

What else have you all missed? I’m sure there’s a lot more, and I’m sure I’ll eventually circle back to it all in the coming posts. I can say that this is the most stressful, yet fun and rewarding experience of my life so far. And to throw in a very annoying but very true cliché: “they grow up so fast!”

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

Talk soon.

Abby xx