Laughing with Sarah

Well, we're a couple months into eating real food a this point, and it's fair to say that Sam LOVES eating. Sam eats an ecclectic mix of foods throughout the day. I nurse him in the mornings, at lunchtime, at bedtime, and overnight. He drinks formula during his daycare mornings. He eats solid foods at dinnertime (and sometimes at lunchtime) - sometimes it's food that I've made, sometimes it's food that we've purchased. I am totally okay with this crazy mix. For the first six months, we nursed exclusively. But at this point, I am okay with Sam experiencing a variety of foods and tastes, and as long as he is eating well (and getting good nutrition), I am happy with whatever combination of things that he eats. I've had a lot of fun making my own baby food. It's easy peasy to steam sweet potatoes and carrots and pears and peas. I keep our freezer stocked with frozen cubes of baby food. Big cubes of veggies. Ice cube sized cubes of fruit. Right now, I...

My decision to nurse Sam was both simple and uneventful. It was early on in my pregnancy when my doctor first asked about my intentions. For me, the choice was easy. Breastfeed if I was able to, because...why not? Three months in, we're still going strong. I was one of the lucky ones. Sam figured out how to latch on from the very first time they put him on my chest, within the first hour of his life. Except for one short bout with mastitis right before Christmas, nursing has been pretty painless. At worst, I suppose it is inconvenient in its own way. For me, it is a drop everything and sit still sort of task. Multitasking while nursing is not one of my strong suits. I'm just not that coordinated. Now that Sam is going three and four hour stretches between feedings, it is much easier. But in those first few weeks, even though I was on maternity leave and not trying to accomplish anything else in particular, he'd nurse every two hours, or sometimes every hour and a hal...