Six Months

Today Jett is six months old. He can almost sit unassisted. He laughs at our jokes. He reaches for me, which is completely endearing. He watches me when I leave the room, and turns his head to look for me when I walk away. He still sleeps in until 9am on the weekends, and he is the most agreeable baby Charlie and I have ever met. He still makes it look like we know what we're doing, even when we're doing it wrong. And wow, do we do a lot of things wrong.

Thankfully, we've done a few things right. At least they're right for us. Personally I'm patting myself on the back for getting through six months of breastfeeding. It's not easy and it takes time and it requires about 4 hands and it means pumping if you're going to leave the house for 8 or 10 hours at a time, and it means hauling that big bulky pump back and forth to work, on and off the bus, but we did it, and we're mighty proud of it thank you very much. And yes, I'm still patting myself on the back.

I've spent the last two months counting ounces of milk in my head every day, trying to predict how much I have in the freezer versus how much Jett is going to drink tomorrow versus how much I can pump this afternoon, coupled with when am I going to get home and how long is the ice pack going to stay cold and how am I going to carry this all home plus the laptop and all my work, and thankgod I get on the bus at the first stop because at least I'm guaranteed a seat, and please please don't let Jett refuse the bottle even though we put infant decongestant drops in the bottle and they tasted awful and now he won't even let us put the bottle in his line of vision, but he has to take it because tomorrow is Monday and I have to go back to work just to pump another bottle for him that he might not take, and now it's 5:15 on Monday and I didn't pump as much as I wanted to, but I'm just going home to nurse him anyway, but maybe he's drinking a bottle right now, which means he won't want to nurse for another two hours so maybe I should stay at work just to pump, but why stay at work to pump if I could be home nursing him, except what if he's not hungry when I get home, then I should have stayed to pump, and how many ounces are still in the freezer?

It's not that supplementing with formula is out of the question, it's just that I set a goal and was determined to reach it. Just like that first marathon I ran and that first house I built. Now I'm a runner, a home builder, and a breastfeeder. Can I have a medal?

Not just yet. They say it takes a village to raise a child? Well it takes a village to breastfeed one too. I've thought a lot about it, and if you want to work outside the house and exclusively breastfeed your child for six months (which is the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended amount of time) you need the following:

1. The desire to breastfeed (obviously).
2. An agreeable baby.
3. Time with your baby to figure it out.
4. A friend who has done it before who can help you figure it out.
5. Someone to hold the blanket the first 20 times you try to feed your baby in public, and the ability to stop being embarrassed about nursing your baby in public (or you will never be able to leave the house).
6. The ability to get over needing a blanket to nurse your baby in public.
7. Someone to get you everything you need while you're sitting on the couch nursing the baby. Everything you need is a glass of water, the cordless phone, your cell phone, the tv remote, a magazine, the book you were reading, the camera, a pen and paper, a pillow, another pillow, a sweater, someone to help you put the sweater on because you're holding the baby (duh), socks, someone to put the socks on your feet (you're still holding the baby), a burp cloth, a blanket for the baby, someone to turn the lamp on, except it puts a glare on the tv, so someone to turn the lamp off, a sandwich, someone to make dinner while you nurse the baby, and a refill on your water.
8. $200 for an electric pump.
9. A pumping-friendly work environment.
10. A fridge to store the milk.
11. A freezer to keep the icepack cold.
12. The ability to carry the pump to and from work or a husband to carry the pump to the bus stop for you even when you make him late for work.
13. An encouraging friend, husband, or partner.
14. The ability to wake up and go back to sleep multiple times in the night while remaining functional during the day.
15. A running calculator in your mind of how many ounces you need to pump today, for your baby to drink tomorrow.

Is it no wonder why only 30% of mothers are still breastfeeding their babies after six months? (Now don't go quoting me - I've looked, but I can't find the magazine where I read that number. It might be wrong. But I think it's right).

So give Charlie a medal. Give Jett a medal. Give my doula a medal. Give my workplace a medal. And then give me a lapel pin.

Tonight we've got 12 ounces of milk in the fridge and seven in the freezer. That's about three more ounces than Jett is going to drink tomorrow and those extra three ounces won't last long. I see a bit of formula in our future.

But I'm not dwelling on it. We made it to six months. Six fabulous, happy, grateful months.



We love you, Jett. Happy Birthday.