Today we had Monkey's 2 month checkup, and she is growing along famously! She is 13 lbs 13 oz and 24.5 in long, above the 95th percentile for weight and height. She literally is a chunky monkey! I'm still exclusively breastfeeding her (And by exclusively, I mean ONLY breast-feeding! Kid will not take a bottle to save her life.), which makes me feel good that she is getting a great source of nutrition from yours truly. I know that breastfeeding is not a 100% guarantee against her getting type 1 diabetes, but it definitely won't be from lack of source from me.
Since she is literally breast-fed only, it makes it difficult to do certain things because she has to be where I am or at least not longer than a 2-hour timespan. I still haven't made it through a church service without having to go to the nursery and hide in their nursing room. And if I have somewhere I need to be by myself (like my own doctors' appointments), I have to strategically time my departure to where I feed her right before I leave. It's a little inconvenient, but this is a small portion of time in her life that we'll have this bond, and not everyone is blessed to be able to breastfeed. So I'm just going with the flow (literally, ha!) and making myself available to her whenever she needs me. Soon enough, I'll be able to leave the house without worrying about my outfit being nursing friendly.
Also, we have decided as parents to spread out her vaccine schedule in hopes of avoiding the genetic bullseye on her back. There is plenty of research out there about whether or not a culmination of vaccines can lead to a diabetes diagnosis later in life (so do your own googling), and I feel more at peace with introducing vaccines to her minimally rather than 3 or 4 at a time. So for her first round of shots, she only got the diptheria, tetanus, and pertussis combination shot and the rotovirus oral vaccine today. She'll get the pneumococcal vaccine in 2 weeks, and our pediatrician is comfortable with delaying her hepatitis B vaccine until she's a year old. This decision was made after doing my own research and discussion with our pediatrician. Plus, with her only getting one vaccine at a time, we avoid her getting fussy and needing any baby Tylenol and can save her from possible liver damage.
In addition to breastfeeding and a turtle's pace vaccine schedule, we are joining the ranks of several type 1 parents and avoiding introducing gluten for the first year. My hope is for her first solid foods to be at Thanksgiving, when she'll be almost exactly 6 months old. There is some research to indicate that postponing gluten can make sure her immune system doesn't treat it is a "bad thing" later on and attack her pancreas--much in the same way parents with peanut allergies avoid exposing their child to peanuts until they're toddlers, only my "peanut" is glutenous carbs. In my perfect world, I would love for her diet to be breastmilk, vegetables, and fruit until her first birthday. As long as it's what's best for her.
But when I'm not planning out her diet and vaccines for the next year, I get to enjoy her precious smile every morning. She has also starting cooing and making consonant sounds in her own baby language. The next few months should be interesting for us because we'll start to see her own personality develop. I'm so excited to see these changes, but at the same time I would love a "Pause" button.
