Friday, March 6, 2009

12-month Check-up

I've been meaning to post for a while, but it's just now that I've felt inspired (and not had laundry to do, a kitchen to clean, a baby to entertain...) We went to Jack's 12-month check-up a couple of days ago. I walked in feeling like a reasonably competent parent and left feeling like I'm totally screwing things up. Apparently, even though Jack just started eating a significant amount of real food a couple of weeks ago, I'm supposed to cold-turkey take him off formula and the bottle. Oh, and he's supposed to be eating what we're eating, even though he eschews anything not purreed besides Cheerios. I didn't bother to mention to our pediatrician that he's still waking up in the middle of the night and ending up in bed with us - a situation with which I am perfectly happy, now that J and I have a king-size bed. I know she wouldn't approve.

I spent the two days, post appointment stressing on what to do about the whole bottle-formula situation and came up with a compromise. We cut out middle of the day bottles and only do them first thing in the morning and last thing at night. I know going to the pediatrician shouldn't shake my parental confidence to the core like that, and I really don't blame the doctor. I know my own insecurity is the main culprit. But after all, I'm the one spending all day, every day with him, and while I value her advice, I do know what's he needs better than anyone. This is just another thing on the long list of "What I didn't know would be so hard about parenting." I didn't know it could be so complicated to feed a kid!