Monday 9 May 2011

Goodbye Baby, Hello Person

So that's it. My baby is already growing up. Not yet 6 months and she has discovered the wayward delectations of crispy apple, slurpily juicy watermelon, and pleasingly baby-mouth-sized grapes. Despite doing baby led weaning with our first, my heart was literally in my mouth earlier this evening as I watched her contentedly suck all the lovely goodness out of half-grapes, one after the other.


And despite my joy, my pride, at her accomplishments, her progression, part of me feels just a little teary. That's my baby... it still feels like she was only born a few weeks ago and suddenly she is eating solids! And with such quiet confidence too. One day a few weeks ago she was starting to grab at objects, and for the last week she has been practising bringing foodstuffs to her mouth for exploration, and in the last few days she has decided that actually this stuff is darned tasty and yes please I'l add that to my daily ration of motherly milk. All without the slightest hint of surprise or melodrama. 


I don't actually remember what the transition was like with baby Earthly no. 1. Maybe because he was our first everything seemed to take longer, or maybe it just did. In retrospect it feels like we gave him little sticks of things for months before he actually started realising this stuff was food, and therefore edible. But maybe not. The way he eats now you'd think he was born on solids.


Oh baby how I shall miss thee! Despite everything - the wriggles, the pinching and nipping and pummelling and kicking, the lack of bed space and being stuck for hours at a time virtually completely immobile and helpless, not to mention the endless fatigue - I am already missing in anticipation the closeness and comfortable regularity of full-on breastfeeding. And there's that thought, that really tugs on my heartstrings, that now, she is no longer just made of me... she is taking on foreign substances. She is slowly becoming independent, and her own person.


Eek!

2 comments:

  1. Ahem. I'd like to think that there was a tiny part of me of in there too!

    It is odd though that even though we both feel that Baby-led weaning (BLW) is the most natural approach to take, and seen it work so well with our first (at least to begin with), we can't help but watch with enormous trepidation the first time our little girl raises a slice of watermelon to her mouth.

    As for seeing her gag reflex work for the first time, brown trouser time!

    And yes, she is becoming her own person, but one with an enormous connection to you, and you and she will never lose that connection x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ahem. I'd like to think that there was a tiny part of me of in there too!

    It is odd though that even though we both feel that Baby-led weaning (BLW) is the most natural approach to take, and seen it work so well with our first (at least to begin with), we can't help but watch with enormous trepidation the first time our little girl raises a slice of watermelon to her mouth.

    As for seeing her gag reflex work for the first time, brown trouser time!

    And yes, she is becoming her own person, but one with an enormous connection to you, and you and she will never lose that connection x

    ReplyDelete

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