Baby Weight

My journey between the two kids has been exactly opposite, it’s so bizarre. With my daughter I had a mentally tough pregnancy but physically I didn’t skip a beat. With my son, it was a physically taxing pregnancy but mentally I was great. With Harley, my daughter, I had such a traumatic breastfeeding experience in the beginning and every bit of every day was a struggle. With Frankie, my son, he latched right away and nursed for 45 minutes straight. At our 6 week check up for Frankie he had gone from 8lbs 6oz to 11lbs 10oz, exclusively breastfed. A few days after that appointment, I found some old stats from Harley’s 4 month check up, she had gone from 6lbs 10oz at birth to 11lbs 3oz at 4 months, supplemented with formula. I cried. My heart hurt for our breastfeeding journey and our struggles with weight and colic. Is this where our body images start? As babies? Grading our newborns on a scale of other kids as to what is “normal”? When Harley was finally higher than the 6th percentile in weight (at 6 months old) her pediatrician looked at me and said, “maybe she was just a petite baby”. That infuriated me to the core because at 4 months is when I decided to exclusively breastfeed her and ditch the formula, her pediatrician was very unsupportive and mean about that decision. But all of a sudden my baby was thriving better than ever. I also noticed the difference in my postpartum journey being easier with my son versus with my daughter. The support you have and the trust within yourself makes ALL the difference in breastfeeding and motherhood in general.

My point is that no matter what anyone else says about your situation, use your instinct and it’ll never steer you wrong. We as mothers are born with this gift of intuition and so many times we don’t listen or trust it but ultimately we know it’s what’s right, follow your gut and your heart. Blessings to all!