Monday, July 19, 2010

Out of the mouths of babes

Someone asked me if Salem is talking yet. WHAT?! Is she supposed to be talking yet? She's 13 months old. COME ON people!!

I guess she can "say":

Ma-ma
Da-da
Duck-duck

She can communicate alot better with signs:

Fan (her favorite - she signs this to identify it and to tell me she wants it on - smart kid!)
Milk
Wind
Rain
More
All-Done
Banana
Cheese
Drink
Diaper
Bye-Bye
Flower

Signs we're working on:

Eat
Please
Thank You
Hat

I love that she can communicate with me through signs. She is a quick learner and is figuring out that words and things have signs associated with them. I'm excited to see how much more and how quickly she picks up in the next few months.

On another note, I am still nursing her and we're both happy about it. But since when did everyone else decide that it's weird to nurse a baby after 12 months? I do have support from some people, but others just keep asking me how long I'm planning on nursing her. The thing is, I don't have a plan. Yes, I am the queen of plans, but I am trying to not be so controlling (since I can't control anything anyway), and am just going with the flow. I'm happy, she's happy, it's good for her, it's free. How many times do I have to say "The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding AT LEAST 2 years" before people realize it's completely normal in the rest of the world to do what people in the US term "extended nursing." For now, I'm trying not to let it get to me and I'm doing what's best for us both. I'm glad I had such great support at the beginning that has allowed me to make it this far, since I know that's not the case for many other people.

Anyone else have insight or stories to share about "extended nursing"?

1 comment:

Mindy said...

Hannah was a really quick and articulate talker and so at 12-14 months I felt worried about Justus not talking much but everyone, including my doctor, said that his timing was just fine. Suddenly at 21 months he is putting together 3 word sentences and trying to talk ALL the time and I am overwhelmed by it! :-) How funny!

Nursing did not work for me. However, when we had our class before I had Hannah the teacher at the hospital talked about how it is perfectly healthy and OK for a baby to be nursed even up to the age of 3. She even gave us a number so that if we wanted and could "extend" nursing and the outside world and family was not a great support we could call - just for encouragement and support.

I am also not sure how many people know that your milk changes for the age appropriate to your child. Obviously, the milk Salem is getting now is NOT the same kind of milk she was getting at first or even 6 months ago. Your body is made to do this. God made our bodies to be amazing!

I think the world just sees it as odd once a child could physically come to you, lift up your shirt and just ... ask for it. For some reason, that is the "thing" that I think some feel can be uncomfortable with.

Do what YOU want. It will be fine.

Love You Guys!! (sorry so long)