Baby friends

Yesterday we met and had coffee with another bubba from Ballina who was born at Mullum hospital the day before Zoe. Although we hadn't met before, baby Kira's Mum and I felt a connection, not least because she had listened to and silently supported me through my labour. So much to chat about! Baby Kira is adorable, and while the girls are a bit too young to connect, I think bubba Zoe was mildly curious.

The day before we went back to the clinic. I hadn't been for three weeks but wanted to have a weigh in, to check our little girl's progress. She is now almost 5 kilos, which puts her in the 'big baby' league. Thankfully, her length and head circumference are proportional to this. Looks like we're going to have a chubba bubba, which, as my mother in law tells me, isn't so bad when a baby is breastfed. As a result of this visit, we're going to try to extend the time between feeds to 4 hours. I realise that what I'm doing is close to 'parent directed feeding', or PDF, but bubba Zoe doesn't seem to mind. I started out demand feeding, as this seemed to be the right thing to do, but the early childhood nurse put me off this, and I guess at the end of the day I'm a little selfish and enjoy the small amount of structure this regulated approach has bought into my day. I can plan outings and activities [and do housework] with some idea of when the next feed may be. A quick web search on PDF though shows that this type of feeding isn't well recognised by many of the purists, in much the same way as dummies and, I suspect, automatic swings aren't really advocated, but it's working for us and that's what counts.

Today, we're off to Byron to visit our GP, and to have lunch with a friend who is due to give birth in less than 5 weeks. Babies, babies everywhere!