thirteen weeks / three months!

Can you believe Rose is already 3 months old?! She's such a grown-up baby now :)

And on a related note, can you believe we're still breast-feeding?!? For the first several weeks after her birth, I never thought we'd make it this long (as you might have remembered from my complaining documenting here, here, here, and here). I'm super proud that we stuck with it, despite all the early "setbacks" (i.e., the excruciating pain). You know I love numbers, and I was really struck by this statistic: "scientists found that 85 percent of mothers planned to breastfeed exclusively for at least three months, but only about 32 percent were able to do so for the intended amount of time." (source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/moms-hope-breastfeed-exclusively-months/story?id=16475911#.UAtTp5GQOeM)   I know that there are LOTS of reasons that women may not be able to continue nursing:  from pain and infections, to low supply, to difficulties latching, to limited breaks at work, to the exorbitant cost of breast pumps, to lack of support from family/providers/society, etc., etc., etc.    I consider myself incredibly lucky to have had the unrelenting support of Mike and Marta (my lactation consultant), to have an insurance company that would pay for a top-of-the-line breast pump, to have a flexible work schedule that allows me to set my own hours and breaks, and to have coworkers/supervisors who are completely supportive because they are mostly all working mothers themselves. I'm really hoping to be still exclusively breastfeeding Rose at six months (and breastfeeding with table food supplements through one year, as the CDC and AAP recommend), but at least we've made it this far! If we have to supplement or switch to formula at some point in the future, I'm still glad she's gotten as much breastmilk as she has - I certainly didn't think it was going to be possible back in the early days. Thanks to Mike and Marta, and everyone else who has been supportive,  for helping us get this far!

P.S. Wish us luck with Rose's first day of "school" tomorrow!