8.15

sorry for the rather quick & sudden disappearance. being a mom to three can sometimes be just a wee bit stressful and overwhelming (but so, totally, totally worth it). so, when life gets crazy & hectic, little things start to drop... the laundry, showering, making dinner, & unfortunately blogging. but i'm back, at least for today.

so, by now, you are probably wondering what today's title means. any guesses? 8.15... is it a date? a measurement of time? perhaps it represents a distance of some sort. actually, it's a measurement of weight: 8 pounds 15 ounces. that's how much charlie weighs today. woot! woot! confused? wondering what all the excitement's about? well, to make a long story short-ish, little baby charlie has what's called "failure to thrive." never heard of it? basically it means that she is having a hard time gaining weight. maybe now, you can better understand, that all-too-sudden & definitely unexpected blog vacay... finding out you're practically starving your baby, tends to leave a mother feeling like a complete & utter failure.

at birth, charlie weighed 7 pounds even. definitely not huge, but she wasn't exactly tiny either. unfortunately, battling an awful case of thrush & taking some heavy-duty antibiotics. (the side effects of which include: nausea, stomach pain, low fever & loss of appetite. all of which charlie experienced on daily basis for about a month, which resulted in one very, very un-happy baby doll.) well, all this drama, caused little charlie to slowly eat less & less, which resulted in me producing less & less milk, unbeknownst to me. so, at 2 1/2 months charlie weighed just 7 pounds, 11 ounces & was taking in only about 1 and 1/2 ounce, of the suggested 4 ounces needed at each feeding. ay crumba! upon learning the news, that not only was charlie teeny tiny for her age, she had completely fallen OFF the growth chart, suddenly we went into survival mode, as you can imagine... feeding her every 2 hours, round the clock (sorry charlie! no more sleeping in for you!), nursing her, & then supplementing her with formula. oh heavens! i feel like all i do is feed this poor child! now, at 3 whole months, charlie weighs a whopping 8 pounds 15 ounces. still really, really small. & i still need to closely monitor her eating & feeding. but, she is once again, back on the growth chart. wahoo! don't believe me? here's the proof.

so, while we aren't completely out of the woods, yet. i can safely say, we are on our way. i hope you don't mind if we celebrate the little weight gains along the way. next week are hoping to cross the 9 pound mark - now that will truly be cause for celebration. one day, i'm sure, little charlie will complain about how hard it is to lose weight. i'll just have to remind her of the days when we were absolutely thrilled to hear she had gained a pound.