Twelve Pounds, Eight Hours

Taylor was born weighing 6 lbs., 3.5 oz. Due to her relatively small size, she breastfed frequently for the first eight weeks—every hour and a half or so—with cluster feedings in the evenings. She fed well and gained: At her one week appointment, Taylor weighed 6 lbs., 10 oz.. At five weeks, 9 lbs., 6.5 oz. One month, 10 lbs., 1.5 oz.

I instinctively suspected that 12 pounds would be Taylor's magic number. Last week, at her two-month check-up, she weighed in at 12 lbs., 2.5 oz. She had just begun sucking her hand, and, more importantly, granting us the gift of her endearing smile. We had also seen her display a "self-pleasing smile"—smiling to herself while alone in her crib and looking up at a toy or the animal pattern sewn into the bumper—smiling because something she saw or felt made her happy. And then just a mere three days ago, she discovered the self-soothing delights of her left thumb. Time between feeding sessions has started to stretch out and she has finally taken to napping.

But last night, last night was special: Taylor slept for eight and a half hours in one stretch. And she woke up with a dry diaper.

We've been practicing elimination communication (EC) with Taylor. We listen and look for cues that she needs to go to the bathroom, then we undress her and hold her over the toilet while making a "pssssss" sound. We get it right a lot of the time, and when we don't, we make the associative sound anyway so that she gets the right idea. There were three nights during the last week when she slept for five and a half hours at a stretch, woke up fussy and dry, and was successfully EC'd. But eight and a half hours—eight and a half hours of sleep and bladder control! You have to admit that's impressive.

Twelve pounds, eight hours. That's really worth smiling about.