13 posts tagged “nursing”
I did not nurse the Princess last night.
The little Princess is now a year old. Her birthday was on Thursday and I am still in shock. It's been a year since we brought her into our lives and we became a multi-child family. It's been a year since I stopped working full-time and left that drama behind.
She's been on whole milk since Thursday. I am so proud that we lasted that long. She's still nursing morning and night and we'll keep that up as long as we can. I'm shooting for July. She'll be 14 months then and that's when my sister's wedding is so it would be a good time to stop. I made it to 15 months with SkyWalker and by the end it was just the morning feed. I think we can do it. She's doing okay with the milk. She has a bad diaper rash right now, but she didn't get it immediately after having the milk... she got it after pooping 4 or 5 times on Friday. Her check up is tomorrow so we'll see what it is. Wouldn't it be funny if she was somehow lactose-intolerant and I needed to start breastfeeding again? Ha.
She and her brother get into all sorts of trouble, making messes every where they go, and it's both frustrating and wonderful. There are disagreements but for the most part they get along really well.
I took that picture last year as I was preparing for the Princess's birth. The newborn diaper and SkyWalker's size 5 side by side. Guess what the Princess is wearing now? Yup, she and her brother are wearing the same size diapers. To be fair, she could probably still be in 4s but when you sleep 12 hours a night you need a bigger diaper. SkyWalker only wears his at night so he doesn't need a whole bunch. So they are both wearing the same size. Which is just too funny.
Also funny--SkyWalker insisted the other day that he needed to check his e-mail. I told him he didn't have e-mail. He said "I need e-mail" in a very matter of fact voice. So I said fine, and made him a new gmail. I only have 95 invites left. He now has his own e-mail and he e-mails his grandparents. He does all the typing--like dog and fart--and will ask me how to spell other words and then he'll type them.
He's also been making cards for everyone. I had him make a card for his sister for her birthday. So now he takes paper, draws happy face balloons on them, writes the first 2 letters of his name on it, folds it in half, and then comes up to me and says "what's it gonna be?" which means "I have a surprise, what do you think it's going to be" and then pulls a card from behind his back. He also says "what's sticking out?" I'm assuming from behind his back. He has made cards for everyone he knows, including all the dogs in the family and Nana's cat. They are all on display in various places in the house and we will soon run out of room.
Good times.
I caught him looking at pictures on our computer all by himself (he opened them up. He is too smart). And saying "Awww.... Awww Ruby." He wants to buy her a present and he has told me at least 5 times how he loves her. "I just love Ruby dog." Ruby is my brother and SIL's dog. She is the cutest little puppy.
The Princess is 1 tomorrow. She'll celebrate by having her first cup of cow's milk. I held on to the end! We'll still nurse at wake-up and bedtime for as long as we can. But she'll get her cow's milk at meals. I stopped pumping a while ago but last week was the first week I would have had to pump and didn't... I'm not sorry to see the pump back in the closet but I am sorry to see our nursing days coming to a close. There's not much difference between 2 and 3 times a day but I'm sure that once she starts getting cow's milk she'll be less thirsty for me... although she may very well want to keep it up for comfort. Wouldn't that be funny? She gets it less and wants it more. We'll see...
I forgot to mention this a while ago.... I got a charge on my verizon phone bill from ILD teleservices for some type of voice mail I never set up. The phone company provided the phone number for ILD and said I had to contact them directly to remove the charge and that they couldn't prevent it from happening again! Isn't that crazy! They couldn't prevent fraudulent charges! I was able to get in touch with ILD and they removed the charge. The next phone bill had the credit and then another charge and credit! I was so irritated that I started looking into doing the digital phone with the cable company. I already have digital cable and high speed internet. I called and set up the appointment for next week. So soon I too will be able to look at my TV and know who is calling! HA! Call waiting and caller ID and long distance are included. And the price is less than what I pay for verizon and AT& T together. We get to keep our phone number too.
I leave you with the funniest picture we took on vacation. Any guesses as to where we took it?
Today's game was "Who's heiney needs to be wiped the most?". SkyWalker pooped once requiring LOTS of wipage. He pooped a second time while I was in the shower and didn't tell me. There was LOTS of toilet paper and wipes in the toilet. I can only hope that some of them actually made contact with his anal region. The Princess, not wanting to be outdone, pooped three times before 2 pm, each one messier than the last.
Neither of them won.
The winner, hands-down, was Isaac. He did not poop once today. Not at all. But he still managed to get icky stainage all over his heiney. He tried to wipe himself on the floor. And he's clearly wiping himself outside since he's all green as well as poopy. I had to use the kids' wipes on him numerous times today and he is still filthy. I doubt he can get a bath until his stitches are out. He didn't try to roll over when I was wiping him, like the Princess does, but he did growl a bit and didn't really cooperate.
Good times.
The Princess randomly nursed during soccer this morning. She must have been really thirsty/hungry. She even did it with big brother sitting right next to her because he refused to play at all. Again. He's paying for this session. He didn't want to leave the house, didn't want to stop playing with his toys. If he continues like this I might stop it for the summer. I'm not paying all that money for him to just sit there next to me. He wouldn't even play with me out on the field holding the Princess.
I have eaten a lot of munchkins in the last 15 minutes.
The Princess refused to nurse on the left side again this morning, so I waited 20 minutes and tried again and she still refused. I offered the right and she at least took that. The left side was the one she bit me on so maybe she was having some post traumatic stress from when Mommy yelled at her. At least she took the right.
It has not been a good week for the jedi.
Monday SkyWalker was a little more whiny than usual. Monday is cleaning day and I barely got anything done. The first time your kid says "I want you to play with me" in a tiny little voice it's sweet and sentimental. The 20000 time he says it when you've been playing with him all day and what you really need to do is clean his piss off of the damn toilet, it's not so sweet and cute anymore. On top of that the Princess napped like crap and was cranky.
Tuesday started out okay. Aside from the Princess vomiting on me at storytime, it went well and one of the clerks (that I don't know) told me they won the award for the best behaved children in the library. We went to Target and SkyWalker screamed "I am a Mr. Pirate!" which was hilarious. But when we got home it was clear that we were entering another non-pooping episode. He didn't poop. The Princess didn't nurse. I fed her at 1:30. At 6 I tried to feed her, she bit me, I yelled, she cried and REFUSED to nurse the rest of the day. She had a bottle this morning and then I finally got her to nurse at 1:40.
Today was HORRIBLE. I tried to be non-emotional about SkyWalker and his poop this time and not sound like I thought it was his fault, but rather that we would work together to help his poop come out. He had bran flakes for breakfast and apple juice. He refused prunes so I spiked his PBJ with them (pureed prunes). I only hope that they are working right now and that he will be okay for soccer tomorrow. Otherwise he will be a big whiny pain in the ass. He cried and screamed over ridiculous things today. I finally couldn't stand it anymore and when the Princess went down for her nap (crying), I told him he had to stay in his room so I could take a shower. He screamed and cried. And fell asleep. And was still asleep 2 hours later when I left for work. They were both asleep. So my last interaction with them was telling them both to just lay down and go to sleep as they cried. Good times.
On the plus side SkyWalker's bed was dry last night (he's been wearing underwear the last 3 nights).
I always feel weird complaining here. Like I don't have the right... because I wanted to be home, I wanted to stay with my kids. But even if you love every second of your job you can still look forward to the weekends right? I'm still where I want to be. Some days are just harder than others.
that my son is in fact a genius:
The big happy face is the Daddy happy face. The smaller one is SkyWalker (note the perspective--he's looking at the Daddy) and the smallest is the princess. He made it for her so it's hanging in her room right now.
And then today he did this:
Might be hard to see... but that is a happy face sun. That is hanging on our refrigerator.
And just for fun here is a picture of the two of them playing together:
One slipper belongs to him and one to her.
The Princess has done nothing but nurse and sleep today. She didn't have a fever but she was just SO tired. Maybe she got it from me. Maybe it's contagious. Because I could totally fall asleep right now.
Why am I so soft in the middle when the rest of my life is so hard?
2 weeks will not hurt the Princess. I will switch her to cow's milk during the day before we go to NC to make both the road trip and the actual trip easier and just continue to nurse first thing in the morning and at bedtime. I'll be giving her yogurt as soon as her diaper rash clears up (if it ever frickin' does) so I'll be able to see if she has any problem with dairy... and if she does, well 2 weeks wouldn't have mattered anyway. She should have seen the ped. for her 9 month check up this week but her doc had the nerve to have a baby herself and is on maternity leave. So she's going next month. I'll get permission then. ;-)
I realized today why this is such a decision though... when SkyWalker turned a year old I switched him to cow's milk during the day and nursed him morning and night. Same plan right? But it was different because I was working full-time. So what I was cutting out was pumping during the day! He was getting bottles at daycare anyway... who cared what was in them? It did hurt on the weekend but not tremendously. (Poor bookishbiker had to read all about that too!) Now, I am home all day with the Princess. So I'm going to be cutting out... myself. Sure I can stop pumping at 6 am and at work and that will be nice (although if I'm doing the bedtime feed would I still pump at work? Hmmm), but for the most part I will be replacing myself. I'm giving up a lot more.
Of course I am talking about 2 months from now so why am I even thinking about this?
Because I am a planner. And a worrier. I'm always thinking ahead of myself.
Funny things SkyWalker has been saying:
while loading his cars into the little bathroom garbage I have, "Now, don't get in my way."
"Don't drop your hot tea Mommy." (I wasn't even close)
"Don't get in trouble." I don't know who *I* would get in trouble with. But he keeps saying this one to me.
"You member? You have to..."
After snacky-snack he asked for a chocolate (V-Day buttercups). I asked him what he had to do for a chocolate and puckered my lips waiting for a kiss. He said "Pee?" I laughed and said "No, what do you think you have to do?" and puckered my lips again even more exaggerated. He said "Drink water?" And I lost it laughing and did the whole thing again and he finally said "Kiss Mommy??" It was just hilarious. It's not like I routinely ask him to kiss me in order to get chocolate but I thought the puckered lips was a dead give-away. Although he's right in that I ask him to pee before he does ANYTHING. It's a wonderful tactic and I highly recommend it. Want to eat? Pee. Want to watch TV? Pee. Want to play downstairs/outside? Pee. Want to leave this house? Pee. It's great.
We've pretty much decided we're all going to North Carolina at the end of April. I do not want to be left alone for such a long time, particularly since Vader will have gone to Buffalo at least TWICE between now and then, leaving me alone with the kids and the dogs. His trial is in April and I just don't think him being gone so much would be good for the kids. Or for me. So I am picking my anti-traveling ass up and we're going. We'll be driving so we can have our stuff and set our own time table. It'll take 2 days to get there and then another 2 days back, and that will suck, but what are you going to do? I'll need to get off work and that will also suck but I have to keep reminding myself that I am part-time now. If I'm not here I don't get paid so a sub can. I am not full-time. It is not a big deal for me to not be here as long as I give enough notice so someone else can get the hours.
Now I need to decide what to do with the Princess and breastfeeding.... when we take our trip she will be 2 weeks shy of 1 year. I can't even believe that. But anyway, she's been doing 4 feedings a day since she was 4 or 5 months old. I can't remember. Instead of every 4 hours (SkyWalker was always every 3) she is now feeding at 7, 11:30 (because I wake her/make her), 4:30 and bedtime which is usually 7:30. She doesn't take much at 7:30 and I have a feeling that the middle 2 feedings will start to merge... Where was I going with this? Oh, the trip! So who knows how often she will be breastfeeding by then. I'm wondering if I should just plan on switching her to cow's milk earlier than her birthday to make the trip easier? It's not like there's a magic button that says "she is now 12 months and can have cow's milk". 2 weeks will not be the end of the world. You know my problem right? I like following rules. But I've been giving her finger foods much sooner than her pediatrician recommended... It would be so much easier to just feed her in the morning and then at bedtime (which she might actually do more of if she's down to 2 feedings) and then do cow's milk during the day. I managed to keep breastfeeding another 3 months doing that with SkyWalker. I can do it with her too...
I had a bunch more to say but it is now 8 and I am done pumping and need to get back to work. I expect numerous comments telling me what to do by tomorrow. By all 3 of you that read my blog.
The jedi and I went to a meetup at an indoor play area that we haven't been to since his birthday--with his little best bud who is now a Texan. It was jam-packed with kids. He ran away from me and climbed on things and said "hi" and "peekaboo" to other kids and their moms (!) and smiled at people and had a wonderful time. He didn't play with anyone for real, but he climbed next to kids and didn't let them stop him from doing things. The Princess lured many a mama my way with her amazing beauty. For reals, yo. I know I'm biased, but every single mom was drawn to her and said the same thing "Wow, she's so beautiful." She sat and looked at people and smiled and crawled toward me and was perfectly fine. I made the obligatory small talk and tried to not be myself. On the way home SkyWalker said he had fun and "we makin' friends. I say hi."
I think I've reassessed what I want out of these things. I don't want friends for me. I don't even necessarily want friends for him--not real ones anyway. He'll make his friends once he gets to school. Right now what I want to do is just expose him to a bunch of different kids so that he's comfortable in social settings (unlike his parents). I don't want him to hide--physically or mentally--when he gets in with a group of kids. We're not looking for best friends. I think we're just looking for acquaintances really. We have our weekly playdates with our old friends and that's going well. It doesn't even matter if the boys become friends--each will have a familiar face on that first day of kindergarten.
The Princess is officially crawling. No more belly flopping halfway there... let the games begin! Maybe now Vader will do something about a real gate at the bottom of the stairs. One that SkyWalker can open but the Princess cannot.
It is wicked busy at the library tonight. I got blindsided when Bee went on dinner and now I'm in here pumping. I hope it has slowed down some and she's not overwhelmed. I'm actually been working in addition to the reference! So there, it happens people. Sometimes I work.
LOST starts in one hour. Sigh. I hope the DVR doesn't mess up.
The tap is dry. I'm running out of milk. The Princess is more interested in waffles and peas (what the dilly-o?) and everything but mama. Either that or she is just wicked efficient... which could be the case. She was always quicker. In the beginning she would nurse for 10 minutes but she was awake and actively nursing the entire time. Now she's down to 3-4 minutes. 5 if I'm lucky. I know she's getting something because I can feel it and she's swallowing... but can she really get what she needs in 5 minutes? She hasn't been finishing her bedtime bottle when I'm at work but I've been feeding her more often because she's so quick... so maybe she's just snacking now. Taking 2 or 3 ounces here and there instead of the 5-7 she used to do. She is getting 6 ounces mixed in with her cereal everyday... as much as I love breastfeeding I hate the insecurity and doubt that goes along with it.
SkyWalker came in the bathroom today as I was taking care of some ahem, feminine issues... He looked at the maxipad and said "what that is?" I decided to bombard him with information to make him go away so I started by saying "Well, Mommy has her period..." and I kid you not, his "I'm a male and don't want to hear it DNA" kicked in and he said "Okay" and ran out saying "I'm a piggy bank" and hitting the top of his head like he was putting a penny in it.
And now... back to work.
