Don't Cover Up!

I haven't had a ton of time to read all the blogs I follow, there are so many good ones out there. But I am always delighted to find a really good post. It's amazing what the internet has brought us with bloggers. I truly am fascinated that I have 32 people following my blog (and I am sure more lurking). Is what I write really that interesting. Well I hope that my some of my posts help women out there since there have been so many blogs that have helped me through this journey of motherhood that I am on.

Recently I came across this AWESOME blog post and to be honest I have no idea where I picked it up, someone on facebook posted it....it took me about 4 days to read it but last night I finally did.

This woman had read another blog post by someone on how breastfeeding in public made her uncomfortable. What got the woman above to write about it, was not the post but rather the comments that people had made.

Her blog post was really interesting and got me really thinking about it. I highly recommend you to read it. It talked about how breastfeeding is a right brain activity and that we need to see it to learn how to do it. That by hiding it from our girls that we are raising we are depriving them of the ability to do this in the future.

Like I said it started me thinking about it. How many times have I really seen women breastfeed, did it make me uncomfortable when I did see it. Well of course it did, it did because we NEVER see it. Am I uncomfortable when someone is bottle feeding their baby - of course not. Why should this be any different? Why are we teaching our girls that a natural thing like breastfeeding is something we need to be ashamed of and we need to cover it up.

We need to support our breastfeeding mama's and all mama's for that fact in what they decide to do. If they want to breastfeed without covering up then let's support them. If a mama chooses to bottle feed her baby - Let's support her. I just don't understand why we can't support mothers and fathers in what they decide to do for their families.

If breastfeeding makes some uncomfortable then look away. I didn't NIP when I first had Gabby, but it was because I was uncomfortable doing it, not because I was afraid how it would make others do it. I had an over supply and she would pop off a lot or I would spray her and it was difficult to nurse her. As we got better at it I started not caring and it was a great feeling.

All I am saying is let's support each other and if it truly makes you uncomfortable then turn away.

Wordless Wednesday - The Cabin

Story Time with Uncle Barrett and Cousin Alyssa

Yogurt for Breakfast Saturday Morning - Needless to say more was spread on her tray than in her mouth.



Playtime



Yummy Pizza

Wordless Wednesday

This time last year at 38 weeks pregnant

Tuesday's Unwrapped - A Love Hate Relationship

I have had a love/hate relationship with my pump. Its been about 9 months or so that I have been having to lug around this bag with me 5 days a week and on vacations and up to the lake. The love part is that it's given my baby girl the nourishment that she has needed for those 9 months and allowed me the freedom to be away from her. One two hundred dollar item has saved us so much money, helped me lose weight and provided for my little girl.

The hate part is more than I can almost bear at the moment. As we speak, as I write these words on this screen I am pumping. This will be the fourth time that I have pumped today. Why might you ask am I pumping that much, well Gabby is currently drinking/eating in her oatmeal about 16oz of breastmilk per day at daycare. This isn't counting times I am away from her (Like last Friday).Today however I only pumped 12oz in my normal 3 pumping sessions and so I don't have to take any of my precious freezer stash out I am trying to get another 4 or so oz to send to daycare with her tomorrow. Plus the more I pump now the less I will have to in a few weeks from now. I should have been doing this months ago, but really I just didn't feel like it.

So here is my pumping experience - this may be long, so I apologize in advance.
I picked up the pump at the hospital it was actually cheaper than Babies R Us or online which was shocking, but I digress. The LC (Lactation Consultant) briefly showed me how to use it. She mentioned to use it a few times after I started nursing in a few weeks to build up my supply. but that was it. a few key things she neglected to tell me.
1. If it hurts you have too small of a horn (flange) and you can go get other ones.
2. What the correct fit is for pumping (Which I still to this day don't really understand and think I still have the wrong size).
3. That pumping really takes a long time and you should do hand compressions while pumping because the milk output will be a lot greater.

I think had I know these three things I would have gotten a lot more milk a lot quicker and might be in a better situation than I am at the moment.
I had an over supply starting out - my milk was flowing - if you have read some of my past posts, you know that I would spray Cuddle bug in the face, I would have to pump before feeding her or put it into a towel. it was a nightmare. But while it was tough for breastfeeding it made building up a supply easy. While on Maternity leave I was getting probably 10 oz a day frozen up. I was pumping almost 20 a day after going back to work and she wasn't eating nearly that. Eventually though (I would say the past three months or so) I have regulated out a lot more and I am barely keeping up.

I have taken Mothers Love pills - which are nasty, tried to drink up to if not more than 60oz a day of water, increased my pumpings, pumped on the weekends and eaten oatmeal all to increase my supply. What worked the best though was having Gabby around for a week nursing almost every 2 hours.

So now that we are reaching a year I am getting really really really sick of pumping. It takes me about 1 1/2 to 2 hours a day (that I work through) to pump all the milk I need for her for the next day at daycare. Slowly my supply has dwindled down but the past few days I am building it back up. We are now back to about 100oz in the freezer. but again if I can't keep up this will dwindle it down again.




The other thing that really gets me about pumping that I don't think people understand (especially after reading an opinion piece about mothers breastfeeding in public should be discrete) is how much it can hurt. The nipples can get raw and stretched and I mean think about it, its really like you would milk a cow or a goat. This is where I think I still don't have the right sized flanges. Because I don't think it should hurt but it does. Not only do I pump for 20 minutes to a 1/2 hour 3 or 4 times a day, but when I can I have been doing hand compressions during and after pumping to get even more milk out. This was passed on from the mom's group at work and had I known this months ago I think I would be much better off than I am.

I hope that I can lessen my pumps down to 2 or 3 during the day slowly starting in about a two or three weeks and then by the time her birthday rolls around and we talk with the doc we can start weaning her off of Breastmilk during the day and onto cows milk or rice milk or whatever during the day and I can nurse at night.



I know that I definitely won't miss pumping...but I will miss nursing when the time comes for her to wean herself. I plan on going as long as I can, until she is ready or I get pregnant which ever comes first. I changed my mind about having an end date, because if I don't make it to that point then I might be sad and stressed about it and that's not something I want to put onto myself.

Here is to all the pumping mothers out there! You can do it!! and I applaud all those that have. I have a new found respect for all of you!!

11 Months!

11 Months

Weight

19lbs - maybe a little more

Clothing Size

12 to 18 Months
Some 9 Month stuff still fits - mostly just dresses

Diaper Size

Up and Up 3

Feeding

16oz of Breastmilk a day at daycare
You nurse about 2 to 3 times a night
Purees, Puffs, Yogurt and Cereal at Daycare

Whatever Mom and Dad are eating at night.
You really like cucumbers, avocado, bread and meatballs

Bedtime/Wakeup Times

 Bedtime: anywhere from 6:30pm to 7:30pm
Wakeup Time: usually around Midnight, 4:00am and 6:30am for the day
Naptimes: 9am and 12pm

11 Month Milestones

*You are walking assisted now. We borrowed a cart from friends of ours and you love walking behind it every morning.
*You are climbing over everything these days, especially your walking cart.
* You are starting to sleep better for mama and daddy and are going to bed and nap times without being asleep first.
*We are still working on getting you to sleep through the night but you get about 6 hours in a row the first part, which is great. Now if you could just do that for the 2nd half we would be good.
* You are also talking up a storm as well.
* You have a bit of stranger anxiety going on and even get upset some times when we drop you off at daycare. You don't like anyone but mom holding you if I am in the room.
* You are starting to throw temper tantrums as well for things - You definitely know what you want.

Our Crazy Life!

I haven't been blogging lately because I just haven't had the time. Our life has been a bit crazy lately. Mike and I have wanted for a few years now to remodel our house. We love our house but there are a few things that we would like to change. Whoever decided to make a house with an attached garage without having it actually accessible from the house was crazy - what kind of design in MN is that?? Well that's one of the big things. We are going to push out our entry way to allow that access. Plus we won't have to do the entryway shuffle to get people, things in and out of the front door. We also have 2 bedrooms upstairs and one downstairs. I still remember when we bought this house our realtor said "Now a lot of people like to have all their bedrooms on one level for when they have kids...and I was like "It will be okay". A few years ago when we started talking about having kids I realized that she was right. So we moved our bedroom upstairs to the smaller one and got Gabby's room all ready...now that we are thinking of another baby we had a dilemma...where do we put Gabby?

This winter our roof was leaking again - 2nd time in 2 years and both in the dead of winter. We found out after 3 roofers came to look at it that the roof needed replacing. So we played the "Might as well game". We might as well do this and this. Our garage door broke and we decided to start the bid process. It's middle of July and we have been doing this since April. We are in the process of getting really detailed bids that will start next week, we are also looking at windows, doors, flooring, stone and all that stuff so we can get ordering it all right away. We are hoping to have it started the first week or two of August. Its going to be a lot of work and we need to do it in stages but it will be all worth it in the end.


 Gabby is all better now! Thank goodness and we are starting to plan her birthday party. My Aunt and Uncle have been gracious enough to host her party since our house will be torn apart when we have her party. I got her banner completed and will be able to re-use it from year to year, so I am pretty excited about it.

Wordless Wednesday

This is how Gabby spent most of her sick days - cuddled up in her blanket

Its a bit hard to see but you can see some of the spots on her face from the Roseola

More spots...the poor thing was worse than this by the end of the day.

Fun Friday - When It Rains It Pours

I know this topic really isn't a "Fun Friday" topic, but it sort of is...just bear with me. Wednesday morning around 4am Gabby got up to eat, she was wearing a sleeveless onesie because it was pretty warm that night. But when I picked her up she felt super warm. So I took her temp and it was low, but still warm - 99 degrees. I put her back down and at 6:30 when I got her up she was even warmer, it was just under 100. and then at 7:15 when I was going to leave to bring her to daycare she was 101. So Mike stayed home with her on Wednesday. She was a big cuddlebug. All she wanted to do was sleep on him. she wouldn't play, or sit on the floor or anything. You could tell she was sick. Her fever went up to almost 103 during the day, so Mike was putting cold washcloths etc. on her.

The fever broke over night and it went down under 100 and it stayed that way until this morning again. It started to rise and went up to about 102 or 102.5 again. The poor thing was screaming and really crabby. I ended up taking her into the doctor today thinking she had an ear infection. Nope no ear infections - YEAH! and no strep throat - YEAH!! It ended up just being a viral infection of some sort, causing her throat to be sore. She has been nursing just fine and sort of eating solids, not like normal but still eating some.

The fun friday part comes in - because the past few days really make me realize how great of a baby we really have. She has never been like this, everyone always comments on how cute she is and how smiley she is. So when she isn't it makes me really appreciate when she is which is 95% of the time. Her fever has now broke again and it's under 98.6 back to her normal. I gave her some more meds because she was waking up a lot so either her throat is bugging her or she has a headache or something, so hopefully this will help her sleep.

If it's not one thing it's another right? Hopefully her being sick all the time now will help us not be sick when she gets into Kindergarten...One can only hope.

Wordless Wednesday

Isn't Yogurt wonderful??

It even makes a great hair gel.

A Different Kind of Fourth of July

Fourth of July is one of my husbands favorite holidays. I was never a big fireworks fan, in fact I used to be scared of them. When I was younger I had this jacket, it was a pink jacket and let me say that it probably wasn't the best jacket to be wearing while playing with a sparkler, but either way, I ended up burning my arm slightly from a sparkler and until about 7 years ago I was definitely scared of them.

Ever since I met my husband we go to the lake on the Fourth of July. His birthday is around the 4th and so we always have a great celebration. He has always been a firework nut. He loves them. Since the cabin is in Wisconsin we can shoot off a bunch of different - bigger fireworks

Fireworks from years back at the lake

So every year either before the fourth, the weekend of or on our way through St. Croix Falls we stop and get fireworks. We get cakes, bottle rockets, roman candles, little bees (my personal favorite) and many other things. A few years ago Mike and his dad built a case for the shells. We usually spend the afternoon before the night splicing them together in fun color combinations. It's a real production and we have a ton of fun! I have to admit, it took me awhile to get on board, but we are always safe and have a great time.

Last year it was just my IL's, Mike and I. I was pregnant with Gabby and staying awake past 10 was tough, but we made our way to a small town near the cabin and watched the fireworks. It was so foggy we could barely see them, but it was still fun. We didn't however light off our own. This year was also different. We had an awesome time at the lake.

Fourth of July 2010

We went up Friday night and actually made pretty good time - not too much traffic. The baby went down pretty easily as well which was nice. We did our usual 2 rounds of 500 - a Typical Epp game and one that took me forever (and is still) to learn and get somewhat good at. But its a blast. The weather was fabulous! Saturday we took an early walk and did some shopping to forget the things that we always seem to forget. Since the town is so small we had to shop at walmart - we don't like to, but unfortunately it's driven Pamida out of business there and the County Market just doesn't have everything you need.

All tuckered out from the walk

My niece Alyssa sporting my shades

Mike and I did some kayaking which was great. Leah and Barrett brought up a blow up pool so the girls went swimming on the deck and had a fabulous time. Gabby kept trying to pick up the cups at the bottom of the pool and kept sticking her face in the water. She is really a water baby - Guess swimming lessons will on the horizon for her.

Sunday was another beautiful day. We spent the day swimming, lounging, reading and went for a boat ride. Gabby wasn't quite so sure about the boat ride. The life vest she had on kept riding up on her while we were moving slow. We decided to go a bit faster and head back and then she ended up falling asleep. We ended up going a bit farther and on the way back the boat stalled. Luckily there were some nice passers by that saved us and towed us in, otherwise we would have been paddling for awhile. Mike, Barrett and my FIL got the boat into the boat lift and now will figure out what happened.

Gabby and Alyssa did well sleeping through the fireworks. They both ended up getting up a bit throughout the night, but it wasn't because of the fireworks. The 4th was a good day, didn't do any swimming because we ended up leaving the lake around 3. Luckily didn't hit any traffic which was nice!

But as you can see nothing in what we did really involved fireworks and that's what the difference was this year. Mike and I spent the evening watching the fireworks in our town through our bedroom window for about 15 minutes or so. We couldn't see them all but could see some of them through the trees. Next year when we remodel the house we will be able to watch them from Gabby's room :)

Another exciting thing that happened this weekend was the fact that Gabriella is now walking behind push carts. She started earlier in the week, but we didn't have one at home and it was only a few steps here and there at daycare. Alyssa (my niece) had a few push toys up at the lake and Gabby actually had her first temper tantrum because we wouldn't let her play with it all day and night. In fact we had to hide it on her, because if she even saw it she went straight for it. Tonight when we got home I put her down on the ground in the basement while I fed the pup and she saw the walk behind one that we are borrowing from our good friends Cheri and Daryl and the look on her face was priceless, she was so so so happy!  I can't wait until she is walking.

Here are some other highlights from our weekend.

Mac sleeping on the way to the lake

I LOVE my radio Flyer

Peak Daddy! This fort is awesome.

Yep that's right, not sitting on the blanket, you can't keep me contained anymore Mama.

I will race you, and I bet I will win because the Radio flyer is faster

Cruising in the Radio Flyer - AGAIN!

Tuesday's Unwrapped - Sleep Part 2

Seems like that's all I write about - sleep, sleep, sleep :) But FINALLY it's actually going a lot better. I know a lot of people have told me this little piece of advice, but finally after talking with a good friend from work (Thanks Nicole!) we are finally getting more sleep at night.

I went on the baby whisperer forum site and one of the ladies told me that I was feeding my little one too much. I really had to think about this. It was really hard for me to tell if she was waking to nurse because she was hungry or because she was used to it. I really agonized over the decision to cut out a feeding. But my main goal was to get her down and make it so I could put her to sleep without a 3 hour battle every night, which was happening with the Pick Up/Put Down method I was doing from the baby whisperer. It wasn't helping her and it wasn't helping me.

So last week I decided on Wednesday night to do a little bit of CIO. So we started with 10 minutes, I had to, there was nothing getting her down and honestly, my parents were over and I didn't want to fight with her. So after 10 minutes I went in there picked her up (which I know with normal CIO you don't do), I soothed her and put her back down. She started crying again but after 5 minutes or less she had stopped crying and ended up sleeping until 1:30am. I couldn't believe it!! So far most of the week this is how it goes, if she doesn't nurse to sleep or isn't super tired she would cry for a little bit and then off to sleep. A few times she woke up at 10:30 and I just went in there and then put her back down again and she would sleep for another couple of hours. I am going to try to start taking out the 4:30 feeding next week and only getting up to feed her once during the night around her 1 to 2am wakeup.

So here is to better sleep for all.