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Monday, September 20, 2010

The Week in review, Sept 3rd through Sept 20, 2010

Wow...where to begin.
May be easier to just list the things that occurred.
Well, seen here in the video below, he grabbed my camera...and then licked it. :-)


He learned how to open his hands to grab/grasp for things. He grabs at everything he can, especially things that light up.

He gave me another hickey.

The nursing strike has ended!

He met his paternal grandparents, and his Aunt and cousin.

He met his third cousins, aka his godparents.

He finally got a pair of bitching sun glasses.

He stands, assisted, all the time.

He pulls for Chris's goat-tee all the time and yanks his glasses off.

He rolls and rolls and rolls....over and over and over, and cries when furniture gets in his way.

Everything he comes into contact with goes into his mouth.

He actively tries to grab for his bottle and hold it, even though he really can't do it well. When I take it away, he stares at it and cries, and reaches for it.

We can see and feel two bottom teeth on the verge of cutting through. We're giving him Hyland's Teething Tablets and he loves them. When he sees the tablet in my hand, he calms down and opens his mouth for me to insert!

He crawled! Well it was 'one' crawl, then he gave up and rolled the rest of the way.

He got a Bumbo but he's too young and weak for it. He can tolerate maybe 5 minutes a day in it, then he slouches over. But it's good practice and he'll enjoy it more later.

He saw his Dr a week ago, he weighed in at 12 lb 13 oz and is 26 inches long. He's in the 75% percentile in length, which is above average (For a 4 month old, not a 6 month old) but still in the 3rd percentile for weight for his real age, not adjusted. I'm sure he's 13 lb by now. He sees the Dr again in a week for vaccinations.

He uses the "big boy" stroller now, don't really put the car seat in the stroller anymore, it's too heavy for me to lift.

He kind of had a little cold, but not really. He never got a fever, but he had a cough and some sneezes. He felt kind of cruddy and napped on me for over 6 hours on Saturday, poor little sweet boy. He was a trooper though, he never really cried about it. LOL.

His hair is growing back like a weed! And it's BLOND, almost white in the sun! And, as of this week, his eyes are green!

He smiles all the time and laughs at least twice a day. He also reaches for the dogs, who now, kind of are interested in him.

He does his own tummy time, by rolling over and staying on his tummy for up to 10 minutes, lifting his head the entire time.

We noticed that when he's concentrating hard on something....he sticks his bottom lip out, and grunts. LOL...it's too funny. He did this when he discovered his feet over the weekend!

He snores....

He took his first shower! (Duh....not alone! LOL!)

Last but not least, he was baptized last weekend at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Franklin, Ohio. We had 26 carbon based life forms in our 1,000 sq ft house for the after-party. He did great during the ceremony, stared into the Priest's eyes and seemed mesmerized. He did great with the water dunk and the oil anointing, but cried when the oil seeped into his eyes.

Next week, my darling angel will be six months old....yikes!

Here the poor boy has a 'panty' on his head...

Bumbo!

What baby has quadriceps?

Farmer Willie!

Poor teething boy...

Haufbrauhaus with Grand-Pappy!


Skyline of Cincinnati, on the Ohio River

Hey there Grammy!

New blanket from his Great Aunt Hazel

Standing proud!

Feet? What are feet? Are they mine?


I'm too cool for words...

I love this book! To teethe on!

Wow....a pooch!

Cool satin Baptism Bib from Grandma!

My buddy Corinne

Me and Cal! He's still bigger than me!

Did NOT like the oil in his eye!

Dip!

Don and Cheryl, the godparents from PA




Grammy, Aunt Shanan and Cousin Raine

Homemade Red Velvet Cheesecake being cut, and dark chocolate cake with homemade butter cream.

Pat and Rich drove in from PA




The Storm Men

Monday, September 6, 2010

If you're a breastfeeding mom, then you're my hero!

Cause let me tell you....on days like today, it sucks...or lack thereof. Ugh. This is NOT a blog bashing women who try to breastfeed and can't for various reasons. I understand that some things can't be helped and some babies need more supplements, like mine, or some women never get in a milk supply, or the baby just never latches properly.

This is a blog about those women who DO breastfeed, for a year or more, and my wondering how the hell they do this on days when they feel like horse shi*t! On days like how I feel today....

As most of you know I suffer from fibromyalgia, which is a bullsh*t disorder. Whether you believe in it or not, believe this, it's nearly ruined my life and the lives of many others, even people I know. Towards the end of my pregnancy my fibro symptoms got better....as in not as bad, not better as in healed, as there is no cure. I read that breastfeeding 'can' keep the fibro away too, but usually within a certain period of time after giving birth, the fibro comes back.

I almost forgot how wonderful life was without fibro. I can go places! Nearly all of the time and not worry about 'paying for it' later! I say nearly because I still have 'days'...but instead of them consisting of several in the same week, they are one or two every few weeks or even, once a month or so. Normally if I do something, anything, on let's say a Monday, then I'm spending Tuesday in bed. GOD FORBID I did a lot of something on a Monday, then it's Tues, Wed and maybe even Thur in bed.

When I say in bed, I mean it. For me, bed ='s couch but still. We're talking so weak I can't even fast forward through a commercial on my DVR remote....now that's pretty bad. I'm not talking about the pain, I'm talking about the fatigue here. Fatigue so bad you can't even think or speak.

Then there's the pain, for which there's nothing you can do. I guess you can dope up all the time but what will that solve? Pain will come back and then you'll destroy your liver. Nope, I just take the pain, (except for migraines, I dope the hell up for those!) but some pains are far worse than others.

The best way I can describe a bad fibro day to people who don't have them is....well, if you were in labor for let's say....two days....bad labor, like really, really bad labor....and then pushed your guts out for like....four hours...pushed until the veins in your eyeballs broke, only to end with an emergency c-section....and four hours later after the epidural ran out and you can feel all the pain....after two days of no food and no drink and all that hard work, and cuts and tears and stitches everywhere, and total physical and mental exhaustion....that effect you feel when it's all done....that's a bad fibro day. Nice huh? Now, get up, get dressed, put on make up, a dress and high heals, get into your car and drive 1 hour in grid lock and go to work for 9 hours, then drive another hour home in gridlock, cook dinner, do laundry and then go to bed. Um, no right? That's why I had to stop working full time.

Now, have days like that....every week....sometimes two or three days in a row....week after week...month after month....until you freakin' die! Welcome to my hell.

Now add a baby on top of it, and on top of that....BREASTFEED that baby! Now I can finally get to the reason why I'm writing this post. Though I'm currently NOT suffering the worst fibro day ever, I am suffering a fairly bad one. Keeping in mind I've only had a handful of them since last Sept so I'm out of practice on the suffering from fibro portion of my existence. I've actually had bad fibro days for the last three days in a row, mostly due to stress from this party I'm hosting in a few days, and lack of sleep of course.

I must say as a woman who wants nothing more than to exclusively breastfeed, and as a woman who can't, on days like today, I want to honor and worship....the bottle. Now I wish I had some frozen breast milk I could fall back on but I don't. What I have is a baby who finally after months of tongue-tie can only NOW properly use his tongue but now for some reason he's decided to have a 'nursing strike.' Granted, his strike is improved this week but he still sometimes resists the breast, and today was one of those days. Now add the fun of my IBS attacks that I've had for the last two days into the mix. I love that when I FINALLY got little dude calm enough after 30 minutes of screaming into my ear to finally nurse, I literally had to run to the bathroom for IBS, resulting in him being put into his pack and play....ugh....after all that....bottles sound like heaven.

I have a 'near' migraine, a very stiff and sore neck, and I'm exhausted....a baby screaming into my ear is NOT helping my head or neck. Him punching and kicking my breasts is not helping either. I'm so tired I just want to die, fighting a tiny being who has super-infant-strength is nearly impossible today. I did manage to breastfeed for "two" sessions today but I have to admit, I gave up on this last one. My head hurt too bad and he was screaming too loud. I had to give him a bottle...of icky formula. I just couldn't fight him. I guess if he were better and would just latch on, I'd not be writing this blog, but, he's not. LOL....I tried to side-lay and feed him on the couch as I was exhausted to the point of passing out, and he did, and we napped for nearly three hours, but now he's like "Um, no...gimme the bottle woman, or else I'll be forced to thrash you!" So I gave in.

HOW do women who exclusively breastfeed do it on days with migraines and/or fatigue or cramps, or....whatever other ailments they may have? Especially the ones like my friend Char who always just breastfed, we're talking, not even a bottle of breast milk...always the breast itself. And she had a baby who was pretty fussy at the titty too! HOW did she do it? She, like me, has a husband who works a lot, and hers is out of town a lot. She, like me, has no friends/family nearby. She, kind of like me, did it alone more often that not, (all of the childcare I mean). She did more than me even, because when Chris is here he's VERY hands on and awesome.

How did she and others like her do it? HOW does Becky and Regina and Elizabeth in CA and my other boobie-buddies do this, for years....and not be tempted to just give into temptation. I'm not talking about quitting, I'm talking about just getting a bottle of formula for those times when they are just too sick to try to nurse...How does anyone with fibro that's not 'improved' do this at all?

My son is napping in his crib...after having a bottle of icky formula. These are things I don't approve of. I'd prefer he breastfeed and nap on me or near me. However, I'm so sick and so weak and in so much over all pain (not breast pain, thank GOD) that I'm actually happy he's napping in his crib....gives me time to 'vent' here on the net and relax some...oh, and pump! Yeah, I get to pump! NO real reprieve from the titty, even on a bad fibro day. And yes, he'll get a bottle of my good ole' Mommy-Goodness the next time I feel like CRAP and he's being too fussy.

My nursing-bra is off to you fine and tough ladies who persevere and make it through times like these without just saying...'eh, forget this!'....I honestly don't know how you do it...

William actually nursing at his own free will on Sept 5, 2010...

Friday, September 3, 2010

The week in review...Aug 26th thru Sept 3rd, 2010


I can fold my hands now!


We noticed a lot of changes in William this week. For one thing, his eyes are definitely changing color...it's just a question of what color they'll be. I think I see gold specs, meaning perhaps brown, but Chris swears green, while others still think gray or blue. Personally I don't see a lot of blue in them anymore. :-(

Last week he turned five months old! (Adjusted age of three months and two weeks old)


He also attended his first live music experience at The Greene, to Funky G playing jazz music. It was a little warm but sunny and he seemed to enjoy the music.
(Sorry the video is sideways, my bad...)


In other news, William has begun to really concentrate on playing with toys, especially his crawl-ball, which moves, talks and lights up when he touches it. He'll spend up to 20 minutes laying down playing with it, or sitting up with my or Chris's help.

We also noticed he's starting to spread his hands and fingers out instead of always clinching his fists...
He rolls over all the time, sometimes having a little difficulty rolling back to his back, but if I don't watch him, in a second, he'll roll right off that mat! Also Pippin sometimes forgets that he doesn't like William all that much. He still doesn't like to be touched by William, but he did sniff him a bit yesterday and posed for this picture at his own free will!
William also stands up, assisted, all the time now, almost holds his head up without any wobbles, laughs daily and smiles all the time. Another new thing is his ability to hold weight up on his arms, this was something he was really far behind on, but finally started to do this week!

He always has time to make goofy faces and pose for pictures with mom...
I'm also happy to report that his hair is FINALLY growing back in and it appears to be growing in very light blond! Wheew!
And lastly, it was exactly one year ago today, at this time (3:00PM EST), that I discovered that after two and a half years of trying and four years of planning, I was finally pregnant! A year later I find myself offering my son a teething ring, we think he may be cutting his first tooth ;-)