4.5 months old/20 weeks

What Curly has been up to lately:

• Babbling up a storm (vowels only so far)
• Rolling both ways and ending up a couple feet from where we placed him originally
• Doing mini push-ups and wishing he could crawl
• Smiling and laughing
• Wearing 6-9 month clothing (!)
• Bearing his weight on his legs/practicing standing
• Continuing to sleep 11-12 hour stretches at night and still requiring many naps during the day
• NOMMING toys to death (evidence below)

• Being heartily amused at the antics of the dog (evidence below)

Out of the hat

First off, I would like to wish my darling wife, Nutella, a very happy birthday today. I consider myself one of the luckiest human beings alive to have found such an incredible woman who makes me smile every day.

Next, it’s time to announce the winner of the Taggies sleeper contest! We let Curly pick and the result appears below…

Thanks to everyone who played, and congratulations Martha of http://inbedwithamosquito.net/. We’ll be e-mailing you for your address and can’t wait for the picture.

Use it or lose it! (or give it away)

Back when Curly was just a gestating smidgeon, I wrote this entry about having bought some clothing from Taggies: https://1invermillion.wordpress.com/2009/01/23/taggies-are-the-new-black/

When we received the clothing, the sleepers looked BIG and I thought, well, we’re not going to be using this stuff for a while. Fast forward to yesterday, when we were putting some new sleepers away and came upon the Taggies ones. They looked like they would fit now, so we put him in the smallest one last night. It was snug. Upon waking this morning, we saw he had gotten one leg free from the outfit. It was too small. We got ONE use out of that freaking adorable sleeper I bought months ago.

So here is where I announce 1 in Vermillion’s first contest! You like that sleeper? You want it? Let us know in a comment. We will put all the names in a hat, and one lucky person will win it. My only request is that you post a picture of your current or future child in it when the time comes that he or she fits into it. I’d say it’s best for an infant around 10-14 pounds and 22-25 inches in length. As you can see in the picture, it is gender neutral, totally cute, and babies like to grab the tags as evidenced below (interactive clothing! What could be better!):

We’ll leave this weekend free for comments and will announce the winner on Monday. Good luck!

Curve ball

DISCLAIMER: I’m not asking for advice, I just wanted to share my experience with you via this blog.  Every family makes their own choices, and we are doing what works for us.

Curly and I are at the beginning of the end of our breastfeeding relationship.  I’ll be honest with you, he’s never been easy to breastfeed.  He’s not easy to bottlefeed either, but at least when he turns his head away from the bottle to look around he isn’t trying to take a sensitive part of my anatomy with him.  Over the past few weeks as I pumped at work and he got bottles of breastmilk from Strawberry during the day, it has become more and more challenging.  But I was grateful that at least I seemed to be keeping up with his needs.  A typical pattern for us was nursing first thing in the morning, right after I got home from work, and then at bedtime.  He was taking about 3 bottles a day, usually between 4 and 5 ounces each.  And then, I got a plugged duct that turned into mastitis.

Mastitis is NO FUN.  In addition to the hard, hot lump in my breast, I had angry red lines on the skin and a fever which gave me alternating sweats and chills.  I kept nursing and pumping throughout.   On Thursday, I got an antibiotic for the infection and a probiotic to try and ward off any digestive problems or thrush.  My pumping output dropped, but we still had enough to cover his bottle feeds on Friday. 24 hours later, I felt much better and we headed out of town for the weekend with only a small 4 ounce bottle of expressed breast milk to cover any emergencies. Our 2 morning nursing sessions were fine, as was our session in the airport/plane. After that it went downhill fast.  Curly kept getting angrier and angrier at the breast. Popping off, screaming, flailing.  We gave him the 4 ounces from the bottle.  I tried to hand express more when he was finished and for the first time since his birth, I got nothing.  He was clearly still hungry so we broke out the emergency packet of formula powder and mixed him 2 ounces.  He finally calmed down and went to sleep.

I was stunned, upset, and dismayed.  My baby was hungry, and either I couldn’t feed him or he was rejecting me.  And we only had enough powder to mix another 2 ounces.  All the lovely frozen breastmilk at home was inaccessible.  My pump was inaccessible.  I reluctantly trudged out to a drug store and bought more formula powder, nursery water, and additional drop-ins.  It has been the same since then. First thing in the morning he is ok at the breast.  Every other time is screaming and flailing.  He is consistently taking 6 ounces from a bottle, either of breastmilk or formula. I am pumping whenever he refuses to nurse and when I am away from him.  My output cannot keep up with his demands.  I’m no longer leaking, I no longer feel full before a pumping session or a nursing session.  And on top of that, Curly is miserable when I try to breastfeed him, I am miserable pumping, and he happily sucks down the formula.

Formula is not poison.  I wanted to make it to 6 months of exclusive breast milk, but unless something changes drastically, it seems as though I’ll be lucky if he’s getting any breast milk at all by 6 months.  The current plan is nursing first thing in the morning, pumping at work, and offering the breast at bedtime but having a bottle ready, if needed.  He is getting as much pumped milk as I can make plus enough from the freezer to make up for all but 1 feeding a day. Perhaps once I finish the antibiotic my supply with increase again.  Perhaps not.  I’m not going to force the issue when he is perfectly happy to get a bottle.

It is true that I had a bit of a breakdown about all of this, but after the catharsis of a 3am sob fest on Strawberry’s shoulder I’m working through it.  It’s all tied up in body issues among other things.  But breastfeeding has been the number 1 source of anxiety in these first few months of parenthood, and I’m honestly looking forward to letting that go.  I did my best.  I have not failed.  My breasts have fulfilled their destiny. Curly is the only baby I will ever nurse.  And I am proud to have done it and will continue until I can’t.

The baby takes flight

We are back from our labor day weekend trip to a cousin’s wedding 3 states away. How did Miles do on the 1 hour 15 min plane rides? In a word- fabulous. On the way there, Nutella breastfed him during take-off. He was fussy afterwards for about 20 minutes, but on and off and there was no constant screaming or crying…just one quick wail here or there that was quickly quieted, and then he slept for the rest of the flight. On the way back, I fed him a bottle during take-off and he promptly fell right to sleep for the rest of the flight until 10 minutes prior to landing…during which he breastfed and then was calm and alert while we waited to get off the plane. We were so relieved (and I’m sure so were the people around us on the plane!).

It was a bit of a hassle getting through security, but nothing awful. We had to declare any liquids (breastmilk, baby medicine and a tiny bottle of baby lotion), and they analyzed the fumes off the top of the breastmilk bottle to make sure it wasn’t explosive or whatever (only at our local airport, not the one in the other state, since our local one is much more stringent). The car seat and folded-up stroller had to go through the X-ray, and we gate checked both before getting on the plane because both flights were full.

That said, we had a great time on the trip, though there were moments when Miles got overstimulated and turned into a wide-eyed zombie and/or became difficult to put down for a nap or to bed. But he enjoyed meeting lots of new people, and dancing with his mommies at the wedding. He slept very well both nights in the crib provided by the hotel. The first night he went to bed around 8pm and Nutella and I sat in the hotel room with the lights off, trying not to make too much noise, lamenting our complete loss of freedom for the rest of our Saturday night. The next night we wised up, put him to bed with the lights low but not off, his crib covered with a sheet, and the tv on, and then got grandma to babysit while we went out to a late dinner. Lesson learned- if he’s tired enough, he’ll eventually go to sleep regardless of most of his surroundings. Life then does not have to be so quiet and dark for the moms.

Oh, and the update on the mastitis situation is that 24 hours after taking the antibiotics, Nutella was feeling much better. She is continuing the prescription and has still been able to breastfeed, though not without some complications that may or may not be related….more on that later. We’re relieved and happy that our trip went well- Miles, you’ve earned your wings!

Baby's first flight

Hey, I match the hotel bedsheets!

Feelin’ hot hot hot

Miles and I survived the pediatrician appointment yesterday. Unfortunately, it took forever for him to get his shots because of the drama queen 7 year old in the room next door who took 20 minutes of screaming/sobbing/whining/calming herself and doing it all over again both before and after her shots. I could see Miles listening to the drama and wondering what the heck was going on. Finally it was his turn, and after two screams, he was sucking away on his bottle and hopefully forgot about the whole thing. He ran a slight fever in the evening and was understandably fussy, but we gave him Tyenol and he slept away the night. The fever is gone now and he’s not fussy anymore.

So Miles is back to being healthy, but unfortunately, Nutella is not. Two nights ago, she had a lump in her left breast indicating a clogged milk duct. This type of thing has happened before though, and she’s always been able to massage it out. Not this time. Yesterday morning, she awoke to a very hot and painful breast, body aches, but no fever. After trying all day to relieve the swelling with hot and cold compresses, frequent pumping, and nursing, she was still feeling not quite right at bedtime. This morning was the worst of it- a fever of 101, chills, sweats, body aches, and the breast itself is pretty red and still swollen. She is set to go to the doctor in an hour and most likely get a round of antibiotics to help with the now obvious case of mastitis.

We’ll be pumping her full of probiotics to try and head off any other unfortunate side effects of the antibiotics. On top of this all, we’re headed out of state this weekend to attend a wedding. It’ll be Miles’ first plane ride and we’re a bit nervous about it. We’re hoping Nutella begins a full recovery soon and Miles sleeps on the plane (ha!) Expect a full report on Tuesday.

Four months

Hey Miles!  You’re 4 months old today, how are you going to celebrate?

I'm gonna nom my fingers!

 

So what would you think if I told you that you are going back to the Dr. tomorrow for shots?

Uh oh!

Aw, don’t be worried, they’ll be quick and Mommy will be there to hug you.  I love you my sweet drooly boy!

–Eemah