A Mama Milestone: A Year of Nursing!

So, true to form, I took no pictures of the Gatlinburg trip. I'm waiting for my brother to send me a picture that the entire group, minus Peter who was at the cabin working on homework, took at the top of a 2-mile hike. That's about it.

It was a great weekend, though. It was so awesome to just hang out with my friends, something I haven't gotten to do since we moved to Tennessee. Seeing Lukie's Uncle Eric was pretty rad, as well, and even though Pete and I spent the better part of the weekend chasing Lukas around a 4-story cabin that was basically a baby death-trap, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

So, on to the real reason for this post.

Lukie turns 1 year old next week. A long time ago, when I was having trouble feeding him, struggling with a baby who cried all day long, and wallowing in some serious post-partum depression (which really only started to lift around Christmas-time), I thought we'd never make it to 1 year. Then, he turned six months old, and things started getting better. He stopped crying so much. He and I settled into a feeding routine that has worked. He got a little bit of independence and started turning into this awesome, smiley kid that he is today.

Life has gotten so much easier since then. Lukas woke up every 1.5-2 hours between the beginning of November and the end of March. Think about that. I never slept more than 1.5 hours straight between November and March. Somewhere around 9 months old, though, he started sleeping for closer to 3 hours at a time, and now he's up to 2-3 wake-ups per night. For some mommies, that might be terrible, but it feels great to me. Lukie goes to bed at 8:00, wakes up around 1:30, eats, and then goes back down until approximately 5:00. I feed him again, and most mornings (though none this week), he sleeps in until 6:30 or so. I feel like a totally different person when he lets me sleep like that.

Lukas' one-year birthday marks another serious milestone for Mommy. I will have made it an entire year breastfeeding my son exclusively. I never thought I'd get there.

As a quick re-cap, our bf'ing experience started out rocky, to say the least. I experienced awful pain in the first couple of weeks, and when I realized that it wasn't getting better and I wasn't just "toughening up," I sought out help. It was really hard to find, but after a week of frantic searching and crying and feeling guilty and almost giving up completely, I found Katherine of BreastFeeding Essentials in Bristol, TN. I owe her so much (and any mommies in the East TN area-- seriously, if you are having any trouble breastfeeding, or even just want to learn more about it before you try-- give this lady a call! http://www.breastfeedingessentials.net/index.html).

Over the phone, through multiple tear-filled phone calls, Katherine diagnosed Lukas' extreme lip tie. He was biting me to try to stay latched on, never getting full (hence and needing to eat every 1.5 hours). His biting was causing me horrible pain. Katherine brought me to a cosmetic dentist who, in approximately 10 seconds, lasered Lukas' lip, cauterized it, and solved the biggest issue we were having.

My sweet little guy getting his lip tie fixed at 3 weeks and 2 days old.

Things didn't get 100% better from there, as I got a thrush infection that felt like I was on fire every minute of every day for a week. We went through a couple doses of medication and some seriously scary blue stuff to fix it...

Gentian Violet. It worked...but seriously...ew.

After we finally killed the thrush, things got better. I went back to work when Lukas was 8 weeks old. My depression started to lift a bit, and I settled into a routine of pumping 4 times a day (now 3) while at work and sending what I pumped to daycare with him. We had trouble with him taking bottles for months, and each Monday, after nursing all weekend, he would be a bit persnickety with the daycare ladies, but for the most part, it has been a really successful breastfeeding experience. I haven't had to give him formula since he was 2 days old and needed a little supplementation until my supply established itself.

Lukas has done so well on breastmilk. His daycare teachers notice how soft his skin is and how, even though all the other babies at the daycare have runny noses, neither he, nor the other baby who is breastfed, have them unless they have a cold. Which, by the way, has been remarkably seldom. 

I don't judge moms who can't go for as long as I have. I've been lucky that pumping has worked well for me, that ultimately, my child was willing to go from bottle to breast and back again, and that I have a work environment that's supportive of my decision to breastfeed for an extended time. I'm hugely proud of myself, however, for sticking it out. It hasn't been easy, and it's been a source of stress, but I'm very, very glad I did it.

Where will we go, nursing-wise, once Lukas turns a year old? Pete and I have been discussing it, and I think we're going to start weaning him off breastmilk during the day at the end of July, once I've had time to talk to his doctor and find out what we should use in the breastmilk's place. My goal is to eventually get him off of daytime feedings, or at least cut my pumping back to once at lunch time, and then feed him in the morning and night every day until he decides he's done breastfeeding. It'll give me the solution I want: let him be the final decision-maker as far as our breastfeeding relationship goes, but make it easier for me as I work and live a slightly more flexible lifestyle.

Here's my big, beautiful, chunky kid. I'm proud of every pound of happy!

(And no, those aren't teeth in that second photo. Still no teeth. Just swollen little gums.)

A Week of Firsts!

The title says it all...we've had a week of firsts around here! Well, more like a week and a half. No time to blog blah blah blah. But seriously, it's been busy and crazy and Lukie is growing up so quickly in the midst of all of it!

Last Wednesday or so, we decided we'd go ahead and let Lukie try a little bit of solid food. By solid, I guess I mean puree'd into oblivion, but not breastmilk. Basically, our doctor recommends that babies, especially babies as big and insatiable as Lukie is, start eating some solids at 4 months. The American Academy of Pediatricians recommends six months, but notes that four is perfectly acceptable, too.

Not so sure about what's about to happen...

I really want to make as much of Lukie's food as possible...both so that I know what's in it, and so we save money. Jarred baby food is EXPENSIVE, and it's really pretty easy to make baby food, so long as you have enough time to do it. I'm working out of a really great baby food recipe book, so I'll have fun, too!

We decided to try some of the pumpkin that I had roasted, puree'd, and frozen in individual ice cubes a few weeks ago. The traditional introduction to solids is rice cereal in formula or breastmilk, but I've done my homework and lots of doctors and experts say things like sweet potatoes and winter squash are just fine first foods, as well. SO IN WITH THE PUMPKIN!

I took Lukie's shirt off, knowing that it would get ORANGED. Instead of using a spoon or something, I decided to just use a well-scrubbed finger. Lukie was...well, not thrilled with the whole experience. He didn't seem particularly excited about the pumpkin, but when you're only used to one food and then somebody shoves a finger covered in pumpkin into your mouth, I suppose you're allowed a face or two.

I think we'll try the rice cereal in breastmilk, after all. Or maybe puree'd oatmeal. But definitely something that maybe tastes a little more familiar. That said, I'm super excited to be starting him on solids. I'm so glad we stuck with the breastfeeding (a process that, to this day, is not without its difficulty, given that I'm a working mom and I have to pump four times a day to provide him with enough), but I'm also REALLY looking forward to the time we're done. I'm ready for my body to belong to me again. I don't plan to wean Lukie before one year (if he doesn't wean himself...which I don't expect given how this kid likes to nurse), but I'll be glad when the whole process is over. Sometimes the bonding is really nice...and sometimes you're sick of being a food dispenser.

Post-solid-food bath. Had to get the pumpkin off his forehead somehow...

Thursday was Lukie's first Halloween...and he's the cutest tiger I've ever seen! He was happy for about 30 seconds of the entire 10 minutes he wore the costume...but at least we got some pictures of the happy Lukie. Someday he'll look at the pictures and be convinced that he had a really fun first Halloween. Fooled ya, Lukie!

Now to the other big FIRST of the week...Lukie went on his first big road trip! We took him to Hilton Head, South Carolina over the weekend and honestly, it went about as well as it could possibly have gone given that Lukie is only 4 months old. I was really impressed with his willingness to go with the flow, especially since when he was 6-8 weeks old, half hour car trips were awful!

The first half of the drive was gorgeous...

We have friends from Iowa State University who vacation in Hilton Head every year, and more friends from ISU who live in Statesboro, GA. We all decided that Pete and I would drive to Statesboro to meet up with our friend Larissa and her two children, stay overnight in Georgia, and then we would all drive over to Hilton Head on Saturday to meet with Joe and Jennifer. I'll be honest...I was pretty darned nervous going into the weekend. I hate it when Lukie has a meltdown in the back seat of the car. I feel like there's nothing I can do to stop it, and even when we can stop and feed him and he calms down, I HATE strapping him back into the carseat afterward. However, I also really want Lukas to learn to be a road baby. My brother and I took car trips all the time when we were kids. We went to Colorado lots of times, out to Oregon, up to Minnesota. My parents never had any qualms about driving a couple of kids around the country, and since Pete and I really want to take family trips with Lukas, we need to train ourselves and him to take car trips, too. So...I guess we'll start now!

WANT. TO. EAT. HAND.

We couldn't leave on Friday until after Pete was done teaching. He took Lukie to daycare so I could get the house cleaned up so my friend Brian could house/dog sit for us, and then we left at about noon. Lukie slept about 3 hours to begin the trip, and then had a major meltdown somewhere in South Carolina. We actually had to stop at a random rural Baptist Church to feed him and change his diaper since we couldn't find anywhere else. It wasn't our only random Baptist church stop on the trip...Lukas has now had his rear end exposed in lots of church parking lots. I spent the rest of the drive to Georgia on "clown shift," as I like to call it, making funny faces while trying to entertain Lukie. We got in at about 7:30 p.m., and then we got to play with Gabriella and Nate and hang out with our dear friend Larissa the rest of the evening.

Lukie decided not to sleep all the way to Hilton Head the next morning and so spent a good part of the time completely on edge and fussy, sucking on my finger (the kid still refuses to take a pacifier). He did great the rest of the day, though. He took a nap while we ate seafood, then hung out on the pier, and then took another nice, long nap while we were at the beach...LUKIE'S FIRST TIME AT THE BEACH!!!

All bundled up-- it was a little chilly and somebody needed a nap, anyway.

Everybody's favorite picture from the trip...

We ended up going out to a pizzeria for dinner and...well...Lukie was tired.

The trip home was pretty uneventful. A couple minor meltdowns, but a lot of sleep. Honestly, he did a really good job. We did, however, learn a few things about traveling with a little one. These things will change as he gets older, but for now, we've discovered some baby car travel rules:

1. Lukie really has a 4-hour limit. Eight hours is too much for a guy of his age and with his attention span. He did a good job sleeping, but when he was awake, it was all we could do to keep him entertained.

2. Trips will just take all day out of necessity from now on. Gone are the days when we could bust through a 10-hour drive, stopping for 10 minutes at a Jimmy John's to grab lunch. We now need to look at the map and schedule stops so that Lukie doesn't get frustrated of being crammed into a car seat.

3. Restaurants are now our friends. They provide valuable wiggle time. The trick? Pick family-friendly places that won't get annoyed with a frustrated baby, and if possible, pick a slightly off time, so that you're not there during lunch or dinner rush. That way, you won't have a crazy mess of overstimulated baby on your hands. Our most successful stop was at a Pizza Hut in the middle of nowhere. Generally, I'm against such places, but this worked well because Lukie could wiggle all he wanted on the table and in the booth, the place had lots of lights and colors to look at, and we didn't have to worry about upsetting somebody's nice date at 2:00 in the afternoon.

4. Take advantage of every minute that baby is asleep. DO. NOT. STOP. FOR. ANYTHING. I had to use the bathroom for at least a hundred miles, but I figured I'd get ample opportunity when we stopped for Lukie. In the meantime...log the miles.
5. In the future, once Lukie is mobile and can run around and play, we'll plan our trips along routes that have a state park or a friend's house so that he can stop, get out of the car, eat something, and get some serious play time in before getting back into the vehicle....hopefully to take a nice, long nap.

I really can't stress enough, though, how well he did. I remember when I used to dread getting him in the car...going to a restaurant...stopping at a red light...leaving the house at all...because I had a super fussy baby and it was too stressful to try any of those things. Lukie drove 8 hours one day, an hour and a half the next, ate in 5 restaurants, stayed in a hotel, drove another 8 hours...and we all survived relatively unscathed. I mean...there sure was a lot of happy wiggling when we got home...

...wiggling so fast he's a blur...

...but I sure feel emboldened by the adventure!

That's about it for this post. Lukie turned 4 months old on Sunday, but because we were driving, we have yet to have our traditional party. We're having it Saturday! Catch you all this weekend!

Something like normal.

Wow. What a week so far.

First, Lukie is going to daycare every weekday now. Yesterday was a little rough...for me. The only tears anybody cried in the morning were mine as I was leaving the house. Pete was taking Lukie to daycare, so I headed off to work leaving them both at the house. Pete dropped him off at the daycare and said he was charming the ladies there when he left, grinning big grins at them and looking adorable in the little outfit and socks in which I'd dressed him.

I was pretty nervous all day, mostly because Lukie had started fighting the bottle again. Sara, Lukie's teacher, texted me a couple times during the day. She told me he fought the first bottle, but eventually, he got hungry enough and took the rest of his bottles throughout the day with very little fight. I have to say that I really like Sara. She sends me texts and pictures throughout the day so I know how Lukie is doing. She sent this one on Monday:

(Their bib, not ours, but he IS Grandma's favorite, so it's appropriate.)

 

He didn't sleep very well at daycare on Monday because he's getting used to the noise, but he slept like a champ last night, so I can't complain.

I had the day off today (Tuesday), but Pete and I decided Lukie should go to daycare anyway so that we start getting him in a routine and he gets used to Sara and the daycare. I'm kind of glad we sent him because I got my first "day off" in 10 weeks. I was able to use the time to take care of lots of things that had been bugging me about the house since Lukie was born, and to do a few things that I had missed. I went to the gym and the grocery store, then got home and made soup for dinner tonight and cabbage roll casserole for dinner tomorrow night (Pete had been wanting some cabbage). I cleaned the first floor of the house (the second one I saved for Thursday) and did some laundry. Then I went to pick Lukie up and took him to Pete's museum while I gave a guest presentation to his class. Lots of productivity!

Meanwhile, Sarah sent me this adorable picture of Lukie, who apparently fell asleep during tummy time...

When I got to the daycare to pick him up today, he was crying because he'd just had a massive BM and the teacher was feeding another one of the babies, so I went ahead and changed him and then held him on my shoulder...and he just melted and stayed there looking at me. He was so happy to be with mommy...kind of made me feel bad that he'd been there all day, but also made me feel really happy that he was so glad to see me. He'll learn lots of great things at daycare, but he'll also always be glad to see me, and it made me great that he knew who I was and being in my arms relaxed him right away. This evening, he seemed content to just hang out on my shoulder while we sat on the porch swing. Four weeks ago, an hour of Lukie being awake AND content would have been unimaginable. Tonight he just wanted to cuddle with me.

The other development this week: I went to work on Monday. I have to admit that despite having to leave Luke to do it, it felt GREAT to be working again. Maternity leave really showed me how much I love my job, and I think being a working mom is going to give me an opportunity to be myself while still hopefully being a great mommy. It was so nice to be working at the library, moving around helping people without a giant, pregnant belly weighing me down and exhausting me! I'm going to attempt to continue breastfeeding Luke while I work, so pumping isn't super fun, but I know it's the best way to feed Lukie and it makes me proud that he's still being breastfed. It's weird, but I feel like it's a connection I still have to him while I'm working. 

The one problem with Lukie being at daycare all day...I don't have nearly so many 10-week-old pictures as I do his other weeks! Just a couple from my iPhone:

(I forgot to post about this last week, but we had Lukie's 2-month doctor's appointment on Thursday and he weighs 14 lbs 9 oz! That puts him in the 90th percentile for weight, but he's in the 75th percentile for height, so it's not that he's JUST fat. He's also just a big kid! In fact, he dwarfs the other 2-month-old baby at daycare.

He had to get three shots in his legs at the appointment. He HATED the shots; we're talking wails of panicked frustration. However, I had brought a blanket that smelled like home and I wrapped him up and nursed him right away, so he only cried for a minute or so. I was worried he'd have a reaction to the shots and be super fussy all day. For once, I was wrong! Lukie slept all day long, and when he woke in the evening, he was a happy guy. He had a slight fever, but it didn't seem to bother him, and he slept like a champ that night after I gave him some baby Tylenol. He did a great job getting through his first round of vaccines; I hope all of them go so well!)

8 weeks old!

I guess it took me tattling on Lukas to all of the blogosphere and Facebook for him to see the error of his ways and start shaping up. I'm not saying he's an easy baby yet (though I have faith), but the last 3-4 days have been markedly better. I would estimate he's only been doing about half the daytime crying he used to do, and there's even a good chunk of smiling in between the frowny times! AND he's recently decided he likes having his diaper changed!!

Well, he doesn't HATE having his diaper changed. He usually smiles at me when I take the dirty one off and likes hearing the diaper changing song.  You'll never hear it unless I'm changing your diaper. So what I'm saying is...you'll never hear it.

I spoke with my brother on Skype today and he mentioned that I looked healthier and happier. I think Lukas' crying phase had really taken a toll the last time I had spoken with Eric. After just 3 days of having a baby who doesn't shriek in my general direction 8 hours out of every day, I already have a better perspective. I know there will be other fussy times. The first time he brings home a cold from daycare, when he starts teething, frustration over learning new skills...those will all suck...but at least those times I'll know there's a reason. The worst part about Lukie's fussy stage (knock on wood that it's winding down now) was not knowing if and when it would end. It was really starting to affect me mentally and emotionally. Now, I get more of the day with this guy:

And maybe a little less with this guy:

In other news this week, I've set my return-to-work date for a little less than two weeks from now. I've spoken with the library manager and I'm going to cut my maternity leave short by a couple of weeks, though I haven't spoken with my supervisor yet so I don't know exactly what day I'll go back. I'm ready to go back to work, and in a lot of ways, I'm ready for life to start looking normal again. I know it won't be the kind of normal we were used to before Lukas was born, but I think we all need to figure out how we're going to live life as a family, and a big part of that is learning to navigate Pete and my work schedules with a baby. I'm ready to start living our life the way we will until Lukie goes to real school, and me being at home is NOT anything like what life will be like for the next 5 years.

In preparation for Lukie going to daycare, we've started practicing with the bottle more. This has been a bit of an unexpected challenge. Lukie has been bottle trained since week 3 or so, when I was having so much trouble nursing and needed a break from his chomping. I'd pump and we'd give him the breastmilk in a bottle. He was always a little bit too happy to play with it for a few minutes, but ultimately, he'd straighten out and take the bottle, no problem. He was on a bottle for an entire afternoon when I had to leave him with Pete once. He took 3 bottles in six hours without a fight.

We've also decided that we'd like him to at least be USED to formula, just for emergencies, though we've also tossed the idea around of having  him on formula about 40% of the time. That way I wouldn't have to be on such a rigorous schedule of pumping while at work, and we'd have a fall back if for some reason I couldn't be with him and we didn't have a way to get breastmilk to him.

Yeah. We thought that would work. Except...Lukas HATES the formula. He was on the pre-made formula when he was a newborn and we had the dehydration scare, but since then, he's been exclusively on breastmilk. He'll take breastmilk in a bottle as long as it's warmed up, but try him with powdered formula and you will get shrieks of frustration like you've never heard a human being make. We've tried Gerber Good Start and Enfamil powdered so far. We've read that Similac pre-made is sweeter, so we'll probably buy a can of that and try it out. I don't need him to love the stuff, since I'm willing to pump 3-4 times per day at work to try to give him as much breastmilk as he needs, but I need him to be willing to take formula in an emergency. The pre-made stuff is way expensive, but as long as it's not the primary way we're feeding him, the cost won't be too prohibitive.

Sigh. Lukie, you are a stubborn child. I think you come by that naturally. Blame it on Mommy.

Finally, "8 Weeks Old" pictures. Time flies.

 (Maggie photobombing Daddy photobombing Lukie...)

And what I'm about to do...for 3 hours...until little dickens wakes me up...

Next post: 2 MONTHS OLD AND GRANDMA VICKIE'S COMING TO VISIT!!!