Monthly Archive

S & E are going through some really scary shit right now. No mother should spend the first days of their child’s life in such panic and fear. It’s just not fair.

We’re not doing elimination communication, not by any stretch of the imagination. But I swear, Mr. E poops almost every time we put him in the Bumbo seat! It’s almost like he wants us to being doing EC! Oy Vey.

So, uh, I joined.

And I am having a lot of fun with it.

If you know me and want to “be my friend,” let me know.

Mr. E slept through the night! Not just a five hours stretch … for real sleeping through. He went to bed some time between 8 and 9, I dream feed him when we went to bed at 11:30 (I have NO idea why we stayed up so late). We didn’t hear a peep from him till about 6:30am! We took a long walk last night and then went to see the sunset, so maybe all that fresh air knocked him out? Let’s hope this wasn’t just a fluke!

Today was Mr. E’s second parent adoption. A is now officially, legally, federally his mother…what a ridiculous process, but we’re so thankful we have it.  The whole thing was pretty uneventful and over pretty quickly. We went out to breakfast afterwards and then had our final meeting with our doula - how appropriate that she was there at his birth and then we saw her on his adoption day. It was nice to see her again. She referred us to a midwife where we are moving, the same midwife that one of our friends there used/is using. (!) And she even offered to attend our next baby’s birth…even though we’ll be three hours away! I am starting to feel a little better about ttcing #2. But we’re still waiting at least one more year…

My head is spinning. Several weeks ago A and I looked at a condo in the town we want to live in once we move. We’ve pretty much decided when we’re ready to buy, we’d buy into this particular complex. There’s a lot of open green space, it’s a good size with all the things we’re looking for. And we’d get much more for our fee than any other place. Most charge the same monthly fee and all you get are exterior maintenance, master insurance, snow removal, etc. This place has a club house with a gym, indoor/outdoor pool, tennis courts, sauna, hot tub… all for the same fee range as the condos without the club house. It’s kind of a no brainer.

We looked at two condos in this complex. We loved loved loved one of them. It was an end unit, has two and a half baths, two bedrooms, two floors, attic and shed storage, laundry, wood floors in the kitchen and hall, a gas stove in the living room, sky lights in the bedrooms. It’s freshly painted and beautiful. And out of our price range. But alas, we were only looking to get a sense of what’s out there, until we’re ready to buy.

Well this morning, while A was dealing with two Crai.gslist people, one to take our piano and another to take a floor lamp, my dad calls. The realtor called him to let him know he has advised the sellers to drop the price and he also told them about a nice young gay couple with a new baby who loved the condo, but couldn’t afford the asking price. Now, the current owners are two sisters (and by this I mean they share a mother) who inherited the condo from them mother. Their response? “Sure, we’ll knock off $20,000 for them, our mother loved gay people!” And they’d be willing to push out the closing into the summer too.

Ummmmmm. Whaaaaaaaaaat? So essentially the message from the realtor is that he’s not advertising the new price until we get back to him. Because, at the new price it will sell. In an instant. And we have first refusal, or something like that. I’ve crunched some numbers and even with the new price it’s a little bit of a stretch given my part time employment and A’s transitional job. BUT, we could totally swing it if she had a teaching job. Which she is working very hard on obtaining.

I already feel nuts: returned to work after 12 weeks maternity leave, gave notice four days later, leaving us two and a half weeks to pack up and move, with a three month old (and we’ve yet to line up any real help…). And now we have to make this decision by tomorrow. And really it’s such a good deal that if we can’t swing it I will be so so so depressed.

Okay, so not a day has passed since Mr. E was born that I have not stopped and thanked the Universe for our effortless breastfeeding relationship.

Mr. E came out wanting to suck. I remember moments after he was placed on me I noted his sucking instinct and I asked our doula if I should give him my finger. She instructed me to give him my boo.b. When given my boo.b for the first time, he latched immediately. Some of my best memories of being in the hospital were of us lounging in bed while he nursed. It was so easy to do skin to skin nursing in that setting. My milk came in, full force, by the time we left the hospital. And I’ve been blessed with more than enough milk to feed Mr. E.

Once home, bfing continued to be easy. He knew what to do, I had more than enough milk, and somehow I avoided the painful nipple experience most women speak of - I’ve been told that until your nipples get used to the sucking, it can hurt a little (or a lot). This never happened to me. I attribute this to the fact that I applied Lansinoh lanolin after EVERY feeding for the first week, and to his excellent latch.

I continued to breastfeed Mr. E “on-demand” for the duration of my maternity leave. I often wondered why women who could (as in, made enough milk, had babies with a good latch, etc.) would choose not to breastfeed? And then I went back to work. Breastfeeding and working is HARD! I am very lucky because I can come home and feed him sometimes. But it is not the same as being home, breastfeeding on demand, and feeding with out the stress of feeding while convenient for my work schedule.

He is getting some pumped milk via bottles and I am not always free when he is hungry, which means I end up pumping and we get on different schedules. One day this week he had three bottles while I was at work and then rejected the breast that night. Since that experience we’ve been much more intentional about trying to adjust his feedings to my work schedule so I can come home to breastfeed him. Sometimes it works, but often I end up with tons of milk and need to pump while feeding or after in order to drain my breasts. I don’t like all the pumping because the more I pump the more my body produces.

I am one hundred and ten percent committed to breastfeeding Mr. E for at least one year. (Either from the breast or through pumped milked.) But I am beginning to understand why women who are capable of breastfeeding switch to formula after returning to work. It takes a lot of effort to successfully continue to breastfeed once returning to work. This is yet another reason I am glad I gave my notice and am excited that in two weeks I will only be working part time, and this won’t be as much of an issue.

Yet another reason we should get a year maternity leave, like our neighbors in Canada!

We just realized our son’s first birthday is the same day the next president will be sworn in. What better way to celebrate his first birthday than by GWB exiting the Whi.te Hou.se?!

Blogging will resume soon. Going back to work has me really busy, then we took off for the weekend and tonight I had to work till 8pm…but I have a lot to say about the last week and hope to find time real soon.

A and I took Mr. E for his three month pictures yesterday. There are a bunch up on Flickr.

I have 13 more days at the job I’ve come to dislike.

I gave my notice today, after being back for four days…

Soon, so very soon, Mr. E will be my full time job again. I can’t wait to get back to being with him all day instead of going to work.

This also means we are moving soon. Last day of work will be April 23rd. We’re moving April 24th.

I am so happy. So relieved.