Month: May 2009

We have been working like mad on the outside of our house. It's the part of our house we did not get ready before Ben was born and stupidly, it's the only part of our house the HOA can fine us for if it isn't up to their standards. So we've been weeding. We've been pruning. We've been tilling. We've been mowing. We've been planting. We've been watering. We've been mending (pipes). We've been buying. Lots of this has been left to Matt … earlier this month bending over or squatting was pretty much out of the question … but I am becoming more and more useful.

Out front, we cleaned things up, beat back our mint (the teeny tiny almost dead mint plant we stuck in the ground 3 years ago), weeded out the flower beds and planted them with a variety of bedding plants up front and a back border of … STRAWBERRIES. They're pretty AND useful. We just harvested our first berries today and they are DELICIOUS. Mmmm….

In the back it's been more of the same, but not quite as rough. Our raised beds, only a year old, were in much better shape. We got them all ready and planted one side with tomatoes and the other side with two zucchini …. and nothing else. We're waiting for divine inspiration on what else to put there, I guess. We've discussed a lot of things, but nothing has happened yet.

After our herbs got eclipsed by our other plants last year, we decided to move them into tiered self-watering planters which look cool and will hopefully serve their purpose well. We also replaced the wooden table that we got just after we moved in (and Loki subsequently CHEWED) with the one you see here. It was a pain in the butt to get and assemble, but we're happy with the results.

And we've been making good use of our newly revived outdoor space. Last week Tabby and Ben and I took our activities outside and this past Friday we fired up the fire pit and did our first marshmallow roast. Soon, the projector and outdoor movies will be back as well. I ♥ summer!

Guess blogging is down to a weekly thing for me, eh? That doesn't mean that things are going badly. After seeing the lactation consultant last week, I gave myself permission to relax a bit. I am still mostly on the manic schedule, but I am a bit more relaxed about it. He is still getting about 80% breastmilk, some directly from the source, some pumped. He still isn't a great nurser and I'm not sure he ever will be. Ben will get as much breastmilk as I can give him and still retain my sanity. Honestly … the schedule hasn't changed that much … but I am giving myself permission to cut out on it here and there so that I can get back to enjoying my family.

So in this spirit, we got out a bit last week. We made it to the library. We took a couple of walks. And Friday, when Matt had the day off, we went to the zoo. It was nice being out in the beautiful weather. It was nice being a family of four. We saw lots of baby animals and had a picnic lunch.

The rest of the weekend has been busy as well. My cousins' graduation party on Friday night. Saturday finishing work on the backyard. Saturday night we had dinner with my parents. Today my parents watched the kiddos and we attempted to have a fun few hours to ourselves. The problem is that Matt has been fighting some sort of bug and about halfway through our planned adventure (lunch and a movie), he felt too rocky to continue, so we ended up at home watching episodes of Nip/Tuck while it poured buckets outside. The kids did awesome at my parents' house and we got some rest.

Who knows what tomorrow holds. Just hoping my hubby will feel more like himself.

Tabby's thought of the day: “[Chicken]Nuggets are my favorite food in the whole world.”
Also, my baby is a MONTH OLD today. He's lovely.

Where have I been? There are two possible answers: 1. nursing, 2. pumping. Things seemed to be going OK with nursing. Then we went back to the lactation consultant last Tuesday for a weight check. Ben had not gained enough … around 2 oz in 6 days. He should have gained between 4 and 6 oz. So It was determined that I am not producing enough. This is likely due to the busy schedule on mother's day weekend and my son's somewhat lazy nursing habits (he falls asleep VERY easily). So it was prescribed to me to engage in “active nursing” with him every 2 hours and follow that up with pumping for 10 minutes. So for the first 20 minutes of every 2 hours, I nurse him … waking, burping and cajoling him into doing his job. Then I pump for 10 minutes after that. He is supplemented with the pumped milk and now eventually we've moved into formula territory. The good news is that he gained weight like a champ, 4.5 oz in 3 days. The bad news is that not including bottle feeding time and the washing of pump pieces I am spending 1/4 of my waking hours on the whole nursing thing. And it is EXHAUSTING.

The worst part is that it doesn't even seem to be doing a lot for my supply. I don't think it's getting worse, but it doesn't seem to be getting better either. And part of that is my lack of dedication. I do pretty well about 80% of the time, but I have not been able to give up running errands or occasionally going out to dinner or ENJOYING MYSELF and so I get lax and then it's really hard to get back on schedule. Not to mention the needs of my kids … sure Ben gets attention while I'm nursing/bottle feeding him, but no one gets attention while I'm pumping and washing pieces and I feel horrible telling Tabby (for the 100th time), “not right now, sweetie, mommy's busy …” Tomorrow I meet with the lactation consultant again. I am happy to work on this a bit more and keep trying to get my supply up, but I cannot be tied to this schedule for a whole lot longer … I have 4 months off to enjoy with my kiddos. The key word there is ENJOY.

Aside from the nursing issues, things are good if a bit hectic (what is it about this time of year???). Ben is looking less like a newborn and more like an infant, much to my chagrin. Tabby is such a little girl these days it almost breaks my heart. She carries on elaborate pretend scenarios and sings about 20 different songs (with varying degrees of completeness/accuracy) and cracks me up daily with the funny things she says. Really, even in 2 hour increments, life is good.

We had a couple of good days there, but things got nuts! Matt's family came to town since matt's brother graduated from CU on Friday. We also crammed 2 birthdays (Matt and his brother's – same day, 4 years apart) and Mothers' Day in there too. A maarathon of meals out, activities and way too little time spent at home and by Sunday, I was exhausted. Having everyone completely off their schedule did nothing to help matters and neither did the plugged milk duct I woke up with on Sunday morning (I think this is gone – fingers crossed) that had me in agony.

Tabby loved getting to see some more of her relatives and warmed up to everyone pretty quickly. She absolutely ate up all of the attention and snuggles and doting. I think she was in for a bit of a rude awakening today when she had only my attention, split with Ben and the phone and the housework.

Today's objective was to get us all back on a bit of a better schedule. We were somewhat successful with that, but it was a hell of a day. Tabby was whiny and clingy and not much interested in minding me. It has been challenging, but we made it and I am hoping that little guy will give us an easier night tonight. Fingers crossed.

First, as this post is (somewhat) about breastfeeding, it occurred to me that you might look at this photo and think that this is baby at boob … while there's nothing wrong with that, per se, that is not what this is … this is Ben on my mom's shoulder.

Today I felt like we turned a corner. I had a second appointment with the lactation consultant which was great. I feel like we are finally getting things on track and doing better. It is so much a relief to be able to just FEED him instead of this try to nurse, give up in frustration and pain and end up pumping and then bottle feeding. I was about to give it up as a bad job and go with the bottle because I could not figure out how I could manage all of that plus Tabby on my own. Matt goes back to work tomorrow, so this was not a moment too soon!

What else has been going on around here? Matt is trying to get the garden ready. I have been watching copious amounts of TV (am liking Healthy Decadences and check out this awesome Yo Gabba Gabba clip with the Happy Birthday song from Sixteen Candles) but also managed to clean up the kitchen properly (not just shove crap in the dishwasher) and coach Tabby into picking up toys. We had lunch with my mom and a coworker of ours and later my mom came over to hang out and we even went for a walk (hellooooo sun!). Of couse everything could be completely impossible tomorrow, but here's hoping!