The Last of MOO-hicans (I've got a million of them!)

It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it; it’s more like it just kinda makes me feel sad.

My baby is growing up.

I know, I am happy for her, but every day they both need me a little less and that can make a girl feel melancholy. (If you talk to me on Friday night after hanging with both of them ALL. DAY. LONG. I believe you will get a different kind of answer, but I digress…)

So week before last DD2 stopped breastfeeding.

Sigh.

When DD1 was done with breastfeeding (BF) it was my decision. She kept biting me, by 12 months she had 12 teeth and she wasn’t afraid to use them. (I am still a resource to a couple moms’ groups on how to heal nerve damage and cuts while still BFing the baby. There's a visual for you. You're welcome.) On her first birthday DD1 started getting sippy cups only (we ditched the bottle at the same time too). DD1 did not care. As long as she was getting the food she was happy. Actually, she was pretty happy no matter what, so there you go, a very easy going kid. Five days later I back into a full blown Fibro episode. Bah! So my b00bs no longer hurt, but everything else did.

This go around I decided I was going to continue with the BFing until DD2 weaned herself. Ok, if she was starting kindergarten I would’ve probably drawn the line. But I don’t know, being pain free is a pretty magical thing. You might be willing to BF your 8 year old too if it meant no pain. (God, I’m kidding. That would gross me out too.) My point is that I was going to let DD2 self-wean.

And she did.

She just did it a lot sooner then I thought she would.

DD2's a snuggly kid and she likes BFing. She was constantly feeling me up & asking for it. Much like a druggie needing a fix. I’m not a big fan of the “on demand” thing so she had a general schedule

(please don’t email me about what an awful mom I am because I don’t propagate the “on demand” philosophy, if it works for you great then do it. I know it wouldn’t work for me or my family. ‘nuf said.)

The last hold out feeding was the going to bed one.

It was nice. The last quiet moments of her day, rocking in the chair in her room in the dusk, watching her eyelids get heavy and her little baby hands reaching for my face to try and entice me into a game. I knew she wasn’t getting much milk anymore; if anyone else was around she would totally pop off to see what was happening (something she would never do if she were getting a lot of milk.) A couple weeks ago I went out to dinner with some mom’s from the neighborhood. I told DS to give her a bottle & she should be fine. When I got home he said she really didn’t drink it, she just played with it. So the next night I had him put her to bed again (I figured it was less likely to fly if I was around) this time without anything but a story and a kiss goodnight.

She cried and cried and cried. And then she cried some more.

Finally, it became apparent she was winding up, not down, so I went up to her room (about 30 minutes had passed). I picked her up and she stopped crying (go figure). She laid her head on my shoulder and calmed her hiccup-y cries and sniffles. (She does pathetic really well.) I sat down in the rocker & she pulled on my shirt. I told her, “No you’re a big girl now and we don’t do that anymore.” She laid her head on my shoulder and hugged me as she went to sleep. And my heart broke a little.

Sigh

I didn’t expect her to listen to me!

She’s asked for it at various times since then, (not like I would've thought) usually because she’s upset. A hug and a bink will usually suffice in those cases. If she's being a little more insistant I tell her she’s a big girl and we don't do that anymore. She just kind of shrugs her shoulders and moves on.

I’d say she’s taking it way better then I am.

First Steps and Other Craziness at our House!

So DD#2 took her first steps (to me) on Father’s Day. She’s taken a few more since, but is in no hurry to learn to run right off, so that’s good news. She’s also gotten very, very clingy lately. Guess who she wants to cling to mostly? Needless, my back seems to be less then stellar; hopefully it’s temporary.

In other news, my body is freaking out! I dropped a nursing time from DD#2 (she gets regular milk in the middle of the day now & I’m not pumping at work) and apparently my hormones are reacting rather strongly to this change. I am FREAKING OUT. All the sudden, I’ve put on 5 lbs, Aunt Flo came to visit, my hyper pigmentation is way more visible, I’m breaking out, I have eczema on my lower arms, I’m not sleeping very well, etc, etc, etc….I called my OB but the nurse practitioner was all like, “Yup, that’s hormones. Nope, nothing you can do about it.” Bah! I’m going to call a dermatologist. It seems to me that if being pregnant can get my fibro in check (and these are all symptoms of fibro, well Aunt Flo isn’t, it’s just a symptom of being a woman) then there ought to be a way to emulate that so that my body continues being healthy. I swear I’m ready to become a wet nurse or surrogate; SERIOUSLY.

And lastly, I am super, super BROODY right now. I am seriously jonesing to have another baby. I know! DS would disown me if I even suggested it. And even if we were on track to have another, we wouldn’t be trying for another year yet. (So I’d be 40 when the baby would be born.) But I can’t even tell you how badly I’m feeling this. Then I go and read these blogs by women who don’t conceive easily and would take another one (ten) in a heartbeat and it makes me wonder why I don’t just go have another; I mean other then the fact that I’m still getting my butt kicked by these two on a daily basis. I keep trying to tell myself it’s hormones, but still. It does make me wonder what my life would’ve been if I’d been born in a time w/out birth control. Most likely I’d have something between 10-15 kids. That or I’d be dead. I would’ve died due to complications of child birth. I certainly would most likely have been pregnant for most of my adult life. Weird to think about huh?

I just reread this and realized that I need to find something to do at work, I may just be loosing my mind. I guess you already knew that.

It'll have to be Love Friday. A practice in being grateful.

I’m finding that I’m having trouble being grateful the last couple days. I’m so overwhelmed with everything that I’m having trouble getting past just “get it done”. My mom is still really sick so the girls have been in daycare/school all week. My back/leg thing is not improving. If anything it seems like I’ve taken a step or two backward. My PT thinks my daily activities (read: picking up a baby) are causing me to re-injure myself constantly. I jinx myself by posting that my b00bs hurt, cause I now have a very large (the entire top half of my right side) very painful clogged duct. I complained that they hurt and they decided to show me what a painful b00b was. I think the clogged duct is caused by stress. And work has finally started to get fed up with my schedule.

I feel like I’m trying to do everything for everyone and doing none of it well.

In an effort to try and make this more then a whining session and actually turn it into something positive I’m going to take each item and write a (possible) solution to it. At least I’ll have a goal to word toward and maybe I won’t feel so overwhelmed.


Girls in Daycare
I need to suck it up and BE GRATEFUL over this one. I’m lucky/grateful that I’ve found an (fairly) affordable place that meets the needs of both my girls, is close by and allows me to do “drop in”. Not to mention that they adore my children and give them lots of love and a safe place to play with good friend.

Back/Sciatica
I contacted my orthopedic doctor yesterday, as he told me to call if things had not improved in a month. (Plus I’m almost out of vicodin and night before last there was no sleeping without a pain pill.) He’s concerned, but feels that we’re on the right track with PT. “Ultimately PT is the thing that will get me better in the long run.” For the pain he gave me the name of a doctor who can do an epidural of cortisone. Maybe then I’ll get some relief. He gave me another prescription for pain pills with a refill. I’m lucky/grateful that I have supportive medical professionals working with me to try and fix this. I’m also grateful to have really good insurance coverage which allows me to go to whomever I need to in order to get this resolved.

Clogged Duct
I’m already doing everything I can for this; pumping/feeding every two hours. A warm shower and a good long feed by BS will probably be the thing that knocks it out completely. I should be grateful for this in that it’s a sign that my milk supply is taking it up a notch, my body would just prefer it to be more gradual. (I have a theory that I have really fatty milk or really small ducts or probably both.) Once this has pasted there’s a good chance I will get getting much more milk for BS.

Work has had enough of my schedule
I am very grateful that work has been so supportive about all of this so far. Part of the problem is that my PT only works when her youngest is in school (M/W/F, 9-1) so I end up missing some work to get in appointments. Work feels like I work part-time so I should take care of this stuff during my time off (even though I have the sick days and vacation to take off). My mom wants her time off, and feels that if I’m not at work I should be watching my own kids. This complicates things. Even if I get another PT that can see me during my days off, I don’t have babysitting at that time. I’m stuck on this one. I can pursue another PT, but I’ll still have a scheduling problem. I guess the answer would be to see if I can find a PT who works evenings and/or weekends when DS is home. Ok, I’m working on this one and I’m grateful for the resources I do have (work, DS, mom).

This has gotten really, really long, and I’m super impressed if you’re still reading, so a few other things I have to be grateful for:

My kids are really good about going to daycare/school. Not a lot of stranger anxiety or whiny/crying, etc….The teacher comment all the time about how happy BS is, there are a couple babies there who never. stop. crying. EVER.

My husband has been super supportive through all of this. More often then not these days he walks through door and I hand him kids and collapse from exhaustion on the couch. Beside entertaining kids, he will pick up whatever slack I need that night; making dinner, dishes, bathes, folding laundry, etc…he has not complained once.

While my mom gives me no end of grief about my housekeeping (which there is nothing wrong with BTW—I’m not a germphobe like Antique Mommy, but we aren’t filthy, dirty either) I am grateful to have her help with my girls. She comes over in the morning and picks up whatever slack there is, gets TS off to school and BS bathes, fed and clothed. In the meantime she usually does some laundry & light housekeeping for me. For. Free.

Ok, I’m working on adjusting my attitude. And I’m off to try and find a babysitter for BS during my PT appointment tomorrow.

My boobs hurt.

That got your attention now didn’t it?

Hi P0rn bloggers, you’re in a mommy blog, sorry for the confusion. Move along now, nothing to see here. Seriously, if there was something to see these days I wouldn’t have to move you along—you’d run away very quickly.

I’m still nursing BS every two hours. Talk about a time suck. (eww, no pun intended.) It’s hard to get much done with this kind of schedule and if she’s sleeping or I need to be doing something in a hurry I pump (which I just love so much! NOT.) If you did anything repetitively every 2 (or 3) hours you would hurt too, trust me. However, let me note I am not actually complaining. I know it sounds a lot like whining, but it’s not. I was one of those millions who saw the Oprah show on The Secret and I’m bought in. I didn’t say I was buying the book, I’m way too cheap for that, but I get the concept and there’s a lot of what they said that resonated with me. If they’re wrong, everyone else wins cause if nothing else you’re a happier person to be around, right? So in the spirit of The Secret, I have begun trying to approach each and every situation (even the ones that seem negative) in terms of how I am grateful for the experience. We’ll see how long I stick with this, I know, I know, being sarcastic is much more my nature then showing my gratefulness. But I’m trying.

So in terms of having to nurse my 9 month old every two hours;

• I am grateful for the time this gives us together. I know that this time is short-lived and sooner then I think she will be too busy to be bothered with nursing from Mommy. She’ll rather eat on the run (or not at all) because there are so many things she’ll need to do. Right now this time is special and she is now old enough to know that and she clings to me too.


• I am grateful to be needed by my daughter and appreciated. I am grateful that I am forced to slow down several times a day and just stare intently at the beautiful miracle I helped create.
  
• I am grateful that I know that in the very near future I will yearn to be sore like this again, for I have been so very blessed with a healthy, loving little girl and I am blessed in my knowledge and appreciation of this as well.

Speak’s Anatomy

So newsflash; I have nerve damage. My right foot has no reflex right now and shows weakness. I had to go to a doctor to find this out? The only real question is if the damage is being caused by a herniated disc or from the epidural I got during labor. Bah! I’ll be having an MRI & a nerve test next week to determine which it was & the extent of the damage. If it’s the disc, the amount of damage my symptoms seem to be showing are pointing to surgery. Christ! That’s what I need. So let’s all pull for epidural shot as the cause, which they will treat with another epidural shot only with steroids this time. There goes my shot at the baseball hall of fame…oh yeah, I don’t play baseball.

So I feel somewhat validated in all my whining now. And my approach; chiropractic, PT & pain meds is exactly what I should be doing, so that’s good to know. I’m still irritated that the first doctor made me wait for two weeks to get into the orthopedic guy, but I can’t do much about it now, so trying not to dwell.

BS had her NINE month appointment today. She’s 15# 4oz and 27” (in case you’re keeping track). She’s just below the 50% for height and off the chart for weight. Yup, she’s less the zero in the weight category. That means that 100% of the kids her same age are bigger then her. Doctor says they typically drop a little at this age because their activity level has increased so much, so he’s not worried. If he’s not worried, then I’m not worried. She’s gaining weight, so that’s all they’re really watching now. He’s ordering some predigested formula for her; he wants us to have a back up for my (lack of) boob juice so he’s working with me to get her to take it. I’ll let you know how that goes. She got two shots today & didn’t even cry. We’re nursing every 3 hours, which means…I’ve got to go again.

Cheers!
Say a little thank you prayer for vicadin!

My children speak

So things are pretty much status quo around here. My sciatic is pretty much the same, now my neck has joined the fray—just to keep things interesting. I do have an appointment with an orthopedic doctor tomorrow, so hopefully something good and immediate will come of that; like a shot in my ass that will give me feeling in my foot and lower leg and get rid of the pain I’m feeling in the rest of the leg, blah, blah, blah….You’ve heard it all before. Dude I’m tired of talking about it, I can’t believe you’re still reading it. You must really not want to work today, huh? Yeah, I know me neither.

So a few updates;

BS has spoken! My brilliant genius of a baby has said the word “kitty”. She says it quite clearly, has said it several times now, in front of several people and at the appropriate time. You know, when one of the cats shows up. She says, “gee, gee” for dog, cause we say doggie. She is also signing the word “more” (mostly for food). She waves “bye”, and she puts her hands behind her head when tired so I’ve deemed that her word for sleep. Last night DS walked up to us (she was in my lap on the couch) and she held her hands out to him & then signed more. In other words, “more Daddy please.” So freaking cute!!!

No more blood coming up, but no more formula either. I’m in contact with the lactation consultant and I’m working on the milk production (or lack of it) right now. I’m also thinking of getting her a passport as it’s looking a lot like she’s going to Mexico with us in April. We are such the party animals.

TS is truly turning into me. She loves to pull out her play hair dryer and curling iron when I pull mine out. We primp together. She pulls out her play make up while I’m doing mine and she likes to help me by handing me the correct brushes and make up containers; she knows the difference between blush, eye shadow, eye liner, concealer, foundation, mascara and all their accompanying brushes. Some kids learn all the dinosaurs, but my kid knows her way around the MAC counter. The way I know she’s truly turning into me has to do with her Starbuck’s order. Here’s the way I order: “Vente, decaf, single, non-fat, no-whip, 6-pump mocha. The other day she says, “Mommy I want my chocolate milk cold, with ice and whip cream.” They start so young.

HoliDAZE!

So things are super busy right now. The girls have managed to stay well for a whole week now, so that’s a plus.

Not only did TS get up on stage & sing for her X-mas pageant, but she smiled and did all the hand movements. You could even hear her singing! It was really cute & fun.

I am frantically trying to get things done for X-mas. I have these scrapbooks I make for the grandparents every year. I do a page a month for each girl. It was not as big of a deal when there was one child, but I doubled my workload this year. And since I’ve been overwhelmed (because of said double workload, i.e.--second child) I haven’t really been cropping so much. Like since July. So ideally I’m doing these two pages every month & it’s no big deal, realistically I’ve got 8 pages to finish in the next 5 days. I had more, but I’m working on a page a night & as long as I do that, they’ll be done in time. I also need to finish sewing BS’s X-mas stocking, but I have a few extra days to do that, so scrapbooks first! "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."

On another note, my grandmother is dying from cancer and has moved in with my parents as of last Tuesday. (This was decided on the Saturday before, so it’s a bit sudden.) She’s had this for like 10 years, they’ve put it into remission 3 times and this time she decided she’s 90 & she’s tired, so they aren’t treating it. This is my father’s mother & truth be told, she’s never been the nicest person on the face of the earth. She isn’t fond of kids at all & made that very clear to us when we were kids. Now that we’re adults she allows us to do stuff for her, so I wouldn’t say I’m exactly all broken up over this. I mean I feel bad for her and I don’t wish her ill or anything, but I’m not torn up over it. The reason I’m telling you is mostly cause it’s really flipping my mom out. She’s NEVER been especially nice to my mom and now my mom is stuck caring for her in her own house. (I suppose based on my mom’s treatment of me at times one could argue this is Karma. However, my mom is always well intended, just poorly executed at times. My grandma; not always so well intended.) Since my mom watches my kids this affects me in a big way. It also affects me because when my mom freaks out she takes it out on everyone else, especially me. So guess what’s been going on lately? No real details on it today, but I’m sure you’ll get some before it’s over so I figured I’d mention it.

My last Major stressor these days (and it’s big one) is that I’m having problems with my milk supply. Considering what an issue it’s become I’m kinda surprised I haven’t written about it sooner. Since “Aunt Flo” came to visit my milk supply cut literally in half like in a day. However, my daughter has not cut her appetite in half, so now that we’ve worked our way through my back up supply of milk I have a bit of a conundrum. We have found that she can’t seem to tolerate formula. She empties the contents of her stomach when drinking it. It’s scary & awful. I talked to her GI doctor who first gave some formula which is more broken down; got the same result. So he suggested soy; I can’t get her to drink it. I tried putting it into her cereal, but she gagged on it, wouldn’t have anything to do with it. So I’ve been taking fenugreek to try and increase my supply. Nothing yet. The doctor said if the soy doesn’t work he wants to do an allergy work up on her. I guess if it’s not one thing it’s another.

Oh, and to keep the party hopping my in-laws arrive Saturday. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

Happy Holidaze!

Don’t Fall Over

I know two posts in two days, get a hold of yourself. I’m having trouble focusing here at work so I thought maybe writing my personal blog will wake me up, probably not. I’m seriously considering going home (girls are at G’ma’s house) and taking a nap. So some good news: I could get pregnant again. No, I’m NOT pregnant; I just now know that I could be if you know what I mean. I know TMI, but my real point (and this is why it’s good news, cause who on earth thinks Aunt Flo’s visit is good news) is that it explains all this exhaustion and moodiness. I still think I am dealing with PPD, but this explains the huge spike in emotion that I’ve been having. I feel better knowing that I was right; it was my hormones and that while I might be going crazy, I’m on top of it. My mind doesn’t seem to be racing as badly today, maybe a light at the end of the tunnel.

So do you have an ongoing commentary of blog entries in your head as you go through your day? Or does this make me crazy too? I find that everything I do is accompanied by a narrative of that event for my blog. So I guess you should be thankful that I’m so busy or can you imagine how freaking boring my blog would be? You’d get thrilling narratives about my bad hair day or reheating my lunch. Wohoo! EX-CI-TING!

Alright, now that I’ve bored you to my level of tiredness I’m going to go pump. Moo!