My little boy is talking! I can't believe it. I can proudly say that his first word was Mama, with Dada soon to follow. Dog came next, which he will use spontaneously when he sees (or hears) a dog. He will repeat truck, and as of this morning, he will also repeat cat. It is so neat to see him start to realize that he can repeat sounds that he hears! He will repeat words we say to him, sounds he hears in songs, and he even tried to repeat the sound of me knocking on a door! His world is opening up, and it is really fun to watch. What a neat realization it must be, to find that you can make the sounds that you hear around you - that you can talk. Hello, expressive language!
In chemistry news, it has been a busy week. I had a quiz, lecture exam, lab exam, homework problem set and two pre-lab question sets all due. Oh. My. God. I am realy glad that week is over. It was insane. But, I got my exams back yesterday, and I am pleased to report that I got an 88% (possibly 89% - I am questioning one of the problems...) on my lecture exam, and a 98% (hell yeah!) on my lab exam!! Awesome. Last night was a chemistry-fee evening (in part because I forgot my book bag in my husband's truck, and he was at work...) in celebration of the end of such a busy week. Today I begin again. I am not going to know what to do with all the free time I am going to have after this class is over!
Busily,
Jenny
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Little Nursling Boy
I am not sure what cause the milk shortage that I had a week or so ago, but it seems to have resolved itself. And by "resolved itself" I mean by me taking nine fenugreek capsules a day and reeking like syrup, and all the while pumping like a madwoman... But either way, things seem to have gone back to normal. I am quite relieved to be able to still be nursing my little boy. I don't know when we will quit, but when we do, I want it to be because I decided or because he decided. I don't want to have to quit because of some outside reason forcing it to happen. And for now, things are looking good as we truck on towards nursing for a year.
Before Liam was born, I knew I wanted to nurse him - I was very determined to at least make a solid try of it. I went to a breast feeding support group lead by a lactation consultant a few weeks before my due date, and started going to the group regularly when Liam was three days old. If I didn't nurse, it sure as hell wasn't going to be because I didn't try everything before quitting.
And it was hard. Really hard. It hurt so much, and he nursed for hours on end, giving my poor, abused nipples almost no breaks. And he never nursed calmly - he screamed, and pulled, and cried through nearly every feeding. I was thrilled if I could get ten or fifteen minutes of solid eating out of him. He started reflux medications. I drastically altered my diet, quitting dairy, soy and wheat. And I cried through countless breast feeding support group meetings. And slowly, slowly, things got better. One day, I was suprised to realize that I was nursing and it wasn't hurting either of us.
Now we are closing in on Liam's first birthday, and I am enjoying nursing more than I ever expected to. I owe everything to my "boob group" meetings and the amazing lactation consultant who runs them, and also to my neighbor, who was nursing her son, and offered me encouragement and advice every step of the way. For me, all the pain and trouble has been worth the reward of my nursing happiness that I have now. But I understood completely, in the first 48 hours of my nursing career, why people want to do it but then say, "to hell with this - give him a bottle." It certainly isn't for everyone. But it is for me.
I don't know how much longer we will nurse. I am just enjoying every time we do, because I really don't know when the end could come. We may wean just after his birthday, or perhaps we will still be nursing in a year. I don't know, and that's ok - which for a crazy planner like me is really saying something!! We are nursing right now, and it is beautiful and wonderful, and that is enough for me to be satisfied with.
Lovingly,
Jenny
Before Liam was born, I knew I wanted to nurse him - I was very determined to at least make a solid try of it. I went to a breast feeding support group lead by a lactation consultant a few weeks before my due date, and started going to the group regularly when Liam was three days old. If I didn't nurse, it sure as hell wasn't going to be because I didn't try everything before quitting.
And it was hard. Really hard. It hurt so much, and he nursed for hours on end, giving my poor, abused nipples almost no breaks. And he never nursed calmly - he screamed, and pulled, and cried through nearly every feeding. I was thrilled if I could get ten or fifteen minutes of solid eating out of him. He started reflux medications. I drastically altered my diet, quitting dairy, soy and wheat. And I cried through countless breast feeding support group meetings. And slowly, slowly, things got better. One day, I was suprised to realize that I was nursing and it wasn't hurting either of us.
Now we are closing in on Liam's first birthday, and I am enjoying nursing more than I ever expected to. I owe everything to my "boob group" meetings and the amazing lactation consultant who runs them, and also to my neighbor, who was nursing her son, and offered me encouragement and advice every step of the way. For me, all the pain and trouble has been worth the reward of my nursing happiness that I have now. But I understood completely, in the first 48 hours of my nursing career, why people want to do it but then say, "to hell with this - give him a bottle." It certainly isn't for everyone. But it is for me.
I don't know how much longer we will nurse. I am just enjoying every time we do, because I really don't know when the end could come. We may wean just after his birthday, or perhaps we will still be nursing in a year. I don't know, and that's ok - which for a crazy planner like me is really saying something!! We are nursing right now, and it is beautiful and wonderful, and that is enough for me to be satisfied with.
Lovingly,
Jenny
Monday, July 6, 2009
Who's That Mewing At My Door?
My husband woke me up in the middle of the night on Saturday night/Sunday morning to let me know that there were kittens in our garage. Kittens. We have one cat. He's indoor only. He is a he. He is neutered. And yet - kittens in our garage.
Our neighbors have a cat that we can't seem to keep out of our garage. She will sneak in there sometimes, and get locked in, and then we will kick her out the next day when we discover her. And as you can probably guess, it turns out that she wasn't spayed. She apparently snuck into our garage and had kittens, and then we kicked her out the next day, not realizing what had happened. Cut to 2am when Hubby hears kittens mewing in the garage...
We opened up the garage door so that hopefully Mama Cat would come back to her kittens and in the meantime, got to hold tiny tiny kittens! They were covered in saw dust from my husband's workshop, but otherwise seemed to be doing alright. One white one, one black one, and one gray tabby like Mama Cat. And sadly, a fourth kitten that did not make it.
Mama Cat did find her way back to her babies, and we locked the new family in our garage for the night with some food and water for Mama. In the morning, we let the neighbors know about their grand-kittens, and they relocated the whole bunch back to their house.
What a day.
SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR PETS, PEOPLE!
Jenny
Our neighbors have a cat that we can't seem to keep out of our garage. She will sneak in there sometimes, and get locked in, and then we will kick her out the next day when we discover her. And as you can probably guess, it turns out that she wasn't spayed. She apparently snuck into our garage and had kittens, and then we kicked her out the next day, not realizing what had happened. Cut to 2am when Hubby hears kittens mewing in the garage...
We opened up the garage door so that hopefully Mama Cat would come back to her kittens and in the meantime, got to hold tiny tiny kittens! They were covered in saw dust from my husband's workshop, but otherwise seemed to be doing alright. One white one, one black one, and one gray tabby like Mama Cat. And sadly, a fourth kitten that did not make it.
Mama Cat did find her way back to her babies, and we locked the new family in our garage for the night with some food and water for Mama. In the morning, we let the neighbors know about their grand-kittens, and they relocated the whole bunch back to their house.
What a day.
SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR PETS, PEOPLE!
Jenny
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