Nursing has been an adventure to say the least.
While Shasta was in the NICU I was committed to pumping. She was too small to latch and I knew how important it was to nurse her so I pumped and she got my milk through a tube and bottles.
Once she came home I still pumped for the next month. I was scared to switch her to full time nursing. I liked that Nick could take a turn feeding her, especially during the night. I would nurse her once or twice a day and give her bottles the rest of the time. With all the pumping I made too much milk for her anyway so I couldn't give up pumping completely. Then one day I switched her to full time nursing and it's never been the same since. We had to use a nursing shield because it was still hard for her to latch, but eventually we were able to do away with that.
Remember how painful nursing can be when you first start getting used to it??? Yeah, I got to go through that twice. First with pumping, and then with actually nursing. Before having a baby I had heard so many horror stories about nursing and I was so afraid I wouldn't stick with it. I think Shasta being premature made me stick with it because I knew how much more she needed it than a full term baby and for that I'm grateful. I pushed through the pain because I knew how good it was for Shasta.
The first time I nursed her in public was a disaster. We were at church and thankfully I was the only one in the Mother's Room. (Usually there's 4-6 mothers in there at a time.) It was my first time using a nursing cover and I had no idea how hard it would be. I was struggling to see what I was doing and she was still new enough at it that I had to work at getting her to latch. Then finally she was on and all was well until she decided to break her latch. I peeked under the cover to see what happened only to find there was milk spraying out of me which I didn't even know was possible, right into Shasta's face and all over my skirt. So hear I am struggling not to expose myself from under the nursing cover for fear another mother would walk in, desperately trying to get a burp rag out of the diaper bag to catch the milk that's spraying out of me while having no idea how I was going to make it stop, worrying about my skirt being soaked in milk and having to still attend the remaining meetings of church, when Shasta decided to spit up all over everything. It was seriously the most spit up I had ever seen come out of her and that's saying something because she was a big time spitter. Needless to say, my first time nursing in public was awful and after that you can bet I practiced using the nursing cover at home until I had it down!
Then there was the first time I nursed her in a public place other than at church. Nick and I went to Ogden to pick up her crib and I forgot to bring the nursing cover. We ate lunch at Applebees and I had to nurse Shasta under a blanket. I was so afraid someone was going to say something negative to me about nursing my baby in public, but nobody did.
In the last year there has only been one time that Shasta exposed my goods for the world to see. As she's gotten older nursing under a cover has been more challenging because she's so wiggly and wants to see what's going on. Well, one day she decided to fling the nursing cover out of the way and just as quickly as it happened I recovered myself. But still my face went Bright Red! I was so thankful it happened at a baby shower full of women and just as thankful that she was still latched so less of me was exposed. And the girls I was in a conversation with were really understanding and did their best to make me feel better, but I was still paranoid the rest of the time that she was nursing thinking that I'm no longer covered and couldn't tell so I checked every 2 seconds to make sure!
Then at 8 months, Shasta sprouted 6 teeth all at once. Two on bottom and four on top. I was really nervous for a while that she was going to bite me, but she never did. At least, not for the next couple of months. She eventually started digging her teeth into me while she nursed, like she was suctioning so hard her teeth couldn't help but be in the way. It wasn't too big of a deal until it started making little sores and then it hurt. I tried using a shield again, but of course she refused to latch. She knew better.
Now she's decided to bite down every time she latches. She doesn't bite hard, but it startles me every time. I once thought I would end up being that crazy mom who nurses her child until she's in kindergarten, but I'm getting more and more ready to be done. It's been important to me to nurse Shasta for the first year. It's such a short period in my life that I'm able to do it and I know one day I'll have a midlife crisis and realize it's something I will never do again, so I want to do it while I can. But there is no evidence that nursing past the first year has any added benefits, so the time is coming for us to move on. The problem is I don't know if Shasta will ever be ready to be done. I have no idea how I'm going to wean her. She's SO dependent of nursing. She nurses a minimum of four times a day including first thing in the morning, before naps, and before she goes to bed and sometimes she nurses in between those times. She'll be a year old next week so I'm in search of finding tips on weaning her.
How do I go about weaning her?
How long will it take?
What tricks or tips can you give me?
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back
Another relay has come and gone.
Being on the Relay for Life committee was a challenge for me this year. All the meetings were at 8pm and Nick works nights so I had to drag Shasta to them with me. Eventually I had to stop going to them altogether because she goes to bed between 7:30 and 8pm.
This year I was the Team Development Retention Chair. (Same position I did last year). And Shasta was my co-chair. She came to all the Team Captain Meetings with me and motivated everyone to keep their focus! Even with all of her efforts, we still didn't reach our [unrealistic] goal of $40,000, but we brought in over $19,000 for the American Cancer Society.
The committee does a Penny War every year. Each team puts pennies in their own jar and silver change/dollars in other team's jars. Pennies are good points and everything else subtracts the good points. The team that wins the Penny War gets all the money collected from the competition to add to their fundraising efforts for the event. It's been a successful onsite fundraiser for the last three years. It always brings in around $250 in change.
This year I decided to make Shasta a 'homeless sign' to see if we could get any donations. Unfortunately, she wasn't feeling good at all so I didn't end up taking her around to see if she would get any money.
She sure is cute though!
This is my good friend, Erin. She's our staff partner with the American Cancer Society. She made Shasta the onesie that she's wearing. I was so excited when Shasta got a committee shirt like the rest of us. She came the weekend after relay last year so she was kind of our honorary committee member this year. Everyone on the committee adores her, (how could they not?!?) so it was fun for me that she got to be recognized as a member of the committee too!
The event started at 6pm and closing ceremony started at 6am. The last 4 years I've stayed awake the whole night including last year while I was pregnant and this year with being a mother. I left around 6:30am (mostly because my goods were full of milk and it was killing me), but also because I still had to get up and be a mom. I felt bad skipping out on the cleanup part of the event, but in the end I was glad I did because I went to bed at 7am and was back up at 10:30am with Shasta.
Relay was a little bitter sweet this year. I'm not sure if I'll get to do it again next year. I want to, more than anything I want to, but it was hard this year with Nick working evenings and Shasta will be a toddler which will make it even more difficult to take her to the meetings. If the meetings are earlier then I think I can make it work by getting a sitter, but if they run during bedtime again then it probably won't work.
I love being on the committee and don't think I can ever really give it up. Relay is an emotional roller coaster, but it's the best ride I get on every year. All of us know someone who's had cancer, whether it be family, friends, or an acquaintance of some kind, it literally affects all of us in some way. That's why I'm committed to helping fund a cure. I never want to hear those three dreaded words; you have cancer. And more than that, I never want my children to hear those words. That's why I will continue to be involved, even if I don't get to be on the committee every year I will find other ways to celebrate with those who have won their battle, remember those who died, and fight back with those currently battling cancer.
Being on the Relay for Life committee was a challenge for me this year. All the meetings were at 8pm and Nick works nights so I had to drag Shasta to them with me. Eventually I had to stop going to them altogether because she goes to bed between 7:30 and 8pm.
This year I was the Team Development Retention Chair. (Same position I did last year). And Shasta was my co-chair. She came to all the Team Captain Meetings with me and motivated everyone to keep their focus! Even with all of her efforts, we still didn't reach our [unrealistic] goal of $40,000, but we brought in over $19,000 for the American Cancer Society.
The event started at 6pm and closing ceremony started at 6am. The last 4 years I've stayed awake the whole night including last year while I was pregnant and this year with being a mother. I left around 6:30am (mostly because my goods were full of milk and it was killing me), but also because I still had to get up and be a mom. I felt bad skipping out on the cleanup part of the event, but in the end I was glad I did because I went to bed at 7am and was back up at 10:30am with Shasta.
Relay was a little bitter sweet this year. I'm not sure if I'll get to do it again next year. I want to, more than anything I want to, but it was hard this year with Nick working evenings and Shasta will be a toddler which will make it even more difficult to take her to the meetings. If the meetings are earlier then I think I can make it work by getting a sitter, but if they run during bedtime again then it probably won't work.
I love being on the committee and don't think I can ever really give it up. Relay is an emotional roller coaster, but it's the best ride I get on every year. All of us know someone who's had cancer, whether it be family, friends, or an acquaintance of some kind, it literally affects all of us in some way. That's why I'm committed to helping fund a cure. I never want to hear those three dreaded words; you have cancer. And more than that, I never want my children to hear those words. That's why I will continue to be involved, even if I don't get to be on the committee every year I will find other ways to celebrate with those who have won their battle, remember those who died, and fight back with those currently battling cancer.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Easter 2012
Easter and Halloween are my two favorite holidays. And it works out so perfectly that they're roughly six months apart!
Our Easter tradition is to do Easter baskets on Saturday morning so that we can save Sunday for the spiritual side of the holiday. Unfortunately, I started putting our Easter basket together on the kitchen table earlier in the week and just left it there the whole week so it wasn't much of a surprise come Saturday morning. I knew Shasta wouldn't care so I guess it doesn't matter, but it took away the fun.
Another twist to our Easter tradition is we only do one basket for the family to share. Each person has an individual gift, but as far as the candy goes, it's for everyone to share.
Shasta's individual gifts were: the book "I Believe In Jesus Too", bubbles, and a cute little Easter plate.
Wedge got some rawhide sticks.
Nick got a puzzle.
And I got the movie "Baptists at our BBQ".
We didn't bother doing an Egg Hunt since Shasta doesn't get it anyway. She got to do one at her grandparent's house two weeks ago so that was good enough!
Easter Sunday Nick woke up feeling sick so Shasta and I went to church without him. I taught the Marriage and Family Relations class by myself for the first time and I was a nervous wreck, but I think it went well! Then because it was Fast and Testimony meeting I decided to stand and share my testimony. It was Good Friday a year ago that I was admitted into the hospital to have Shasta so I shared my story of how those experiences related to the Savior and the sacrifice that He made for me. I didn't do my thoughts justice because I was so nervous and after I sat down I thought of everything I wanted to say and didn't, but I'm glad I finally shared that experience through my testimony since she's almost a year old and I hadn't done it yet.
When we got home from church Nick saw Shasta's Easter dress for the first time and decided we needed to take pictures because she looked like Dorothy with her ruby red slippers and her dog Toto!
All in all, this Easter was FAR better than last year. Shasta missed Easter by one day last year (technically 5 1/2 hours) so it was fun that this got to be her first one.
Our Easter tradition is to do Easter baskets on Saturday morning so that we can save Sunday for the spiritual side of the holiday. Unfortunately, I started putting our Easter basket together on the kitchen table earlier in the week and just left it there the whole week so it wasn't much of a surprise come Saturday morning. I knew Shasta wouldn't care so I guess it doesn't matter, but it took away the fun.
Another twist to our Easter tradition is we only do one basket for the family to share. Each person has an individual gift, but as far as the candy goes, it's for everyone to share.
Shasta's individual gifts were: the book "I Believe In Jesus Too", bubbles, and a cute little Easter plate.
Wedge got some rawhide sticks.
Nick got a puzzle.
And I got the movie "Baptists at our BBQ".
We didn't bother doing an Egg Hunt since Shasta doesn't get it anyway. She got to do one at her grandparent's house two weeks ago so that was good enough!
Easter Sunday Nick woke up feeling sick so Shasta and I went to church without him. I taught the Marriage and Family Relations class by myself for the first time and I was a nervous wreck, but I think it went well! Then because it was Fast and Testimony meeting I decided to stand and share my testimony. It was Good Friday a year ago that I was admitted into the hospital to have Shasta so I shared my story of how those experiences related to the Savior and the sacrifice that He made for me. I didn't do my thoughts justice because I was so nervous and after I sat down I thought of everything I wanted to say and didn't, but I'm glad I finally shared that experience through my testimony since she's almost a year old and I hadn't done it yet.
When we got home from church Nick saw Shasta's Easter dress for the first time and decided we needed to take pictures because she looked like Dorothy with her ruby red slippers and her dog Toto!
Shasta's 11 Months!
(Pictures are lame this month. School has been consuming my life. I didn't even get comparison pictures with her cow Bree). Here are some new things she started doing in the last month:
Loves to play Pat-A-Cake.
Claps her hands.
Learned how to give a high five. Also thinks doing "hungry chicken" in place of a high five is super funny!
Got a sinus infection.
Started needing lotion. When I took her in for her sinus infection we had to see the on-call doctor. He seemed to think her skin was really dry and that I should basically cake her grease to get rid of it. Occasionally she gets dry places, but I've never felt like it was as bad as this on-call doctor made it seem. He made me feel like I've neglected my child for not putting lotion on her regularly. Nick and I feel like if you put lotion on daily your body will become dependent of it. The nurses in the NICU never put lotion on Shasta and never talked about lotioning her so it wasn't something I ever thought about. After a visit with this other doctor, it made me thankful to have Shasta's doctor who makes me feel like I'm a good mom and NEVER gives me that "are you kidding me" look that this other doctor gave me.
Went on an Easter Egg hunt.
Loves to sing.
Is becoming quite the talker. She gabs and gabs all the time. I love it!
She's getting much better with play-doh. Her first instinct isn't to put it straight in her mouth anymore. She mostly likes to pull it apart and throw the pieces on the floor and I'm okay with that.
She pushes her arms through her sleeves and tries to help pull her shirt over her head.
Loves to dance. I'll hold her and dance with her to my ipod and she thinks it's so fun. She loves to spin in circles and be dipped. She gets so excited about it that she bounces in my arms and kind of kicks her legs in excitement.
Started using a spill proof cup. She loves to alternate between taking a bite for herself and sharing a bite with Wedge. It's cute right now, but I feel it'll be a battle when she's older and doesn't want to eat her dinner!
She'll eat anything I feed her. Sometimes she decides things taste funny and makes sour faces, but for the most part she's an amazing eater. She went through a stage where she spit everything back out that I put in her mouth, but that only lasted about a week. Her favorite foods are: potatoes in any form, chicken, green beans, cantaloupe, and gold fish. And if Mom's eating, she thinks she needs to be eating too!
Loves to play Pat-A-Cake.
Claps her hands.
Learned how to give a high five. Also thinks doing "hungry chicken" in place of a high five is super funny!
Got a sinus infection.
Started needing lotion. When I took her in for her sinus infection we had to see the on-call doctor. He seemed to think her skin was really dry and that I should basically cake her grease to get rid of it. Occasionally she gets dry places, but I've never felt like it was as bad as this on-call doctor made it seem. He made me feel like I've neglected my child for not putting lotion on her regularly. Nick and I feel like if you put lotion on daily your body will become dependent of it. The nurses in the NICU never put lotion on Shasta and never talked about lotioning her so it wasn't something I ever thought about. After a visit with this other doctor, it made me thankful to have Shasta's doctor who makes me feel like I'm a good mom and NEVER gives me that "are you kidding me" look that this other doctor gave me.
Went on an Easter Egg hunt.
Loves to sing.
Is becoming quite the talker. She gabs and gabs all the time. I love it!
She's getting much better with play-doh. Her first instinct isn't to put it straight in her mouth anymore. She mostly likes to pull it apart and throw the pieces on the floor and I'm okay with that.
She pushes her arms through her sleeves and tries to help pull her shirt over her head.
Loves to dance. I'll hold her and dance with her to my ipod and she thinks it's so fun. She loves to spin in circles and be dipped. She gets so excited about it that she bounces in my arms and kind of kicks her legs in excitement.
Started using a spill proof cup. She loves to alternate between taking a bite for herself and sharing a bite with Wedge. It's cute right now, but I feel it'll be a battle when she's older and doesn't want to eat her dinner!
She'll eat anything I feed her. Sometimes she decides things taste funny and makes sour faces, but for the most part she's an amazing eater. She went through a stage where she spit everything back out that I put in her mouth, but that only lasted about a week. Her favorite foods are: potatoes in any form, chicken, green beans, cantaloupe, and gold fish. And if Mom's eating, she thinks she needs to be eating too!
Spring Break and Turning 25
I am so behind on blogging it's ridiculous and school is completely to blame. I have written over 25 papers this semester. Let's just say I am SO ready for summer. Not that it matters since I'm doing summer school. Blah.
So here's some of what I'm behind on...
During spring break Nick and I rented a cabin in Bear Lake. We decided we just needed a little get-away to take a break from school and work so it was a little last minute, but completely worth it. It was still off season there so most things were closed, but that was okay because we just wanted to relax anyway. Sometimes when you come home from vacation you feel like you need a few days to recover and we didn't want to feel that way so we had a relaxing vacation.
This is the cabin we stayed in:
Then the following week...
I celebrated yet another birthday. I turned 21 and 48 months which is more commonly known as 25. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best birthday because the night before I went to bed with the most painful ear infection. So for my birthday I went to the doctor and sat at the pharmacy for a while waiting for my prescription. Nick took me to lunch, but that was the extent of our celebrating because he had to go to work... and I wasn't up for much more. A few days later he took me shopping which was pretty fun. I got a new temple dress which is something I've wanted for the last year. Then he got me a dashboard cover which is something I've wanted for the last 3 years! He also got it embroidered to say "BLT" which stands for "Brave Little Toaster" which is my car's name. And finally he got me a new outfit.
Then the following week...
Shasta turned 11 months, but that will be a separate post!
So here's some of what I'm behind on...
During spring break Nick and I rented a cabin in Bear Lake. We decided we just needed a little get-away to take a break from school and work so it was a little last minute, but completely worth it. It was still off season there so most things were closed, but that was okay because we just wanted to relax anyway. Sometimes when you come home from vacation you feel like you need a few days to recover and we didn't want to feel that way so we had a relaxing vacation.
This is the cabin we stayed in:
 |
| Sitting area #1 |
 |
| Bedroom #1 |
 |
| Bedroom #2 (Where Shasta slept) |
 |
| Kitchen and Dining Area |
 |
| Sitting Area #2 |
 |
| Master Bedroom |
 |
| Master Bathroom |
I celebrated yet another birthday. I turned 21 and 48 months which is more commonly known as 25. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best birthday because the night before I went to bed with the most painful ear infection. So for my birthday I went to the doctor and sat at the pharmacy for a while waiting for my prescription. Nick took me to lunch, but that was the extent of our celebrating because he had to go to work... and I wasn't up for much more. A few days later he took me shopping which was pretty fun. I got a new temple dress which is something I've wanted for the last year. Then he got me a dashboard cover which is something I've wanted for the last 3 years! He also got it embroidered to say "BLT" which stands for "Brave Little Toaster" which is my car's name. And finally he got me a new outfit.
Then the following week...
Shasta turned 11 months, but that will be a separate post!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)