Breastfeeding

Oh, the dreaded post.  The one where I admit failure (well at least in my mind it is a personal failure).  So, from the beginning.  I always knew I would breastfeed. My entire pregnancy people would always ask "are you going to breastfeed?" I would always so yes! very enthusiastically.  I was so excited about breastfeeding. Rich bought me a nice pump, and I bought lots of nursing gear.  Boy were those dreams shot down fast.

In reality, I was not able to breastfeed. In my mind, I have to justify it by saying it is because of the traumatic labor/delivery.  After 16 hours of labor,  3 hours of pushing (and making 0 progress), an emergency C-Section,  emergency surgery for a ripped bladder and torn large artery in my leg, having a catheter for 10 days (TMI I know), breastfeeding was not in the stars for Noah.   During my 5 day hospital stay (for me, Noah was just perfect), I think I had every nurse,  every lactation consultant and my mom try to get Noah to latch on. He would not. He refused.  See, right after he was born I was in surgery for about another 3 hours.  He was given formula and took to the bottle nipple.  After that, he refused to nurse. REFUSED! He would get pissed, I would get upset, it was a disaster. We tried everything and nothing worked (and to this day he is very nipple picky...he won't even take a pacifier because it isn't shaped like his bottle nipple).

So, I did the best I could. I pumped for 2 weeks before my milk supply ran out.  I cried, I was upset, I hated it. But, he was well fed with formula, he got 2 weeks worth of my milk, and believe me he is not hurting in size.  He also has not been sick with a fever in 8 months.  I found that I can bond with him feeding him a bottle, snuggling with him, singing to him, reading to him, kissing him, loving on him, responding when he cries, ect.  I will confess that I delayed teaching him how to hold his bottle because I wanted that time with him.  Since I wasn't able to breastfeed, bottle feeding was that special time.

I still grieve not being able to breastfeed, but I know that we did the best we could. This is a reminder that not everything goes as planned.  I have quickly learned that planning does not go well with having a baby.  Going with the flow is a much better thing to do.

8 Months

Holy 8 months!! Noah, I can't believe that you are going to be 8 months tomorrow. Time has gone by WAY too fast.  You are getting so big and you are learning so much. You are more like a little person rather than a teeny tiny baby.  I would say you probably weigh about 21-22 pounds and you are very solid and long.  You wear size 3 diapers and range in clothes from 9 months to 24 months depending on what it is.  We have tons of fun during the day and I love watching everything you do. Ok, so what are you doing Mr. 8 months.

Lets talk about sleeping first. I do not have any pictures of you sleeping in your crib in your room because the floor creeks and if I go in there to take a picture you are sure to wake up.  Since the night of May 8th, 2011 you have been sleeping in your big boy bed all night long.  Prior to that, starting at about 6.5 months, you were sleeping in your bed until about 4 AM and then you would come and snuggle with momma. Then, all of a sudden the night before Mother's Day you slept in your crib 9 straight hours without waking up! Since then, you really haven't been on a consistent schedule.  Most days, you take 2 naps at about 1.5 hours each. That is if we are home. Then you go to bed between 7:30 and 8:30 and some nights you sleep until 7 AM, some nights you wake up every 2 hours, some mornings you wake up at 5:30, some mornings you wake up at 7. I guess it just depends on the mood you are in.  Most of the time when you wake up during the night you are able to go back to sleep within about a minute.

Noah-7.5 Months

You are a big eater! You eat mostly anything I give to you. You love fruits, chicken/apples, sweet potatoes and turkey, yogurt, oatmeal.  You usually have to have prunes in the morning.  Also, I let you try small bites of table food.  When you try something new you make a face at me, but after one or two bites you tend to love it.  You eat 3 meals a day (2 containers of food each meal) and you have about 24-28 oz of formula a day.  I do not make your baby food anymore because it got very complicated and I couldn't keep up.  But, I try to mostly buy the organic or fortified baby foods (ie with DHA). Oh, and you always have to have something to play with when you eat and you make a HUGE mess. We also started you on a mesh feeder this month and you get so excited when you see it. 

Noah, May 19, 2011

Noah, May 26, 2011

You are sitting up very well. You sometimes fall over when you get tired, but you can sit for long periods.  You are also rolling everywhere and you can get up on all 4's and rock back and forth. You haven't mastered going forward yet, but you can go backwards.  You have a lot to move! 

May 27, 2011

You are getting very good at playing with your toys. You have learned to press the buttons on all of the toys that make sound (like the book above). One of your favorite things to do is sit and pull all of your toys out of a basket.  You love to read your books and you can lift up flaps and turn the pages.  You can also get all the pieces out of a puzzle and pull them out by the knob.  You are very good with your hands.  You are working very hard on talking.  You can make a "s" sound, and when you get upset you say "maaaaaa" You grunt a lot, blow bubbles, and are practicing very hard on your sounds. We have heard you make a "ga" "ha" sound.  You have also learned about screeching and screaming for fun.  And, when you are excited you like to make short, fast breaths and wave your hands in the air.  

You love to watch your singing movies, and you still love when anyone sings to you.  You are able to bounce or dance when asked, and love to play with ANYTHING electronic (I think this is because you know you aren't supposed to have them).  When you see something you want you will stop at nothing to try and get it.  

Also, you learned about peek a boo and can find any toy/object when it is covered.  You like for me to cover your face with a towel and then you take it right off and laugh.  

May 21, 2011

You love to be outside and to go bye bye. We are working on waving bye bye and you have put your hand up to wave a few times.   When you want something you grunt a lot to get it.  You love bath time and splash, splash, splash in the water.  You do SO well in your car seat and hardly every cry when we go places.  You also love to ride in your stroller and go on walks.  You like to lean over your stroller and try to grab the grass.  Sitting in the grass and trying to pull it out is one of your new favorite things.  You also love to watch other kids and try to talk to them.  When we pick up your Uncle Paul from school you get so very excited.