Snow Days!

I think most people who read my blog are in the St. Louis area so they know that there is significant winter weather predicted for Mon, Tue, and Wed. They are saying that this will be the worst winter weather since the Blizzard of 1982. In 1982, I wasn't even born, or even a thought, yet. Well maybe a thought, but definitely not in existence yet. David, however, was still in his Mommy's belly, cooking away. Maybe in another 30 years, when we get another bad storm, we can look back and say "Noah, you were about to turn 1 last time we had bad winter weather". I'm working today for as long as I safely can. I will probably be leaving around 3 or 4pm so I can drive before it's dark. For tomorrow, I might be working from home depending on what it looks like in the morning. David is basically setting up camp at home for the next 3 days. I'm glad he can work from home so easily. My new job is very flexible about working from home, but sometimes it's not super easy to bring things home to work on.

Noah was sick on Saturday, but after he had some meds, his fever went down and he looked better, so we decided to chance it and take him to the auto show with us. It went great and we saw lots of good cars. Two to note were the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid and the Toyota Prius. We'll wait until the Sonata Hybrid comes out and go test drive them both and hopefully make a decision and get a new car!!!

On Sunday, he broke his fever (finally). We decided to not go to church so that we didn't have to put him in the nursery after being sick so recently. We did go to Victoria's birthday party. I sadly only took a few quick shots with my phone so nothing worthy to post. While I don't necessarily have a desire to become a photography genius, I would like to get better about taking more pictures.

Updated Blog

As you can see, I have revamped the blog design. I hope you like it. Look for more changes in the future. Also, I'm thinking of changing the name of my blog to something more clever and something that better describes my posts better. Right now, I still post mostly on Noah, but in the future I will be posting on TTC and adding #2 to our family. So please give me your suggestions on creative blog titles. THANKS!!!!

Still Sick

Yup, Noah's still down and out. The doctor did an RSV test and it came back negative (big relief). He did notice some fluid buildup in his ear, so he's thinking an ear infection. So David stayed home with him on Wednesday and worked from home, which he said wasn't too bad since Noah either slept or played happily by himself. However, Wednesday night his fever was up to 102. He did sleep well that night though. Thursday, my dad came and helped take care of him while David worked at home. This fever that morning was 103 so it was definitely getting worse. He also didn't really seem himself, very tired and not too playful. Luckily he was still taking little bits of food and milk and keeping it down, so I wasn't concerned about dehydration. As of now, he's still getting 103 fevers and we are alternating between tylenol and ibuprofen every 3 hours with an antibiotic for the infection once a day. He didn't sleep so well last night so David had to get up with him, but he did take 4 oz of formula (more about that in a minute). When I left, Noah (and Daddy) were fast asleep. David is taking today off to help take care of him 100% and hopefully get him well for this weekend.

This weekend we are suppose to go to the auto show on Saturday to help us find a new car. Sunday, we have an appt in the morning to get his pictures taken, then a birthday party in the afternoon. I really don't want him to be sick for all of this because that would kind of ruin the plans not to mention, it's no fun being sick for that many days in a row.

I also want to point out an interesting generation gap. Me and David's opinion on treatment of illnesses are to treat the child, not the sickness. Which means that if Noah has a 102 fever but is eating well and shows no symptoms of feeling bad, there is no reason to chalk him full of meds. We give him medicine when he doesn't feel well. In fact, according to Dr. Sear's, a low grade fever can actually help him feel better on his own without meds. I believe this. However, our parents are not of the same beliefs. It seems like people in my parent's generation think that you just give meds until you reach the max dosage regardless of how they feel or their symptoms. More of a preventative measure, I suppose?

Now the formula I spoke of....we got free samples for this Toddler based formula in the mail. So we figured there was probably more vitamins and good stuff in that than in cow's milk, so we thought we would try it. Apparently he likes it. Should we keep buying it for a little while? Jury is still out. What's your opinion????

Sicknesses

Noah started having symptoms of a cold starting last Saturday (1/15) but it was just a mild cough and runny nose. We were diligent and cleaned out his nose regularly. Monday morning, both David and I woke up with colds and fought them all last week and we are both thankful that we are 100% healthy now, except Noah still has his cold. I'm worried because 2 kids were diagnosed with RSV at his daycare. I did my research and it appears that RSV is basically a bad cold that affects all kids differently but could turn into worse things like pnemonia or an infection. We've kept an eye on everything and it's never been worse than the cough and runny nose. However, this morning, he had a slight fever of about 100 degrees. So we decided that David would stay home with him today and take him to the doctor. He hasn't gone yet, so I can't tell you what the doctor said, but I hope everything goes well. Noah is still eating just fine (if not more than usual) and I think he might be teething the top two teeth, so that could be the reason for the fever, too. One good sign is I didn't hear as much raspy wheezy sound from his chest this morning, so maybe he really is on the upswing and it's just taking a little longer.

I suppose this is the fun of winter with babies. I just hope being in daycare catching all these colds now will prevent more in the future. Not to mention, isn't breastfeeding suppose to prevent colds??? I could only imagine how sick we would be if I didn't breastfeed, I guess.

Speaking of breastfeeding, we are still officially nursing but I definitely think it's ending. In the morning and evening, our once typical longest nursing sessions, are now becoming very short and distracted. He's always more interested in his toys, my shirt, the remote, cell phone, David, the dog, anything else but what's right in front of his face. I think it's a combination of my low supply and his wanting other foods and drinks besides breastmilk.

We are still working on getting him to drink his milk out of a sippy cup while in the highchair. The daycare claims that they can get him to drink the milk (breast or whole) out of the sippy cup while rocking in the chair, but in the high chair. But at home, we can get him to take a few drinks from the high chair. I think the daycare gets too busy at meal times to sit there and offer him a drink every few minutes, but hopefully we can get him used to it enough at home that he will start doing it on his own at school.

Noah is walking...

Well, maybe not walking, but taking a few steps here and there. On Monday night, we were able (with the help of the dog) to get him to stand him and take a few steps on his own before he came tumbling down. We even got it on video (see Youtube). Every night we have been trying to get him to do it more and he pretty much does the same thing. Yesterday, though, he was starting to fall and stood back up and corrected himself before taking another step and then falling, so I think he's getting better. All in time, I'm sure!

So the pumping situation is not nonexistent. I said before that I would wean myself this week by doing it 1x a day. Monday I was super busy at work (as I've been all week), so I pretty much forgot. Since I wasn't in pain or engorged or anything, I decided my body didn't really need to be weaned, so I'm done pumping!!!! And honestly, that was the best thing I could do. I even have a renewed passion to maybe breastfeed for longer. Although I'm still torn on this issue.

Yesterday was a snow day and while I still had to work (from home), I did get to spend more time with him than usual. He wasn't feeling too great (we've all been sick this last week or so) and I think he's teething his top 2 teeth, so he nursed more than usual, especially to go down for a nap. David tried to feed him a sippy cup of milk on Wednesday night when I went to Zumba and he wouldn't do it, although Grandpa has gotten him to do it when we go out for a date or something, so I know he can if he has to. I think sometimes he just needs his mommy and the comfort of breastfeeding and I don't really blame him. So as much as I really want to keep trying for another baby, I really want to keep breastfeeding, too. The biggest "issue" is with me starting busy season (like next week), David will be responsible for getting him up in the mornings and I'll be gone by the time he gets up, so I won't be feeding him in the morning anymore. So for basically one feeding at night, we won't be able to try and conceive another baby.

I suppose it's possible that going that long without nursing could cause my cycle to return on its own, but I really doubt it since it wasn't here when I wasn't breastfeeding at all. I really think I will just have to stop nursing 100% and go to fertility meds which makes me sad because I wish I could be fertile without stopping nursing. I think for now, we will just take it one day at a time.

Weaning

Well I think it's really official that the weaning process has begun. Technically, the second I gave him solid food back at 6 months old, he was beginning the process of weaning, but I don't really count that. Now he's really weaning. This weekend we started giving him some whole milk just to see how he would do with it and he did great. So this week at daycare, he will take 6 oz of breastmilk (BM) and 3 oz of cow's milk (CM). I told the daycare to do his 3 oz of BM at 9am and the other 3 oz of BM at 3pm. Then we would try the 3 oz of CM at lunchtime with his meal while in the high chair. If he takes it, great. If not, then we'll go back to rocking in the chair with him. This weekend, we tried offering him milk with his meal and he did take it a few times, so I think he's starting to get used to it a little more. Persistence, right?

As far as pumping, I've determined I need about 45 ounces to finish these last 2 weeks (6 oz of BM a day this week and 3 oz of BM a day next week). I have around 45 ounces of BM in the freezer, so I'm actually ok to stop pumping now except I want to wean myself gradually just in case. So this week I'm going to stop pumping first thing in the morning, which is what I do on the weekends anyway. I'm also going down to pumping 1 time during the day. Next week I'll stop pumping altogether and I just can't wait!!!!

All of this is definitely bittersweet. I'm excited about the prospect of trying to conceive another little one (and also dreading all the fertility junk at the same time). I am 100% excited to rid myself of the pump, but it will also be nice to wear normal bras and not have to worry about wearing something I can nurse Noah in. I will certainly miss him, but I think he will do good without the BM, too. I do feel somewhat guilty and I know I shouldn't. I went a whole year and that was my goal all along. Some parts of me wishes I could go into the second year, but really it would be more to prove I can do it and it wouldn't be for the benefit of me or Noah. I have just been questioning my "parenting" a lot lately and wondering whether I'm doing a good job. I guess that never ends, right?

Noah is almost walking...

I updated the blog design to something for Valentine's Day. I'm not 100% happy with it, but at least it's not Christmas themed anymore. I am hoping to find something more "permanent" in the near future.

So Noah is really getting closer to walking everyday. Right now, he pushes his little truck around the house and when he gets to a wall, no big deal, he'll just walk around to the front and push it backwards. He also has a basketball hoop that he will hold on to while he puts the balls through and yesterday I would hand him two balls, he would take one with his free hand and then he took his other hand off the hoop and grabbed the second ball and then put it in the hole. So for like 5 good seconds, he was standing alone.

Noah is still doing good with his sippy cup. We bought a different brand (Pampers, Stage 4) that has a cap and ounce markings and we like it a lot better. Noah is getting pretty close to just eating everything that we are eating. Last night for dinner, we had roast beef, green beans, mashed potatoes and beer bread. He ate the beef, beans and bread all from his tray and then we fed him the potatoes and he liked it all. At school, he eats probably 40% of his food from there with that % increasing everyday. I'm thinking next month we will just rely on the school food mostly and have some of our food as back-up.

We are working on Noah's first birthday party. His invitations went out and the party is planned for Feb 5. I'll try and post a picture of his invitation, because I thought it was super cute. At first, I was going to try and make his cake, but after further thought, I think I am going to order it. I just don't have much time with Noah and working extra and I want it to be perfect. I may, however, make a small cake for his pictures. We'll see how time goes.

Adventures of the Sippy Cup

Oh my, I don't think I knew what I was getting myself into with this sippy cup business. I also want to state, unless I mentioned it before, that the whole reason we wanted to switch to the sippy cup now was because our plan is to switch Noah to cow's milk at 1 years old (which is only a month away, can you believe it?). I have this thing against Noah drinking cow's milk in a bottle. I feel like it's the first step to having a 3-year old drinking his water, juice, and everything else from a bottle and that image disturbs me (I'm sorry if you have a child that fits into this category). So I have made the decision to switch him to a sippy cup 1 month earlier than the cow's milk to get him adjusted to 1 thing at a time. Honestly, it's not that big of a deal, or at least it shouldn't be. I know he can drink from a sippy cup, although it's not his preferred choice. He has the motor skills to tip the sippy cup back, I see him do it with a cup all the time. So it's just a matter of enforcing that this is what we are going to use instead of a bottle. Not to mention I've heard a lot about the benefits of a sippy cup vs. a bottle such as dental problems, etc.

We are using the munchkin mighty grip sippy cup to start with. It has a soft spout and you just have to bite down a little to get the liquid to come out, yet it's still pretty spill proof. We have a few others like this, but for now, we are sticking to 1 specific kind. I think we will be getting rid of our valved cups due to problems this can cause later on.

So I mentioned that Monday with my aunt went fairly well. He just had to have the bottle in the afternoon, so I was expecting similar results from daycare on Tuesday. Oh My!!! So my first problem was that David was dropping him off and explaining the sippy cup to his teachers. I love my husband, but he just wasn't equipped with the best communication skills. Then I called to go over some of the big points and made sure to tell them to call me if they had questions. The main instruction was keep trying the sippy cup for his first feeding and if absolutely wouldn't take it, then switch to the bottle by his second feeding at 12. Well they couldn't get him to take the sippy, so what do they do? They don't give him any milk until 3pm!!!! Not only that, but when he finally did get a bottle, he gulped it so fast, that he threw up! Poor Noah!

I got to the root of the problem when I dropped him off on Wednesday. Apparently, they were just giving him the sippy cup in the high chair and expecting him to feed himself. Sadly, we are still in the transition phase and we still need to rock him and hold it for him. Eventually, yes, we do expect for him to do most of this himself, but not yet! So with more instruction from Mommy on TWednesday morning plus a nice written up page for the teachers, we had much better luck on Wednesday. He took all 3 feedings in a sippy cup. The only "complaint" was that it took him almost 45 minutes to down 3 ounces. I can understand why the daycare people might be a little upset about this as they probably don't have the time to sit there and feed my 11-month old for 45 minutes while they are supposed to be caring for 3 other ones, but hopefully this is just a short time of transitioning. I think soon enough, maybe a week or two, he will figure this sippy out and start drinking faster. Then we can experiment with giving him the cup on his own and trying other sippy cups.

So hopefully today went just as well.

P.S. I went to go see a friend's newborn baby on Tuesday night. She was so cute and adorable and now baby fever is back in full swing.

Pumping

I know my blog still looks like it's for Christmas, I'm working on finding a new one.

Also I want to update that yesterday he took the sippy cup great for his 9am and 12pm feedings, but the 3pm feeding did not go well. Apparently, he must have been super tired and so I think he wanted the bottle for more comfort than anything and he would not be calm until he had it. So he did have 1 bottle yesterday. We took an emergency bottle to daycare today. Let's hope they didn't have to use it.

Now for the main part of this post - Pumping. I didn't do so well with pumping last week while I was off work. So now that I'm back to working, I'm pumping in the morning (about 2-3oz) and twice at work (1 oz each time) for a total of about 4-5 oz per day. He is still getting about 9 oz at daycare, so we are losing approximately 4-5 oz a day. With the weekend pumping, that means I'm losing about 15-20 oz a week. With my freezer supply, that is enough to get us by for SEVERAL weeks, so I'm making the executive decision to stop pumping on the weekends. In 2 weeks or so, I may need to start working more hours, so I may cut out my morning pump as well.

I figure at this point, even if I didn't have any freezer stash and stopped pumping, he would be fine on cow's milk at daycare, or at least extra solid foods (assuming he doesn't need a bottle for comfort).

I have mixed feelings about this. Mainly, I'm super excited that my relationship with the pump is ending. I have said it before, but I hate pumping. I hate cleaning it, I hate setting it up, I hate sitting there, listening to the "whoosh whoosh". It's just not fun. But this also symbolizes that my breastfeeding relationship is also beginning to come to an end, as well. Sometimes, I think, it's ok. David will be able to feed him more and no more screaming hungry baby in the carseat (we'll just give him a sippy cup in the car). No more nursing bras. No more worrying about the clothes I'm wearing and if they are breastfeeding friendly. No stopping everything to sit and feed. But I'm also sad because I just can't get over Noah looking me in the eye while gulping away and the way he plays with my shirt and snaps my bra (yeah, that part isn't as fun). I think mainly I'm sad because it means Mr. Noah is growing up and moving on.

I still think that right now this is the best decision (to stop breastfeeding at one year). It was the original goal I had for myself and we just really want to start trying for that second one soon (which according to my doctor, I can't do until I stop nursing). Ok, somehow this went from pumping to breastfeeding, but anyway. I am glad for soon to be no more pumping!!!!!!

11 months - Back to work

I've been so busy while I've been off work, that I haven't had time to update this blog. So we worked with the sippy cup some even though I said we weren't "officially" transitioning to the sippy cup until today.



He did pretty good. He had some trouble at first because he could still see Mommy and knew where the "real" source is. Once I left the room and figured out that the milk from the sippy cup is just as good, all was well. It did take him longer than usual, but as it gets used to it, he'll master it. Today starts the official transition.

I didn't realize, but apparently our daycare is closed today. Thankfully I realized this before this morning, but it did require a last minute phone call to my Aunt Mary who was able to come over and watch Mr. Noah. I'm sure he's getting a lot of spoilage today!!!

Noah had a lot of fun over Christmas. Here he is opening a gift on Dec 23 from Mommy and Daddy (a little early).



He did really well at my family member's houses. Some of the time, he slept on me in the wrap and we were able to lay him on the ground for one of his naps.



On December 31 (New Year's Eve), some random tornadoes hit the area which damaged some of the building our daycare is in. From what I know, daycare should resume as normal tomorrow. No damage was done to our house or anywhere in our neighborhood. It was nice to have almost 70 degree weather that day, though!

Here are a few more photos to enjoy:

Noah taking a nap in his car seat with his fave friend (aka his thumb)


Our friends Kyle and Erin got a new puppy named Penny. Here I am holding her.

And here is Noah playing with her. She was so sweet and Noah just loved her.


We went to eat at a place called Cheeburger Cheeburger (sooo good) and Noah wanted a bite.


Noah likes to suck on the head of the turtle toy in his bath. This picture is cute because you can tell he is smiling behind the turtle.


Noah is playing hide and seek behind the stairs.


Noah is taking a little nap on Mommy while doing some grocery shopping.