Making All things New: March 2014

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Breastmilk Donation

This probably is only a big deal to ame, but is donated about 150 oz of breast milk yesterday! I didn't actually have time to make a final count. I had been working up to pumping 3-5 extra ounces a day but all the snow days killed any progress I'd made in bolstering my supply so I emailed the girl I was donating to and said I would get the 100-200 oz she wanted but after that I wasn't going to make donating a priority because it was stressing me out to try to make that much extra milk--especially when I only work part time so I only need to pump 1-2 times a day for my son. Once I lifted that pressure, though, I started making a bit more milk! I stopped counting my donation at 120oz, but kept adding to it weekly. In all, it represents 4 months of work! I wish I could do more, but between my job and the kids, there's never enough time for an extra pumping session. In any case, one little girl has a week or two worth of my milk. Actually, I don't really know how long this would last. My son drinks 5-10 oz when I'm gone in the am, but I don't actually know how much he drinks in a day...

In any case, here it is: my donation, pulled straight from my deep freezer before I drove 30 seconds to where I delivered it. :-)

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

38 weeks old

He's learning how to wave.

He's more determined to do things his own way.

He's into studying things and experimenting with them.

He doesn't like when I read books for him because he gets frustrated when I don't allow him to eat the book.

Now that he's scooting forward he's so busy. He's getting into everything.

He's feeding himself finger foods like a champ!

He has two more teeth coming in on the top. This was just as unexpected as the other 4 teeth were. He will have a total of 6 teeth once their through--and his sister didn't even have one yet at this point in her life.

He growls a lot. It's usually when he's happy, excited, or studying something new that he's really interested in.

Daycare won't allow him to have the teething necklace on when he's there which is a shame since it's really helping him.

Dave made some mashed potatoes with a lot of garlic and onion in them and we froze a lot for Baby Bear and when he eats them, he has very strong smelling pee and smells like garlic for a good 12 hours or more.

At his sister's dance class, he was so curious that he craned his neck to see inside the open door, holding himself up by his Daddy's ear. It was so funny!

A facetime call on the day when I had in-service all day.

After a full day of not seeing me he was disheartened to hear my voice and not be able to be held by me. We hung up because it was just too sad for him and us.

We've found that the most effective way to bathe him is with one of us because it's quick and he's not a fan of the bathtub. He's okay with being with us in the shower, unlike his sister at this age. He doesn't freak out like she did.

Making a little baby friend.

Discovering his toes with Miss J.

Making a new friend of an old friend.

What he sometimes does when he feels he's been in the high chair for too long.

We visited Grammy and Carl.

He really liked this throw blanket that Grammy gave him (made by her mom).

He actually participated in Spanish class for a few minutes the one day.

He LOVES his toothbrush so much!!!

He's not a fan of the pack n play but he does like to stand.

Watching with interest as his sister plays bingo.

He saw something on the ground he was interested and dove down to get it while i saved him with the quick inward motion of my thighs. It was lucky I happened to have the camera pointed on him! One of the best pictures ever!

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

37 Weeks Old

I can regularly put him in bed awake after nursing and he will go to sleep on his own.

He is very physical when nursing. I feel like we're wrestling sometimes. This isn't really new, though. He is also still very dependent upon nursing to go to sleep for naptime and bedtime. There was a bit there where I tried to fight it, but he'll only want to do it so long so I'm not rushing him out of it. I still miss nursing his sister, and I wasn't in a rush with her and it still went by too fast. I'm going to be in even less of a rush with him.

I made a kissing game and now he likes kisses. He wasn't a fan of kisses on the mouth before this. His mouth/nose area is a very sensitive area and he freaks out when touched there. This makes nose wiping and face cleaning very difficult.

His hair is growing in on the back bald spot. It's longer on the sides than on the middle, though. Now that he's not spending so much time on his back, I look forward to seeing him with a full head of hair.

He's an expert at the army crawl/seal scoot thing he does. The two pictures above show the two steps of his forward movement. He's very proficient at it.

He's definitely got the object permanence thing. He starts crying and getting angry when he can't have something.

Currently, he doesn't like to share my lap with Noelle. He cried when he was with Daddy and I let Noelle come up and snuggle me and then he pushed and kicked at her when I tried to snuggle them both. I think someone has been spoiled a little bit...

He seems to understand the word no. Sometimes he thinks it's funny, sometimes he obeys and/or grumbles about obeying. Sometimes he either doesn't understand or he ignores it. Sometimes he understands it and gets frustrated because it's not what he wants to hear.

When he vocalizes it's always back in his throat and half the time it's a gurgle. He also squeals and grunts. He rarely makes consonant sounds.

He chews solid finger foods with his front teeth. He has successfully kept down a handful of puffs to date!

He screams when he doesn't get his own way.

He is really interested in tiny things, but he also seems to know that if he puts them in his mouth he runs the risk of vomiting.

He made a little friend...too bad he was ready for bed when this friend came to visit.

He doesn't like hats on his head and pulls them forward to get them off so he was really frustrated when that didn't work with this hoodie--poor little one!