Saturday, January 22, 2011

Breastfeeding - some rambling thoughts

I have been hearing/reading a lot about breastfeeding recently.

I am a huge advocate of breast feeding. In my mind, breast is best. I don't necessarily think there is anything wrong with formula, but it's not for me our my family. I don't judge other moms that choose to go the formula route, or that choose to do both. But, for me - breastfeeding is the only way to go.

I have always wanted to nurse my kids. I think it stems from my aunt, who breastfed all 4 of her children when I was at an age to understand (youngest I was 6, oldest I was 14) . She is the only one I knew that breastfed, and I always looked up to her.

When Julien was born,  I was very sad that I couldn't put him to breast right away - but I understood he needed to be in the nursery to be checked over. When he was transferred to CHEO - it broke my heart - not only was I seperated from my child, he almost died, and I wasn't able to have him nurse. I was given a pump to use in the hospital, but you yield such a tiny amount iin the beginning that they were supplementing with formula. In my head, all my dreams of breastfeeding were gone. I was still pumping, and sending in what little I could get from the pump. They were mixing  it with formula. When he was 9 days old and not hooked up to machines anymore, the nurse tried to help me latch him - it was a no go - but he downed a bottle of BM. At this point, I thought I would be a pumping mom. We came home the next day, and he wouldn't latch on - again, to the bottle we went. However, in the morning when I had no milk left, no formula in the house and couldn't pump - I gave it all I had and knew that he would have to figure it out. IT was amazing - he latched right away - there was no fighting, no tears and it was the most amazing feeling I have ever had.

I was astonished at the emotions that came with breastfeeding. Not feeding breast milk , but actually nursing my child. To know that he could get all the nourishment he needed from my body, amazed me. The fact that 10 days of tube/bottle feeding and he could figure out what to do - amazed me. We went on to have a teriffic breastfeeding relationship until he was a year old!  There were a few times where I wished that he was bottle fed so I could actually leave the house without watching the clock, but in the end I am thrilled with what we accomplished.

Kyle

When I was pregnant with him ,  I again relished the though of breastfeeding. To me, there is no better way to feed my child. I have on occasion given him a bottle of breast milk, but it feels so foreign to me that I really don't like to do it. I was lucky this time - I got to hold my baby right away, and as soon as he was cleaned up I was able to put him to breast. HE happily suckled away for 30 minutes, and then we switched - and again he happily suckled for 20 or so minutes.  Our breastfeeding was well established from the start -which I am so thankful for.

I think that no matter what way you choose to feed your child, you will have a bond with them. You are providing their nutrition - what better way to bond? But for me, I would have been very disappointed if I couldn't nurse my kids.

Kyle is almost 5mths old and hasn't had anything other than breastmilk. When he is 6mths, I will introduce solid foods for him (purees of veggies/fruit/meat and possibly cereal) and I hope to continue nursing regularly until he is a year old - and go from there.

what to do while kids are sleeping?

It is 10:10 am - Julien is still asleep and Kyle has been napping since 850am. You would think that I would take advantage of this kid free time and get some laundry done; or maybe tidy up the toys right? Of course, that would be the practical thing to d.

But, nope. I am sitting on the couch playing on my laptop. I feel like crap - my chest hurts, my ears are a little off and my throat is sore. I am trying to fight this off before we leave for disney on tuesday.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

EXHAUSTED

I love being a mom. I love my 2 boys and can't imagine my life without them. But they exhaust me. Hubby and I were talking last night, and I told him that. I am more tired at home with them than I ever was when I was working full time. It's amazing.

Lots of ppl think that stay at home moms have all the time in the world for whatever they please. I had no idea before I became one how little time I would have for cleaning, laundry etc. I only started to really get back into baking when my older son was about 2 and liked to help me (and then it took twice as long and made twice the mess).

My house is never as tidy as I would like it to be - and when I actually get it that way, I swear I am going to keep it like that, and within 2 days it's a mess again.

But it's fun - and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Polar Express

This is one of Julien's new favorite movies. To be honest, it's a great movie and I enjoy watching it with him (maybe not all 128 times)

The other day, we were talking about Disney and he told me that we were going to take the polar express to disney. He got quite upset when I told him that we were actually going to be flying there

poor Julien

Jules developed a pretty bad cough on the weekend. I was pretty sure it was his asthma, so I started giving him his inhaler again. A few days later he started with a runny nose and fever, and jsut not himself.  SO I chalked everything up to a common cold. Since we are leaving on tuesday for disney, I wanted to make sure this ears were ok (we will be flying).

took him to the doc today - his ears are fine. However, his chest is a mess. She said his asthma is REALLY bad. Poor little guy. So we now have 2 inhalers to administer - and hoping that it gets under control soon.

Thank God we are going away next week, otherwise I would have just waited it out a little longer before having him seen.

this time next week

My family will be at DISNEY WORLD!

We leave here on Tuesday morning, arriving mid afternoon. We should be in our hotel room by dinner! I am SUPER excited!

Monday, January 17, 2011

where did the time go?

Kindergarten registration is next week. I cannot believe that I am going to be registering my little guy for school already.

The last 3.5 years has gone by sooooo fast - and soon he is going to be in school all week.....

Friday, January 14, 2011

CONGRATULATIONS

I would like to send a BIG congratulations out to my Sister in law! She won a trip to Jamaica on the radio this morning!

Way to go Tash!

Have lots of fun!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

I would like to ask a facebook favor please

I am hoping that you will help me out here.  There is a contest on that I have a chance of winning. The prize is pretty good!

All you need to do is go to this page on facebook  cheshire cat pub regulars , join, and then post that I referred you (ashley picco)

It's a terrific pub in my area that I frequent every sunday for trivia. Great food, great staff and great patrons!

http://www.cheshirecatpub.com/

Sunday, January 9, 2011

a picture post

Me and my boys - both of whom were sound asleep

Christmas Eve - Kyle had fallen asleep nursing - sleepy baby

life as a mom

This post may be all over the place - just trying to get some thoughts out.

I love my boys. I love being a mom. But there are some days that I question my abilities, and my decision to have kids. Don't get me wrong - I wouldn't trade my kids for ANYTHING. It's just that there are times where my patience is non existant. I am tired, cranky, and just want to curl up with a glass of wine and forget about anything else (which I did last night - after the kids were in bed).

Being a mom is by far the HARDEST job I have ever had.  I never expected it to be easy, but it sure is much more difficult than I expected. I am responsible for these 2 tiny beings.  1 of them likes to question EVERYTHING; and the other can't tell me ANYTHING.  I need to make sure that they are fed, clean, happy, healthy (for the most part) and teach them about the world they live in; I need to keep them out of harms way (which is a scary thought, that when they aren't with me I can't ensure their safety). It scares me that someone could pick them up off the street (when they are older) or lure them into a bathroom somewhere and do unimaginable things to them.

Some nights I watch my boys sleeping, and remember what it felt like when I found out that I was pregnant with each of them. I remember the awe I felt when they moved inside me. The first time I nursed Julien - he was 11 days old and I was unsure of what I was doing - petrified that I wouldn't be able to breastfeed. When we didn't have issues, I was thrilled. Even now, with Kyle it AMAZES me that my body can provide all the nourishment that they need.

As I said, this post is all over the place - and there really is n't a point to it either. Yesterday was just a difficult day. But today is better.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

too early for wine?

ahhhhh - today is a pull my hair out day.  Kyle was up cranky last night (rightly so, cutting teeth hurts); and he woke up cranky today. Poor Julien is busy, bored and just doesn't understand why Kyle can't be happy so mommy can play with cars/blocks etc.

J is going to the hockey game with his dad tonight - I wonder if I will have any hair left when he gets home?

I think I will be soaking in a nice hot bubble bath with a glass of wine and a good book tonight....

Friday, January 7, 2011

winter hat in florida?

We are leaving for Disney world in 2.5 weeks, and for Christmas Juliens grandparents got him a suitcase. He has been quite obsessed with "packing" for the trip.

On Tuesday, we were looking for his hat and couldn't find it anywhere. I started to think that he had left it at school.  Then, I was grabbing something from his "packed" suitcase, and there it was. I casually asked him what it was doing in the suitcase, and he looked at me VERY seriously, and said "mommy, I might need my hat in disney world." It was so cute. It made me giggle

fun with my guy

Yesterday Julien and I had a terriffic day together. He has been quite the handful since Kyle has been born, and we have had lots of temper tantrums and screaming fits etc etc. However, yesterday he was such a little angel. When Kyle was awake we made cupcakes; played cars and read a couple books. When Kyle was sleeping we built a big block tower (will upload pic later) and read a longer book. We cuddled on the couch and had lots of mommy and julien time! It was awesome"!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

quite lacking in my blog posts

I can't believe it has been almost 2 months since I updated the blog - I apologize - not that many ppl are following it....

My last post was about Kyle's teeth. He cut 2 of his eye teeth, however they seemed to go back into the gum. I thought I might be going crazy, but my mom and sister-in-law confirmed that there were indeed teeth there at one point.

He now is in the process of cutting his bottom 2 incisors - the gum is split, and I can see the specks of white making there way to the surface.

Over the last 2 months we got ready for and had a terriffic Christmas!  We spent Christmas eve at my mothers house, christmas morning at our place, and christmas dinner at my in-laws. It was a great Christmas! Julien is at such a fantastic age for it, and Kyle is so young that he just goes with the flow of things!

After Christmas, we decided that we needed to do something about Kyle's sleeping. Unfortunately, it would take up to 2 hrs to get him down at night and then he would wake every 90-120 minutes throughout the night. He wouldn't calm down unless nursed, and often when he would fall asleep and I would transfer to the crib he would wake again, and the whole process would start again. Poor Julien was getting the short end of the stick being told that he needed to be quiet; to go downstairs and play (often by himself); and that Kyle needed mommy. I really wasn't the mom I wanted to be to him, and realized that Kyle might need mommy, but Julien is only 3 and HE needed mommy too.

 We decided to use the Sleep Easy method of sleep training (http://www.sleepyplanet.com/).  December 27th was our first night with this approach, and it went much better than I expected.  Julien had gone to bed quite early, and when we put Kyle down for the night he fussed / cried for about 5 minutes. J was just about to do the first check in when the noise stopped and we realized he had fallen asleep - amazing! He woke up around 45 minutes later (like always) and cried for 90 minutes. There were ups and downs with the crying, and we did our scheduled check ins but that was rough. We cuddled on the couch and thank goodness J was here for support, or I probably would have caved. Over the next few days we had ups and downs, but he was a much happier baby when he was awake; it put him on a nap schedule and feeding schedule. IT has been amazing!

New Years Eve was one of my favorites. We spent it in sleeping bags on the floor of the family room and we watch cars and toy story 3! I must say that when hubby and I got together 11 years ago and had our first new years together - this wasn't what  I expected - but we all had fun. Julien had a late nap that day and managed to stay awake until midnight. He jumped off the couch and yelled happy new year! It was quite cute!

Julien has continued with nursery school and seems to really be enjoying it! It hit me the other day that I have to register him for kindergarten in a few weeks - can't believe my little guy will be heading out to school in september!

The last 2 nights have been rough for kyle, and he is working on his lower incisors now. I am hoping that they will cut the gum in the next day or 2 and that his night time sleep will get back on track!

I am super excited to say that in 19 days we will be heading down to Walt Disney World! The 4 of us are going with J's parents. We have a 2 bedroom suite on the monorail,! I can't wait to experience disney again ,and this time through Julien's eyes - it's going to be awesome!!!!