Mommin' It Up!

September 4, 2008September 4, 2008

My Weaner Has a First Name

As I write this, I am sitting on my couch listening to my daughter Sophie chatter over the baby monitor. She is in her crib, but it’s not nap time. She’s there because she wants to nurse, and I want to wean her, and I don’t know what else to do with her. Sometimes she’ll be distracted by a snack, a toy, or a TV show, but this afternoon she’ll have none. She has nursed three times today (it’s about 4:00 P.M.now) and that is the best we’ve ever done. The girl is 21 months old now, and it is beyond time for us to be done nursing. Because before two weeks ago when I really started to try to wean her, Sophie nursed not just in the morning, not just at night, not just at nap time, but whenever she wanted to. Her average was probably 8-10 times a day. It’s just crazy, and exhausting, and as much as I have loved nursing my child, and as much as I have talked about weaning her but not ever done anything about it, I am now READY. Over the past two weeks I’ve really been able to cut back, but the past two days haven’t been so hot. So today I’m trying so hard to stick to my guns.

But I’m sitting here crying on the couch. Nothing feels good or right about any of this. Being a human pacifier didn’t feel good or right, having Sophie try and pull my shirt up in public – definitely not good or right. Having her fuss and climb all over me and having to put her to bed because she wants to nurse and I won’t let her – doesn’t feel good or right either. Now it’s 4:17, and I can’t leave her up there forever!

If someone could please give me a “Magic Weaner” button, that would be super. The process is wearing me down. If I could just wake up tomorrow and be over this hurdle, I’d be one relieved mama.

August 27, 2008August 27, 2008

WFMW: Breastfeeding tips

I nursed Kate for 15 months, so when Sam was born I felt like I at least knew a little bit about what I was doing… but of course, since he was a different baby, he presented different challenges. I thought I would share a couple of things that worked for me this time around.

When Sam was really tiny, we had trouble with a shallow latch. He just wasn’t getting on there enough, and that lead to all kinds of fun problems like plugged ducts and mastitis, and contributed to his frequent nursing (more on that later). Anyway, of course I Googled it, and found something called a “deep latch technique.” This method helped a lot and I would highly recommend it.

And back to the frequent nursing thing…. Sam nursed all.the.time. Like non-stop. So once again I googled it, and found out about block feeding. Block feeding is basically nursing from one side for 2-4 hours at a time, so the baby gets the more fatty, more filling hind milk. This really helped us and Sam would sleep for longer periods of time after he filled up.

Nothing ground breaking, I know, but these two tips really helped our nursing relationship, and anything that makes breastfeeding easier works for me!

What breastfeeding tips do you have to share??

For more WFMW tips, head over to Rocks in my Dryer!

August 6, 2008January 13, 2009

Horror-Moans

Greeting from the throes of Hormone Hell! (If you are reading this and are a dude, you MIGHT wanna bail now. That means, YOU, Dad! And YOU, Uncle Dan!)

Ok, anyways. It’s that time of the month. Ever since my period returned when Sophie was 10 months old, my hormones have been torturing me. So I write this as I am on day THREE of a terrible headache. The cramps weren’t really that bad his time around, for which I am thankful! But unfortunately, this isn’t the only time during my cycle when the hormones and I duke it out. They also smack me with a nice headache or two when I’m fertile. These are sometimes accompanies by puking. And then there’s the zits. Giant, sore, swollen spots on my forehead. One is either starting or healing virtually ALL the time. I get one when I’m fertile and one just before my period. I am starting to get scars. I never had acne like this when I was a teenager, but now that I’m thirty, well, they are making up for lost time.

Finally, there’s the mood swings. The night before I got my period this time I was seriously so depressed, I just wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear. I am normally an upbeat person, but these hormones just make me crazy sometimes. I knew it was totally irrational. All I could do was go to bed. I knew I would feel calmer in the morning (and I did). But I’d rather just skip that feeling altogether.

There are two solutions to this problem: get pregnant (Hee-ell no, sorry Mom!) or wean Sophie and get back on the ol’ birth control pill. I seriously care MORE that it regulates my horror-moans than I do that it prevents pregnancy.

So. I need to wean this girl. She is 20 months old for goodness sake, I think I’ve done my duty.

But she’s my baby.

And she’s very strong-willed.

And she loves her some nursing.

And she really does not like the idea of giving it up.

And the sound of her screaming makes me want to jump off a bridge.

But I’m tired of my hormones taking me from this:

To this:

So tell me, world wide interwebz, what do I do?