Thanks For The Milk

Fist full of candied yams......

Yesterday was my sunflower's first Thanksgiving, and it could not have been any better. I spent many hours in the kitchen cooking up a feast worthy of my family and friends. Shopping for all the food and the bird was INSANE to say the least, but by some miracle I managed to get everything and cook it up with skill. This year I must give huge credit to my big man. He picked eight bags of greens all by himself! He found ever little cabbage worm or egg (there is nothing better than young eyes). All I had to do was clean and cook them.

This year I had a bigger crowd, and thanks to my transforming dinner table (bump! to IKEA) miraculously there was space for 12 of us grown folks at the table (I set a separate table up for the mini munchkins =^_^= ).

My little Hana was sitting on my sisters lap when she was served. While she ate, Hana grabbed a fist full of candied yams off her plate!! The baby dropped the most of it, but her finger were covered in the sweet prize. She sucked all the potatoes off and that sent her into a crying tizzy. Seems she wanted more and didn't appreciate being removed from her new found food source LOL!! After an emergency nursing session in the bedroom( and unfortunately that's where I had to finish my meal) , she was back to normal and was able to return to the table with the debut of her high chair (fresh out of the box erected skillfully by Papasan). she looked so adorable sitting there. I cant wait to give her a feeding in it....but not yet (not yet).

After the good time that I had yesterday I am a little sad.....My Hana is going to be starting solids soon. I am trying to hold off till the six month mark, but she is very interested in eating. I don't know if she can wait. She has not even had baby cereal yet. Nothing but breast-milk.

I am already starting to mourn the soon-to-be loss of our EBF relationship. My Flower is advancing so fast. gone is the helpless little meat roll of summer lol. Of all the things I have to be thankful for this year, I truly am thankful for being able to enjoy bonding with my little one through BF'ing. I am grateful for every drop of liquid gold.

Legal Milk

Let it be known that court and nursing DO NOT go together!

Today I had the pleasant experience of attending court (I was called as a witness for crap). I got there early enough,.. only to be shuffled into a waiting area reserved for the fearful people who were avoiding someone they have an order of protection against (yes...I have an order). All joking aside,.....the area was not that bad. It had lots of toys and soft chairs abound for the kiddies and adults. It was a quiet, well lit, air conditioned room with phones and a water cooler. The only thing it was missing was ...well..food LOL! I just didn't like it because of all the air of sadness it had. The room never really filled up...just one or two people in and out, but they were always sad. Sometimes even crying because they had no place to go home to because of an abusive spouse/boyfriend or family member, or they were locked into a court battle with an ex who denies paternity or just denies period. Since I don't find any of that amusing or even funny, I ....feeling like I was trapped became bored. Good thing I came prepared and loaded lots of games up.

At about 12 ish I began to feel the all to familiar tingle commonly known as "let-down". Because with me it's very forceful, the "let-down" hurt a lot. I was halfway through grabbing my chest when I remembered that I was in public. I quickly took my hands down and told the clerk that I was going to step out to the ladies room. Guess what I forgot in my haste in the am?? ...?? you guessed it! BREAST PADS!!!! Why do I always forget these?!!? The only thing that saved me and my cute suit was the fact that I had on a padded bra (great at soaking up impromptu leaks) and the suit was a dark pinstripe. pheeew!

Now back to the down side.......The court went to lunch from 1 to 2 pm and then resumed ...all still without calling me! By the time I was called (after 4pm) I was inflated like a thanksgiving balloon. Ready to burst and in a lot of pain. I don't know what was worse.....the dumb lawyers crappy questions or my boob pain( I was waiting for her to ask me about my breastfeeding habits ..lol). Well at least my boobs were in pain for a reason....life giving milk was piling up. The lawyer was just unorganized and dumb for no reason at all.

A huge part of me was embarrassed because I kept thinking everyone in the courtroom could see my milk stains (I was shaking a bit because of it). I could not wait to get off the stand and out of revealing light lol. I wish I would have worn the pads. In hind sight I would have given clearer answers if I didn't have this stalking my thoughts (and shown that no office having lawyer a thing or two

Oh well. Sera, Sera....

Yeah.....I did contemplate toilet tissue....It wont stop the gushers thou.

Zombie Cow

UGGGH!

For the last week or so I've been up at crazy hours of the night. It seems like a back slide, but my little girl no longer wants to sleep at night anymore. Instead she is WIDE awake at times when she is supposed to be getting sleepy.

It all starts around 8 pm. She is fed, changed, and all readied up for bed. But the response I get is anything but sleepy! She start to smile and laugh up a storm at the smallest things I do. She coos and giggles, and at time even begins to complain using all her cute little sounds. Sometimes I swear she can "talk". Lomg story short she is staying up till 3am most nights, and last night she fell sound asleep in the morning at 5AM!! Now I'll admit she takes about 2 cat naps in between 8 and 3 am. But she pops right back up in only a few (10-15) minuets.

The lack of sleep is starting to get to me. I tried nursing her more than usual to see if it would put her to sleep and between 3 and 5 I was as dry as the desert. I had to warm up some milk from my freezer stash and give it to her. Maybe its some king of growth spurt, but I'm hoping things will go back to normal soon. In the mean time I have to kick up my pumping again to keep my supply from taking too much of a dip from the stress of sleepless nights.

Splish Splash Photo

Look what I spend my time doing when I get pictures.

I'm still uploading various pictures.....It became so boring I had to take a few minuets out and do something fun.

Membership Granted!

Last week was very busy, getting things ready for Hana's church welcoming ceremony was a crazy task.

First the dresses that I ordered came in the bigger 3-6 month size. I originally picked the 0-3 month size, but you know what....The bigger size fit her anyway. I bought both, but put her in Dress #1 (the sleeveless one). She looked like a fairy princess in it!

I had to return the shoes because they were too small. That had me running out to find the perfect pair of shoes. I found cute little booties in this shopping location in my city called third avenue on Wednesday(along with a ton of other things).

ATTENTION!! ATTENTION!!!!! I SAVANNA MADE A HAIR-DO ON MY LITTLE GIRL FOR THE FIRST TIME!!! The cutest two little pigtails ever!! She still has that spiky hair thing going on, and her hair is long enough for the tails to work. So yeah....ok my job was easy...but it was my first time, and I didn't want to mess up.

I had to also get new outfits for the boys since the official "Christening" won't be for another 2 1/2 months, and I didn't want them to use their formal suites until then. More thanks to "Third Avenue"!

I must have been crazy because I cooked all the food for the party!! That took up most of my Friday and Saturday. I did order the cake...It was very good (exquisite looking & tasty) except I hate fondant with a passion. I wanted it done in butter cream but the look would not have been the same.

Below is the cake That was delivered but the pink was lighter in color.

I'm Just happy that everything went well. Everyone in the church loved (officially) meeting Hana and she has been dubbed "The Little Doll". There were about 26 or 27 friends & Family (not including me & Daddy) at the luncheon plus some invited parishioners from that mornings services...... , 17 attended the ceremony. All in all Hana's day was amazing.

I will post a link to the album as soon as I can get the pictures uploaded from Daddy's Cam.

Best Sunday ever!

Bring Me to Life!

Ok, so I'm finally getting down to some serious business.

Over the last three months I've taken scores of still and videos of my little sunflower, however I have yet to liberate the majority of them from my devices. Well today I'm saving them from pixelated purgatory, by uploading them to a photo website, and ordering all of the prints at once. The videos I will burn tomorrow and store them in my album of cd's & dvd's. I have a few living on the youtube site like the one shown below.

I plan to make it longer and add more clips, but for now it will have to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzvGg943k58

Schooled!

Sometimes you find comfort where you didn't think to look.

It's always nice when friends & family come to visit. but, I hadn't been looking forward to bf'ing in front of my baby's aunt and uncle. After about 30 mins into the visit my little fussy girl starts her patented squeaks for milk (she squeeks before she cries...so service better come fast). I retreat to my rocking chair for the nursing and grab a blanket to cover up.

In the midst of feeling awkward, I remembered that Lidia (aunt) BF her kids till they could nurse and then cover HER back up! lol! After thinking about who there was the REAL milkin queen....I considered myself "schooled" and from there on didn't feel weird or shy at all. bye bye blanket.



Here they are after the milk was had.