All about Breastfeeding

Sometimes breastfeeding upsets my stomach. It feels like there is a hook and line attached to my pubic bone and it is slowly being pulled out through my esophagus. It makes me sick, sore and swollen. When I thought first of being a mother i didn't dream of sitting in a bathroom with a mechanical mouth pulling food from me. I hear the whir of Industrial white noises as I sit on my feeding throne. The chair has wheels so I can cart it back and forth, to and from my desk and my, well other desk.
One desk has a modest computer and shared phone. It's smothered with pieces of my personality flare from the years I have been employed here. It has a comfy black arm chair hugging under the slightly too short desk. I get business done here.
My other desk is tiled with a sink basin in the center. It holds my breast pumps duffel-like bag. Conveniently, the bag has a mini cooler in it with removable ice packs to store pumped milk. Inconveniently, I forgot to grab the ice packs out of the freezer this morning rendering it useless. I hope people at work don't mind the little bottles of breast milk I put in the break room refrigerator. As I am writing this with my thumb, on my phone, one handed in the bathroom, the batteries in my pump have died. It is a good thing I snagged the gigantic ancient AC adapter to plug it in. Wait, is there absolutely no plug outlets in this bathroom? Figures, guess I will have to improvise at my next appointment with my pump in 3 hours. I feel awfully American assuming there would be accessible electricity in my flush toilet bathroom office.
It seems my life is in 3 hour increments.
Here I am 3 hours later siting in a coworker's office taking advantage of the outlets. It feels like my chest might explode if I didn't start pumping soon. All I can picture is a cow with a sagging full utter. Moo. I am glad the guy evacuated his office with only a couple of jokes. "You need me to grab you a big gulp cup?". I feel like I am in high school again.
I hope I make my milk quota today. I am not sure if I drank enough water, I'll cross my fingers. I feel like I should get a gold star when I produce enough. Maybe I need to make myself a chart and buy some star stickers to track what a good milker I am.
I do like breastfeeding. Though i cried and cried when my milk came in, I really enjoy feeding the baby. I wish I could bring the babe to work with me. I know my milk is good for the little one. My husband told me to commit to it if I choose to breastfeed. It is a love hate relationship. It doesn't work too well if I cry about it everyday.
I am glad I can provide for the little one. And it is a plus at night to not have to get a bottle.
At lunch time I pass on the onions and beans... And caffeine, cheese, hummus, tomatoes and chocolate. Well that is a lie I still eat chocolate, So sue me.
One thing that is interesting about storing liquid in my mammary glands is the produce different amounts of milk. This leads to different size boobs. That's right I said it, I now have one bigger then the other.
Why am I writing all of this? What is the point of this piece of writing? Well it is a confession I guess. I understand why some women choose not to go through this ordeal. I myself am taking it a day at a time. It is challenging to go to work and still stick to feeding the baby with Mother's milk. Not only does it make your hormone levels wacky but it is uncomfortable. This is my women war cry saying "I can do this and I am awesome for it!" I think I am mostly saying, "Hey new moms, I relate. It will be okay. It will all work out." So thumbs up to everyone who sticks to it and "Thanks for your best effort" to those who have tried their hardest because IT ISN'T EASY. Or maybe it is easy for some, It is getting easier for me.
This week I had the CEO of my company ask why i was taking a chair with me into the bathroom... it was kinda funny.

Love, Mimi

Penelope Francis

Penelope was born Dec 14 at 3:03 pm. She was 7.7 lbs and 20 inches. More to come on this subject. She's is freakin cute though :)

I waddle like a watermelon.

If a watermelon could waddle, I would look just like it at this point in my pregnancy. John threatens to grab the camera every time he catches me trying to put on tights or leggings. It gives me lots of motivation to work out after the baby. I miss running. I almost "old lady" slipped on the ice the other night. It is a good thing I am whiny and made John hold my arm while I walked to the car. He has been super conscious to be the man on my arm since then :)
It is official, My body has reached the point of never being the same. I might seem superficial, I am kinda jealous of some of my peers that avoided the stretch mark stage. I have a map on my tummy now that tells the story of this last month and how my body stepping up to its "fullest". I honestly have kept my skin lubed up with oils, butters, lotion and internal vitamin E supplements and I am now a believer when they say, "If you are going to get them, you are going to get them." I am grateful I am doing what I can though because then I might have different feelings about the patterns on the bottom of my torso. Some stripes won't hold me back from being the sassy, attractive woman that I am. At least at this point I can add voluptuous to the adjectives that describe me.
I am actually glad that I haven't had an crazy complications with the pregnancy and the worst I am dealing with is something as silly as skin discoloration. It is times when I am having a pity party that I think of my sister-in-law Reagan. It makes me really thankful for the way my pregnancy and the baby growth has gone. My niece Piper was born with a laundry list of health challenges to face in this life. And Reagan was smart enough and in tune enough with her body to go to the hospital at the right time or we might not have sweet little Pip with us. I hope that I am as aware as that.

Anyway, I am finding myself full of love at the end of this blog so I am going to savor that.
I hope everyone is doing well.

Love, Mimi

Kelton's First Day of Kindergarten

Kelton Started Kindergarten today. Originally he wasn't supposed to start till next year because his birthday is In October. We thought was just going to do Pre-school again since his daycare does integrated learning with their daily schedules. Kelton was really sad about it a month or so back when all of his buddies he had got to know in his daycare where leaving to "got to school" and he was too young. It was kind of rough.
Well after talking to the Daycare director, she said that the Kindergarten class was small enough that the we could sneak him in. One reason I picked this Daycare is that it is state monitored so the food and curriculum are up to par with the state system. A teacher comes in and actually teaches Kindergarten and it is credited and recognized in the school system. They told me Kelton shows he is mature enough and developed enough that his cognitive little brain could totally keep up. So Kelton is starting a year early in School! Now he can either test into 1st grade next year or re-do kindergarten in the district our house is in! yay!
When I broke the news to Kelton about him going to school this year he said "But Mom I am too small." It took a half hour of talking about it for him to "kind of" believe me. When we went to the store to pick up his school supplies he finally trusted that he was really going to school. Kelton picked out a sweet sparkly fish folder and a blue pencil box. We will see if he is still excited about it at the end of the day.

This weekend has been sooo busy. We got all of our belongings into our new house FINALLY! I am so grateful for all the friends who have helped out this weekend. It was a god send. I am really glad I packed all of Kelton's first day of School stuff in an over night bag or else I would be rummaging through boxes this morning :P John is pretty amazing. I am surprised his body still works after moving everything, I am blessed. Also I am grateful for my dad letting me use his truck this weekend, I am pretty lucky to have it on hand.

Also, I had another Prego Dr. appointment this morning and I am the right size and "Toast" is nice healthy and fine! 24 weeks and 2 days in she is wiggly as ever! She punches John's hand when he cuddles with me in the mornings. She recognizes Grandma's voice now because she has been helping me so much with the house. Last night she got scared because our friend's dog started barking. It is kind of cute when she gets startled.
I guess that is about it for the post today.
Love, Mimi

Baby Girl

This morning I found out I am having a little girl. :) I am pretty excited. I think everyone and their dog told me I was going to have a girl. I personally didn't have the slightest idea of what i was having, I am just hoping for a healthy baby. It was really sweet to see her move in my tummy on the ultrasound. I felt her flutter the last week a couple of times, I think she is more awake at night.
Kelton is so adorable with my tummy. The other day he came up to me and put his hands on it and asked me how the baby was. I said, "I dunno, maybe you should ask it." He replied, "Mom, no you have to!" I convinced him to put his ear to my tummy to see if he could hear the baby's answer when I asked it (since I can't bend that far over). "Baby, how are you doing?", I said and Kelton answered in a little baby voice "I am just fine."
It made me giggle, I am so happy Kelton is so great, he is going to be such a great brother.
Here are some pictures of the little girl in my tummy. I pinked out the background so you can see HER better. She is 16 weeks and 2 days old.

She is laying on her back and her face is turned toward us in this one



There are her cute little feet!

baby and balancing

Today I saw my baby bouncing/jumping in my tummy. I had a Dr. appointment, we were listening for the heartbeat and we just heard lots of noise. The Dr. said it was moving around so he went and grabbed the "look inside your tummy" machine and I got to see an excited little baby :) It was pretty cute. It actually looks like a baby now! Less like a gummy bear, more like a cinnimon bear. it got me all excited. I am feeling super emotional today, I think it is due to excitement/fear.
John and I got our offer accepted on our house. Now we just have to do the miles of paperwork it takes to get an FHA loan *yay*. This next week we are getting the house inspected so we know we aren't trying to buy a 'lemon'. I try not to let money stress me out but last night I had a dream about messing up my credit score so bad John was yelling at me and cutting up all our credit cards. It is a good thing that is not reality. I am stepping up and being super strict with my spending for the family. It sounds silly to me and difficult at the same time to balance our gas and food under a certain amount different then usual. I know I can do it, it just hurts my brain. For all those people out there who have no problem with numbers and left brain stuff, my hat is off to you.

Oh, and I am getting sick less lately *yay*

Love, Mimi