Mum-mum update

Warning: may contain the word “breast” (long, reminiscent [read: rambling] post)

I started breastfeeding on Day 1 of Brandon’s life.  Our breastfeeding teacher told us to bring the baby to the breast as soon as possible.  So within the first hours of life, the bond was forged.    

It has now been 48 hours since the last “mum-mum”.  The last time was when my mom was here on Monday night before bedtime.  Then I left early the next morning when my mom took him to school and went back home.  Brandon was still asleep when I left.  At night, he was too distracted by Dave’s return home.  This morning he was too busy with the new cars that Dave had brought home from New York.  This evening, again, the new cars kept him busy, not even thinking about it or asking once.  Now, Dave is putting him to sleep, and I think if I stay away out here, he won’t remember to ask.  So apparently he is doing ok without it. 

It is only because of the daily usage of the acai supplements and products out there are literally worthless due to harmful manufacturing processes levitra 20 mg opacc.cv and low quality. In IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) treatment, an egg fertilized outside levitra on line the body implanted into the womb. ‘Washing’ entails putting the sperm in a medium and letting them swim up to a certain layer. tadalafil cipla Night Fire capsule and Mast Mood capsule are Girji, Abhrak Bhasma, Embelia Ribes, Sudh Shilajit, Lauh Bhasma, Abhrak Bhasma, Himalcherry and Adrijatu. Stage I impingement is often associated with the frequent occurrence of sprains, cervical whiplashes, lumbar injuries, headaches or tears and muscular contractures so that the viagra usa price need to undergo several physical therapy sessions becomes almost inescapable. But me, I have mixed feelings.  Most people can’t believe I’ve been breastfeeding for two years.  The pediatrician encouraged me to do it, especially since he is a “daycare baby” and could use all the immunity he could get.  At times, it was a pain in the boob, yet other times it got me out of doing things (like the dishes because I’m feeding Brandon 😉 ).  I don’t feel as full as early on, like if I didn’t feed Brandon within 3 hours, I’d feel like I was going to burst, and when I looked down, it looked like a bad pair of double D implants had been put there.   When taking a shower tonight, I was still able to milk myself, so hopefully it doesn’t keep building up and become uncomfortable again.  The plan was to wean him when he stays with my mom when we go to Banff, but maybe we can do this a little sooner so that he doesn’t have too many disruptions in his routine for that week.  But at this rate, we might make it in plenty of time.  I still have frozen milk stored up as well; school must hate it because it has to be defrosted.  Still, a part of me will miss it (don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to have a kindergartner latched onto on me later down the road), but I’ll miss the little face, looking up at me, giving me a little look with his googly eyes, or the little ice cold hand patting my back as if to say, “Thank you, Mommy.”  In the beginning, it was a trying time, painful at first, more so than birth itself, then after we both got the hang of it, it was me feeding my child, helping him grow big and strong.  And grow he did.  He was 95% in weight and 90% in height between 4 and 6months!  At that was ALL breastmilk.  Kind of scary how potent that stuff can be.  And I have to thank it for burning all those calories.  I didn’t work out for a second, yet lost all the baby weight (plus 10 pounds initially) because of the incredible amount of calories breastfeeding burns per day (I think it has been said to be about 500 calories).  Then it progressed from baby who can barely see my face, to baby that can now roll over, sit up when he’s done, and later crawl over to me and start grabbing my shirt requesting milk in a primitive way.  Then there were the teeth.  Yes, he did bite twice.  And they were many months apart and after the last time, he was old enough to know if he wanted to continue, he would never do it again.  Of course, there was the revenge of the boob – with random squirts in the eye or all over his face on particularly fuller days.  After that stage, he would walk over and later and most recently, say, “Mmm, k” then “Mum-mum, ok?” and finally “Mommy, mum-mum?”  Then he got clever and knew when my alarm went off in the morning, he would get mum-mum; so even though it wasn’t time, he’d fumble around with the alarm clock until he figured out how to turn it on.  Then the request would begin. 

There were so many nocturnal awakenings of requests, especially since he co-slept.  In the beginning, we woke him up to feed him.  After the second Newborn Club trip, we were told he was gaining weight appropriately and there was no need to wake him up if he was sleeping.  The ONLY good thing about having an 8 pound baby to start off with.  Wonderful!  4 hours of sleep in a row (that was luxurious back then).  Then this sleep pattern continued; I never denied him in the middle of the night, in fact, I’d get up to pump after he’d finish one side, so I could keep up the supply for school.  Then, at 13 months, we kicked him out of our bed, and cut him off from nighttime feedings (after the grueling 72 hours of “cry it out”).  Since then, we have now enjoyed 9-10 hours of sleeping Brandon, with an occasional nocturnal awakening.  Definitely more manageable, I don’t know how we made it through the first 13 months.  I’ll update this again to see if 1/28/08 really was the last time.

So for all the challenges and rewards breastfeeding brings to the table, I am truly glad that we made it as far as we did.  I honestly can’t say if I could be as dedicated the next time around.  I pumped more than that gas station attendant across the street – in the car (I’ll have to invest in a car adapter for next time), at work, at home, at all times of the day, before he nursed, after he nursed, at conferences (in the bathroom – I know, yuck).  I wish I could have measured how many gallons of milk we had.  My mom saw our freezer lately and couldn’t believe how empty it was.  It used to be completely full of milk; we even had some stored at my dad’s and grandma’s house.  We couldn’t eat frozen food because there was no where to put it.  And now it’s almost all gone.  Here’s to growing up and moving on.