Baby King

Archive for the ‘Work’ Category

Yesterday I washed two bottles and a sippy cup that had had breastmilk in it and thought, “This is it.”

Remember how in March I said I was going to stop pumping at work around Little Prince’s second birthday (which is at the end of this month)? Well, it happened last Thursday.

At daycare, Little Prince had started asking for milk less and less. In March I started sending only 5-6 oz. As he wasn’t drinking all of that, I started sending only 3-4 oz. I dropped my pumping time at work to only 10 minutes.

In April I nervously asked his daycare teachers to always offer water first but to give him milk if he asked for it. Some days he did, and some days he didn’t. Toward the end of April his sippy cup that I sent with milk was always coming home as full as I sent it. About two weeks ago we started hiding the cup of milk in the big fridge at daycare so he wouldn’t even see it. Since then, he’s never asked for it.

Last Friday I was really busy at work and totally forgot to pump. I didn’t even notice, which any breastfeeding mom can tell you is a big deal, because if you need to empty a breast, you notice. So this week I decided to stop pumping and stop sending milk. I was really scared that on Monday Little Prince would randomly ask for milk again, but he hasn’t. And it’s so liberating not to have to pump, esepcially since I got to stop two weeks “ahead of schedule.” After about 9 months of pumping twice a day and almost a whole year of pumping once a day, it’s amazing to get the time back. And I’m really proud of myself for being as committed as I was and doing it for as long as I did.

We still have a small freezer stash (just in case) and if I’m away from Little Prince for a significant amount of time, I may need to pump a bit, but in general, I am DONE PUMPING! Hurray!

And now, in honor of the new Star Trek movie coming out this week, here’s Little Prince yelling “Khaaan”:

My little prince is 14 weeks old! He’s hit the three month mark. He continues to delight and amaze Darius and I.

He’s getting so much bigger. On Friday he went in for some shots ( ) and he weighed in at almost 13lbs! That’s about half a pound from doubling his birth weight.

He’s started to giggle. Especially if I give him kisses all over his belly. It’s just about the cutest, most awesomest noise in the world.

He is also, for the most part, a very calm baby. They say that he is “self-contained” at daycare. This was really good when both Darius and I got sick last weekend and LP was calm and happy and took it all in stride.

He’s started to be able to sit up more (still supported), reach for things, and grab them. He’s started the “I want to put everything in my mouth” stage, which I hear lasts for a loooong time.

His green poop has mostly cleared up (finally) although it still has a smell to it. And we’re still having problems with him taking a bottle both at daycare and from Darius. We’re in the process of trying other bottles to see if they work. I also go in at lunch when I can and nurse him. I did come home the other day to this adorable sight:

I’m adjusting to being back at work. It’s not always easy, but I’m doing my best.

Lots has happened in the past three weeks.

The first week of August was National Breastfeeding Week. I was going to go to a Latch On, but LP was asleep when it was time to go and I didn’t want to awaken him.

Also that week, my father came into town and spent just under 2 weeks with us. It was really nice to have him around as he helped around the house and with LP. He also worked on making sure that LP and I got out of the house on occasion, even though it’s been so damn hot out.

I was really glad he was here the second week because I came down with a minor cold for a few days and totally lost my voice. LP also go the cold, but it was even less for him (yay breastfeeding). Still, it was his first cold and he was not thrilled, especially when he was having a bit of trouble with a stuffy nose and trying to nurse. But we both made it through it.

On August 4, all four of us went to a Marian Call concert. LP was amazing throughout almost the whole thing. He tended to either be asleep or staring at the pretty redhead on stage singing. The concert was being webcast. When Marian went to put on her Jayne hat, we put LP in his. She saw and had the camera focus on him. Here is the moment of my baby becoming Internet famous:

We also ventured into the realm of cloth diapering without the Diaper Service. But that’s a post all to itself.

Last week was my first week back at work and LP’s first week of daycare. We were both only doing half days. Things are going pretty well; LP is even starting to take to the bottle better. They keep telling me what an awesome and chill baby LP is. They also told Darius when he picked up LP on Friday what a calm mother I am.

LP has been spending his time discovering his hands. He’s a fan of sucking on his right fingers. He’s getting better at reaching and grabbing for things. Lately he’s started to clasp his hands together in what Darius calls his Evil Mastermind pose. Also we’ve had some, but inconsistent, flipping from belly to back.

However, this last week, LP started to have green runny poop, instead of the nice mustardy yellow poop he usually has. As far as I can tell, this is a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance. I’m guessing that this was brought on by the pumped milk, as I was pumping for only 5-10 minutes and then putting the resulting milk together into one bottle, so the bottle would have a lot of foremilk and not much hindmilk in it. I’m going to work on making sure to pump for at least 15 minutes while at work and not combine them. Hopefully, if I do that and continue to nurse normally and on demand at home, it will clear up all on it’s own.

Today was my first day back in the office. I’d worked from home a bit last Thursday and Friday while my father took care of LP, but this was the first time I was away from him for work.

It was hard. I’m glad that the daycare we chose is really nice and let us sit in the classroom for 30-45 minutes twice last week, so everything wasn’t totally new for him. It also gave me confidence to leave him there. But it was still hard for me.

Being in the office was so strange. So many little things have changed and I have to get use to a routine of doing work and fitting in pumping sessions. Mostly I felt very emotionally numb, just going through the motions of the day. Then I found out they took away the Mother’s Room on my side of the building and I almost broke down because now it’s a much further walk to go pump and it changed how things were going to work in my head. People kept seeing me around and saying, “Welcome Back.” I would just smile or say a quiet “Thank You” because it hurt every time. I wanted to say to them, “I don’t want to be back. This is ridiculous. I want to be with my son.” But nobody wants to hear that. But I made it through the day. I even started to feel somewhat like my work self again about half way through my weekly team meeting when I was able to offer suggestions about the big project we have going on. Still, I couldn’t wait until my 4 hours were done.

LP had a fine time at daycare. Apparently he is totally chill and awesome and spent most of the day just watching everything. However, he had some trouble taking a bottle and only took two oz. This is my fault as I meant to make sure someone was feeding him a bottle once a day every day last week, but I got so wrapped up in my father’s visit and emotionally prepping to return to work that I let it slide. He also only did two 30-45 minute cat-naps instead of having at least one long morning nap. So when we got home, he nursed for a long time, fell asleep for an hour and a half, then we nursed again, we both took an hour and a half nap and he’s still sleeping.

I’m really glad that I’m easing back into work with half days for the next two weeks, with the exception of taking Wednesday off and starting full time next Friday. But ultimately I still think it sucks, especially when I look at what the rest of the world gets.

Week two was really hard for me. My postpartum anemia was worse than we were all prepared to deal with or aware of. I think that if we’d known just how bad it was, my mother probably would have stayed an extra week. But we made it through the week. There were really rough times, like Tuesday afternoon and Thursday night, when I almost called my mother and begged her to come back. But there were also great moments, like holding him and watching him sleep. And getting to start to know his myriad expressions. And we’ve been really lucky, most nights we can get at least one 4-5 hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep.

My days mostly look like this: Wake up for a nurse when Darius leaves for work. Go back to sleep. Either wake up before or with/after the LP. If before, get a chance to eat breakfast first (hopefully…before he wakes up), then morning diaper change and nurse. If with/after, morning diaper change and nurse and then hopefully be able to put baby down long enough to get food myself. Hold the little prince while he sleeps for a few hours. Watch a movie or something on the DVR or On Demand. Midday diaper change and feed. Try to get lunch into my body (hopefully baby is asleep…otherwise use bouncing chair). Hold baby more. Watch more random stuff on tv or try to play with computer and/or phone. Afternoon diaper change. Side nurse turn into afternoon nap. Then Darius is hopefully home and the little prince can get some daddy time while mommy showers or gets some time to herself.

Nursing has been going well. For week two, we were mostly on the nipple shields the whole time. But after reading some articles written by other mothers who had to use them on the La Leche League site, I felt better about doing so myself. Also, he started taking to the left breast often without the shield. And in the cradle hold almost didn’t need it ever. This Tuesday evening, he started not wanting to use it with the right breast either and hasn’t wanted it since. But we’re still figuring out how to get a good latch on the right (the football hold seems to work somewhat), so it’s a work in progress, but a positive one.

Over the weekend we had our first trip to the grocery store and he slept through the entire thing!

We’re definitely into the “I’m in my 3rd week of life and I’ve learned how to cry loudly when I want things” stage. We had two nights earlier this week where it took me 2 hours of nursing and diaper changes and rocking before he finally fell asleep. Also, yesterday we had friends over for a bit and after they left I tried to nurse him a bit, but he started screaming. I put him down for a moment and he fell right asleep. It was amazing. Of course today we had some random screaming, but it didn’t last long. He has been staying awake in between some feedings. I’m not totally sure what to do with him in those cases, but we’re both learning.

Week three has also been about learning to ask friends for help. I think we’ve had someone over either at lunch or around/after dinner time almost every day. Just having someone else to talk to/help out around the house/hold the baby for a little bit has been great.

Lastly, I want to report that we had our two week check-up on Monday. DJ weighed in at 7lbs, 12.5oz. He’s up almost a whole pound from his birth weight, which is amazingly good progress. The midwife said that he was “perfect.” Also, she said that I look to be healing well. We took my blood and my iron count came back at 10.1 (up from 7.5!). I knew I was feeling somewhat better, and it was nice to have confirmation of it. So I’m still anemic and I still get tired a lot and have to take it slow, but I’m recovering.

I passed the 38 weeks mark last Friday. I feel like I’m almost at the hurry-up-and-wait stage of things.

Last week I taught my last class and had my last full day in the office. Starting yesterday I’m mostly working from home, unless I need to go in. This is really helpful for me and I’m super thankful that my job is flexible enough to let me do this.

Physically things are going okay. I’m still in a lot of pelvis pain, especially when I move wrong. There’s also this spot in my right shoulder blade that likes to hurt after a little while. I thought it was just being at work all day, but it did it yesterday too when I spent the day on the couch. I’ll just have to figure out the right position to be in or switch it around a bunch. I’m tired a lot these days too. And last week my right foot decided that it would be fun to swell up randomly. Yet another reason I’m glad to be working at home with my feet up.

Mentally I’m doing well most of the time. I’m still nervous about the whole birth/labor experience because it’s so outside of the realm of anything I’ve ever experienced before. But I think that I’m pretty ready to be a mommy, which is something that I had trouble saying just the other week.

Stree is doing well. He has periods where he squiggles and wiggles around a whole lot and periods where he just likes to stretch his foot or his butt into my ribs (so much fun, let me tell you). He really liked last week’s episode of Glee.

At my prenatal appointment on Friday, I was measuring 37 weeks instead of 38 but I’m not really concerned because I think all of those things are estimates anyway. The really exciting thing was that she did a quick ultrasound to double check the baby’s position. It was the first time I’d “seen” him since the ultrasound at 18 weeks (right before Christmas). He is 100% head down (hurray!) and has hair. You could see the little spikes coming off the back of his head. So amazing. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures and we couldn’t get a clear profile shot of his face because he was being shy and covering part of his face with his hand.

The to-do-before-the-baby-is-born list is coming along nicely. Over the weekend we rearranged the baby’s room. I got the last of the stuff that needed to be washed and put away washed and put away. I even put together the awesome Monkey Bouncer all by myself (with only one easily fixable mistake). The nursing pillows and baby carriers are mostly ready. The last of the things the baby needs are in the bag to go to the Birthing Center and the list for the last minute stuff is on top of the bag. And I installed the car seat base into my car all by myself yesterday. The only thing I really don’t know where it should go yet is the “Whale of a Tub”.

There are tons more pictures of baby things on the Pictures page. For some reason I’m obsessed with taking pictures of everything.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to get to celebrate Mother’s Day this year since I’m not-quite-but-almost a mother. But we did. Darius surprised me with a PajamaGram. It’s a pair of superhero style pajamas that say “Super Mom” and have a CAPE! Then he made me eggs for breakfast. We also went out to dinner to our favorite hibachi place with B and the place gave me a rose because I count as a mom. All of it made me really happy.

Told the bossman I was pregnant last Thursday. We were swapping photos over IM of our trips to Chicago while on the phone. I told him that I had one more picture to send him and then waited nervously while he opened it. But he’s really excited for me. He’s never had anyone under him take maternity leave before, so this will be an experience for both of us. At least my work is very good at handling this sort of thing. I believe there were something like 14 or 15 people out for maternity leave this year.

Told the rest of the team (one had already guessed) on Friday afternoon at our team meeting. We were discussing the training schedule for next year. One of my coworkers was teaching, so once he finally showed up and we caught him up on what was going on, I mentioned that I did have one concern about next year. Then I turned my laptop around so they could all see the picture of the ultrasound from the other week. They were surprised . Bossman had to put the picture up on the screen so everyone could see it (my team is all over the US, so we use video conferencing).

Today was my first appointment at the Austin Area Birthing Center. Filled out miles of paperwork. Right now we’re on a pay for it all ourselves plan. We’re trying to get this GAP coverage thing going on so that insurance will cover some of it (the Dr is in network, the facility is out of network…it’s all very confusing to me). Had an apprentice midwife with the regular midwife for my visit. They asked me some basic questions and already had a good knowledge of my chart and my paperwork from my original OB was there already. When they went to go feel for the uterus, they had a little bit of trouble finding it because I have good abdominal muscles and a little bit of padding over them. Also, based on the exam they were figuring that I probably had a tipped uterus (which I now remember is something the ultrasound tech from week 7 said too). They then had trouble using the hand-held thing to hear the heartbeat. OMG, I was definitely a little scared when they couldn’t find the heartbeat at first. So we went over to the ultrasound room and the ultrasound tech found the baby and the heartbeat with no problem at all and confirmed that my uterus is tipped backwards. This is actually very common and usually fixes itself right up when the uterus raises. It also explains why I’m not showing at all yet (but the pants are getting tighter) and why I have to pee all the damn time. And and and… I got to see Stree again. It looks more like a human now. It has a head with a face and a body and legs. I could see the legs moving and the heart beating. Stree’s heartbeat is VERY strong, 160 BPM . Probably another 2 months until we find out sex. I tried to scan the ultrasound at work, but the scan sucked, so I’ll do it from home tonight.

Update: Pic from ultrasound

Stree at 11 weeks