this post might be a bit ramble-y...usually I start with a title and go from there, but today I can't think of a title and so I'm just going to type what comes to mind.
I'm sitting @ my computer with a baby strapped to me in the Baby Bjorn...1st time I'm using this. I think I like it! Thanks to Erin Mattson who passed this along to me! Hand-me-downs are awesome!
Thanksgiving was interesting...we spent Wednesday night at my parents...that went OK although it was pretty chilly in their house in the dead of the night. We pretty much just holed up in the downstairs bedroom for all our feedings that night...which meant that Daddy had to wake up for each one too...sorry Babe! But Daddy is a trooper...he gives most of the bottles to Eli when he can.
Which gets me onto another subject...I'll come back to Thanksgiving in a minute...breast feeding is hard! We've been trying it and Eli is not so good at latching on. They had me use a breast shield in the hospital and I still have to use it get him to latch on to me...then he nurses for a long time and is usually still hungry when he finally pops off. Very frustrating to me...so we're doing a lot of pumping and giving him a bottle with breast milk in it. As Larry reminds me...the breast milk is the most important thing...the delivery method is not as important. When I pump I certainly get more than enough milk for Eli, so that is good and he does really well with the bottles, so that is his primary way of being fed. I feel a little guilty about it...like I'm not such a good mom because I can't get him to nurse properly...or like I gave up too soon on getting him to nurse, but our current method is working well enough and he's growing and he's happier...so I just have to be content with that. I guess it is all good considering I NEVER thought I'd ever breast feed anyway...until Eli came around.
Back to Thanksgiving...we were able to attend church with my parents at their Church...which was nice...we got to see loads of folks who were excited to see little Eli. We got a kick out of it...we even got presents there! It was really sweet! So many people who are excited about this little guy! After church we took Eli to go meet great grandma VanderWall. She was VERY excited and surprised to meet him and he was so good when she held him...he just checked her out and then fell asleep in her arms. At 94...she was happy to finally hold a child of mine in her arms. I guess she went on and on to my mom later about just how perfect he is. :) Cute.
After seeing great grandma we went back to mom & dad's church to have dinner in the fellowship hall there. The celebration was with mom's side of the family and there were nearly 70 people there! I have 16 1st cousins on that side of the family and nearly all of us are married with kids now! Just in '08 there will be 8 new additions to the family...Eli was #7...one more to come and then another in early '09...so the family has grown by leaps and bounds recently. My grandma now has 30+ great grands...and the number is nearer to 40 than it is to 30 now!
As you can imagine...Eli got passed along quite a bit, and he really did pretty well considering. He slept a lot...that seems to be his defense mechanism when he's got too much going on in his world. When he did get riled up a bit he puked on me...and then he really got riled up when Nana & Aunt Sharon tried to get a tracing of his hands for the quilt on Great Grandma's wall. From there on out he was pretty well done.
We headed home to Champaign somewhere around 6 pm and he usually sleeps in the car, and he did some of that...but he also would wake up every 30 minutes or so this trip to wail for a few minutes. Then he's pass out again. It made for an interesting ride home.
We have to go back up that way this next week again...I have to be a judge on Friday for the Center for Civic Education's We the People IL state competition in Chicago, so we'll sleep at Nana's and Nana will watch Eli on Friday. I think she's pretty excited about that & it will give Larry & I some time in the city on Friday...that will be nice! We will have to spend 2 nights @ Nana's...Thursday & Friday...so we'll see how that goes! Saturday afternoon is a birthday party for all the December birthday's in the VanderWall family...all 5 of them! It will be fun to just be with our immediate family...it has been a while!
Well, that is all for now, I think! :)
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I totally know how you feel about the pumping vs nursing. It makes you feel so inadequate, but you are not!! You are doing so much for him by giving him your milk and pumping is so hard. Elliot is not a great nurser still but he is better now than when he was Eli's age. Just keep trying :-)
ReplyDeleteDitch that guilt!! Keep doing what you think is best- no one knows your son or your situation like you do!
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