Breastfeeding Group and Apologies for the sposie

I think this picture is very funny because it is something new that Celia has decided to do while nursing. I have nearly broken her of the habit, but it was funny so my Mom took a picture. Only those that have nursed will understand that I am a bit bummed that I never got a newborn nursing picture of Celia. In this picture you can't even really tell what she is doing. I didn't bother to watermark this because you really can't see her face. I did notice and not many will understand, but I am upset that there is a disposable (sposie) peaking out from underneath her nighttime onsie. We still put her in a sposie at night, I am actualy thinking about stopping that though as she is waking up too often with a red bum. I know it sounds bizarre but those who have joined the cloth diaper cult would understand. By the way, I just recently was able to sell 3 of her "pretty but didn't work with Celia" diapers and made back just about what I paid for them. Very economical, don't you think.

Okay, this won't be the most exciting post. But yesterday marked a day of goodbyes, there will be alot of those to come. Since Celia was 2 weeks old we have attended a breastfeeding group as part of my birthcenter 2x a month. We only missed one group meeting. No, I didn't need that much breastfeeding support (in the beginning absolutely) but after awhile it was more for husband venting, hanging out with friends, socialization, adult conversation, etc.

The group of girls are amazing that go to this group. They were instrumental to my "natural" parenting philosophy. I imagine that I would have been a totally different Mom if I had given birth in a hospital setting and not been provided the support that my birth center has given me. I think that Celia would be formula fed (not a bad thing if you have to do it, but breastmilk does provide some extras), I wouldn't have known about babywearing, and I likely would have been a bit more overprotective. This group of women lead me to my first miracle find of being a mother- the Moby Wrap. Celia loves that thing, it was the only thing that got her to sleep some days and it is still my favorite carrier. I would have never thought that having her sleep in my room for 3 + months was not only okay but better for her. I would not have known that Pete's response to the 6lb bundle was normal (he is amazing now, just a little scared in the beginning). I would never have felt that anything I decided to do for my baby was fine.

There is no judging done in the group. Celia has enjoyed hanging out with some playmates and yesterday when we pulled up to the building, she became so excited. She couldn't get out of her carseat fast enough. She also showed off her walking to the group leader, Patty a few times. I can't even express how much support Patty has provided. She was there for the infamous parking lot birth, there to great my crazy (but oh so sweet) husband who waited for the elevator instead of taking the stairs. She gave Pete a look that made me yell at him to get off his stupid cell phone for 5 seconds. Okay, only I probably understand that, but it was important to me.

So we will visit and hopefully see some of the same people again. I am sure that when there is a 2nd we will go to the group again, we must. But I can't express how much this group has meant to me. I not only have a wealth of knowledge about breastfeeding however I now have a group of women that I can still get support from even if it is through the web.

Thank you, Thank you!! Who knows where my nursing story will go from here. One of the things that this group has stressed from the beginning is to let the child lead you (not take over, just lead). So I will let Celia show me where it is going.

She's Almost Racewalking

I am hoping this will work. Celia started taking more steps and is now walking with 6 to 10 steps at a time. I think that she might start doing it more quickly but she isn't really impressed with herself. She likes my reaction to her walking but still very much prefers to crawl. Today she was very busy in her crib. I have sort of been going "old school" with her diapers these past 2 days and she has mainly been wearing flats or prefolds (think the old fashioned diapers) with a velcro cover. Well I put her down for her nap in a prefold, a velcro cover, and a microfiber towel folded in between the cover and prefold for extra absorbency. Well she slept for 45 min, which was not a long nap. So I let her babble and chat in her crib for about 30 min. while I finished with some housework. She seemed to be enjoying herself so I was comfortable doing that. She fell back asleep and around 10:40 and I had to get her because we had to go to her daycare to train her teacher about her cloth diapers (don't worry I am sending velcro pocket diapers there). So I found Celia asleep and I thought something looked odd but I couldn't put my finger on it. I then noticed the microfiber towel hanging on the side of her crib. Her velcro cover was beside her and she was sleeping sounding in her prefold. Luckily, the prefold did not leak onto her sheets. So evidently she took her cover off and felt the need to hang the microfiber towel up (it was dry). So Miss Celia will now be taking naps with pants on or in her sleep sack!!

One Side Note and Poor Petey

Okay they seriously sell these, they are $35 each!! Luckily they only fit 0 to 6 months. I would hate to see Celia walking along in some Betsy Johnsons or who ever. Flat soles for quite awhile for her. The same site sells Tatoos for babies too- no birthday thoughts there people.

Okay onto Poor Petey

Pete came to me the other day to ask a favor. He started with "can I ask an itty, bitty favor?" I said "sure". He continued with "Can you please not pummel me, slap me, kick me in the butt, or hit me while I am asleep?". A Normal person could say, of course. However I could make no such promises, luckily since then it hasn't happened. I warned him fairly early in our relationship that I was a dangerous sleeper. I think it came up in a funny story about the fact that my parents would argue while on trips who was going to sleep with me. The person who ended up with the prize of sleeping with me likely woke up not rested and/or bruised. While in my sleep I tend to move quite a lot and sometimes a limb comes out in full force- if you happen to be in my way, not my fault.

So there have been some interesting moments however honestly they have been comical. There was the one night when Pete and I were sound asleep and then in my dream I suppose I was kicking or doing something. Well I ended up kneeing Pete in the ass so hard that he sat up straight in bed and just sort of looked at me. The thing is, I knew I was doing it at the time but I was in between awakeness and sleep and couldn't stop myself. I couldn't help myself but I started giggling and luckily Pete started laughing too- it could have gone either way there. There have been other incidents in the past few years. But in the past week, I have hit him several times. One time I kneed him again and the other time I believe I slapped him. Is it bad that I find this slightly humorous?? I don't do it on purpose at all and I can't imagine how ticked off I would be if I were the victim.

Of course he has his payback as he snores on a nightly basis, no fail. I have learned to ignore it for the most part but there are times where it get so loud that no one can ignore it. I will often try anything to get him to wake up, turn over, or do whatever it is to stop. At one point I thought that slightly poking him would work. I tapped him on the back, turned over quickly and pretended to be asleep. I saw him look around for a minute and unfortunately fell asleep in the same position and continued to snore. I did it again, same reaction. The third time I did it he caught me and was very angry. He moves into the guest room often, unfortunately sometimes that means Celia has to listen to his snoring and is not too happy about it- that is rare though!

What if she is a girl??

So I like the fact that my little girl loves to play with these little cars that my Mom got her at Target. She pushes them around the floor and blows on her lips to make a sound. It is so cute. She also loves balls, she has from the very beginning. She loves ones that fit in her hand so she can carry them around and she also likes a small Penn State football that Pete gave her. So she hasn't really shown true Gender identity signs as of yet. Well, I shouldn't say that exactly. She will hug any stuffed animal and say "awe". She loves to hug stuffed animals now. She also loves my purse. She knows that she isn't supposed to empty it but takes every chance she gets when my back is turned to empty my purse of every shred of scrap paper and item inside it. Friends of ours gave her this sweet little purse in which she now keeps her "credit cards" in and plastic keys. I caught her one morning with it slung over her shoulder. Where did she learn that from??

So I thought about it. What if she wants to wear make up and paint her nails? What if she wants to wear her hair in pretty bows? I can't help with those things. Pete always teases me about my lack of feminity. I don't mind it at all. However thinking back to my childhood I was a doll caring dress wearing little girl. You might think that means "girly girl". However the dolls were thrown around, dragged through dirt, pounced on, etc. The dresses, well they had a purpose. I could not stand anything close to my body. So the "non clingy" dresses felt so good. I think my niece Katie can relate to that. Even now clothes that cling drive me nuts. As for nail painting, never did that, can't stand nail polish. I got my first manicure without nail polish on my wedding day.

So the picture at the beginning of this, what is that for? Well this is the debate I have been having for some reason. Do I want to get her this girly purse? It is odd I should even debate it. It really is not important whether I get his toy. Celia was excited by the noises that it made so that is why I put it on the possible list. We have no clue what to get her. But that is what really prompted my thoughts as to what I want to foster in her- purse wearing or a tool belt?? Hmm.. I am thinking let her make her decision. However I am also thinking that the fact that she likes my purse doesn't mean she would like that pink purse (although the fact that it talks is pretty cool). I think the weight of my wallet and the crinkly paper is what intrigues her. It is crazy though that Celia might get a Blueberry Minky or a patterned Happy Heiney. Only those from the cloth diapering world will understand that. As I have been extremly practical with her diaper stash until now, for her birthday she might get a special item. She doesn't care. She would rather go naked honestly.

Oh and for those of you who are interested- the CF Husband is bald and the LLS is $4000 richer.

Trying out the video again

Okay, Gotta it to work!! You can visit this collage video on scrapblog if you want too. You can adjust the speed at scrapblog when you are in full view

LLS and Signing

So most of you know that I have been a long time volunteer for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society through team in training. I have been an assistant coach for their charity distance training program for I think over 4 years, maybe more. In anycase one of the blogs that I follow, the CF Husband is doing an awesome fundraiser. His wife has been diagnosed with post lung transplant lymphoma. Her first treatments failed and now she must undergo more aggressive treatments. She will likely go bald in the next few weeks. So he is going to shave his head live on the internet if he can raise $3000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society in one week. I have a link to his website on my favorite blogs link.

So the Signing part. Well Celia has totally taken off with her sign language. I started signing to her when she was 4 or 5 months old. She basically has just done the sign for "more" when she is eating. I have had intermittent signing for "Dad", "thank you", and some other random ones. Well now she is signing drink, eat, more, stand, all done (says that too), and please consistently!! The stand sign amazes me because I only did it 1 time and she picked it up. Honestly it isn't that important of a sign. When she finishes eating I ask her if she wants to stand up, and so she signs stand. The signing is not perfect because, well she is not even 1 and has the fine motor skills of a baby. I suppose it amazes me even more because I have worked for years with students who never learn to sign or take months to learn one.

In anycase, it confirms that I do have a little genius on my hands. I really do. Okay so she does try to eat my hair at any chance she gets. But you know, maybe she has discovered that it is a health food. If it is, boy will I make millions. My hair is everywhere.