Say Anything

Aside from "How is she sleeping?" people offer lots of opinions and commentary about our kid when we're out and about. Here are some recent gems:

"How old is she? I have a three-month old and he is SO MUCH bigger than her. Is she holding her head up okay?"

"When I got married, I knew I loved my wife, but it wasn't like.. new, you know? Having a kid, it's like a love I never knew I had."

and my personal favorite...

"She looks like a pug."

In other, more cheerful news, we're maybe going camping over the holiday weekend! It will be Etta's first tent camping trip and will surely result in some cute photos that hopefully won't take me 3 months to post.

Shore weekend

Our friend J's parents have a house they rent down the shore (that's how you say it here, Down The Shore) in Ocean City, and it was vacant a couple weekends ago, so we were invited to stay.

It was really fun to take Etta to the beach for the first time. It's only about an hour and a half drive, but with traffic it took about 2 hours. It was chilly and rainy when we arrived, so she went right to bed and we stayed up until the wee hours talking. It's the first time I've willingly stayed up past 1 am for a long time!

It was a little chilly all weekend, too cold for me to get in the water. I just sat in a chair with Etta in long pants and sleeves, but Cree and J went in both days. That's them out there:






Instead of putting Etta in the actual ocean, especially since she can't sit up alone and it was all cold, we set up a baby pool for her on the patio and let the sun warm the water up a bit. She cried when she first got in, but then she came around.

Here's the cuteness with a bunch of floaty rings:


Here she's staring the starfish down:


She was really content in there, all splashy and cute.

Here's her full bathing gear, for any of you who haven't already seen this on Facebook:

Baby Hats!

Apparently babies under 6 months aren't supposed to wear sunscreen. Instead, you have to cover them up all the time. With this in mind, Cree has made some really amazing sun hats for Etta. Here's a bandanna style one, with our friend S (she's not like S from Gossip Girl, though):







And here's my favorite so far:



She said it was difficult to make because of all the panels, but there are a few other patterns so I'll try to post images as we get them.

How many of you...

Have a baby sleeping in your office?

Obviously, my workplace is great. Cree had to go to a last-minute meeting so Etta came here for a little bit. She slept, ate, and visited some people. Smiles all around!

What do you get when you have 2 adults, a 3 mo. old baby, a blue heeler & a jetta?

Vacation!

We'll post photos when we're back

Follow up to breastfeeding post

Somehow, just making that formula decision helped me realize that there are more things I can do to increase our stockpile of breastmilk. It's like there is this safety net that is helping me feel more confident or something.

I went to the La Leche League website and read through the forums on pumping, which were really useful. I think I was afraid they'd say something crazy like Formula Is The Devil, but of course that didn't happen and there were lots of posts from other women struggling with the same issues. I read some suggestions that will make the process of pumping at work go more quickly, and hopefully be more productive.

I've also gone back to pumping some more on the days I'm home and I think those incremental sessions will also really help.

Thanks for being out there, you guys.

Decision time

I'm back at work, and even though my awesome boss lets me work from home a couple of days each week, it's still hard. I am glad to have the job, and some space from All Baby All The Time Land, but being away from Etta is hard, and then there is the pumping.

I am committed to breastfeeding, and Etta's only had breastmilk (aside from a vaccine and some baby tylenol) since she was born. It's a pretty easy thing to maintain when at home with her all the time, but being back at work puts a new spin on the whole process. I typically have to spend some time pumping several times each workday in order to supply slightly LESS than what she seems to want to eat. I can usually make up the difference by pumping once or twice when I'm home, but the hand pump I have at home is not very comfortable and doesn't seem to be as effective as the Pump in Style (with fashionable backpack!) I keep at work.

When Cree called me yesterday and mentioned that she spilled almost half a bottle I felt my heart drop. That's a lot of invested time and energy, down the drain.

I flip-flop, thinking that maybe a bottle or two of formula a few times a week wouldn't be the end of the world. After all, millions of babies thrive on formula for their entire infancy. It is millions, right? This is usually followed by feeling determined to somehow pump more often so that she won't have to drink formula. The feeling I get when I think of feeding her formula is similar to the feeling I had when I realized I was going to be induced at the hospital, and wasn't going to be giving birth at the Birth Center. It's this weird mix of sadness, disappointment and a feeling of futility.

Cree called back an hour later and played "Wish you were here" by Pink Floyd into the phone. I welled up and listened to the whole thing. She is the best.

Then last night, we had the discussion about implementing formula into Etta's diet when necessary rather than have her hungry and me rushing all around to get home to feed her.

It seems like an easy decision to make, but it's hard to let go of the ideal breastmilk-only situation. But I guess that's part of what parenting is about, realizing that you don't have control -- being flexible, adjusting to new circumstances, and doing what is best for your family (all of us).