Saturday Woes
Brian was at my disposal on Saturday morning to do a few household projects. Tops on my list was to install a set of ingenius child-locks (magnetic Tot Lok’s) on our drawers and cabinets. He set out to tackle one drawer, only to find (after nearly 2 hours!!) that it wouldn’t work on our drawers. Cabinets, probably yes. But by this time, the morning was shot, and the safest thing for our relationship was to put the child-proofing on the back burner:) Maybe next weekend we’ll try it on a cabinet. I’ll let you know if it eventually works…
While Brian was attempting his project, I decided to rearrange the cabinets. Analise loves to open the pantry and pull all kinds of food out, bringing them to me to convince me it’s snacktime. Sundried tomatoes, one? How about some dried french onion soup? Those are what she finds when her graham crackers, fruit snacks and cookies have already been removed and placed on the counter out of reach. In lieu of a child-lock on the pantry, I decided I’d put tupperware and plastic dishes in the pantry and the food in a higher cupboard. While she was napping, I got the job done and I was QUITE pleased. Analise, on the other hand, was QUITE pleased with the new arrangement as well. She’s found tupperware to be much more fun, and it’s ended up strewn all over the house. *SIGH* At least I can hope she’s learning something as she tries to match the lids to the right container:)

By the way, her new word of the week is “stuck!”, which she uses very appropriately. For example when she’s being held down for a diaper change (doesn’t that sound terrible? but that’s how it works when you’ve got a squirming toddler!), strapped into her car seat, buckled into her high chair, wedged between the rocking chair and the magazine rack. I was just remembering that she has understood the concept of being stuck for a while, probably… you can see why in this post from 11 months ago!

Sunday was a busy day, but I’ll try to pull together a blog about that tomorrow. Check back!

Monday Morning Wake Up
This morning, thanks to the wonderful babysitting of my mother-in-law, I got to attend my first prenatal aquatics class. It was HEAVENLY! I have to say, if there’s one piece of advice I can give a pregnant woman, it’s to spend some time in the pool. It’s such a relief to the constant strain on your joints. You feel weightless:) The class wasn’t extensive, just a gentle workout and stretching, and it felt so good… except that it got rained out, believe it or not. Though it was in indoor pool, we couldn’t be in the pool after we saw lightning outside. The pool is grounded, but if the electricity were to go out, the grounding would be lost and we’d be in danger. It was a bit disappointing to have to get out after only half an hour, but it’s probably a good thing… I am so worn out today! The stretching felt so good in the pool that I might have overdone it a bit… I’m awfully sore tonight! Good thing the next class isn’t until Friday. I’ll have to reign in my exuberance a bit then, and hopefully save myself some post-workout aches and pains.

I just wanted to post a few pictures from beautiful Oak Mountain State Park. I
biked here today from our house and met my friend Bryant from Clearwater to go
on a bike ride in the park. The entrance to the park is only about 10 miles
from our house!

The first picture shows part of Oak Mountain Lake with Oak Mountain in the background. Look for the highest ridge. Most of the mountains here in Birmingham are very long ridges. The second picture shows the spillway that I had to ride through to get to the front of the park. Even though the water may look deeper, it was only about six inches deep.

Yesterday we got Analise’s Christmas gift from her Aunt Anna and Uncle Hal in Platteville, wI. Hal works as a Reisdence Hall Director at UW-Platteville, and during a conference with university vendors, he won a sample chair from one of the displays. He COULD have gotten a full-size chair (I think), but decided instead that this model size was perfect for Analise. So the chair arrived by FedEx this week. It’s heavy-duty… great so there will be no dragging it around to use as a stool. She’s quite happy in it right now, watching a Blue’s Clues video. It’s quality furniture! Thanks, Anna and Hal!

Analise is helping me get prepared to have another little one to get into and out of the car. Yesterday she insisted on bringing her bear and her baby doll to the car with us. Not only did I have my hands full with my purse, bag and diaper bag, but I had her in my arms, carrying the 2 stow-aways:) I love having a garage in the basement of my house, but it’s HARD to get up and down the stairs with my hands so full. I’ve asked Brian if he can install something like a dumbwaiter so I can send the baby/groceries/etc. up by just pulling a rope! For now, though, Analise is trying to get me ready!

You’ve probably heard me mention that my little one is not a baby anymore. She’s much more of a little girl than the baby it seems she was just yesterday. One defining aspect of that has come up just this week, as I think she’s finally stopped nursing. Yes, she is 18 months old. If that seems “too old” to be nursing to you, I’ll understand. I thought that before she was born, too. But a number of factors allowed us to continue this long, most of all that it’s just easy to quiet her before bed by snuggling her close to me.

Back before Analise was born, we were determined that she would be breastfed. Cheaper, better for her in the long run, easier… the benefits are countless. But it almost didn’t happen. In the first couple days before my milk came in, she latched on like a champ. But when my milk came in, she couldn’t get the hang of it. It was painful… physically and emotionally. There were many tears on both of our parts. She was a hungry baby, I was a desperate mom, and let me tell ya… that first week was pure misery. We finally called in the expertise of a lactation consultant (for a 3 digit price that has been worth EVERY penny, believe it or not) to help us find the problem. We ended up with me pumping and Brian feeding her through a syringe (this is one of my absolute favorite pictures of them, when she was just 5 days old).

He had to train her to suck correctly, and when she did, he’d give her more milk. It was tedious, but she slowly caught on. She still didn’t want to latch onto me, though, and it was wearying and discouraging. I debated just pumping/bottlefeeding her indefinitely. Someone asked me, “Won’t you miss that bonding experience of nursing her?” At that point, I had no idea WHAT that bonding experience was like, because trying to breastfeed her every 2 hours was a stressful and tear-filled experience. When she was 9 days old, we had to fly to Wisconsin for my sister’s wedding. I was armed with a breastpump, several bottles of milk, and all the paraphenalia we’d need to pump, bottle and syringe feed her. On the plane, she had a fussy period during which we couldn’t reach a bottle. So, desperate to quiet her, I decided I’d try to nurse her… and lo and behold, she latched on and nursed like a champ. That was the slow beginning of our long, sweet nursing relationship.

So here we are, 18 months later. That’s more than 550 nights of snuggling her into my lap, watching her relax and be comforted to be sucking and close to me, holding my finger tightly with her soft tiny hand. It’s amazing how a squirming restless child can melt into your arms. I didn’t know back then what the “bonding experience” was, but I do now, and I’m glad we hung in there. These quiet moments are some of my sweetest memories of being a mom. Yes, we do have another one on the way, so it’s not like I’m going to have much of a break from breastfeeding. It’s just that this is the end of “babyhood” for Analise, and it’s pulled at my heartstrings this week. The price of a breastpump ($200) + other paraphenalia to teach my little girl to latch on ($50) + $$$ to lactation consultant + pain of early days and teething = priceless moments with my baby girl.