Friday, July 07, 2006

Jumble, Rumble, Scrambled Egg

Peanut is growing so fast. Sometimes while I'm watching him play, I'm amazed at what he can do. I know every mother believes her child is the cutest, smartest, whateverest. I'm not saying mine is better than yours. I'm just amazed at mine. I'm amazed at babies in general. The whole process of getting pregnant, being pregnant, giving birth and then raising a child just, well, amazes me.

He climbs the stairs pretty well now, but always needs a spotter. He crawls anywhere he wants to go and doesn't mind having to go over someone to get there. He can get to a sitting position from laying on his tummy. He can stand up next to a couch or other fairly sturdy object. He is starting to notice more and more around him. Today I was talking to the neighbor standing under a tree and he was playing with the leaves. He pulled a piece of one off and sort of stared at it a while before trying to eat it. When I took it from him he looked back at the tree like "that's ok, there are a bunch of them."

He has also been a bit of a crankpot lately. He was diagnosed and is being treated for an ear infection. That should be on the way out if the medicine is doing it's job. Yesterday and today were really bad nursing days. He seems interested, but once things get going he arches his back and screams. I haven't found a position that keeps the screaming at bay. Here is the rundown in case you have advice. The milk is flowing, position doesn't seem to help (we've really tried them all), he has to be hungry after not eating all night. We go 4+ hours during the day between trying. He is eating his cereal, fruit and veggies ok, just not nursing well. There don't seem to be any new teeth coming in. Oh yah, and I'm taking the Fenugreek.

I'm so not ready to give up nursing. Everything about it is uncertain except that it is good for him. How much does he get? Is it enough? All those questions make my head hurt. On the other hand, I don't know how long I can deal with the screaming.

I realize that even if I had to stop today I've done really well. Almost nine months is nothing to sneeze at. Some women can't/don't go that long. I feel some un-voiced pressure in that both my sisters managed to nurse their kids just fine until about a year old. Makes me wonder what boob gene they got that I didn't. I know, that's crazy, but it's what goes through my mind. A lot of our friends are bottle feeding and I'm proud that I was able to succeed with it where they did not. I wouldn't want to hear any of them say anything about giving up and going the easy route. Again, no one would say that, but I hear it in my head. Shut up head.

So, there you have it. What now?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you still want to feed him your milk but nursing isn't working, have you tried pumping and feeding with a bottle? That's how we fed Gavin since I didn't come equipped with that function.

Mutt said...

That might work, but here is my concern. I don't seem to be able to pump much. It ranges from 1-4 oz. depending on when he last ate. I wonder if he gets that little when he nurses?

Anonymous said...

I hope my email helped a little. Just remember that any methods you try to increase your supply are going to take a while to kick in, so don't be discouraged if you don't find an insta-miracle.