Day at the pool

I have been longing for a day in the sun. On Wednesday, we spent the entire afternoon at the pool. It was wonderful. I had been longing to feel the sun on my skin (I am a lover of the sun, but refuse to fake-bake and know that some day I will have lots of wrinkles) and to swim. I enjoyed both yesterday.

Ryan in the kiddie pool...

Timothy was visited by Miss Madison who was adorable in her swimsuit and hat.

Ryan making his way into the big pool.

With daddy on his "boat."

Ryan had such a good time he didn't want to leave. Boy did he sleep well last night. Too bad every day can't be a pool day.

The boys

Tim is two months old today. Here is his second photo with Pooh. Timothy can now roll to his sides. He's a very happy baby. He makes a scream that sounds like a little girl and also a noise that sounds like he's saying, "hi." Ryan is finally warming up to him and helped give Tim a bath this week. He also tries to give Tim his pacifier, but Tim never takes it. Ryan also insists that Tim always have his frog rattle with him like Ryan always his his bear, Paws, with him.

This is a photo of Ryan with Pooh at two months. Ryan has less hair than Tim. Notice I managed to get them both to sit on Pooh's leg. I didn't realize this until this morning when making this post.

Finally, here is Ryan. He's so much like his dad. We've entred the stage of where will we find Ryan tonight? (Adam was often found under the bed, in the closet, in a different room, as a child.) At least Ryan's night time wanderings are currently limited to his own room.

We've also entered the afraid of noises in the dark stage. Last night I heard Ryan crying, so I get up to see what's going on and he's sitting up pointing to his ear saying, "heard, noise." I told him everything was fine, tucked him in and went back to my bed. Seconds later he was screaming so Adam went to check and he was still afraid of this unknown sound. I'm beginning to miss the days when nothing scared this kid. Recently he has also shown a fear of heights... like changing tables in store restrooms. Sigh.

Today also marks my final Friday with the boys before returning to my part-time job at WM. I suppose I've been gone long enough, but I do enjoy these days with the guys. Here's hoping for good weather so we can go swimming today.

Blueberries

The other day, Adam's mom noticed blueberries on the path we walk each evening. Tonight we took a cup with us and let Ryan pick them. We came home, washed them and he shared a few, but he's almost done eating the entire cup. He's already told us "morrow more berries."

Ryan has always liked blueberries. I use frozen blueberries when I make muffins and he usually eats them right out of the bag. What a yummy cold treat.

We were going to show Adam these blueberries when he got home, but I think Ryan will have them all eaten by then.

La Grenouille

Here is a photo of Timothy with his frog rattle and frog onesie.

Photos of the family

Just a few photos from this weekend.

Not Timothy's big smile, but still a smile.


Just seconds before I caught daddy giving Timothy a kiss (I do have a photo of that, but this was cute too).


Ryan at his cousin Madison's birthday party playing with her new toy.

The good the bad and the ugly

I stole this post idea from someone else's blog. This is all the time I feel I have to blog today.

The good: Ryan went pee-pee on the potty today... three times. My parents got him a potty as a gift and at first he rejected it, then hid his artwork in it and then decided to "wet" in it.

The bad: Ryan has a rash again. He had a fever for three days and then the rash showed up. They said it's viral and we'll wait to see if it clears up by Friday, which is when Timothy sees the doc for a check up.

The ugly: I have mastitis again. Talk about disappointment and pain. I wept about this today. I don't think any mother thinks they'll get mastitis once, let alone twice. I think we all hope breastfeeding will feel wonderful and be wonderful and for some it is, but I have, unfortunately, not had that experience.

Mommy's milk

Warning: Contains information about boobs.

I've been pumping milk for almost six weeks now. It's not easy, but I knew that already. The LC at the hospital said I should keep having Timothy latch on and sometimes I did and sometimes I didn't. Then this weekend something bad happened. At first I thought it was thrush and then things got better. Anyway the pain made me want to give up pumping. Adam was behind me 100 percent. His thoughts were that a happy mommy = a happy baby.

Well, I felt guilty for giving up pumping at the almost four month mark with Ryan so you'd better believe I was feeling guilty about giving up pumping at the almost six week mark with Timothy. I kept pumping, but it was SO PAINFUL. At one point we had to give formula because I'd frozen all my reserve from the day before and Timothy had to eat.

He refused. The look on his face said it all. This stuff is yucky and I don't want it. (Note: I am in no way bashing women who feed their children formula. I fed Ryan formula for nine months. I'm a firm believer in whatever works for you.)

So I HAD to keep pumping. At one point we thought he'd drank an ounce of formula only to discover he'd used the bottle as a pacifier and hadn't drank anything at all. Not long after he was awake and REALLY hungry. Sigh.

I was doing lots of reading. Either I kept pumping, figured out breastfeeding fast or... I didn't know. There's a forum for exclusively pumping (Eping) moms. I was one of those so I read and read until I found a few things that might have been helpful. I also went to a website for breastfeeding moms and discovered women managed to put baby back to breast up until the fourth month post partum. Maybe I could do this afterall. I really, really wanted to breastfeed Timothy and while I wasn't disappointed with Eping, something was going really wrong.

This morning when Timothy started rooting, to breast he went. He's fed there all day and it's going amazingly well.

Why would anyone post about this? You're kidding right? I am doing the happy dance. I have been doing the happy dance all day.

Let me clue you into the world of an Eping mom.

• Baby is hungry so you feed baby bottle and burp baby, change his diaper, too. (With Timothy that takes about a half hour. Ryan could drink a bottle in 10 minutes.)
• You pump for 10 minutes (which a lot of Eping moms will say is not enough time, but it was for Ryan and it was for Timothy too.)
• You put liquid gold into bottle for next feeding.
• Wash pump parts.
• By the time you're done that's at least 40 minutes and your two year old may or may not be happy, depending on the time of day.

You do this every time baby is hungry or you won't have a milk supply to speak of anytime soon. This includes the middle of the night, though I have been known to fall asleep and wake up to find I've missed a pumping session and am still holding a bottle that I was supposed to have fed Timothy who is next to me in bed.

If you want to go out anywhere as an Eping mom you have to take the pump with you. For us that required an extra diaper bag filled with hooter hider apron thingy, pump, extra bottles, batteries for pump and pump wipes. In addition, you have to know where you are going to pump while you're out... the car, family restroom or even the hallway to the women's bathroom at LL Bean.

So I am doing the happy dance and I'm praying that Timothy will continue nurse well (I can't imagine why he wouldn't since this is the drink he prefers). We're just going to keep working at it because this is so much easier.

Timothy

I still haven't taken many great photos of Timothy. I'm hoping to do better. I've taken a bunch, but they aren't the best quality photos. So here are two of my favs. I love how he sticks out his tongue at us. I asked him tonight if Ryan taught him that and he made a little laughing sound and smiled at me. I have yet to capture that smile!