The Multiple Personalities of a Nursing Mother of an (Almost) Toddler

Tomorrow my son will be 11 months old. Goodness...that is so bittersweet. He is (almost) a toddler now...since I consider a toddler to be a walking baby (hence toddling along = toddler).

5am - Daddy brings in a very happy baby who is giggling and blowing raspberries while nursing. Nurses both sides and then does the little back-and-forth dance and is done. He lays down in the pack-n-play at the end of the bed and sleeps.

8:30am - I hear a crying baby in my dreams. No, wait, that is my real baby, yelling at me to get up. He nurses again on both sides, giggles and plays, and is ready to go out to the living room to say good morning to his toys and Mickey on the TV.

9:15am - I hear screaming coming from the region on my knee. I look down at my son who's face is set in a look of pure agony. He pulls on my shirt and screams at me some more. I put him on my lap and release the boobies and he nurses roughly for about 2 secs on each side and hops down. I put the boobies away and he screams at me some more.

This behavior continued until noon. He was nursing 5-7 times an hour. After his nap at noon, he was fine again. It's like this angry, rough baby steals my baby away in the late morning.

Also, when that angry, rough baby comes to play at our house a very frazzled, tired mom comes and takes my place as well. I know that loosing my patience is not nice. I feel like a bad mom. However, there are times that I simply have to let him cry a little on the floor while I creep up into a ball in the corner of the couch. This does not mean that I am ready to stop nursing...this does not mean that I am going to reach for a bottle...this does not mean that I am a bad mom. This simply means that this morning, nursing was rough. Tonight it was bliss again.

Nursing moms of rowdy babies...you are not alone. I hear you.

Almost Walking, Football, and Thanksgiving

Well our little man is almost walking. He takes a step at a time, pauses, and drops to the floor or grabs onto something. He does not like to hold our hands and walk...he is like "Dude, I can crawl faster...let me down." Our wonderful little boy is however doing chin-ups on our baby gates though, which are taller than him. Thank God we invested in strong, attached to the wall types.

Every Saturday at our house is football day...and I mean all day. Now, please don't get me wrong, I love College ball (Go Florida!), but watching random games all day is a bit much. But don't try to tell my husband that.

A's first Thanksgiving was great and he ate like a horse. We let him sort of go wild and he really did...and was put right into the bath afterwards. :) Cooking for so many people was a bit stressfull, but I enjoyed it. Just wish that I could not get behind every year. Those turkeys never want to finish in a timely manner.

We are going to start decorating for Christmas this week and next, and I think we are getting a tree over the weekend. We have to get a real tree (I'm a stickler for a real tree) and I think we may get like an eight foot one. Yay!

Applause Appreciated

*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*

Such a simple action and I cried about it today.

Mostly because it was my 10 month old son doing it.

After working on that all week with him (with him looking at me like "Mom, you have lost your mind") he clapped today! Naturally it was with Daddy, when I was off taking a test at the college. They were watching an African cultural dance performace and they started to clap and so did he. Then he turned and waved and pointed to the audiance (to make sure they knew he was there I suppose) and then went back to clapping with the performers. Daddy said he stole the show.

He is also going to sleep on his own now, no need for rocking. I cried about that tonight. I miss my little baby. I laugh and love and spout joy with every new thing he does, but I also cry a little on the inside (sometimes on the outside too) since I know that he is one step closer to not being a baby at all anymore, but a little boy.

Bittersweet.

Eye Teeth, Grumpy Babies, and a Girl Get-away

'A' is breaking through his eye teeth right now (the pointy teeth up top) and I think they are the worst so far. He normally is only grumpy for a day or so, and Advil takes the edge off and he is fine. NOT with these teeth. Wow he is cranky and clingy. I feel so bad for him, nothing seems to help.

This weekend I am going away overnight for the first time ever in his whole 10 months of being here. I am preparing like crazy for my mom and hubby to watch him (mom for the first part of the first day, then daddy that night and next day). I have more than enough milk in the freezer (over 100 oz!) but I am stressing over having to take my pump with me on this girl weekend. I am the only mom, pretty sure I am the only married one, and obviously the only one who is breastfeeding. I am pretty sure that I am going to get some weird looks for needing to run off to pump every few hours and keeping the milk in the fridge. I am going to carry my manual pump in my purse too so that I can pump to be comfortable while we are out for the night. I will have to dump that milk anyway since I am going to have a drink or two.

Here's to hoping for a fun weekend and an end to the teething.