Half-Birthday!!!

why is it people feel they can ask "are you breastfeeding?" as if it isn't a private question - like, whether you feed your baby from the boob or bottle should matter or be public knowledge...

at a glance, it's a benign question, with a simple answer... but the more I get asked, and the more I think about it, the more I want to answer - "what does it matter?? that is a personal decision made by the mom/parents, and what does it matter to you, stranger/parent-at-daycare/whoever-is-asking, if I'm breastfeeding?"
Maybe because I've been asked by a variety of people - men (my husband's friends) and women.  And interestingly enough, I never feel judged or like I have to explain anything when I answer a man - you get the succinct "oh ok, cool, my sister/wife/cousin did too..."
And then I get the moms who ask, and I get the sense they feel judged by my answer/choice... like when the fellow daycare mom asks, and I answer yes, she seemed to feel the need to defend why she's not BFing her baby  - "I tried with the twins, I had no milk, I had no milk this time either..." or another fellow daycare mom with an almost-1-year-old in Ms. Mack's room, when she saw me nursing one morning before running to work: "yea, I tried for a few weeks with him - my milk never came in..."

Not to sound harsh or unkind - but I didn't care! Not that I didn't care if they fed their babies, but I didn't care if they tried for 6 months, tried for 6 hours, didn't try and started immediately with formula - be a proud momma that you're taking care of your baby, yourself, AND working!!! That 'ISH IS HARD!

But thanks to a recent traffic-filled commute (hey, carride chronicles!), I think it's a personal choice, kind of like being asked, "do you use tampons or pads?"  ((neither, thanks for asking - still no PP period, wooooooot!))
(((and same thing - I don't care what you use, nobody else should either - as long as you do something to rein in that crimson wave... or - well, I guess you could "free bleed" ... technically...)))
wow I really got off-topic...
anywho...

Moving on to the most important part...

Eating: still nursing when together (evenings/nights, mornings, weekends) and takes (on average) two 3.5-oz bottles at daycare.  (Still pumping at work, twice a day - averaging every 3 hours...)

Eats breakfast at daycare - 4oz of food (bananas, peaches, mangos, yogurt) and cereal (mixed with formula), and then will nurse when we get home and have dinner with everyone (around 6:30/7) which is 4oz of food (yellow squash, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, spinach&apples)
I'm still making the food (saves mad money! one bag of carrots (will last a few days) is on average $1.00, while a single jar of babyfood is about the same - $1.00!) and will soon start some mixes: carrots&peas, apples&banana, peaches&banana, etc... This weekend we also tried Gerber's yogurt melts (broken into 3rds) and the all-famous multi-brand puffs... she makes the funniest face at the texture...

Sleep: OMG you guys I think we turned a corner... (or maybe her 5th WonderWeek Leap ended!) but the night of her doctor's appt (Wednesday night) she slept ELEVEN STRAIGHT HOURS! And did it again the next night... "PRAISE JEEBUS please don't be residual effects from vaccines!"
Well we were down the shore this weekend, and so had laaate bedtimes (around 10pm) but she slept straight through until 6am each night! And last night?!?!? 7pm-6am! WOOOOOOOT MOTHA-F*CKA!

Length:  at 26.75" this girl is now over the 80th percentile for length... just as I was "worried" she was going to take after my petite Italian in-laws...LOL  ((I'm all, "Dr are you sure you measured her right?!"))
Weight: drum roll please.. at 14lbs12oz, we jumped up percentiles!!! ((conflicting info from different growth charts, lol but we definitely jumped up!))
I won't lie and say I wasn't nervous at all as we waited for the scale to register her weight, but I definitely felt more confident than past appointments - that girl got some nice thigh rolls! And I still don't quite believe I did it - we made it BFing!!!

Wearing: still size 2 diapers. no more size 3 clothes (the leggings/pants, sure they fit, but are snug on the belly and are total high-waters...)
6M sleepers (and I wager we won't make it very much longer until 9M sleepers!)
Some 9M hand-me-downs, mostly 6M onesies and pants...
0-3M shoes (lol still petite feet! like her mommy!)

It's not summer without a good pair of jellies!

Hates: still doesn't like getting her face/boogies wiped (which sucks, she has teeny-tiny nostrils and constantly has boogies!)
She also doesn't like avocado, after two tries... (WAH!) we'll still keep trying, as I think it's the texture of it, being a semi-solid...

Loves: bananas! (had bananas, mango & yogurt at a recent breakfast, and each time eating bananas she would grunt and squeal for more!)
loves summer weather (the sun, the sea-wind, the warm pools!)

Milestones: is completely sitting independently (sat the entire doctor appointment! MD was like, ummm... DAYUM GIRL!)

Ms. Mack is also pretty strong on her legs - if we prop her, she'll stand for at least a few minutes!

big brother helps her stand up!                                     Daddy helped her stand on our recent trip to Woodloch...


6@6

  1. you can recognize a bowl and spoon, know that it's time (or time soon) to eat, and you get so excited and start to grunt!
  2. You're ahead of your curve big girl! You've mastered sitting up, and in fact get upset when you have to lay down, trying to raise your head in a semi-sit-up/crunch position for awhile...
  3. When you sleep - you love to curl up on your side, fetal position like an adult... I swoon...

 4.  For some reason, Pops (FIL) scares the ba-jeesus out of you! each time you see him, or he pops up in front of you, your frowny-pout begins, and it's just seconds until you start crying for momma...
 5.  you've become enamored with my necklaces while you nurse... (you broke one yesterday!) and each time you're nursing, I can't resist - I start to sing, "Ma-de-line" and you grin, nip still in your mouth...
 6.  you still light up every time you see your big brother... I cannot wait to see how this adoration/affection develops!

(He's not a big fan of you playing with his toys, and frequently says, "Don't let Mad-oh-line put it in her mouth!!"

BIG BROTHER:


Button's adjusted well to being a big brother - he loves his little sister, and frequently will run a toy over to her to play with...


He is definitely a three-nager now, with the first crying fit sometimes hitting before his feet have even come out of bed...


He loves the summer weather, and had a blast on the beach with his auntie when we went down the shore this past weekend!

(Except when he threw sand all over his nursing sister... I.  WAS.   MAD)

Invitations just went out last Friday for his THIRD birthday party... (GAH!)


Can't wait to throw this little boy his Splash-Bash!

a little bit of rambling...

(This is going to be kind of a rambling post, to get some stuff blogged about before I write up Ms. Mack's 6 MONTH UPDATE!)


It wasn't until I became a STM - but somehow a switch was thrown, time started going faster and faster...

 (The Time Machine)

I mean, I'd already seen first hand how fast time flies...

Even looking at the past three years, I absolutely cannot believe how fast the past six months have flown by...

Funny pump story - I recently had to use sterile sample cups at work to store pumped milk after failing to bring enough bottles (good problem to have! - I brought 3 bottles for 2 pump sessions - but I pumped so much that morning that combined it wouldn't fit in one 5oz medela bottle!)

 (Yes, still BF/pumping and going strong!) I've dropped to two pumps a day (11:30am and 2:30pm) and so far, so good! With the "go ahead" for more food - I am tentatively excited and sure we'll make it to the WCM switch in three months!
Such a big difference from this post, where I hung up the flanges and packed up the pump - OH SO HAPPY to see it go, after pumping round the clock, mechanically, for months!


A recent weekend I went to a "baby food class" at a local Pottery Barn Kids, where a "baby chef" came and talked about purees, best vegetables/foods to make, apparently how a baby's ready for solids at THREE MONTHS (poor preggo FTM asked, and was told by this "baby chef" that babies could start solids then... DAFUQ???!?!?!)
I didn't learn anything new (good thing it was a free course!) but it was fun to have the cute "live taste-tester" to feed peas and mangos to!

That night I also got to have a Mom's Night Out with moms from the weekly BF support group I used to go to... my BF/BFF tribe!
While drinking about $90 worth of martinis (per girl!) we chatted about our babies (all within about 45 days of each other!) and our cool "tricks" (um, hello to shooting streams of breast milk! somehow we all discovered that the husbands just don't get it... "no, I do not want to see something cool...")



Lately, Button has been on a "car goes by itself" kick - I have a remote start on my car, and when he was playing with my keychain once, I said "be careful, if you push the wrong button, the car starts/goes by itself!" and he hasn't dropped it since...
Well we passed someone out jogging on our drive home from daycare, and Button asks, "Why is that lady running? Because her car go by itself??"

SIL and I recently tried SUP yoga...

 and wouldn't you know - after falling into the lake once (and accidentally pulling SIL in with me - our boards were tethered to the same anchor lol) I totally rocked the pose pictured middle above (not our actual picture)
I held that wheel pose better than I ever have in the studio!! (hot yoga tonight - hopefully I can give a repeat performance!)


And one last random blurb - last week we spent three days (two nights - and not enough time!) at Woodloch Pines Resort, an all-inclusive family resort in the Poconos... we opted to stay in one of the guest "homes" (versus the hotel-style rooms at the main lodge) located a mile or so from the lake at Woodloch Springs... two bedrooms and two bathrooms (plus fireplace, kitchen and dining room!) were perfect for our family - and cheaper due to a June-mid-week-sale!!!

We had an awesome time at their indoor/outdoor splashpad/pool area - the outdoor was heated, and had a max depth of 15" or so (was even still attended by a lifeguard) so it was perfect for Button to play in while we sat and soaked up some sun in the lounge chairs...
And with SO MUCH to do, the two full days we had were nowhere NEAR enough time to hit it all (next time on our hope-to-be-annual vacation: bumper boats and zip-lining for sure!)


So here we are, the second official day of summer, and celebrating Ms. Mack's 6 month "half-birthday!" (ack, yes. time... FLYING...)