Parenting
Photo by Emily Rumsey It’s World Breastfeeding Awareness Week. As a breastfeeding mother, you certainly need, no NEED, to hear my contribution on the topic. Right? Maybe. But maybe not. Articles of mine on breastfeeding {The Whole List}: Three Beginner Breastfeeding Tips Breastfeeding Right After Delivery Breastfeeding: Duration of Nursing Sessions Breastfeeding & the Art of Latching Breastfeeding & Nipple Pain What Are the Good Nursing Positions Nursing Past Age One When to Stop Night Nursing —- Here’s the maybe: Breastfeeding was a no-brainer for me. I knew it was best for baby, best for me, and I made my life work around it. Working, errands, pumping, late nights, no trips without baby, etc. It was easy, in part, SuperBoy nursed happily til 14 months, no supplementing. SweetPea is almost 16 months and still nurses, no supplementing. She had a tougher time latching, but made it through those first few weeks and then it’s all been cruise control. For her part, she never took a pacifier, isn’t a huge bottle fan, and would only only be comforted by me. By these, rather. Challenging, annoying, wonderful, all these things for those nights I wanted to go to bed and stay in bed. Forever. But both children flourished, were exceptionally healthy, and very confident. I’m a fan of breastfeeding (and attachment parenting in general {Attachment Parenting is About Sacrifice}). As an aside, people always said that extended nursing {Why Nurse Longer?} is special because it’s the only time, for some little personalities,…
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As in me, not my mom. She’s fascinating. No, me, a mom. Why are moms boring? I know, I know, our non-mommy friends try to prop up our paper thin egos and offer encouragement like see–you’re still fun to go out with! You own more than yoga pants! Love that we’re out for drinks! Meanwhile they’re thinking will you ever shut up about your kid’s spasms? I can’t believe you complain about your husband all the time. Do we really have to leave by 9:30? At least they are still friends with us–despite our permanent state of stream of consciousness. But our fellow moms know the truth: we are plain leftover oatmeal boring. That fun girl in her 20’s, who stayed up late, invested in so many relationships and talked and listened and contributed to all her organizations, those ones? All of yous, my beloved mama readers? The ones who pursued tough academic paths, crabby & crappy jobs to get through school, the ones who ate late night nachos with the girls & Amy’s pizzas, survived on little sleep with no eye makeup the next day, looking fine, you know how it was. Now all emotional energies go toward negotiating with the world’s cutest terrors, the year’s biggest tantrumers, the neediest independent girls, the kitchen that uses my dishes all night to through a potluck for the dining room, the husband that you want to actually talk to but are too tired to. This all hit me the other night when I had an…
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No, I’m not pregnant. That I’m aware of. You know us crazies and our NFP {my article on why we pace our family naturally}. That out of the way, with two kids who finally sleep through the night–not counting SuperBoy’s 10 million getups before he falls asleep–I’ve had so much time to blog, sew, cook, hang with AA, rewatch Alias–yes, guilty pleasure from college. I convinced myself watching it would help me feel inspired to work out. Um. And watch more of it. But in this precious in between kids phase, I do want to be more deliberate in my appreciation for this time. This time with two kids. This time with no morning sickness–all day sickness. This time of lots of me (sometimes us time but I’m the nightowl in this marriage) time. Do I feel selfish? A little guilty? That I have enough time to not clean my bathrooms but hang out with you? Sometimes, yes. Other times, like the 24 hours my blog was lost in outer space yesterday, I realize how much I rely on social media to give me my extrovert booster. Thanks for being here, dear ones! You’re da best. Pre-baby #3 bucket list: 1) Redo the Main Bathroom. It just needs a facelift. Like a Lucille Bluthe kind. New lighting, hardware, wall decor, curtains, paint, ceiling fan. That’s it. Not the toily or sink. SuperBoy has taken to calling the toilet the “toily” and asking SweetPea if she wants to go on the toily.…
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Happy Fourth of July! Happy celebration of the independence of our country! Try explaining that to a three-year-old. — England used to be in charge, but America thought they were mean, so then America had a revolution and became independent. But why were they mean? They made America do things they didn’t want to do. So did America have time out? Time out for not listening? Um. No. Well. Kinda. Adults do weird things. — We’ll be spending the holiday with our dearest family friends, the mother of who was recently diagnosed with cancer. It’s treatable and she’s so upbeat, worried more about the rest of us than herself, of course. Please pray for her & everyone around her as she goes through treatment. We’ll also spend the holiday celebrating the birth of my brother & sister-in-law’s son!!!!! AA and I are going to become the proud Godparents in just about a month. The little boy was born July 3, and is perfectly healthy and big! My brother’s deployed so this time has been a hardship on his little family, and the greater family in general. So excited little baby boy is here, finally, earthside, and everything went well. Celebrate your freedoms this holiday. And tune in again next week for a review of my acupuncture treatments (ah-mazing), a new sponsor—sneak peak on the sidebar, and a post on food. Or maybe on surviving a three year old. Or maybe on having more children–not pregnant yet! Freedom to have your…
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The downside for my kids of me being a lawyer: (Well, let’s make that plural. Downsides.) 1) I cross-examine thoroughly. Oh, really? You say you went potty? When did you go? Did you flush? Did you take off your undies? Was the light on in the bathroom? Did you turn it on? Did you turn it off? Yes. Yes to which part. All of it. Really? You just told me you didn’t go and you didn’t flush. . . . 2) My mind is finely tuned to root out discrepancies and inconsistencies. Go AWAY, MAMA!!! You just asked me to help you. No! NO! NO!! Come baaaaaaaack. Come baaaaaaack. You’re being inconsistent. I’m not being inconsient. You need to pick a side and stick with it. I don’t want to be sticky. . . . 3) I state the rule and its applications. The rule is you have to share. That means you have to share with your sister, me, your cousin, and your friends. What about Dada? He doesn’t count because you like to share with him. 4) I use parallel citations as persuasive authority. Can’t you say BEEP like Mrs. Anderson so I can have a turn? No. Your sister isn’t done with her turn. Mrs. Anderson gives nice turns. Mrs. Anderson actually told me to give long turns to children who are being nice to their brothers, and short turns to brothers who are mean to their sisters. Oh. 5) I correct unwanted behavior with forward thinking…
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The three amigos–my niece is in town and the three kid are having so much fun they don’t know what to do! I don’t know about you (yes, yes I do because you’re reading this right now when you should be working dutifully, chasing children, doing laundry, or making important business phone calls), but I waste time with the internet. It’s like my computer & IPhone are time suckers. Or drainpipes. Or funnels. And my time runs down them whilst I assure myself I’m productively touching base with all my little spots in the electronic universe. A few new resolutions have helped me, at home mom, greatly over the past few weeks, and I hope they can help you too. (What would probably help you best is just shutting.me.off.right.now.) Those of you at work, well, that used to be me, but now I have no advice for you other than to get your work done as fast as you can so you can veg on your screen in the off-hours. It always made my work day less productive, feel longer, and I’d be more sluggish to have all the extra stimuli of the outside world. 1) Have a goal in mind for being on your computer/screen/smart phone. I make a quick list of what I’m going to accomplish in the X amount of time I have before I have to go on to another task. This is a sub category of my running weekly & daily lists of things to…
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