14 + 7 = 21!

I'm excited about several things today. First, Joey cut his first tooth yesterday! I got home and there it was, slightly popping through his gums, hardly able to be seen but definitely able to be felt! This explains the recent change in sleeping habits (was doing 7-8 hours regularly then switched back to 3-4) and possibly the increased appetite. I'm excited because it's a new phase but also a little sad because it means my favorite gummy smile will go away soon, though it will be replaced by an adorable pumpkin-tooth grin.

Next, I'm excited because yesterday before I left for work, I ordered a teething/nursing necklace from a seller on Etsy.com. I'd been planning on buying one, but the ones I liked were all $19 plus shipping which is a little too much for a necklace my baby is going to chew on so I held off. After talking with Amanda and seeing her latest Etsy purchase (a cute shirt), I looked up more teething necklaces and wouldn't you know, I found one I loved for $13 shipping included! It's green with blue and brown polk-a-dots and made of wooden beads and fabric (to sop up the drool). It's awesome because my favorite outfit (which is about to go out of season with the incoming cold weather) is a bright green and blue skirt, blue shirt, and my blue Keen sandals. This necklace will go perfectly with all that :)

I'm also super excited about today in particular because Joey napped almost the whole time I was at work and Dan only had to make a few bottles! I pumped more than Joey ate today!!! The freezer today looks a lot different than it did two weeks ago. Today there were 7oz. leftover and I brought home 14oz., so total there are 21oz. in the freezer! Two weeks ago, there were only 10oz. in the freezer and that was what I brought home because Joey had eaten everything else. On top of that, I don't go back to work until Tuesday, so I have three whole days to pump more and stock up! With cold and flu season starting up, the more breastmilk Joey gets, the better off he'll be immunity-wise.

Photography '05/'06 (300th Post!)

 I recently found sheets of negatives from when I took photography classes in college. Dan's dad has a scanner with a negative feature, so I spent some time scanning my favorites. Here are a few of the best ones. The first (above) and last pictures are in MD but the rest are from a trip we took to NYC :)

I did it! A post about a very full week.

When we last saw our heroine, she was vigorously pumping in a valiant attempt to stash enough milk so her dashing husband wouldn't have to open the can of formula while she was at work. I'm proud to say that

I DID IT!

When all was said and done, I left for work Monday with 29 or so ounces in the freezer. When I came home Wednesday, there was still one lone 4oz. bag leftover after what I had pumped at work the previous days and what I had gotten over the weekend. Wednesday I did not pump at work as much as I normally get and that ended up being due to using my own pump (instead of the hospital grade pump) at the end of the day and also because I couldn't spend 20 minutes pumping because Dan had to get to work.

Thursday

Our little family got up early and headed for the airport. I was super excited to go to South Carolina to visit my Great Aunt Jane for several reasons. It's been just over 3 years since I've traveled anywhere on a plane and I definitely get a travel itch right around the 2 year mark, although this was my first time flying with a baby. I also was excited to see Aunt Jane because it's been many, many, many years since I've seen her (ETA: Mom said she was at our wedding so I last saw her 3 years ago). My mom and I traded suitcases so I could have only carry-on luggage, and let me tell you, that is the way to fly! No waiting around at baggage claim, no standing in line at the check-in/bag check counter. I was able to check in and print my boarding pass the night before and got to walk straight to security once Dan dropped us off. The controversy of the day is the TSA's full body scanners and their super-intensive pat downs. BWI is not currently making everyone choose one or the other. Joey and I walked through a metal detector and that was it. I saw one person get a pat down but it was a random choice and I didn't even see the full body scanners.

My parents had driven down to SC the day before so they picked us up at the airport down there with Joey's car seat all ready to go. Aunt Jane is doing chemo so we didn't go see her right away, we had to wait for her to get back from treatment. Downtown Greensville reminds me of Annapolis and historic Ellicott City, but if they were combined. It's got lots of shops and places to eat, a lot of them on Main St. We stopped and got something to eat at a brick oven place, my parents got pizzas and I got Alfredo--one of my all time favorite dishes. Eventually it was time to go visit Aunt Jane and her daughter (my cousin once removed, so Dad's first cousin) Yancy was there too.

We all went out to dinner at a really lovely place called Harry & Jean's. It's an American restaurant, but done really well. Our server was probably the best server I had ever had, part of that may have been because we beat the dinner rush and there weren't many other tables there but mostly because he was just an awesome server. I had chicken marsala and it was to die for! Everyone else enjoyed their food as well and overall the entire meal was wonderful for the company. We went back to the hotel and once Yancy dropped her mom off, she came back to the hotel to visit some more. I wasn't there for that part, in attempting to put Joey down for the night in the back bedroom (my parents got a suite with a bedroom and living-room type deal), I fell asleep with him and woke up after Yancy had left. The price of waking up at 0330.

Friday

My first and only full day in SC. Aunt Jane's treatment is every day so we had time to kill before visiting with her again. We went furniture shopping (for my parents who are looking for a kitchen table and couch) and then back to Main St. There's a park in the middle of downtown (Falls Park on the Reedy) with a cool waterfall and suspension bridge. We got some lunch and went back to the hotel to rest up for a bit before going over to see Aunt Jane again. We were in for a treat with this second visit because some Korean friends of Aunt Jane's had driven down from VA the day before just to see her and give her Anointing of the Sick. They're Episcopalian, but have a lot of the same sacraments that Catholics do. I really enjoyed their ceremony, especially because some of it was in Korean. I also liked seeing their Korean Bibles, very cool.

Aunt Jane in the center, Yancy far right, and Dad in the back.

I'm a little fuzzy on the details but here's what I can remember: The priest on the very left did part of his seminary at Jesus Abbey (where my Uncle Archer was for most of his missionary career) which is where he met Aunt Jane. I'm sure that's where the other priest met her as well. It came out in conversation how Uncle Archer came to be at Jesus Abbey. His parents were missionaries as well (my grandfather, Archer's brother, was actually born in China) though they were Anglican, not Episcopalian. Sometime in the 1950's, while they were at their beach house in Korea on a beach where a lot of foreigners and missionaries vacationed, they ran into a bishop they knew and invited him over for 4 o'clock tea (something they had picked up working with English missionaries). While the bishop was there having tea, he saw a picture of Uncle Archer in his collar and asked about him. Upon finding out that he was Episcopalian, and knowing Archer's parents' reputation as missionaries, the bishop thought it might be a good idea to invite him to help re-open a seminary that had closed during the war (WWII). The rest is really history because Uncle Archer and Aunt Jane moved out to Korea and have been there ever since (with the exception that Uncle Archer went home to Heaven a couple of years ago). Aunt Jane is anxious to get well and go back to the Abbey, she misses everyone there terribly and truly lives to serve others.

Saturday

My flight was fairly early again, but not nearly as early as the one on Thursday. Also, the Greensville airport is pretty small so I knew getting through security wasn't going to take very long. There was a little restaurant in the airport, so my dad and I got some breakfast while my mom held Joey (she wasn't hungry). I was glad that it was a small-town airport's security I was going through this time because I had pumped some milk (stored in the hotel fridge, I'm sure my dad loved that) because I knew I was going to have to re-build the stash, plus I didn't want to lose the bigger supply I had worked hard to increase. I knew that the TSA allowed breastmilk, formula, and other liquids on the plane with little-to-no issue, I just didn't know how they were going to handle my bag of ice. The fridge didn't have a freezer section, so I couldn't re-freeze my ice packs to keep the milk cool. Turns out they didn't really care too much about the bag of ice. Frozen things aren't much of a problem for them. Had the milk been frozen, they probably wouldn't have given it a second thought. Good to know for next time. They did do a vapor test over the milk and melted ice, but of course that came up negative and we were on our way.

Dan picked us up at the airport and after Joey woke up a little bit (he fell asleep halfway through the long flight), he was happy to see his daddy. I love my sling, it's probably the only reason I'd consider traveling with a baby by myself again. I used my backpack as a diaper bag (and on the way home my parents put the suitcase in their car so I didn't even have to fiddle with the overhead) and put that on after Joey in the sling. We were so mobile that I didn't take a single elevator in any of the airports we were in! We got lunch on our way home, I fed Joey and attempted to nap, though Joey only let me get about 20 minutes. Dan bought me Season 5 of Dexter and Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides last week and I had not yet seen Pirates so we watched that. I didn't get to see it because it came out 3 days before my due date with Joey, and since he came 8 days early, he wasn't even a week old yet when it came out. Had I still been pregnant, I would have been in the theater for sure! It's the only Pirates movie that I didn't see in the theater and after watching it, I'm not so sad that I missed it. The first is the only really good one. The others are just built around Johnny Depp reprising one of the best roles of his career. Anyway...

The Men in Black game was also Saturday night! This year we actually went to the tailgate before the game and had a blast! Holy Trinity loves to party and the other youth groups in our cluster came to party with us! We're becoming a fusion youth group for some of the smaller churches so our group is getting bigger all the time. I didn't know many of the the kids but we still had a good time. Momma Marlene knew that the Chik-Fil-A cow would be coming to the game and bought Joey a cow costume so we could take his picture with the cow. We watched the game and cheered while we waited for the cow to show up. Friends from the church where we go to Mass (St. Jane's) also came and sat with us. They love Joey and he loves them :) I love Trinity, we had the biggest, loudest section again this year. The priests actually won this year's game! For the first time that I've seen, not only did the priests win, the STOMPED the youth! The final score was 43-32, yikes!

A cow holding a cow holding a cow. Oh yeah.

I'm not entirely sure why the Chik-fil-a cow was there, but we love Chik-fil-a so it doesn't matter ;) The person with the cow had a bag of goodies and they were throwing them to the crowd. When we went down for the picture, we got a stuffed cow for Joey to hold so that the Chik-fil-a cow is holding a baby cow, who is holding a baby Chik-fil-a cow. Awesome! My guess is that cows are black and white and priests wear black and white so that could be the connection or I'm just grasping. Either way, we got this awesome picture and the person with the cow got a picture for Chik-fil-a too so somewhere Joey is famous.

The Men in Black game is a basketball game between our area priests and guys from various youth groups. It's to help raise awareness for vocations and show the kids that just because you're called to religious life, doesn't mean you stop having fun.

Ben and Joey are best buddies :)

Eat mor...cow?

Why I'm pumping at 0100, and 0500, and all day long...

All clean and ready to go!

Other than I didn't have a big enough freezer stash to begin with, I'm still not sure what happened. One week I'm matching what Joey eats while I'm at work and the next he's demolishing whatever is in the freezer and I'm not bringing home enough. We didn't have any real plans this weekend, so in addition to nursing Joey whenever he wants, I'll be pumping. I also just bought a manual pump because there have been a couple of instances where I thought, "A manual pump would be so much easier right now" so I'll be taking advantage of both my double-electric (best investment ever) and my manual. I have an interesting relationship with my pump. I definitely think it helped my early labor progress faster. When the contractions weren't coming regularly, I'd pump one side until a contraction came, then switch to the other side after it was over. Now that I'm using it (or the hospital-grade pump at work) on an almost daily basis, I'm becoming less of a fan of pumping in general. It's kind of like brushing my teeth, something I don't necessarily want to do but I know I have to because it's the healthiest option.

Watching me clean all the bottles and lids for the pump.

Basically this weekend is going to be about tricking my boobs into thinking that Joey is having a growth spurt so more milk will come in. What started this entire milk factory idea is the fact that I'm working three days in a row next week. I had asked to work those three days, but I didn't think I'd actually get them. It's good that I did, I'm just surprised. Normally what happens is I have a day or two off in between shifts or only two days in a row. I use those days off to pump in the morning when I'm still pretty full and add another 2-3oz. to the freezer. Between that addition and pumping in the morning before I leave for work, I can usually cover what Joey eats albeit just enough (what I pump at work comes home and goes in the freezer for the next shift). Usually at work I get between 9-12oz. depending on where I am in my cycle (yes, my period came back way early AND it affects my supply) and how many times I can get away to pump. Yesterday, I pumped 3 times at work and got 11oz which is pretty good. I would have gotten to pump a fourth time but I'm not on the schedule for the room. Due of the nomadic nature of my job, I need to be flexible about my pump times and give way to those who are signed up first. I'm not opposed to being flexible, I just need to start leaving my personal pump in the room for the day so if the machine I use is busy I can still pump. We also left early so it was a combination of waiting longer to pump and leaving early so I couldn't pump after we got off because we left 20 minutes after I was finished.

I'm not looking forward to pumping all weekend. It pretty much means Joey might be either hungry all the time because he's not getting milk as quickly as he'd like, or it means that he'll be attached to one boob or the other for longer-than-normal times. Or both. It also means that when I pump one side while he's nursing on the other or using my double-electric because he's napping, I'm not going to get as much milk as I'm used to pumping at a time. This means that it will take longer to build up to a "serving" that Joey normally eats (he can down 3-4oz. no problem and most of the time go for seconds). So far, after starting this regimen yesterday after work, I've only put one 3oz. bag in the freezer. However, that does bring me back up to 14oz. and yesterday he ate all 19.5oz. that had been in there. I'm hoping that between today and tomorrow I'll be able to have a decent stash for my next three shifts at work. Joey's been sleeping longer at night (thank goodness! No 4-month-old sleep regression!), if we can get his naps right he'll sleep between 6-8 hours before needing to eat and then 3-4 hours (or more) after that. Now, on days that I do work, I'll nurse him around 0300, sleep for another hour, get up and get ready for work. The last thing I do before I leave is pump/clean my parts for the next session. That way if Joey wakes up again I can nurse him and if not, I can maximize the time in between pump sessions (so I don't have to pump like 10 minutes after shift starts). I can typically get a whole other feeding out of that morning pump, or part of one anyway, usually 3-4oz. My newest idea, that paid off yesterday, was to get to work early and pump again. If I can time it so that there's about two hours between my at-home session and my first at-work session, I can get a decent amount of milk. I did yesterday anyway. It paid off because well, duh, I got extra milk, but also because we left early. Had I not gotten to work early to pump, I would have only gotten to pump twice the whole shift! I will definitely be doing this from now on.

Posting often is getting harder and harder as Joey gets bigger because he's awake more and wants to play all the time! He's definitely a Momma's Boy because most of the time if I'm home, Daddy just isn't good enough to play with he wants Mommy or both! He's currently transitioning between several naps a day and one morning nap and one afternoon nap. Some days it's several short naps and others it's just the two big ones. I've tried to help him fall asleep a couple of times, but if he's not ready then he's not ready and we'll just go back to playing :)

Eat mor chikin

Joey's going to be a Chik-fil-a Cow for Halloween courtesy of Momma Marlene and her absolutely adorable costume find. If we get to go to this year's Men in Black game, Joey will wear this because the fill size Chik-fil-a cow will be there and we want pictures of them together! I'm totally going to make a cardboard sign to go with the costume. I'm hoping to velcro it to the back, either way I've got a ton of leftover cardboard from retreat.

I'd love to go to the MIB game this year, last year's was lots of fun. We had just announced our pregnancy and this year I'll have a 5 month old to bring along! I still can't believe how quickly time has gone and how much has happened since I started this blog last year. I'm definitely glad I started it because I look back at all the details I had so quickly forgotten about about and I'm happy that I wrote them down. Especially the pregnancy and stuff with Joey since that and buying the house are kind of really big things that happened in my life. I get to look back and see how I've changed and how I'm still the same person I've always been.

Yeah, I'm really glad I started (and kept up with) this project :)

Another Retreat Down

2011 marks the 10th anniversary of my own Confirmation and Confirmation retreat, so this year was particularly special for me. Joey came with us on retreat, it was seriously easier than having to pump AND find someone to watch him for half of Friday and half of Sunday (my mom watched him on Saturday at retreat, so she could have also done that at home too). Not to mention I'd have to not only stop and pump on retreat but I would have had to stock up my freezer stash in a major way for how long I was at retreat on Saturday. I came home both nights because of Joey, that way he wouldn't bother anyone in the middle of the night, plus he'd sleep better at home anyway. Dan came home with me the second night to get some sleep after staying up all night Friday. I really liked being able to fall asleep in the car on the way home Saturday night. I don't mind driving, and Camp Wabanna isn't nearly as far away as other places we've gone, but if I don't have to drive I'll gladly give up the wheel.

Joey did pretty well considering there were a TON of strangers (to him) there all coming up to say hi or hold him (only the people I knew well held him). Though he did relieve his stress in the car by screaming his poor little lungs out. I'm told it's a phase, and I hope it passes soon, but he currently doesn't like his car seat. He's only reasonable in the mornings when he's had lots of sleep, that's the only time he doesn't cry about being in the seat. Any other time of day, he cries until he gets out. I think he just wants to be held and doesn't like that we're not holding him, I also think he doesn't like that we're "ignoring" his cries which makes him cry harder. It's like flipping a switch, he's fine as soon as he's out and in someone's arms. Mostly mine, but he'll stop if Dan's holding him too. Those were some LONG trips to and from the retreat center when he was crying. I'll definitely not be going too many places with him on my days off in hopes that he forgets about how much he was in the seat this weekend and in effort to help him through the phase faster. We'll see though.