Thank you notes: I'm finally caught up on baby and baptism thank you notes! It only took me 11 weeks to do that. Not too bad, but definitely not the normal for this usually prompt girl.
Birth announcements: And since I'm finally caught up with writing thank you notes, I finally ordered Baby R.'s birth announcements to send out. Amazing, huh? She's only 11 weeks old and I'm finally getting around to doing that. Now to stamp and address them, which shouldn't take too long. I should have called them 3 month birthday announcements, and then I'd be early on getting them out..ha, ha!
1st Friday: Today is the 1st Friday in a long time that all three of us are home. Daddy often has Fridays off, but he's been so busy the past month, that he hasn't been able to be home all of a Friday. And since he works almost every other day, it was nice to have him around this morning. I took a nap and made it to the gym before noon! That felt amazingly good.
1st LLL meeting: This week R. and I attended our first La Leche League meeting. I've been meaning to go for several months now, but it hasn't worked out. It was nice to connect with other bfeeding moms, and while R. was the youngest baby, LLL is a good resource to be connected with, especially since bfeeding can still be a struggle for me at times because one side can be painful. I doubt, however, that I'll still be nursing R. at 19 months as several of the other moms were doing with their kids. My goal is to make it to a year and then re-evaluate.
1st women's Bible study: This week has been a week of firsts:-) This week R. and I also attended our first women's Bible study. This is the Monday night study that I used to regularly attend and co-lead. I haven't been since before she was born, so it was nice to go and re-connect with some of the women. I doubt I'll be a regular just yet, but we'll see how things shape up for participation in the fall.
Back to work? I agreed to help out with a graduate student workshop next month for 8 days. I debated about whether I should or not, but the pay is really, really good and we decided a little extra income will be nice. It's only 2-3 hours a day, so definitely do-able with DH being able to adjust his work schedule to be able to watch her. And since I'm still not sure if there will be a class for me to teach in the fall, and even if there is one that fits the schedule I'm willing to teach, I'm not sure I want to go back to work at all.
Bottle strike: Since I agreed to help with the workshop, we decided it's time to keep working with the bottle. We had gotten a little lax with giving R. a bottle since there wasn't a need as I was home, and since she was taking it so well, we figured there wasn't a problem. Well, surprise surprise....guess who refuses to drink from a bottle right now? We were shocked to discover that, and I'm sort of freaking out about working next month now as a result. We've tried 4 different bottles. Yes, we are getting quite the collection,
We're currently reading Balancing Breast and Bottle: Reaching Your Breastfeeding Goals (checked it out from LLL). This is a book I wish we would have read before she was born! Seriously...we are doing so many things wrong as far as helping the transition back and forth, according to the book...using the wrong kind of pacifier, wrong kind of bottle, not practicing with a bottle, etc. I am so frustrated because some of my nursing difficulties could be a result of what we've been doing "wrong" and had we read the book, we would have known to not stop with a bottle just because it's working out well. As babies get older and smarter, they forget how to use a bottle and can refuse it, according to the book. Wish we would have known that weeks ago....grr! There are lots of tips in the book that we are currently trying, but none are working yet.
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!
I nursed my children back in the day and LLL was so wonderful. The oldest for 24 months and the youngest for 14 (they weaned themselves). Please contact LLL for help with your bottle issues. They have lots of practical experience. There is no "wrong" or "right" way to do anything, just lots of things to try and one will work for you and your baby. Annette
ReplyDeleteI might have to check out that book. C takes a bottle well and I want to keep it that way!
ReplyDeleteYou have been busy! Good for you for getting all those thank you's out and working on the birth announcements. Since we're due in late November, we're going to use our Christmas cards as birth announcements, so we'll have to jump on it immediately. We'll also have to have baptism invitations pre-designed and then plug in the name when he/she is born and order them asap. We're thinking hopefully we can get the priest to baptise the second saturday in December. So, we'll probably will need to give save the dates to the baptism invitees so they can block that day in advance. Whew! whirlwind of to-do's!
ReplyDeleteGreat updates! Don't worry about the thank you's and announcements ... everyone knows how busy you are! Although they WILL be super excited to get the announcement and picture. :-)
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this helps at all ... it is probably the wrong info ... but Luke likes the Soothie (green pacifier from the hospital) and the Playtex VentAir bottles best. For whatever that's worth. :-)