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This stuff can be a weary mom's best friend.

Saioa recently had her four-month checkup and I’m happy to say that she’s growing beautifully, as happy and healthy as can be. During her appointment, the Pediatrician asked how long I was planning to breastfeed for. I told him that because I’m a stay at home mom, I was willing to nurse for as long as it is recommended. We went over some things and my conclusion in regards to breastfeeding is this: I definitely am planning to breastfeed exclusively until she’s six months old. After six months, I’ll start supplementing with baby foods and other solids. I’d like to continue to breastfeed until she’s one year old, but if that doesn’t happen, it’s ok! If I have to give her a bottle of formula every now and then, that’s ok too.

I love breastfeeding and even more love the BENEFITS that it provides to my baby AND me but I have to admit that sometimes it gets tiring.

If Saioa was the only little person I was taking care of, I would probably have more will and energy to breastfeed for a year or even longer. But because I have Serophina to look after and a busy household to run as well, I feel like I may start to run out of drive after the one-year mark, maybe even sooner.

Thankfully, my Pediatrician has a very practical approach to things and understands that good mama health is very important for good baby health.  He told me not to wear myself out, if I get to the point where it’s not enjoyable anymore, don’t do it. Breastfeeding out of guilt and pressure are not the right reasons to keep doing it.

This was a relief for me to hear, I don’t know why I felt like formula was the devil. After all, I had to give Serophina formula at three months because I had to go back to work and she turned out fine. She’s sharp, intelligent, healthy, a great problem solver and a quick learner and I know Saioa will be too.

We all have varying opinions on how long to breastfeed; each decision depends on you and your baby and what works for one doesn’t always work for the other.

Just remember that there are so many other factors that contribute to your child’s health and IQ.

I’m sure there are plenty of Astrophysicists out there that were raised on just formula!

How long do you plan to breastfeed and why?

Mom, this would look better on your shirt.

Morehead City recently opened an Olive Garden and my friends and I were dying to try it out. Living here you have your choice of country diners that spell their “country” with a “K” or outdated chain restaurants that still reek of cigarette smoke (love you No-Smoking Law!) In other words it’s slim pickins when it comes to dining out. But now that we have Olive Garden all our problems have been solved.  Seriously, the thought of breadsticks alone is enough to make me drool a little.

We went for lunch one day and all together we were three adults and 5 children: a three year old, a 4 month old, a 3 month old and 1 year old twins.

After our little excursion I thought I’d share some tips for other Ladies who lunch and bring their kids:

1. Understand that your baby will sleep the whole way TO the restaurant and wake up as soon you arrive AT the restaurant, no matter how much you tried to make it so that they would nap so you could eat in peace.

2. Embrace the noise. Become one with the noise. Kids will freely exercise their right to make noise, complain, cry or throw things, regardless of where you are or who’s around so just learn to accept it and pretend others will too.

3. Your Baby will be perfectly content until your food arrives, at which point she will begin to scream her head off until you have to take her to the women’s bathroom and nurse her standing up in the handicap stall.

4. Push your plate, drink and all silverware an arm’s length away from you because while you’re holding your baby in your lap, she will, and I repeat, she WILL knock over your diet coke and/or dip her hands in your spaghetti sauce so that she can express her artistic abilities all over your crisp, white shirt.

5. Don’t be embarrassed to ask for more breadsticks because every time you look away, your child will pick up a fresh breadstick, take one bite out of it, put it down then do the same thing to all the other breadsticks.

6. Forget about having a conversation that lasts longer than 3 seconds. Of course, if you’re a mom you’ve already perfected the art of nano-second dialogue.

6. Lastly, you WILL get dirty looks from other patrons because your kids are being too loud.  Get used to it. In fact, every time the waitress goes to seat the table beside you, they’ll take one look at your table and request to be seated elsewhere.

What nuggets of wisdom do you have when you’re at a restaurant with your kids?

Sweet dreams lovey love!

Not too long after I announced to the world that my sweet baby was sleeping through the night, she started not sleeping through the night. It was so nice of her to wait till after I boasted to my group of friends that “Yes, my baby sleeps through the night. Oh, yours doesn’t? Awww, poor you. I know, I’m so lucky. Yes, she’s such a good baby.”

She must’ve heard those conversations and was like “Oh no Mother, remember when you made me cry in my bassinet for a whole half a minute? Well take this!”

Recently she started waking up in the middle of the night and won’t go back to sleep until I nurse her. I thought, prayed and hoped that it was just a short-term phase. But she’s been waking up consistently for no apparent reason. I sleepily comply so that I can get back to Dreamland as soon as possible. Last night she woke up THREE times!!! What is she a newborn again?

I had to go over possible, legitimate reasons that this might be happening. Is she going through a growth spurt? Is she not getting enough during the day? Am I producing enough milk? After determining that none of the above was the case, I realized she simply was becoming accustomed to being nursed in the middle of the night. It happened once or twice and now she was forming a habit of having to be nursed back to sleep every time she woke up. This is a habit that I would like to avoid at all costs as I know from experience it could mean disaster in the coming months.

Basically, I’m taking this as a queue to upgrade her to a bigger place. The bassinet next to mom and dad is no longer necessary.

With my lactation consultant’s approval and her Pediatrician’s blessing, she’ll be movin’ on up… just like the Jefferson’s…. to the east side of our house and into her own room and crib.

This is a big moment for us. I feel like I’m sending my kid off to college. Like a mama bird gently pushing her baby bird out of the nest. Fly birdie! Fly!

Yes, I have my hesitations and probably won’t sleep well for the first few nights as I’ll be up and checking on her every hour.

But I know it’s for the best and in the long run we’ll all end up sleeping better for years to come.

Have any of you kids had crazy sleeping patterns like this?

Could I get that to go please?

When my first one was a baby and needed to be nursed while we were out, I’d always go to the car or find a fitting room if we were at a clothing store. I NEVER breastfed in public, even though I had a proper cover that prevented anyone from seeing anything from the neck down.

Not that I think it’s wrong or offensive, I just was not comfortable doing it. I’m way too self-conscious and would never be able to relax with people around.

When you only have one baby to take care of, it’s easy to just pick up and leave to go nurse in the car. Not always the case when you have a baby AND a toddler in tow.

Earlier this week we went to the library because it’s an activity that’s free and air-conditioned (what’s up with this heat lately!?) They have a great children’s section and Serophina loves to sit at the little tables and do puzzles. It was a Saturday, so not many people were there and we were the only ones in the children’s section (which, by the way, is all the way in the back of the library.)

We were having a wonderful, relaxing time when Saioa started to get fussy. I knew that she was getting hungry. We were having such a nice time I hated the thought of packing up everything to go to the car.  I looked around me and no one was even near. Dare I nurse her right then and there??

Yes. Yes, I was going to do this. I positioned the stroller at my side so that you couldn’t see anything from that end and then discreetly began to nurse Saioa. It was going well and I was even proud of myself for getting over my fears of public breastfeeding. But then every time I heard a voice from anywhere in the library I got nervous that someone was going to come over to where we were. Unfortunately, I let my nerves get the best of me and decided I wanted to finish nursing in private. Luckily the bathroom was only a few feet away, so I could leave my stroller and it wouldn’t be a big deal to have Serophina stop doing her puzzle for a minute to come with me.

Even though we had a minor distraction of having to take a nursing break, it was still a great afternoon with my girls, and that’s good enough for me. I’ll have to work on the breastfeeding in public thing later.

How do you feel about breastfeeding in public?

I was chatting with one of my dearest friends the other day who has a one month old, and it brought me back to when Isaac was first born and I was clueless, confused, ill-tempered and weepy for quite some time.  Ok, I still am occasionally (:

Being a mom is easily the hardest but most rewarding thing I have ever experienced, but I think we all know how quickly it can become overwhelming.  So many new things to learn, so many questions, so many sleepless nights.

I was definitely congratulating her on some positives and empathizing with her on some negatives, and I got to thinking that we mother’s need our own set of milestones just like our babies!  Some encouragement and praise is always nice to hear, so here you go:      (in no particular order)

• Learning how to breastfeed — why don’t all those books on the topic warn you that this might be difficult, not to mention painful?  It gets better, I promise!  Good for you for giving your baby the healthiest start possible!

FYI:  I am assuming that learning to bottle feed formula can be tricky as well, so congrats to you too, I did not forget you (:

• Functioning on little to no sleep — isn’t it amazing that your body can change it’s sleep rhythms to your new adjusted schedule of every 2 hours or so?  Not to worry, you will eventually regain some of that lost sleep.  And your hubby will eventually learn how to give a bottle!

• Remembering how to brush your teeth and comb your hair — remembering to take care of YOU can take last place, so when you do finally look in the mirror, get scared of your frightening reflection, and fix it a bit, you will feel much better and your reflection will thank you.  I will not tell you how long I went without a shower…ew.

• Figuring out the car seat — maybe it’s just me, but some of these baby gadgets are entirely too complicated!  When you get the hang of hauling that seat around, locking it and unlocking it and buckling and unbuckling baby, you have reached this milestone, good for you!

• Surviving leaving the house with baby — your first time can be very scary; think of the germs, of all the stuff you need to pack with you, of possibly having to breastfeed in public, if baby screams at the grocery store, etc.  But once you go, you’ve achieved it, and each time will get easier and easier.

• Realizing that a messy house is not the end of the world, and neither is a microwaveable meal –  it’s ok not to clean or do laundry or cook right now because you are taking care of a newborn which outweighs all other things.  A little mess never hurt anyone, and if you are that worried about it ask your family/friends to have a cleaning party at your house.  Once you realize this you can focus more on the task as hand, a.k.a. that cute little person you are holding.

• Learning how to accept help — We are woman, hear us roar, and whatnot.  But soon you will learn if have not already that we all need some help, especially now.  Once you can accept the help and even (gasp) ask for it, your life will be much smoother, and a happy mommy means a happy baby (most of the time at least, haha).

Please feel free to add onto this list, I’m sure there are more but I ran out of room (: