still nursing...

yes...16 months and still nursing as if his life depended on it...which it doesn't considering he eats 3 meals a day and snacks in between.

nursing a toddler has some great points and some not so great points.  for one, it gives us time to sit and connect and relax amidst all of the exploration and hustle that fills our days.  bumped heads and pinched fingers are all better so much faster when quinn gets some "na na."  and i know that he is still getting the nutrients that he needs despite being a picky eater at times.    having just moved and switched from night work to day work and with all the changes, nursing has been such a source of comfort and consistency for the dude.  

on the other hand, the boy is super strong and i think he may suck my nip off one of these days, especially when he hears a truck thundering down the road and must quickly unlatch to point and tell me "ttttrrrruuuccckkk."  night nursings have also somewhat lost their appeal.  i think i am ready to sleep through the night at last.  but certainly, the good continues to outweigh the bad for me.  

i don't know when we will wean either.  i would like quinn to just wean himself and make it easy on us both.  don't see that happening in the near future, but one never knows.  i don't want to be nursing if i am pregnant again.  i just feel sore thinking about that.  

thoughts on nursing?  weaning? 

quinn = stuey?

i work nights as a labor and delivery nurse and i really do love it.  i love being a mom more and would probably quit if i won the lottery, but i do love my job.  i also love the comradery that happens at night and the filter-free banter that goes on somewhere between 3am and 5am.  no topic is off-limits and no person is safe.  the other night the nurses and docs found me as their target.  hilarity ensued.  they believe me to be super-crunchy, whole-foods-eating, deodorant-free, earth-mother.  this is a stretch to some degree.  the topic at hand was the fact that i am nursing my son quinn (now a strapping young boy of 1) and how i wear him in the moby and how i make all of his food...blah, blah, blah.  

nurse:  you are going to wear him in the moby forever.

me:  probably.

nurse:  you'll carry him to class in it.  he'll be like "mom, seriously, you can put me down and i can walk."

me:  his legs will be dragging behind me cause he'll be taller than me but i will still carry him around like that.

nurse: how long are you going to breastfeed him?

me:  til his wedding day probably.  use breastmilk instead of champagne for the toast.

nurse:  he's going to be like stuey on the family guy.  his muscles will be all atrophied from you carrying him around but his head will be huge because he'll be a genius from all the breastfeeding.

happy world breastfeeding week!!!

even santa clause likes to breastfeed!

in support of world breastfeeding week, i wanted to post a picture of quinn nursing.  this one makes me laugh.  mike captured a sweet moment while quinn nursed christmas morning.  even santa likes the boob sometimes.

how does one relate to a breast pump?

since i have been back at work for over 3 months now (i work part-time nights...two 12hr shifts), i have devised a system for getting the most out of my pumping sessions.

it is difficult to relate to a breast pump, as you can imagine.  especially when you have precious little time to pump before you have to run into the operating room to scrub for a case and you barely managed to inhale a sandwich.

the thing that has helped me tremendously is having pictures and videos of quinn on my phone.  everyone has a cell phone these days, so i purposely take a few short videos and snap a couple pics before going to work.  i pump and listen to his coos, watch him giggling of smiling, and picture what he is doing right now.  i try to think of what he smells like and how his body would feel curled up next to mine.  that is how i relate to my pump.  

so this is my pump:

medela pump in style advanced

 and these are the easy containers that i use to catch all that milk because they screw right onto the bottom and because they do not contain BPA, PVC, or DEHP (whatever that is).  i label them and store them in my fridge or freezer.  you can actually screw a nipple right onto them to feed baby, but i transfer them to bottles and reuse the containers. 

snappies containers

these are my favorite glass bottles because glass makes me happier than plastic and because they are supposed to reduce colic:

dr brown's glass bottles

here is the bottle warmer that sits on the nightstand next to mike's side of the bed, pre-set so that he just pops a bottle in when baby starts to fuss for food:

dr brown's bottle warmer

and i store the milk according to these guidelines posted on dr sears' website (he also has TONS of helpful hints for nursing, returning to work, getting your supply up, etc):

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/2/T026900.asp#T026901

for those working moms out there who manage to pump and continue nursing, i give you some serious kudos.  it is no joke so keep it up!