Nothing can be more discouraging than I shitty pumping session. Not that I score my ability to be a good mom by how much milk I can suck out of my body, but when you have this crazy goal as a working mom to exclusively breastfeed (to me this means to only feed your baby breastmilk, not necessarily them only being on the boob, cause the thought of that gives me anxiety) your child for at least a year, every pumping session counts. And I’m not going to lie, it feels kind of good to be able to keep this up and solely nourish my baby. Cause it can be hard work, so every ounce is well deserved.

I pump twice at work and am having a hard time figuring out the right schedule that will get the most milk but also not mess up feedings in the am and pm. Now that D goes to bed around 8 I can sneak in a before bed pumping (doesnt that sound like fun? It’s not) so that I don’t get so engorged at night and to get some extra much needed liquid gold. I’ve been able to keep it up for 5.5 months, but I still get discouraged when my body fails me and give me a shitty 4 ounce morning pump. That my friends, will not keep D happy for very long.

I will now be chugging water and hoping my afternoon pump makes up for that crap I got this morning.

Happy Monday Tuesday! I’ll try to spare you anymore posts about my boobs for the rest of the day.

I am a frequent visitor of Babble’s Baby’s First Year blog sight and enjoy most all of the posts I read.  I thought this one was very fitting for this week.  Although it’s a little over the top for me, since D is usually a good sleeper, but I know that some people’s babies just don’t sleep.  So enjoy the humor and reality behind it.

11 Tell Tale Signs You are Sleep Deprived

Update on D’s sleeping:  He is sleeping again, granted we still have a feeding here and there, but I’m able to function, which is good enough for me.  We will see how long this lasts.

This is something I wish someone had warned me about.  No one ever told me that just a few months after my new bundle of joy started sleeping through the night or only waking up for one feeding, that around 3 to 4 months that would all go to shit. 

D has been a pretty good sleeperafter we all got acquainted and comfortable, since about week 2 or 3.  I was a very happy and functioning new mom enjoying her newborn and maternity leave.  Wasn’t that all flowers and sunshine.  Now, almost 5 months in, I’m an overtired working mom.  D has been playing with my emotions and sleep schedule for weeks now.  Some nights he will wake up at 3, some nights he will wake up at 5 and some nights he will wake up at 1, 3, and 5.  Last night was the worst.  He woke up at 11, 1, 3, 5, and decided he wanted to hang out at 6.  He also wanted to eat every time. 

When this first became a problem I of course went scowering the interwebs in hopes for some sort of explanation and cure.  I found an explanation, but no cure.  Apparently around months 3, 4 or even 5 babies start to have more grown up sleep patterns which lead them to wake up more frequently.  Unfortunately, most babies are pretty pissed about this and don’t know how to put them selves back to sleep.  I remember a month or so back, D started waking up from naps crying and sometimes screaming.  I thought this was just a phase, but I now believe that it was the start of his sleep regression. 

This is when the whole, let them Cry It Out (CIO), debate comes up.  I have read lots on the Internet about to CIO or not.  I do agree that doing it too young can be a bad thing since your baby may still be hungry or gassy, but what is the right age to start this?  I’m toying with the idea of trying this around 6 months.  Although I have tried a little bit here and there with naps and at night, I’ve never let him go longer than 5 or 10 minutes.  I’m not terribly sensitive to D’s cries, I am just not used to them.  He was and is not much of a crier (thank God!), but this means I’m going to have to suck it up and get through it. 

I most likely will be doing even more research on this, but God help me until we get through this bump in the road.  I don’t think my boss will appreciate 11am nap times.

This is a big decision that every soon to be mother has to make.  For some it is a no brainer, you have set a standard of living and in order to keep that up you must keep working.  For others it may not make sense to pay for child care when the take home pay may not be worth it.  Or if you have 4 kids, paying for full time child are would cost a middle class salary, so being a stay at home mom is your thing. 

When i was pregnant I pretty much knew that I would have to return back to work after having D.  I have a pretty flexible job with great benefits and not a lot of stress, making decent money.  A pretty perfect situation for a pregnant employee or new mom.  This is the main reason why I have stayed at my job for the last couple years, but don’t tell them that. 

Even though I can come and go as I please, within reason.  I still long to have a three day on, two day off schedule.  I know that I would not fair well as a stay at home mom.  I couldn’t even stay home for two days in a row while on maternity leave, let alone all the time.  But I would love to have the opportunity to have a part time schedule.  This way I could have more time with the D man and also have something else for me. 

I will admit, as much as I dreaded going back to work, I am actually pretty happy with it.  We have a great child care situation and I also have the chance to miss my child.  I read a lot of blogs and forums where new moms of 4 or even 7 month olds have barley been away from their children a handful of times.  To each their own, but I think for your sanity you need to have time away and for yourself, even if it is just an hour or two a week.  I stumbled over this article, Why Working Moms are Happier and Healthier than Stay-at-Home Moms, at TIME.Com this morning. This article talks about how much happier working mothers are compared to stay at home mothers, and even more so, part time working mothers are by far the happiest.  I was also pretty pumped that the source for the article is Cheryl Buehler, a professor of human development and family studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNC-G).  This happens to be the very college where I received my BA in Sociology.

So, as I attempt to try to plan out how our next year will look in terms of work, babies, and money, I will still be wishing and hoping that something will work out making me able to have at least one weekday at home with my babe and not have to sacrifice too much by doing this.   

If you are wondering what WTE, I’m here to explain.  WTE is short for What to Expect when Expecting.  I did not start reading this book when I became pregnant.  I read Pregnancy Week By Week, which I threw to the side at about 23 weeks (those books do a great job of freaking you out).  I did of course download the WTE app to my itouch so I could track every minute of my pregnancy and see what fruit or vegetable my baby was being compared to that week (cause those are the reason we get pregnant anyways, isn’t it?).  It took me a few weeks into my pregnancy to realize that there was a forum option on my app.  When I ventured into this little feature I found a whole world of pregnant women who were due in August just like me. 

Jack Pot! 

I’m a very honest and real person so I respect the fact that not all my friends want to hear all about my pregnancy every time we talked, so for me, my August 2011 mommies forum was my outlet.  At that time I did not know how much I would lean on these ladies I have never even met.  To this day, 4 months postpartum, I still visit my app several times a day.  I have learned about so many things through my pregnancy, and now with parenting, from the experience and advise of all my fellow mommies. 

So one of my many pieces of advise for those expecting, take advantage of these forum boards.  It doesn’t matter which websites you use, there are a lot of them out there i.e. WTE, Baby Center, The Bump.  There maybe someone else out there having the same symptoms you are having and they aren’t something to freak out about, or someone else having the same feelings as you.  I know when my dad passed away this summer I felt like I was the only pregnant person in the world dealing with such loss, but when I went to vent and get things out on my board there were so many other women who had such great words of support who were also going through the same loss.

Pregnancy and Parenting are hard stuff, so take advantage of the support systems that are available to you.    

I’m in debate on whether or not to follow this baby necklace trend to help the symptoms of teething.  I heard about amber teething necklaces while I was pregnant and thought that the mom would wear it for the baby to chew on.  I was wrong, that is a whole nother product called teething jewelry (which actually also interests me).  These baby necklaces are supposed to be worn only while supervised and against the baby’s skin.  Supposedly the amber gives off oils that help soothe the symptoms and pain of teething.  I have yet to do a lot of research on this, but I am intrigued. 

I like this dark one from AngelasAmber on Etsy.  I will admit I’m a sucker for faddish baby products, hence my absolute need to get a Nose Frida and Sophie the Giraffe for D.  But I will I tell what, they both are awesome products.  (More on the Nose Frida later)  So now tell me if you have heard anything good, bad, or ugly on these amber necklaces.  Also how can I convince my husband that D needs to wear a necklace?