This might not be for everyone.

I left my camera at work so I have posted some incredibly random pictures from my Facebook page. This blog post is about nothing in particular. I hadn't posted anything in a couple of day so I thought I'd try to produce something. It is early Saturday morning. Edie just ate for the fourth time since 3:00 am. At night she will eat from my breast, even the right one which she tends to hate for some reason and has since the get go. I think I should cronicle our breastfeedings so I can look back on this later. It doesn't take too long for me to forget something completely. If you find this topic gross or not interesting at all, please just look at the pictures which have nothing at all to do with breastfeeding, except that the majority of the people in them were probably breastfed as babies.

Liz and Steve at the banks of the Mississippi last May.

Edie latched on beautifully right from the beginning. She would eat every three hours day and night. At the time I didn't think it was going smoothly but looking back on it, I think it probably was. I was told an hour before leaving the hospital that she had lost too much weight and that I should supplement her feedings with formula. I felt in my gut that this was unnecessary. I just didn't know what I was doing in the hospital so I didn't feed her enough. I knew, and the baby nurse agreed, that if I fed her every 2.5 to 3 hours once we got home she would be okay. So I did not follow doctor's orders. We did not supplement with formula, she fed, and gained weight. She ate colustrum the first four days until my milk came in. Then not only was she eating for nutrition but also to drain my rock hard, aching boobs. Any woman who breastfed her child knows the wonderful feeling of having your child latch on and begin draining an overly full boob. So we went on for about five weeks like this. I went back to work at six weeks so I began pumping at five weeks so I could get the hang of it before work. I also had to accumulate enough bottles of milk for Pastora and my mom for an overnight trip Chris and I took to Fort Worth the weekend before I returned to work. Thus the breast pump entered my life. For the first day of pumping each boob would yield about 1 oz. per session. I was pumping about every 2 hours day and night to accumulate enough milk for this trip. All that pumping (and lots of water drinking) got my supply way up in just a couple of days to about 5 oz per boob per session. So Pastora started that fifth week and the bottle entered Edie's life. Milk flows much easier from a bottle nipple than a human's so after a couple of weeks Edie began to prefer the bottle and began to reject my boobs more and more. It got so bad that, despite the fact that she was starving, she would scream and kick when I tried to put her on my boob. So for about a month she ate exclusively on bottles. I would pump everything she was eating. I would estimate that is currently about 50 oz. a day. Maybe a little less. I really missed the breastfeeding. About two weeks ago I decided to try again at night. It worked. I assume it's because she is tired but she will eat off my breast, occasionally even righty, at night and very early in the morning. It is wonderful because I don't have to pump and because it just feels so perfect to have her feeding from me and not a bottle. It is such a peaceful, everything is right with the world feeling. I don't hold out any hopes that she will return to the breast. But I have been told by two mothers that it gets easier around the fourth month which will be here in a couple of weeks. So we'll see.

Jeff and Milo.

In other news it is about 25 degrees here. I can see white frost on my neighbor's roof as I write this. So far the full bottles of Bud Light that have been sitting on our back porch since Thanksgiving have not exploded. I should probably go get them.

Dad and Milo.


Alex with new toy.