New Shoes!

We took a trip to the shoe store today to pick out a pair of sneakers and sandals for Millie. She loves shoes, so she had a great time! She still has tiny feet (size 4 1/2 which still leaves lots of room to grow...), so styles were limited, but she was happy with her purchases. She's been wearing the sneakers around the house -- we'll save the sandals for Easter.

What's My Name?



Just in case you didn't catch that... she said "tubby" :D. Cracks us up every time! Of course, that nickname couldn't be more inappropriate for Scott as he is, in reality, quite slim ;). Millie knows that she takes a bath at "tubby time" (both bath and tubby are in her vocabulary) so she must have decided that "tubby" referred to daddy and not to the tub!

Moon

I've been thinking a lot about the timing of the new baby's birth -- wondering if he/she will be a few days early (like Millie), right on time, or even a few days late. For some reason, I just cannot imagine that a baby of mine would come past my due date, but I have no basis for believing that :). I do believe that the full moon had something to do with Millie coming early (before her scheduled c-section!) so I looked up the full moon calendar to see if there was one near my new due date. Wouldn't you know, a full moon is scheduled for July 7th -- 4 days before my due date, exactly the same as with Millie.... Interesting.

I also learned this:

Babies born whenever a full moon occurs are said to live an extended and fruitful life. This is due to the full force of the moon's brimming over with magical elements.

I guess that's not such a bad thing :).

Oh the things we think about in the early hours of the morning...

One week...

That's roughly how long it's been since the last time Millie nursed. Looks like we are officially weaned from nursing. We've been headed towards this for several weeks now, maybe even months, with a few growing pains along the way. It was important to me that we practice "child-led weaning," meaning I was going to nurse as long as Millie asked for it. After she turned a year old, we added whole milk to her repertoire and that's what she drinks at daycare, but she still nursed at home. Around that time Millie also learned the sign for milk and used it exclusively for nursing. I stopped offering "milk," but I never denied it if Millie asked. She continued to nurse several times in the evening, to go to bed, once or twice at night and in the morning when she woke up. On the weekends when we were home together, she asked during the day too. She asked very nicely each time -- even in the middle of the night (picture a little fist popping up and waving around...) and eventually started saying "milk" while signing it. The few times I tried to take control of the process and speed it up, it was disastrous. This was obviously something Millie still needed, if not for the nutrition, then for the comfort and guaranteed "mommy time." So we kept nursing....

... even after I got pregnant. Nursing did not seem to interfere with our ability to get pregnant and the early stages of pregnancy did not seem to interfere with nursing (and it's perfectly safe for everyone involved to nurse while pregnant, some women are able to nurse through an entire pregnancy). Unfortunately, the hormones that play a role in pregnancy were at odds with the nursing hormones and around the beginning of my second trimester, the pregnancy won out and I ran out of milk. For a little while, Millie nursed before bed and in the morning anyway, but stopped asking during the day/evenings and at night. Gradually she faded even those sessions out -- first the morning one and now the bedtime one. This week she stopped asking altogether.

While the process was definitely Millie-led, it was still hard for her. I'm pretty sure that if my milk hadn't run out, she would still be nursing, it was that comforting for her. We had some rough patches where she was very conflicted, knowing she wanted to nurse, but knowing it wasn't the same anymore. She would reach for me, but then cry and want down. It wasn't easy on either of us, but fortunately it didn't last long. And by always honoring her requests, I feel like I let her know that I was still there for her. By the end, our nursing sessions were very short -- just a couple of minutes (nursing isn't as pleasant for the mommy without those happy hormones to go along with it...). They were there more out of ritual than anything else. And, in the end, weaning from nursing also changed our bedtime routine.

Used to be that I was the only one that would do for bedtime, and nursing was the only thing that would finally calm Millie to sleep. Scott eventually had some success with walking and bouncing Millie, but for the most part, bedtime was a "mommy" job. As Millie started the weaning process though, she would spend some time with me in bed, but after a while we would call up Scott and he would finish the job (for whatever reason, just snuggling with mommy doesn't work -- always turns into play time!). The time spent with me either nursing or snuggling kept getting shorter and shorter and now, Millie is pretty content to just go to Scott. They have their own little ritual of turning on the radio and walking around downstairs. Millie runs through her list of friends and family and Scott tells her that each one is "night-night." Millie then sings to herself a bit and drifts off. So, I got bedtime duty for the first 16 months, and now it's Scott's turn :).

All-in-all, I'm very happy that I was able to nurse Millie for as long as I did. Extended nursing, while still not traditional in our culture, is so good for children. I knew all along that I wanted to make it to at least a year, but I wasn't going to put any restrictions or expectations on it beyond that. Ultimately, it will probably be easier on everyone that Millie has weaned herself before the new baby comes. Though I was willing to try tandem nursing if she hadn't weaned. As it is, she won't associate the end of nursing with the new baby and won't harbor any negative feelings towards him or her. It will be interesting to see if she asks for it again when the new baby nurses (much like some children want to go back to the bottle when a new baby comes into the house). We'll just play that all by ear when the time comes. For now, I'm glad to have my body back (kind of...) for a few months. And Millie makes sure that she still gets plenty of "mommy time" even without the "milk" :). She's not afraid to tell daddy to back off every once in a while and to insist that I take over some of his traditional time with her. It's all a constant game of give and take and as long as she feels loved by both of her parents, well then I'm okay with it.

Happy Birthday Mom

My siblings and I put together a tribute to mom for her birthday this year. It wasn't fancy and it didn't cost much, but it was truly a gift from the heart. It was a gift that spoke to how she has contributed to each of our lives and how we view her as a mother. It was a great collaboration between the four of us and I think it really let us all express our feelings in a unique way. Lauren, thanks for bringing us all together and suggesting a project like this; Christian, thanks for the idea on how to bring everything together and contributing the beautiful pictures; Brandon, thanks for your wonderful contribution.

If anyone has ever wondered who exactly my mother is, well, this picture is worth a thousand words...


you can click on the picture to get a better view...

and because I am a "word" person, this is the note that accompanied my contribution to the picture "strength through love" ...

Mom, over the years, you have shown me the power of strength through love. Not only have I seen you summon great strength for the ones you love, but I’ve seen you gather strength from the ones you love. You’ve showed many examples of great strength, but the ones that are at the forefront of my mind are when you helped your own father find peace in leaving this world to go on to a better one and when you helped Grandma Babe find comfort in a strange place surrounded by strange people. The strength you summoned to allow both of them to find their peace when they needed it was amazing and I know it came from the love you felt for each of them. I know too, that that strength will be there for me and my family should we ever need it because I’ve seen the love that you have for us. You’ve also taught me that it’s okay to draw your strength from the love of others. Through the challenges and sorrow you faced with the death of loved ones, you found the strength to go on everyday – I’d like to think that is because you felt the love of all of those still living around you. You found strength to give Scott and me a wonderful wedding through some immense pain, again, I like to think you drew at least a little of that strength from the love you felt from your family at the time. Both of these things have taught me what it means to be a mother – the strength and love to both be given and received. That’s the greatest gift you’ve ever given me. HappH Happy Birthday. We love you very much and wish we could be there with you in person! Love always, Shannon, Scott, Millie, and Baby Tad .

Happy Birthday Lainey!



Millie did her best ;). Hope you had a great hike with the "little kids" -- we'll talk to you soon!

**can't seem to get my editing program to work, otherwise I would have edited out the rocky end :)

Play Date!

Millie had a lovely play date with Jonathan and Chase this morning at the Sand Castle Park at Jennings Beach in Fairfield. The play scape was AWESOME! Millie loved the slides (especially the big one that she FLEW down on her own giggling the whole way) and the swings and the sand boxes! Such fun! I have a feeling we will be frequenting this park a lot in the coming months!

A Few March Pictures

Expect the Unexpected

When we get home in the afternoons, Millie likes to play in the foyer. This usually entails her taking all the hats and gloves out of the little trunk we have in there and "redecorating." Today, however, this is what I found when I went in to check on her...



Millie had managed to get my boots on. She was very proud of herself! She was even able to walk in them :). I just had to laugh!

Irony

Millie and I go to her room every morning when she wakes up to pick out her clothes for the day. Today as we were walking in she said "jeans, jeans." My baby girl was requesting to wear her jeans! This is quite ironic given that I refused to wear jeans for at least a third, if not half,of my life ;).

The Cow Says Moo

Millie came home with a cute hair clip in her hair today -- another handmade creation by Stephanie :). She looked so cute! Our camera was at school though (sometimes it's easier to bring your own equipment -- then you don't have to share!), so I took some video instead. Millie knows that she can watch videos on the video camera, so in the beginning she is asking to watch the "yogurt" video and the "kids" video (see below post). I was able to distract her with the "what does the ____ say?" game :). I don't know why parents find this game so much fun, but we do! We end with a lovely kiss to the camera :D.

A Weekend Full of Spring

We managed to take good advantage of the nice weather this weekend and get outside quite a bit. We took a walk up to my school yesterday so Millie could play and then afterwards walked to downtown for some dinner. A good day of walking (about 5 miles total) and playing :). The only time my pregnant self got winded was on the GIANT hill we had to climb to get to my school -- and Scott got a little winded too so I didn't feel too bad :). It will be so nice to be able to get out and do more walking as the weather starts to get nicer. Scott gets his daily walks to the train in no matter what the weather, but Millie and I are a little more conservative about when we will go out... Millie had a blast playing on the playground at my school and had just about as much fun running around on our deck today. We are sure ready for spring around here!


The swing was fun...

but the slides were even better! Even mama got in on the fun! Didn't take long before Millie was going down on her own -- not due to her fear, but due to ours :). Fortunately, she's too little to build up much speed!




There was just enough snow left for Scott to make Millie her own little snowball, which she obviously thought was awesome!


Buddies :)


Millie Ball! Score!


Millie in her jaunty new hat made by her babysitter, Stephanie. Too cute!

Happy (almost) spring!!

Baby Bun Pictures!!

Here they are! The first pictures our upcoming addition to the family! Our ultrasound was delayed by a couple of days due to the huge snowstorm we had on Monday, but we were able to get in relatively quickly yesterday. We were very excited to "meet" the new baby and find out that everything is going just fine so far. Everything measures normally and was looking good. We took Millie along and pointed at the screen and told her that was the baby. Not too sure if she gets it, although Shannon has gotten her to give the baby a kiss now and then. Hard to believe we are past the halfway point!

Almost forgot, we did not find out the gender so you are all going to have to wait :)

Here is one of baby yawning...


Here is the profile shot....


Here is the baby looking up....

Here is the baby's foot!


We thought we would also post Millie's pictures to see if there is any resemblance. I am not too sure at this point...we will see if we can't a bigger version of Millie's pictures up sometime soon.

In Like a Lion...


Well, March did not disappoint, it has indeed come in like a lion! We got slammed with a big snow storm last night and today. So, Millie and I are home from school and Scott is working from home. Scott was scheduled to work from home today anyway so that he could go to the ultrasound with me this afternoon. Unfortunately, our appointment was canceled due to the weather. Looks like we'll have to wait a few more days to meet our new little baby bun. I have to call the office back tomorrow to reschedule, hopefully we can get in soon!