Yes, I’m feeling better. Getting on with things. I am looking forward to a new season of life but still enjoying Leah’s last little minutes of babyhood.

Ya know when you wake up in the morning, take a look at your little child and realize that they look different than yesterday; bigger, more intelligible, faster and swifter than you remember. Leah’s moving too fast these days. I had to put a lock on the cupboard under the sink to keep her out of the garbage. Super yuck!

Slow down, girl.

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I read this thought yesterday and it seemed to ring a bell with me. I thought that it was particularly a message I needed to hear. Thought I’d share…

“I urge you to examine your life. Determine where you are and what you need to do to be the kind of person you want to be. Create inspiring, noble, and righteous goals that fire your imagination and create excitement in your heart. And then keep your eye on them. Work consistently towards achieving them.”
–Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, “Life’s Lessons Learned”, May 2007 Ensign

Pretty good, eh?

*** *** ***

I’m wishing I had some photos to share but just haven’t been taking anything worth sharing. I do have a funny little clip of Isaac playing his “drums.” I think it’s cute… but then again… I’m the mother. It does give a pretty good idea of how his speech is coming along.

I kinda feel like I owe you guys a post…

First I want to say thank you for all the wonderful comments I’ve received from my depressing last post. I certainly have been having a bit of a struggle this past week and so I appreciate all the support.

Thank you, thank you.

I hardly want to talk about Leah’s strike because it’s still pretty upsetting to me so I’m just going to say I’ve given it my darnedest best. I’ve done all I can do with Leah and her lame-o strike. I declared a 3 day war. I did everything I possible could and it just wasn’t happening. I was a wreck. Leah was mad as heck at me; not to mention hungry and sleeping poorly. Neither of us have been fairing very well. But I had to try it. I had to. I had to know that I did everything I could.

So… after a ton of prayers, I gave up. It’s over.

Boo Hoo.

I’m still planning on pumping as long as I can because

A) she loves my milk via bottle and

B) it’s free and

C) it’s healthy and she wont drink formula anyway.

So on with life. Ahhhh. I will leave you with a very short little clip of Leah crawling… It’s something to cheer me up.

Completely

totally

discouraged.

It’s day 16 of Leah’s strike. She turned 10 months today.

Nothing has improved and I’m getting tired of it. Every morning I wake up wondering if I’m going to give up or hope that maybe it will be my lucky day. It’s hard not to blame myself for giving into the bottle. She’s been particularly fussy at times and hard to comfort.

One day, I decided that I was going to give it 3 more days of a serious go. I had been to a La Leche League meeting and was feeling motivated. I was going to put away all bottles and pacifiers and deal with fussiness for 3 solid days. If she didn’t take me after that then I’d just give up knowing that I gave it my best. The day I decided to do it she came down with a fever.

Drats.

I thought I’d better get her healthy again. Whatever little bug she had, has cleared up and now it’s the weekend. I figure that I’ll wait until Tuesday when I have 3 uneventful days in a row. I’m so tired of this though. Honestly! I’ve had to have a couple crying break downs. Enough already.

Arggg.

Coming to the close of day 5 of Leah’s nursing strike.

She is continuing to get better and pretty much is just left with some congestion. She has her fussy moments but I think it is because she is hungry and secretly wanting to nurse.

I’ve learned a bit more about nursing strikes. It’s a real thing. I thought I’d even made up the term but when I checked out the La Leche League website they had a plethora of articles, advice and stories on the subject. I was both comforted and frustrated at the same time. So many women had very similar stories. One thing is for sure. This is not weening. A baby shouldn’t all of the sudden quit nursing. There is almost always a reason for the strike.

Here are some of the common triggers for nursing strikes.

• You’ve changed your deodorant, soap, perfume, lotion, etc. and you smell “different” to your baby.
• You’ve been under stress (such as having extra company, traveling, moving, dealing with a family crisis).
• Your baby or toddler has an illness or injury that makes nursing uncomfortable (an ear infection, a stuffy nose, thrush, a cut in the mouth).
• Your baby has sore gums from teething.
• You’ve recently changed your nursing patterns (started a new job, left the baby with a sitter more than usual, put off nursing because of being busy, etc.).
• You reacted strongly when your baby bit you, and the baby was frightened.

I think that Leah and I qualify for 3 of these triggers. She’s had an illness, she bit me and I screamed, and I’ve also been leaving her with a sitter more than usual. (Those fresh powder slopes were calling for me!)

Great so now what? La Leche suggests getting medical help for the illness (check), get extra help with household chores and older children so there is more time to spend with baby (uncheck),  try to relax and concentrate on making breastfeeding a pleasant experience (depends on the moment), make time for extra cuddling, stroking, and skin-to-skin contact (half check), try nursing when they are sleepy or in a dark quiet room (check but didn’t work), and put away all bottle nipples to avoid nipple confusion (tried super hard but gave in this afternoon because of all the crying and a super tired mommy.)

I guess the number one thing to do is be patient and persistence. This has been super hard for me. I have major moments when I want to just give up. It’s not easy but apparently babies will and should come back. I get the feeling that they just need to get over whatever made them strike in the first place.

Are there any types of organized unions for babies? Maybe Leah needs to get together with some friends and talk about her issues. Oh ya, I’m suppose to remember that it isn’t me she is rejecting. But apparently we need to “re-connect” somehow.

The amount of time I have spent pumping has been insane. My cheap pump and low supply have made it difficult. Ridiculous! But tonight I finally got my hands on a hospital grade pump and have finished the chore before this post was even finished. Yea! That’s a big difference compared to the hour and half it was taking before.