Hold the Milk

If only the they taught women how to stop breast feeding the same way they taught how to breast feed, things might be better for me right now.

Naturally one would think, to stop the milk flow, you just stop feeding the kid! Right? Well, not necessarily, so far, in my experience. When I don't breast feed D or pump, I just Hoover Dam until the pain is so excruciating I can't move, literally. Raising my arms is painful and holding the baby is out of the question. Eventually, I just give in and pump for 5-10 minutes.

After perusing the Internet for advice and finding old wives and misinformation, I went directly to www.lalecheleague.org to find that I should just top off. They use their own terminology, but essentially, common sense holds true. The less the baby takes, the less milk is produced.

I compare full breasts to a full bladder. In both instances, the fullness is uncomfortable and annoying and the body becomes more irritated the longer the lack of relief persists.

So there I am at work at 6:15 pm (since I get into the office so late in the morning) and I'm shaking and becoming more frantic every minute. Sure, I could go use the "new mother's room" and "express breast milk" but I'm trying to stop the flow... it's a quite a conundrum.

Furthermore, once the milk dries up I have the added pleasure of yet another hormonal freak out! And then (hopefully the last physical craziness to do with my pregnancy) I will get to suffer through the first "cycle". Sure, every mother in the history of man has had to deal with this crap, so I feel bad whining, but it's no joke. It effing hurts. It's painful.

Stay away from me!!

Yes, I finally called a shrink.

My "To Do" List

This weekend I powered through my To Do list.

While I was writing, my Microspeak "accountabilites and executions" trickled through like a bad memory.

"Manage all dishes and kitchen clean-up"
"Execute laundry"
"Complete kitchen table transfer to dining room"
"Wash infant"
"Coach soccer team to achieve win of two points or more."

By Saturday, my Type A personality faded and I turned back into myself. I guess the good news is that I "executed" everything I wanted to.

Lullabies

When she was one week old, Dahlia listened to her Baby Einstein, (Mozart) CD when she went to bed. Then she tried Raffi, but thought he sucked. Next came Shel Silverstein performing Where the Sidewalk ends and that certainly was NOT relaxing.

Then she fell asleep to Caribbean style tunes for a while and that was a big hit. She also listened to traditional lullabies from all over the world. That was great because now she's fluent in Spanish, Russian, French, Cuban... or do they speak Spanish? Next she rocked out to some light John Mayer and Craig David. Can you fill me in?

This week I spun some Miles Davis "Birth of the Cool" and she just conked out to Edith Piaf's greatest hits.

The music provides a certain kind of ambiance. D's room has very positive energy. It's always clean and organized. It's cute and pink. It has good lighting. It smells good and there is usually music playing. I keep the classical station on the radio sometimes when we're playing in her room.

Eventually, I hope all of the rooms in our house have a nice ambiance and relaxed, but fun feeling.

I want this to be a kid-friendly house. In our dining room (which has no furniture) I have a professionally framed poster of Babar the Elephant having a picnic with his family.

I think I want to put this in our living room, then we can call it the "salon" and Dahlia can have concerts.

More Solids

Dahlia is eating more solid foods now.

D started eating rice cereal. Last week I finally gave her a mushed banana. She seemed to like it.

Last weekend we gave her apricots, which she really liked. Then we gave her a mix of three fruits and she dug that as well.

This morning I found Brenna downstairs feeding D two foods at once out of two different bowls! Talk about diversifying D's palette! I love it!

I'm bought a baby food mill, which is okay so far. I haven't used it much yet. I also want to go to PCC to check out their organic baby foods. As far as I'm concerned, there's no reason baby foods need to have anything other than food in them. Preservatives are the devil!

Hey dad and Elaine! Thanks for the baby food!

Wine Tasting

What better night for a wine tasting than Monday?

Stina schooled my mom, Colleen, and I last night. Stina works at a wine outlet; had too many bottles of white and we happily obliged. We were supposed to be "testing" them. I didn't happen to have a spit cup, so I drank mine.

Daddy Kisses

Now for the Daddy kisses play-by-play.

Daddy goes in for the kiss!!! Dahlia anticipates!! She grabs his cheek and braces for his scratchy face!

Oh! And daddy aims low and hits the mark. He goes for a dry, chin kiss. Dahlia's up top with a slimy chomp on the nose, quite possibly followed by a courtesy bite with one small, but very sharp tooth.Ah! The infant surrenders to dad. "Pay your taxes!!" he says.

Soccer Season

After Labor Day, soccer season starts. I have coached the same team for five years, but this year, I've taken a step back since it's tough to hold a small child and yell to large children at the same time. Plus, the practices are at 4 pm and I don't leave work until 6 pm.

The Storm had their first game on Saturday. They are now in seventh grade!! Most of them are suddenly taller than me!

My college roomie, Monica was here last weekend, so she came to the game too. Monica was here interviewing for a new job; which she was offered! Yeah Moni!!!




Dahlia wore her personalized soccer warm ups, which a team mom made for her when they found out I was pregnant. It's so cute. They put a little soccer ball patch on the jacket and spelled out Storm on the tush.


The girls won 4-1!

Leap of Faith

For months I’ve been researching how to launch a small business. I have felt very unfulfilled at my job since having a baby. I don’t want to be away from D and I certainly don’t want to be working for “the man” getting less than a standard of living raise each year and having no creativity or personal fulfillment. I’m not opposed to working, but I’m opposed to working for someone/ someplace that doesn’t allow me the flexibility I need to live my life.

I’ve been reading the following books:

Mommy Millionaire by Kim Levine
How I turned my kitchen table idea into a million dollars and how you can too!

Ladies Who Launch by Victoria Colligan and Beth Schoenfeldt with Amy Swift
How to live your dreams and love your life. Embracing entrepreneurship and creativity as a lifestyle.

"The Home-Based Business Kit” by Diana Brodman Summers and D-M Boulay
Launch a money-making venture from the comfort of your own home.

"LLC or Corporation?" by Anthony Mancuso
How to choose the right form for you business.

Depending on how depressing work is, the faster I read these books. My loose idea is to start what I’m calling a concierge business. I would start small and locally, and basically help people out with whatever they need. I know that’s not a very specific idea, but I have a much more detailed map in my head. My task now is to sort out all the details and create a business plan.

I just started reading “Ladies Who Launch” and it really speaks to my soul. Sounds cheesy, but at this point, I’m feeling desperate for a way out of my current career path. The idea in this book is that women approach business models differently than men do. Women network more and build things based on relationships. I swear, I was one step away from calling a shrink, or a career counselor before I started reading.

My loose timeline is to finish my reading in the next few weeks and then begin looking at business plans. I already have a domain, which I’m pretty excited about. I'll reveal it later once there’s something to see. I’d like to launch my part-time business in December. Of course I'll have to continue working for Corporate America in conjunction with my grand scheme, but maybe one day I can bid adeau to the 9-5.

My personal goals are to: make enough money to pay for the business, pay for health insurance for the family and pay for the nanny while I work. Anything on top of that is gravy. In a perfect world, I'll work only 3 days a week, with set hours.

So there it is. That’s what I’ve been milling about over for the last few months. It’s a long shot, but maybe it’s not. I’m going to start small and just see how it goes.

Back in July when I went to see the angel card reader, she pulled the “Leap of Faith” card. I didn’t even have this concierge idea back then, but I think this is what the card was referring to.

Labor Day Weekend Pictures

I know the weekend isn't over yet, but since I never have time to post photos, I thought I'd put these up now.

Grandma Candy stayed over on Friday and on Saturday we went to the Redmond, Saturday Market and then we went to pick up my new, overpriced (yet high-quality and gorgeous) French tablecloth. We also went out for dim sum and hit our favorite craft store.

Feel free to write your own caption for this one. Let me know if you come up with a good one.

Redmond Saturday Market. A couple of Dahlias.

"Party at my crib! 3 am"

Perhaps this photo will be funny when I'm not feeding D at 3:00 am. (In truth, I love sneaking kisses and snuggling during her midnight feedings. I'll probably miss them when they stop... then I'll just have to have another baby.)

Grandpa Jeff and Grandma Elaine with a Squealer

Dahlia has a new squeal that is so high-pitched it hurts my ears. Muppet's ears twitch when D goes nuts. D squeals when she gets excited, wants to experiment or when she's on the verge of crying. She sat with dad and Elaine for a half-hour dancing around and squealing like crazy!

After we stopped by Stanwood, we went up to La Conner. B and I were both so tired we probably could have just stayed at home and napped instead. The shops there are cute, but geared toward a demographic a bit older than us.

Super Dad in La Conner, WA

We went into Bunnies By the Bay which is a super cute store for babies, but surprisingly, they didn't seem to have anything we couldn't live without. Plus, their stuff is made in China. (China!) A couple weeks ago a friend gave Dahlia some fuzzy bunny baby slippers from Bunnies by the Bay. They fit perfectly then, but they're probably too small now. I wish baby clothes could just be on loan. If I like something, I could just trade up for the next biggest size.

"I Can See You, Mama!!"

I tried to put Miss Social down for a nap after returning from La Conner, but she wasn't having it. She caught me sneaking a nap in her rocking chair. Pulling the crib bumper down is one of her many new tricks. We're going to have to lower the crib mattress soon too since she can pull herself up a little more now.

Other new tricks include scooting rapidly on her stomach toward an object of desire; usually Muppet's tail. We tried to baby-proof the house, but short of covering everything with pillows and blankets, there's not much I can do. What's next? Covering the world with safety foam and seatbelts? I wish I could protect her from everything, but it seems the best and most obvious way is to watch every move she makes... especially toward wagging tails.