7 months!

Brooklynn turned 7 months old yesterday at 12:53pm. As I have done each month where I’ve been away from her at that very moment, I called her and sang “Happy Birthday” to her. It might seem silly, but it is special to us. She laughed and “sang” along with me this time. Where has the time gone? How can she possibly this close to toddlerhood already?

Brooklynn is coming close to crawling on all fours. She gets on her hands and knees or her hands and toes and just rocks or bounces up and down. She loves this new trick so much, she even attempts it when I’m nursing her while we are lying down. Somehow, she often accomplishes the feat without letting go of the boob. Brooklynn has also leaned to squeal/scream with delight and she does it often just because she likes how it sounds. With these new tricks has also come less sleep as she fights sleep to practice. She also wakes up frequently with second winds and proceeds to move around and screech so you know she’s up.

The solid foods are going over very well. She is a good eater and enjoys oatmeal, squash, sweet potatoes, and prunes. She seems to be unsure of the pears and green beans, but also readily eats them. She does not like the rice cereal though, which makes sense because I tasted it and it tastes like cardboard. We have a few stage one foods left to try – peas, carrots, applesauce and bananas. The pediatrician suggested avoiding applesauce and bananas until we got the poop situation under control, as they can be constipating.

Speaking of constipation – after almost 9 full days, Brooklynn finally blew. The poor thing screamed, cried and grunted for at least a full 20 minutes as she strained to get it out. I ended up taking her and putting her in a warm bath to let her go, since the pediatrician said warm water would help relax her rectum. She strained so hard that she blew a blood vessel in her eye. That poop was solid, and probably about 5 inches long – gosh she was backed up! Thankfully in the week since, she has had much softer, more frequent stools. I hope constipation does not become a recurring event for her.

How am I? I’m still in awe of Brooklynn and I savor the tender moments with her. Working and pumping continues to be more of a burden than I imagined. I pump 4 times daily for at least 20 minutes a session and struggle to get out 12 oz total of milk now. Back in my prime a few months ago I could get as much as 18 oz total for the day. Seeing the decreasing yields, no matter what tricks I try, is frustrating. I will be stepping down my pumping efforts over the next few months and hope that by September, I can pump just once at work and still maintain enough milk to not have to supplement with formula when I’m home in the evenings.

She hasn’t had any formula as of yet and I still have a good stock in my freezer of breastmilk. I know that if my supply goes down anymore (which if I decrease my pumpings it is bound to do so) that at some point she is going to need some formula when I’m at work. I’m leery of stepping down, though I feel I need to for my sanity and job performance, because I’m working so hard to just keep my supply where it is at. I’m afraid that I will dry up and I really want to continue nursing, even if she needs formula too.

One positive thing – this is TMI, so stop reading if you don’t want to know – after nearly 7 months post-partum I finally experienced sex with more pleasure than pain. It has been quite traumatic trying to have a sex life over the past months. That doctor sewed me up so tight it was like I was virgin every time – actually worse. Our ninth wedding anniversary is next week so I hope we can celebrate it accordingly in light of this progress.

My new wood laminate flooring has been purchased and we will be installing it on the 21st. I’m terribly excited to get rid of this nasty white berber carpet and move on to a cleaner looking floor that is easy to care for. We are also painting and doing some plumbing work as John is on vacation the next 2 weeks. I’m off the week after next, so we’ll have one week together as a family. We plan on staying home most of the days and putting the house back in order.

Now that I’ve bored you to tears with one long blog, I’ll bring it to an end.