bethysmalls

For the past few years, I have celebrated Christmas several times during the season. Once with my mom, once with my in-laws and once with my Philly family (JB, CV, BH & CH). My Philly family and I meet for dinner about once a week and that’s actually more than I meet with any other relatives (technically my brother is part of my Philly family but this whole thing is usually put together largely by JB & CV. But I digress). So my PF and my husband haven’t had much chance to co-mingle since the birth of our child. Someone’s got to stay home with the baby and since these dinners are more important for my sanity than his, it’s usually him.

I really, really wanted everyone to be able to be together this year for PF gift exchange so I offered to host it at my house last week… Except no one except me had done all their Christmas shopping no one else could do it (and if we’re being honest, I thought I could bake 4 batches of cookies in 2 days, which, considering that I’m 1] sporadically and unpredictably lazy and 2] the mother of a very mobile, very rambunctious, very always-at-my-feet-even-when-I’m-trying-to-cook-or-bake-which-isn’t-very-safe, turned out to be a big fat joke) so we rescheduled for tonight and the usual location. I called my mom to tell her how I wanted to have Hoagey there and she graciously agreed to come sit for Bruno for the evening.

Let me break this down for you:

• My mother lives over an hour away. Without traffic.
• I live in Philadelphia so there’s always traffic.
• Every time she comes here she does our dishes and tonight I meant to tell her not to.
• I forgot.

Also:

• My mother has 2 small, pee-happy dogs who will blanket her home with urine if she’s not home/hasn’t hired someone to come and take them out.
• Her dog sitters are very skilled and very busy which means they are rarely available.
• When she doesn’t have a sitter she won’t stay the night.
• Which she is always welcome to do.
• For the record.

So my mom had the day off today so she planned on leaving around 3:30 which should put her here at 5 which gives her time to go to the pastry shop and spend some time with her darling grand baby. There is traffic however and she doesn’t get here til 7 and we went to get cookies for her and Bruno fell asleep on the trip which I thought would mean he’d stay up a little longer for her and be a good boy and go to bed at 8. Wa-rong. Bruno was up for about 30 minutes before it became clear he needed to go to bed immediately. So we left as my mom was trying to put Bruno down and he’s been a tad clingy to me (read: he starts to whine/fuss/cry when I get more than 2 feet away from him when he’s tired & crying) so he was crying as we left. My poor mother spent 2.5 hours driving in terrible traffic and battle parking in this post apocalyptic-snowstorm city to spend 40 minutes with a cranky baby and then do our dishes and sit in our living room while the baby slept. When we got home (35 minutes later than we originally said we’d be) she said how he was fine after we left and only fussed a little and that he went right to sleep. And she left right away even after I offered her our extra bed again. She’s on her way home right now.

Here’s the thing: she’d do it again in a heartbeat. All so that my husband could be with me while we exchanged gifts and have some drinks and food with our little Philly family.

Thanks for all you do for us, Nonna! (I love you, mommy)

When I started breastfeeding Bruno almost a year ago, I was a little modest about it. I wasn’t embarrassed I just didn’t feel comfortable being exposed. I didn’t care what other people thought at all, but for as long as I’d had boobs they had just been “decorative” and I was never comfortable with anyone looking at them.

It’s hard to say when that changed for me. I had a nursing cover that I used when out and about up until Bruno became so fidgety that it didn’t matter if I had it on or not. It got to the point where it was more noticible if we used the cover because it was constantly flapping and shaking so I just stopped using it. And now? I don’t care. It is what it is: natural and wonderful and probably the thing I’m most proud of ever doing. I mean growing the baby was not hard at all. All I had to DO was eat and I was already pretty skilled at that. Labor was hard, delivery was not (seeing as how I just laid there and got cut open). Breastfeeding has been hard, for sure, but thinking about it this very second I have only positive feelings about it. I was lucky enough to avoid any sores or (oh God) scabbing but it certainly was exhausting and draining (no pun intended but it’s hard to avoid) and that lead to emotional flux. And now, of course, is the occasional biting and slapping but still all I feel about it is GOOD.

Bruno is not ready to wean. We have, however, been introducing some whole milk into his bottles for the past month so that I can finally stop pumping. Hallelujah. The worst part about this whole thing has been the pumping. But I haven’t done it in over a week and I don’t think I will be for a while.

I wanted to share this link from a blog called Peaceful Parenting. It’s a collection of PSAs for breastfeeding around the world. My favorite is the last one, from Spain. Here is the English translation:

If I told you a new formula has been released that increases your baby’s defenses, would you give it to your baby?

If I told you we can have free nourishment for the first six months of your baby’s life, would you believe me?

If I told you a company has patented packaging that keeps food ready 24hrs a day, keeping all its properties perfectly, would you buy it?

That formula exists.
That food exists.
That company exists.

Breastmilk is the best nourishment for your baby. It adapts to suit all your baby’s needs, increasing his/her immune system. And besides, it is free!

Nothing like mom.
Nothing like breastfeeding.

I’m so grateful to have this experience and I realize that not everyone is this lucky. I don’t aim to preach or judge. I just want to make a wonderful, rewarding thing more visible and hopefully more acceptable.

Good luck to all you mama’s giving it a try. Stick with it if you can! And if you can’t, you’re a rockstar for giving it a shot at all.

So NaBloPoMo is over and I blew it. I was less than a week away and my brain just, plop, fell outta my head.

It has been fun for the most part. I’ve loved getting comments from friends and family. Some from people I didn’t even know where reading along. So let me say:

ThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyou!!!

It’s nice to know someone is listening and I hope I’ve made it worth your time.

xoxox

Love to you all,
BethySmalls