#donormilk

today, i packed up 200 ounces of my frozen breastmilk and gave it to a family in need. 

after matt's cousin declined my offer of breastmilk for her preemie, i went back to thinking i'd just continue stock-piling my milk and figure out some way to use it.  so one day when i was in the lactation room, i overheard the lactation consultant telling a new nicu mom that if she was having trouble pumping enough to feed her baby, she could always get donor milk from the milk bank.  so after i finished pumping, i ran into the lactation consultant in the hallway and asked her about the milk bank.  she told me to look into the human milk banking association of north america.  you have to call your nearest milk bank (ohio, for me), go through a screening interview, and then complete an application, along with paperwork that gets signed by your physician and your pediatrician.  if you get approved, they send you a cooler and you ship it to the milk bank, where they take care of donating it to someone.  holy process, batman.

so then i remembered that one of the moms in the new mom support group that i went to while home on maternity leave had mentioned that she found recipient moms on a facebook group.  so i googled "human milk" and found human milk 4 human babies.  i found the pennsylvania facebook page, and posted that i had about 200oz to donate.  within a few hours, i had a message from a local mom who was in need.  she has twins and isn't able to keep up with their needs.  we arranged for her husband to come by tonight to pick up the cooler.

i placed everything in an old styrofoam cooler, stacking them up with newest milk on the bottom, oldest on top.  her husband dropped by our house tonight and picked up the cooler. 

i have to tell you, it felt pretty awesome.  i'm hoping that i can build up a big stash again and donate some more in the future!

4 months

excuse me?!  how did we get here so quickly?  ugh, slow down time!  we have an appointment on the 28th, so i'll update his stats after that.  i'm so anxious to find out how big he is!  he definitely looks like a monster.  we met a 10-month-old the other day and dax looked almost as big as her!  yowsa!

nicknames: dax, d, bubbers, munchkin, and tyke.

likes: grabbing at everything in sight, followed by immediately putting it in his mouth.  playing on his harry potter blanket on the floor.  laughing at his goofball parents.  sleeping on his side.

dislikes: taking zantac, being hungry, being overwhelmed.

milestones: oh, man, this month has been fun!  daxon is grabbing at everything.  if it's in front of him, he will try to grab it.  and if he gets it, he will try to put it in his mouth.  if it's too big, he will work on it to try to figure out a way to get it in his mouth.  like, he really concentrates on it!  baby boy is able to sit up, assisted, and has definitely started trying to pull himself up to sit when he's propped up on our legs or in the boppy.  i seriously think that all his "workouts" with daddy have something to do with that - his ab muscle are really strong!  he is laughing, smiling, and talking a lot!  he rolled over - once - from front to back.  and lately i'm finding him sleeping on his side when i wake him up in the morning!

clothing size: still wearing 3-month stuff pretty well.  they're starting to get a little snug, but i think we've still got a couple weeks in them.

sleep: we had a week of nighttime wake-ups, but seems like we are back on track with sleeping through (*knocks wood*).  i do think we need to move bedtime up a bit, cuz he is getting kinda cranky by around 7:30, when it used to be he could go till 8.  i think after our 4-month appointment, we will also start changing up the bedtime routine so that he is not being nursed to sleep.  nursing him to sleep works so well, but i'd really like to break that sleep association before it becomes too strong.  i'm already worried, though, because i'm noticing that when i take him upstairs for bed, as soon as i start his massage/lullaby, he starts smacking his lips.  so breaking that association could prove to be a bit difficult.  although the other night i was out with friends after work and matt had to put him down.  matt put him in his crib after a bottle and he wasn't sleeping, but he didn't cry or fuss too much, and eventually (after kicking himself around 180-degrees) he finally fell asleep on his own.  so maybe it won't be too bad?  guess we'll find out!

naps: naps are much more regular, now!  at daycare, he typically sleeps 8:30-9, 10-11, then 1-3.  those times change a bit every day, but for the most part it's fairly consistent.  we try to stick to that on the weekends, but it's hard, and so far he doesn't seem to go into full-on meltdown mode if he misses a "naptime."  hopefully that continues.  

eating: he is still eating well.  he gets 3 5oz bottles at daycare.  he nurses once in the morning, once when we get home in the evening, and once at bedtime.  he is doing this new thing now where every morning he spits up.  every.single.morning.  i've tried burping him 3 or 4 minutes in, and still - instant puke.  we are soaking a burp cloth a day from it.  i'm at the point now where i don't get him dressed until after we finish nursing, because i always had to change his clothes!  so now i wake him up, change his diaper, nurse him in just his diaper, then clean him up and get him dressed.  i think he's probably just eating too much too fast, because it doesn't happen at any other feeding, and daycare says he's not doing it for them.  i've tried hand-expressing a bit before nursing him but that doesn't really seem to help.  he definitely isn't in any distress from it.  he pukes, then looks at me and bursts into a big grin.  stinker.

in general, we have a really good baby.  he is very quiet and content.  daycare again commented that he really doesn't cry much at all, just for the "necessities," like when he's hungry.  they said he loves to just sit and watch the other kids.  i took him out for dinner the other night with a friend of mine, and he behaved so well that other diners were commenting on how good he was!  we really are super lucky.  i think the most exciting thing for this month was meeting his new cousin.  and let's be honest - that was more exciting for mommy than it was for daxon!

matt's a homebrewer, so i could not pass up this awesome "assistant brewer" onesie

from my first mother's day

bigfoot

all smiles

 if you follow me on instagram, you've seen these pictures already....

sunday morning storytime - this is our favorite book

phillies day at daycare!

mommy and daddy were being silly, recreating fear and loathing in las vegas.  with our 4-month old.

how funky is your chicken?!

  happy 4 month birthday, baby boy!!

sound.

i don't know if this is weird, but i'm just going to say it.  my favorite sound in the world right now is daxon enjoying his meal.  the little gulps and sighs of satisfaction just melt my heart.  knowing that i'm responsible for that happiness, for filling his little belly, for satisfying a hunger he doesn't really "get" quite yet?  

love.

news notes

man, it's been about a hundred bazillion years since i've done a news notes, hasn't it?  well, i'm going to try to resume them.  i always liked collecting weird, random, fascinating stories from around the interwebs, sharing them with you, and telling you what to think about them.  so...here ya go.  the first news notes of 2013.  i can't promise they'll be weekly, but they'll be here.

the wake n'bacon - seriously?  poor michael scott.  if only he'd known about this, he could have avoided that whole, awkward, foot-wrapped-in-bubble-wrap debacle.  poor michael scott.

source

have american parents got it all backwards? - in a word?  yes.

the man behind abercrombie and fitch - ugh, doucebaggery at it's finest.  everything i am thinking could not possibly top jen's reaction, so i'll just let you read (and love) her thoughts on it.

'girl's gone wild's' joe francis convicted of assault - i mean, this was almost a guarantee.  the man has clearly never had any respect for women.

big 10 announces football division alignments and move to new 9-game conference schedules - well, this is well-balanced *rolls eyes*  the east division of the big 10 will dominate every year.  the big 10 championship game will basically be nebraska vs whoever plays better out of michigan, ohio state, michigan state, or penn state.  ridiculous.  also, why is it still called the big 10?

so god made a mother - spoiler alert: you'll need tissues!

hugs

this week, i am hugging my littles a bit tighter, grateful that they are healthy and happy.

matt's cousin gave birth on April 24 at 25 weeks.  she had had some bleeding around 22 or 23 weeks, and was put on bed rest.  at 24 weeks, the bleeding started again, and she was admitted to the hospital.  she began having contractions, and they were unable to stop them, so they decided to deliver her at 25 weeks.  little liam was 1lb,15oz at birth.  he continues to fight in the nicu, and is doing pretty well.  they have had a few setbacks, but for the most part he is making decent progress.  it will be a long road ahead for them, full of ups and downs. 

i reached out to matt's cousin to offer her some of my frozen breastmilk, but she is pumping enough to keep up with liam's needs, so she doesn't need it right now.  i put together a care package that includes a preemie outfit for liam, some luna bars for beth, and a book for big sister called, "my brother is a preemie." 

i think of them everyday, and look at my little man, fat and happy and full of smiles, and am so thankful that he is healthy.  it makes me appreciate how truly blessed we are. 

i'm also giving padfoot some extra snuggles.  my sister sent everyone an email yesterday telling us that they had to unexpectedly put their cat, brady, down late monday night.  callie woke up monday night to the sound of something dragging down the hallway outside their bedroom, only to find poor brady unable to use his back legs.  anthony rushed him to an emergency clinic, where they discovered that he had thrown a blood clot that lodged in his spine.  the clot was also causing pulmonary edema, so by the time anthony got to the clinic, brady was in essence drowning.  the vet offered to give him medication to dissolve the clot, but his lungs were already so bad, it most likely would have been a futile effort, and brady would have suffered.  the entire thing happened in less than 2 hours.

i feel so so so badly for callie.  brady truly was her first baby - she got him right out of college.  i just cannot imagine how scared she must have felt monday night, and how sad she must feel now.

so hug your babies and your pets extra tight.  i know i am.

this picture is of brady and baby quinn.  callie sent it to me on monday afternoon. 

this life

i'm sitting here in the pale light of early morning, rocking daxon in the glider in my brand-new nephew's nursery.  he has just finished nursing, and so now we're just snuggling together.  as i sat here breathing in this moment, it dawned on me that my sister is probably downstairs doing the exact same thing.  and i was suddenly overwhelmed with such a love for this life that i could not contain it, and the tears just started to spill.

how absolutely blessed we all are...

i'm an auntie!

my sister had her baby!!!  she ended up having a scheduled c-section because at 38 weeks, that little sucker flipped and went breech! 

baby boy was born yesterday, 4/25 (my dad's birthday) at 12:10pm.  7lb even, 20".  pretty big for a week-early baby!  mama and baby are doing great, and hope to be home by sunday. 

pictures and name to follow if she lets me!  what i can tell you is that this little one is a FIFTH!  daddy's the 4th in a line of men with his name, and though they weren't sure they'd go that direction, they ultimately did!  his full name sounds very distinguished because of it.

matt, daxon, and i are headed to hershey tomorrow to meet the little guy.  i am so stinkin excited, i can hardly stand it!