Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Less and More

Today is the first day that Petunia is away from me and I am not pumping for her.  I had intended to do this earlier, but she kept getting sick- we have had an incredible run of upper respiratory infections here at Chez Cloud, starting in early December. So I kept pumping once a day, always planning to stop when Petunia was over her latest illness.

To be honest, I have not been in as big of a hurry to drop this last pumping as I thought I would be. As it was with Pumpkin, the decision to stop pumping is bittersweet. In fact, I would probably have kept going, but I have a job interview on Thursday, and it runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Since I know one of the people who set this up, I'm sure they already know I have kids. Besides, I've never really gone in for the "don't let them know you have kids" advice for job interviews- I can see that it might apply in some situations, but I've never found the environment in biotech to be that unwelcoming. If any one company is bothered by my status as a mother, then frankly, I'd rather work elsewhere. Of course, I've never been in the situation where I absolutely have to get a particular job.

So, if I weren't ready to stop pumping, I'd ask for the time to do so. But, deep down, I know it is time to stop. It is just that I needed something to set the date. With Pumpkin, my stop date was set by the fact that she was going to move up to a room at day care that didn't use sippy cups. With Petunia, it is the fact that I have a job interview.

My baby is growing up. She's walking more now. She's talking and signing more, too. She sees birds and points at them and says "buh" while waving her hand by her face, in a very cute approximation of the sign for bird. She was slow to take to cow's milk when we first introduced it, but she's drinking it without complaint now. In fact she asks for it- "muh", accompanied by a cute approximation of the sign for milk. It is time to let her be more toddler, and less baby.

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In other news, I went to the doctor today and discovered that I've lost about 5 pounds since I was laid off, which explains why all of my jeans seem too big.  Given that this time period included Christmas, with all of its yummy cookies, I'm more than a little surprised. Now, I intended to get more exercise now I that I have a bit more time on my hands. But in actuality, I've gone for a run three times. I'm up to a whopping 14 minutes running (surrounded by about 30 minutes of walking). I doubt this minimal exercise is the reason I've lost weight. And as I mentioned above, I've decreased my milk output, so I don't think I can credit the calorie burning effect of breastfeeding. I'm left with the conclusion that I was eating more of those little miniature candy bars that were scattered around the offices at my job than I thought I was.

I hope wherever I land next just has a vending machine.

11 comments:

  1. I'm sure it's always tough to stop breast feeding/pumping, no matter how much you've been looking forward to it. I know I can't wait to stop pumping, but it'll probably be hard too!

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  2. We're winding down with the breastfeeding here too. I dropped the middle of the day feed when we were on holiday in NZ. The time difference, travel and distractions made it easy for both of us. Now we're dropping the bed time feed. This isn't going quite so smoothly... But we're getting there. It's bittersweet - I'm looking forward to being able to have a large red wine with dinner (and once the wake up feed goes, having my body back for a few months before we start project baby #2) but I'll miss the snuggles and desperate enthusiasm Moo treats her morning feed with!

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  3. @Alyssa, yes, it probably will be hard to stop. I've never been a huge fan of pumping (although I love breastfeeding once we're past the first few weeks), but I still find it sort of sad to stop.

    @Zenmoo- good luck with the weaning. I'm not going to try to limit breastfeeding while we're together yet. I remember from when I weaned Pumpkin that limiting feeding when we're together is MUCH harder than just stopping pumping!! But in the end, we weaned without too much trouble.

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  4. I found that once I stopped pumping during the day that my production dropped so much the kids weren't all that interested in nursing when we were together because...so much effort for so little gain. It made the actual weaning quite easy (for them). I was a bit, ahem, emotional. Especially the second time around since that was the last time I would ever nurse anyone ever.

    Slightly off-topic, but I always lost weight when I weaned since my body was no longer quite so concerned about startvation and holding on to a surplus.

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  5. "It is time to let her be more toddler, and less baby." Sad, but true I suppose. It just seems like our girls were born yesterday. Like I seriously am having trouble processing it in my mind. Bittersweet is the perfect word for these emotions.

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  6. Just wondering if you have any insight into getting a breastfed baby interested in cow's milk? My 16 month old daughter now breastfeeds 3 times a day (wake up, before nap and before bed) and I would like to make steps towards weaning but she completely refuses to drink milk. I've tried every cup, flavoured, warm, cold etc. She's not much of a solids eater although this has improved a little so I'm reluctant to wean especially if it's not replaced by something.

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  7. Just wondering if you have any tips on getting a breastfed toddler to drink cow's milk? My 16 month old now only has 3 feeds a day (wakeup, pre-nap, before bed) but refuses to drink milk. I've tried every cup, flavoured, warm, cold etc. I would like to take some steps towards weaning but because she isn't big on solids I'm reluctant to try if the breastfeeds aren't replaced with something.

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  8. @Kim- I don't think I have any magic tricks. In my mind, there are two issues- taking something other than water from a sippy cup and drinking cow's milk.

    With Pumpkin, the big hurdle was getting her to drink anything other than water from a sippy cup. She'd even refuse the pumped breastmilk if it was in a cup not a bottle. We just kept trying different cups. The ones that finally worked for us were the Nuby ones, with a soft almost nipple-like spout.

    With Petunia, she had no trouble switching to drinking breastmilk from a sippy cup, but just wasn't interested in the cow's milk- we kept offering it, and one day she just started drinking it. I have no idea why.

    Will your baby eat yogurt? You could use that to meet the calcium needs, and then just not worry so much about the cow's milk, as long as she'll drink water.

    I completely understand about your concern, though- Pumpkin wasn't so good with solids at that age, either, which is why I ended up pumping for her until she was 17 months. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have worried- she was (and is) a very picky eater, but she eats enough to get the energy she needs. And we give her vitamins to try to make up for her restricted diet.

    Good luck. I'm sorry I don't have any tricks to offer!

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  9. Thanks Cloud. I guess we'll just keep offering and one day she'll just do it. This is typical Heidi! We've never had any luck with her drinking breastmilk from anything so there's that added complication. I so enjoy your blog!

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  10. That a quick comment to say that I love your blog too.

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  11. Thanks @Kim and @blue milk! It is always nice to hear that someone enjoys my blog.

    @Kim, we had A LOT of issues getting Pumpkin transitioned to drinking from a cup and eating regular food. I remember feeling so very stressed out about it. But it all worked out in the end!

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