This is without a doubt way too much information for Facebook. But this is my blog, so save it.
I officially stopped breastfeeding last week. So today I cleaned out 13 containers of breast milk from the freezer. Excited to gain back the space from our little side-by-side freezer, but I did have a little moment of mourning. It was especially sad, as I never once actually fed Oliver any of the frozen stuff. Having made a concerted effort to store it over several months, I did figure out a few things, which I will share now with the chance that it is useful to someone. A form of an eulogy.
Fresh milk lasts about a week, and thawed milk only 24ish hours, so way easier to use fresh than frozen. But, in case you get sick or will need to leave for extended periods of time, or of course are going back to work, it's a good idea to have some frozen.
Save the jars and containers for the fridge. Instead, poor the pumped milk into a storage bag. Label it with the date before you have milk in it. Lay it flat to freeze. It takes up way less space and thaws faster. If you collect a lot, my friend Anne suggested cutting a slit in the bottom and top of a kleenex box and standing it up on end, so that you put the new milk in the top and use the oldest milk first from the bottom.
At first when you're pumping, you'll get a LOT and it seems like this never-ending supply. Take advantage! Sure enough, it will dwindle. A bit like youth, I suppose. But, instead of freezing 6oz in one bag, I would break it down into smaller 2 or 3oz portions. Once it's thawed, it doesn't last all that long, so you may not use it all, and you can always thaw more than one bag at a time. Then you'll have a supply that lasts much longer. And don't worry, you will know if it's gone too long. Stinky.
Ok. And now I'm over it. Who's ready for a weekend away from baby??
Our 12-Month Well Baby visit last week went well. Oliver weighed in at 25 lbs 8 oz - 82 percentile, and measured 33 inches - 99 percentile.
I got my official permission to stop breastfeeding. Bitter-sweet for sure. But we went a year, and were down to barely once per day. And no one really seems to miss it too much. So, I'm free! And Oliver likes his whole cow's milk just fine. Now we have a little extra time at night, so we've started being better at reading several bedtime stories.
Other than that, Oliver is crawling like a champ. He's begun to "cruise" along the furniture. And we practice over and over again crawling in and out of the back door to the patio. He did the same thing with Grandpa in Sunriver. Cute, but exhausting. I think all of this activity has made him more tired, because we're sleeping a long night (7pm-8am most nights) and then taking two good naps. He can't really function for more than 3 hours in a row. We'll take the breaks!
He loves his pacis in bed, and will have one in his mouth and one in his hand. Working on keeping those only in bed and hoping that can stick. He's also gotten pickier with food textures, but he gets to try most everything and is still a great eater.
Still loves beating things to make music, but he has also been enjoying reading to himself, and will sit through most pop-up books. We're now members of the zoo and have been a few times. It's fun now that he sees and acknowledges the animals. He's still more interested in the fish than say a hippo or giraffe, but it's fun.
We're still swimming. He's really come into his own in the past few weeks. He FINALLY started holding onto the ledge of the pool, which all of the other kids have been doing pretty much since the start. He started putting his whole face into the water in the bathtub and "blowing bubbles" and now he'll do it at the pool. He's pretty solid with the flip over and float. So now they've just started taking him to the bottom of the shallow end of the pool to try to grab a ring. The next step in survival, since apparently most kids actually fall into the water head first and then need to get up to the surface of the water. The only real negative is that he's discovered the relaxing feeling (I can only assume) of going poo in the pool. And generally waits until about halfway through class before filling his *reusable* swim diaper. Nothing gets in the pool, but it's a disgusting mess to deal with once you've gotten the diaper off of him and I dread it. I've taken to bringing two, so we can at least finish the class. Need to work out of that little habit.
More fun that that, we started music class. Just once a week at a community center, but they get to play with all sorts of sticks and shakers and things. And of course meet new kids and hear new songs. Pretty cute. We just started last week, so hopefully we'll have lots of fun with that.
Looking forward to Halloween soon, and possibly our first night away for our wedding anniversary?? Ah, the possibilities!
