2700 Ounces

With another 600 or so in the freezer :o)

Breastfeeding with Max is still going great. He nurses several times during the day and, if you ask me, too many times during the night. He still seems to love nursing especially when sleepy or needing some comfort. He has even figured out how to tell me he wants it. The only thing that drives me nuts is he wants to nurse for 2 minutes...then pops off and wanders off for a minute or two...then comes back to nurse again. I'm told this is very common for his age, but obnoxious none the less.

I have actually stopped pumping except for when I'm at work. I was so tired of that pump. Max never really used any of my pumped milk. It mostly went to donation and now that he's one and can have whole milk, I made the decision to say good-bye to the pump. So, this will also mean that once my 600 ounce freezer supply is gone, there will be no more donations.

I had donated 2300 ounces to the mom I had committed to way back when. Her daughter seemed to do great with a combo of my BM and formula. I had been pretty consistent with a monthly donation to her. Well when I emailed her this month saying I had a box, but to help with the cost of bags I was asking $15 to replace the cost of the bags (this is not close to enough, but I figured it would help). I never heard back from her. I am kind of miffed right now as I have donated this woman so much milk over the last 6 to 7 months. She was never overly appreciative, but did say thank you. I am trying not to jump to conclusion about her, but it sure does seem like she's uninterested now just because I asked for the $15.

So in the meantime, another mom I know mentioned she was out of donor milk. I made her the same offer and she jumped at it! She even mentioned that the $15 was not enough and was I sure I didn't want more. So today I donated 300 ounces of milk to a new mom with a 4 month old son. I mentioned that I had two more boxes in the freezer and to call me if she had a need again. This mom seemed so much more appreciative for the 300 ounces than the other mom with the 2400 ounces!

So, that means as of right now I have helped 3 other babies, besides Max, with their first year of nutrition. That feels very good. Kind of crummy that I couldn't do that for the twins, but I'm glad that I got this amazing opportunity.

One Year Stats

It looks like I have another string bean baby. The mook is 30" tall and 20 pounds.

For those of you who don't know me, I am VERY overweight. I have fought with weight my entire life and in the last 10 years have given up the battle. I am beyond heavy and really need to do something about it. Well, six years ago, while looking for a donor to give me the children I so desired, I put a lot of thought into the weight issue. I am not exaggerating when I say that the first thing I did was take a black marker and cross through every donor who's listed weight made them even slightly overweight for their height. After growing up with this struggle, I knew I wanted to do what I could to spare my kids.

After crossing out for weight, then of course health history, intelligence and other factors were considered. The height and weight for my donor...6'6" and 200 pounds.

So, all this to say that so far my master plan has worked. I have three tall and skinny children. Now I know it's very early in the game, and they can develop weight issues later, but I was always 90th percentile for weight even from infancy, where S hovers around the 50th and K and M are currently in the less than 10th. I would love for them not to have the weight struggle.

Tooth #6

We have tooth number six. Another top tooth, the one to the left of his front teeth. He looks funny because he has six teeth, but they are his front teeth, and both the top and bottom tooth to the left. So...he's a little lopsided :o)

The doctor mentioned that it looked like his teeth were coming in pretty crooked, which I had noticed but was trying to ignore, and that it was a good indicator of braces in his future. Bummer. The twins and I have very straight teeth and the donor stated he never had braces, so I guess Max had to be special. He has his first dental appointment in a month or two so we will see what she says.

Wordless Wednesday

Birthday Party!

What a great and busy day the 10th was. My little baby turned one and seemed to know the day was about him. First thing this morning he got his present from me...a Cozy Coupe Car. He LOVED it. Even sat in it while I was trying to put it together. He spent most of the day climbing in and out of it and even decided to watch some TV in it. It's toooooo cute!


In the afternoon we celebrated M's birthday with family and friends at the local Children's Museum. It was a great turn out with Grandma, the twins, and many family friends. There were 13 children there and everyone seemed to have a great time.


The theme was 'Barnyard' and I think I did a good job with it. My friend A, who makes many of the kids personalized tee's, made M a 1st Birthday shirt. I got some cute balloons of the net and matched them to the plates. I was even able to get some great cup cake toppers of Etsy.com and make my own cupcakes.

Of course M loved the pizza and cup cakes. He ate about half a piece of pizza and then ate all the icing off his cupcake.

It really was a great day with wonderful celebration. He got several great toys and a huge pile of new clothes! He will be one very well dressed and warm boy this winter :0)

Mookie Is One!!!

I will post more tomorrow as right now I am so exhausted from today. My baby is one....