Sunday, July 25, 2010

MilkShare

I had a problem a few weeks ago... My freezer was full. Before I had Carson, it was packed full of meals - yummy meals that we ate up while I was home on maternity leave. Then slowly I realized my freezer wasn't getting any emptier because as I took out meals, I added bags and bags of frozen milk. Carson was taking nowhere near as much milk as I was pumping and by the time he was 4 months old, I had a freezer full of milk... sitting... unused. At the high point, I was adding about 50 ounces a week (in addition to what he was drinking during daycare). I wanted my freezer back, but I didn't want to stop pumping because I want my supply to stay up... so, I looked into my options.


  • Rotate fresh/frozen... could do, but costs a lot buying lots of new bags for freezing.

  • Toss it... No, not even a viable option.

  • Donate it... Bingo!

I had heard of milkshare but never used it before. It's a free website forum where you can post ads saying you either want to get milk, or that you are offering milk. I put up a post in the NY section and for a couple weeks didn't get any responses. Then I got a message. A message from a mama to (then) 7 week old Declan. They live in California. They were traveling to NY for a family vacation... and she wanted to meet up. After a few emails and a couple phone calls we'd arranged a meet up at our house. After a 4 hour (one way) drive, they arrived and I packed her cooler bags full, and then grabbed one of my cooler bags and packed that full for her too. I wish I'd taken pictures of how much I sent - it was a lot! She later said it was enough standing all the bags up to fill the door of an upright freezer.

I felt so good giving my milk to a baby who would really benefit from it! I did have some initial feelings of "oh my, what did I just do!?!" as I drove back to work - thinking some awful thoughts like if I were to die while Carson is still breastfeeding, that Richie would have to give him formula since "the stash" is gone... but those thoughts were fleeting and now I feel so good about what I was able to do!

I later asked the mama if she could take a quick tally of about how much milk I'd sent her... ~600 ounces. Wow. Rough guess was that this amount would last Declan about a month.

I'm back up to 210 ounces in the freezer now (just a few weeks later) - but I'm not sure I'll be able to donate anymore - Carson is taking more now at daycare, and my supply isn't as much as it once was. Still plenty for one baby, but maybe not enough for 2 anymore. ...we'll see though!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

4 months old.


Carson is now 4 months old. WHERE has the time gone? I'm sure all parents think and say the following that it's overused, but I truely can't believe our baby boy is getting so big and changing so much so fast!
He wants to sit up all the time now. He curls into a "C" shape if he's lying down and wants to sit up - kind of like he's constantly doing a crunch! He enjoys his swing and will sit quite content there for awhile either looking at his hands or at the animals above him. At Lynne's house, he loves watching all the kids around him. They'll prop him on the couch or put him in the swing or in the highchair and he is so content to just watch everything going on around him.

He has not rolled over ... yet... he looks like he could anyday though.

He weighed in this month at 18pounds12ounces (according to the Wii at exactly 4 months), so he did slow down a bit! He is bald on the back of his head, and the hair on the top is long and he sometimes looks like an old man with his little combover. The long wispy stuff is falling out though, I'm sure he'll be baldish in another 2 months or so. He's eating typically 2 four ounce bottles a day at daycare. I have yet to give him a drop of anything I have frozen... seriously thinking of donating most of it (all of it?) if I could find someone local who could use it...

He's out of 6 month Carter's clothes - onto the 9 month stuff. A few 6-12 month and 9-12 month outfits fit perfectly. I've given up on buying too much ahead of season for him at this point as I have NO idea how big he'll be come fall/winter. Huggies size 3 and fuzzibunz mediums fitting perfectly. This time we're using cloth wipes (at home) too and it's amazing how much less sposie wipes we're wasting money on! :)
Carson looks so much like Laura did at this age - really scary when I look at two pictures side by side! No mistaking they're siblings!
He is "talking" all the time... Richie says he sounds like a cat when he gets going. He'll just open his mouth really wide and smile and jabber away. He's got a super cute smile that just melts my heart everytime I see it.
He's still sleeping through the night... so much so that I glanced at the lonely rocker in his room the other day and couldn't recall the last time it was used. With Laura, it was used numerous times each day until she was 2!
Carson's 4 month well visit stats: (June 30th) (so really 4.5 months)
19pounds2ounces! (96th%)
27.75inches (98th%) ... time to get a new carseat soon!

**Written up the week he turned 4 months old**


Saturday, July 17, 2010

5 months old.

Our little moose, our little Carson Dude is now 5 months old. I know, I know... hard to believe he's getting so big so fast... where is the time going, all moms say/think this, but it is SO true. So hard to believe that just a year ago he was a tiny little blip not even big enough to make my belly big yet... and here he is all smiley and cute!


He's stretching out of the 6-9 month summer outfits so he's mainly living in his 9-12 month onsies. He's never worn a shoe, so I don't know what size he'd fit into! He's snug in a size 3 diaper. He's fitting well into his medium fuzzibunz. I am not a huge fan of pastel colors on him - something about the dark rich colors that just make him really look like a boy - reds, browns, dark blues, dark greens - love them on him!



His hair is getting very blonde at the roots. I'd like to take him in for his first haircut soon ... it's all whispy and long on top - time for a big boy hair cut!



His belly button still has his little strawberry red birthmark - it's about the size of a small pea and hasn't grown now in a good 2 months. The doctor says that it'll stay the same for a few years and then shrink and go away. I'm just glad it's in his belly button and not on his face!



Within the past week, he rolled over each way. Once each way.



He went through about 2 weeks of not wanting to eat - not wanting food fresh from the source or from the bottle. There were a few days where he ate only 2 ounces the whole time he was at Lynne's house - and there were a few times I was really close to wanting to call the doctor for him being dehydrated - but then he'd take a great feeding and we'd wait it out. He's doing wonderful now and yesterday he took the most he's ever taken at daycare - 15 ounces!!!



He loves a soothie pacifier now. Never cared for one for 4 months - but then during his nursing strike he started wanting it a lot!



Did I jinx myself earlier by saying what a good sleeper he was? Well, he WAS a good sleeper... now, he's up 2 times a night, sometimes only once. He started doing this when he was on his nursing strike - not eating during the day, but tanking overnight... I wondered for a bit if he was reverse cycling (Technical term for breastfed babies eating less when they're away from mom and then tanking up in the evening/overnight). We thought maybe the tough time was teeth... we thought maybe a growth spurt... we thought maybe it was the 90-100 degree weather - we'll never know. The one saving grace though, is that he is just like Laura was at this age - eats very efficiently and goes right back to sleep (I'm not jinxing myself again, am I!?!) ... Most nights I'm out of bed - got him fed - burped - back in the crib and I'm back in my bed in under 10 minutes.



He giggles. A lot. He is very ticklish. His ribs and the bottoms of his feet are sure to get a giggle.



He's going to sleep around 9-10 and besides being up once or twice, he wakes up between 6-7 most mornings. He naps okay - not fussy usually to go down for a nap - usually gets one good nap (over an hour, sometimes 3 hours) - and then does a few 20-30 minute naps the rest of the day. On daycare days, he usually gets a nap in the evening too when we get home... recharges for the evening.



For the past week, Carson has been waking up in a totally different spot in his crib than he was placed. He turns circles and some mornings wakes up with his feet where his head belong.



He can sort-of tripod sit... and then he topples over. He loves to lap stand and loves to sit upright. If he's lying on his back, most of the time he'll be doing a constant crunch - curling up into a "C" shape as if trying to sit up. He must have the best 6pack of abs under all those rolls of chubby baby fat!



He's started to use a jumperoo and his exercauser - mostly so he has a place to be upright if someone can't be holding him at the time. He doesn't really play with the toys on either yet, but maybe in another few weeks he will.