Got milk?

Because I'm running low. On purpose. I'm down to nursing Colin just once in the morning now. I'm going to let him decide when he's ready to drop that session. Unless:
a) I dry up which I will be okay with.
b) It gets weird.
c) He's still doing it at 18 months. That's my absolute stopping point.

I'm so happy to say that I haven't pumped in 2 weeks. While I loved being able to provide Colin's nutrition for a year, I'm so glad I'm done pumping. Now I can actually spend those 20 minutes with my sweet boy instead of being milked by a machine.

I still have about 200 oz. of milk in the freezer, and we're using it up slowly. I thought about donating it, but I'm lazy and don't want to look up how to do that. So we're mixing the milk painstakingly slowly:
Week 1: 4 oz of organic whole cows milk with 16 oz of frozen breastmilk.
Week 2: 8 oz. owcm with 12 oz fb.
Week 3 and 4: 10 oz owcm with 10 oz fb.
Future weeks may look like this:
Week 5 and 6: 12 oz owcm with 8 oz fb
Week 7 to whenever it's gone: a bag of fb (4ish oz) with however much owcm is needed to make 20 oz.

I may end up donating some of it if I get sick of this mixing stuff. We'll see.

We've had no problems with the milk transition. He drinks it cold, he drinks it warm. He drinks it from a sippy cup, and he drinks it from a bottle before his bath at night. He drinks it in a box, he drinks it with a fox.

If you didn't see my post from Thursday, go check it out. There are pictures and a video :)

Outside fun

FINALLY the nice weather is here! Colin is a total outside boy. From the time we get home until the time he goes to bed, save for supper time, he's out on our driveway or toddling around in the grass.

He pushes his lawn mower.
He sits in the grass.
Today, since it was so warm, I showed him the hose. He loved it.

Look what a little birdie dropped among my Lily of the Valleys and Clematis:

STRAWBERRIES! YES! I am watching these babies. I do not want to miss out on the opportunity to pick them at their prime.

Also, I don't think I shared that we got into the in-home daycare for next fall! After being on a waiting list for almost a year and a half, we're in! Colin's daycare teachers know now, because we had to let them know his summer schedule, and on it we marked that he wouldn't be returning in the fall. Of course it has nothing to do with them, but I still feel like I'm "cheating" on them. I really did like having him around other babies instead of with a mixed age. And they were so accommodating. They use our cloth diapers (which they love), and they put up with my high maintenance requests (no oats, no wheat bread, and we bring our own breast milk/organic cow milk mix every day. After the miscommunication error, I wanted to be in charge of milk). I really am thankful for all of the love and attention they've given him. I just know that this new daycare will be a better fit for him in the long run.

9 more days until summer vacation! Well...then I teach 6 weeks of summer school. I'm just ready for a change in faces.

Exhausted.

Colin got to hang out with BOTH of his grandmas this week while his Hand Foot and Mouth blisters were healing. Most of the week, he was stuck inside because of the dreary, cold, and wet weather. He loves to be outside, so he was not digging being cooped up.

Yesterday, I took the day off to take my turn staying home. We went to the chiropractor in Menomonie. It had been 6 weeks since our last appointment, and I was feeling it. That morning, I just felt so icky. After my adjustment, I felt so much better instantly. Colin wasn't a walker yet the last time we were there, so Dr. S. adjusted his back by his tailbone. Colin still loves to be adjusted :) Then I was hungry and Colin needed a diaper change, so we stopped at Culvers and shared a butterburger. The best news is, we survived the hour long car ride both ways. He was a perfect rider, even though he didn't sleep in the car. I always get so nervous driving long distances when it's just the two of us. I think back to the infant days and how he'd scream in the backseat. I sometimes stopped the car to nurse him or burp him or do SOMETHING to make him feel better. And sometimes I just kept on driving just to get home, crying all the way there.

Today the sun and warm weather came out, and my mom came up on her day off to babysit. They played outside and went for 2 walks. He was only inside to eat and take a 3 hour nap. 3 HOURS! Tonight after bath time, he ditched his naked running time. I put his diaper on the floor and he sat down right next to it. He was ready for bed, and didn't put up the usual fight and wrestling match to get him to lie down to get dressed. He drank 8 oz of milk which is also unheard of, and fell asleep without a peep. Isn't it great what a little bit of fresh air and sushine can do?

Oh...and his blisters are pretty much gone.

Hand Foot and Mouth Disease

So that fever Colin had on Friday...turns out it was most likely caused by a virus. Because now the dude has Hand Foot and Mouth disease. Not diagnosed by a doctor, but diagnosed courtesy of daycare's suggestion and the google images that resemble what Colin has on his feet and hands. And mayoclinic.com lists these symptoms:

• Fever? check (no fever anymore, but that's how it started).
• Sore throat? no, I guess.
• General feeling of malaise? hmmm...no.
• Painful, red blisters in mouth? no.
• Red, nonitchy, possibly blistery rash on palms of the hands and soles of the feet, and sometimes the buttocks? check.
• Irritability? check.
• Loss of appetite? depends on the day, but check.

I'm waiting to hear back from his pediatrician to tell me how I know when he's no longer contagious. Mayoclinic.com says to keep him out of daycare until the fever is gone and mouth sores have healed, which is interesting because he doesn't have any mouth sores.

The plan right now is to keep him out of daycare for at least two more days. Kevin stayed home with him this morning, I'm here this afternoon. Tomorrow who knows. Thursday it'll be my turn. Friday we'll play by ear and hopefully his blisters will be gone and he can go back to daycare.

The good thing is, like chicken pox, once one develops immunity, it's unlikely he'll get it again. And adults already have the immunity built up. So this should be the first and last bout of it.

Twins Game

We celebrated Mothers Day by going to a Twins game with my parents (thanks Mom and Dad!). The new stadium is pretty sweet. It is humongous. It was FABULOUS. The food was good. The game was good (Twins win!). Colin even did a good job at his first spectator sport. Here's what he thought of it all:
Here are a few things I learned about Target Field that I thought a first-time game-goer might like to know.
1. They have family restrooms.
2. In the family restrooms, I noticed that on the mirror it said that nursing moms could contact guest services for a place to nurse their babies. Not that I needed to nurse, but good to know, right?
3. Bring at least $15 per person to eat. I'm not one on buying a whole lot of food at events. I got chicken tenders (they came with fries), and that was $7.50. I shared a waffle cone ($5) and a bottle of Aquafina ($4) with Kevin. Kevin got an $8 calzone.
4. Take the Light Rail. It was easy. The LRT station is right outside the field. We boarded at Ft. Snelling and it was about a 30 minute ride. We left the game at the top of the 9th with 1 out (b/c the Twins were winning 6-0), and we got on the 2nd train.
5. ::Warning--Vent:: Speaking of Light Rail, chivalry is dead. Here I was standing, holding a cranky 23 lb toddler, trying to keep my balance while not breaking my back. Of the 8 people who were sitting in the seats around us, 2 were elderly and the rest seemed like perfectly capable middle-aged couples. I kept trying to tell myself that maybe there was a reason they had to sit. Maybe one of them recently had back surgery or something. But I doubt all 6 of them. So Kevin and I passed Colin back and forth. By the 2nd to last stop, there was enough room that I could sit on the floor. The woman that occasionally piped in on the PA system would say, "Please let the elderly and disabled sit in the designated areas." I wanted to shout to her, "AND THE PEOPLE WITH SMALL CHILDREN!" Moving on...
6. Take note of where you're sitting and dress appropriately. Outdoor baseball has no climate control, people! If you're in the outfield, you're facing south, so it's likely you'll be in the sun. Everywhere else was pretty shaded. We were on the third baseline, and when we got there, we were warm in the sun. But by 1:30, the sun had gone over the stadium and we were chilly. People were wearing winter hats and blankets in our section. I almost hesitated to buy the ice cream. If we had been sitting in the sun, however, I would've felt like a bad mom for not bringing any sunscreen for the wee one. Just something to think about. This was our view from our seats. It looks high, and it was. But they were still pretty good seats. I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything:
7. Sneak food in. At the Metrodome, they checked bags and purses. They didn't at Target Field. The people in front of us had all sorts of snacks. We brought in a huge diaper bag. We could've stuffed it full of goodies.
8. There's lots of space to move around on the concourse without feeling like you're missing the game. The game is even broadcast in the bathrooms.

Colin Morneau watching Daddy mow lawn while he waits until it's time to leave:
Getting out and about at the game:
My dad teasing Colin with his nukkie:

And in other news, Colin is cutting 2 teeth. Not his upper front teeth, but his upper side teeth. Please tell me my kid will not grow a snaggle tooth (teeth?).

Weaning has started

Last Thursday, my freezer stash reached the magic 500 oz. number. That was the number I said I'd start mixing whole milk with breast milk. So I did. We're going the organic whole milk route. We started with 4 oz of whole milk and 16 oz of breast milk. It goes to daycare with him in the morning, and then we bring home what's left, and it's the perfect amount to get us through dinner and bed time.

Tomorrow, and for the next week, the milk will be 8 oz of whole milk and 12 oz of breast milk. I'm taking it slowly because hello, I have 500 oz to get rid of, so I may as well, right?

I'm still pumping, but only twice a day at 6 am and 6 pm. Colin still usually nurses once a night. It's kind of annoying, but I'm okay with it because a) he's teething, and if he wants the comfort I'm going to give it to him and b) soon he'll realize it's not worth waking up for because there's not much there, so he may as well just keep sleeping. I'm a fan of self-weaning. Because he nurses at night, it means that my morning pump is almost worthless, but without it, I get worried, so I do it. I usually freeze what I pump in the evening, so I'm still adding to my stash just a little. And not because I feel I have to (because I don't), but because that's just what happens.

Random, non-breast related fun facts

• Colin can now say dada, uh-oh, and hi.
• He gives high fives and if you reach your finger towards him, he'll touch it with his finger. We call it E.T.
• He went to his first Pampered Chef party tonight. He loved the dessert. He was a poster child of perfection. And he loved playing with the hostess' kids. The hostess was one of my co-workers, whose sweet daughter K is in my class. So it was fun to see K and tease her that she should be doing her homework, and she got to play with Colin a little bit.
• He's growing teeth. But I didn't say that. You know that a watched mouth doesn't cut teeth, right?
• 20 more days of school ::happy dance::
  

Poopy cues

Again this morning, Colin showed awareness of needing a diaper change. He pooped in his diaper, then took a diaper out of the laundry basket that was in the living room, and gave it to Kevin. So Kevin changed him.

Now if only we can catch him in the act.