Drinking Alone

You know how they say drinking alone is bad? Well I decided "they" don't have kids. Cause drinking alone is my favorite way to drink. Drinking alone means it is QUIET and no one is crying and trying to get my attention or needing a diaper change or more milk or a tushy wipe or broke something. Alone means I can finally relax after a long day.

Yeah drinking alone is the best!

This is why I breastfeed

If you are a mother or mother to be, I am sure you have been overwhelmed with the current "Breast is Best" campaigns. Or at least I was. And while there ARE many, many benefits to breast feeding (immune system, supposed higher IQ, etc) those are not the reason I choose to breastfeed my babies. My reasons are much more self serving if I am being honest. The added bonus is the benefits Sadie (and Sophie) receive from being breastfed babies. And if I am being really really honest, I don't know if I buy into the whole higher IQ thing (which is a whole other post) so the only benefit I really care about is the immune boost.

So here is why I choose to breastfeed:

1- Lets start with the most superficial one: Weight Loss. It's been said that when you nurse your baby weight just melts right off. Well guess what? It does. Breastfeeding burns anywhere from 500-700 calories a day. Do you know how long it would take me to burn 500 calories at the gym? I would have to run for approximately 1 hour and 4 minutes! Instead, I burn it by sitting on my ass on the couch and watching TV. Guess which one is more appealing?

2- Sticking with the theme of Weight Loss, I also don't have to diet (aka watch my calorie intake). In the 2 months since having Sadie, I probably eat MORE than when pregnant since I am not longer restricted to the GD diet and I still lost all my baby weight and then some. In fact, I wore a skirt yesterday that I have not fit into since before I was pregnant with Sophie.

3- Bottles are my next reason. I hate them. Specifically, I hate washing them. Now, I don't get away from this completely because I do work but the number of bottles I have to have clean for each day is drastically reduced by nursing. I only need 3 a day. And believe me when I say that is all I ever hand wash at one time. If I wasn't nursing I would use 8 a day. No thanks!

4- Speaking of work, I pump when I am away at work. Which means 3 times a day I get a break from work. Normally, other than my lunch, I would probably not take any actual breaks during the day. But since I have to pump when Sadie would normally be eating, 3 times a day I get to retreat to my own little office and take a break from my computer screen. I just sit there and play on my phone and let the pump do the work

5- Leaving my house is easier while nursing as well. I don't have to worry about how long I will be gone and if I brought enough formula to sustain my chunk of a kid. I really only need myself and maybe a nursing cover if I remember to bring it. I always have an endless supply of food on hand with out any extra work from me.I like it when things are easier on me!

6- Instant cry stopper. Nursing isn't just good for food. It is also good for comfort. When Sadie cries, I nurse her. 9 time out of 10 she calms down and stops crying. It is definitely my go to because crying babies are no fun.

7- This is probably the #1 reason why I breastfeed. SLEEP! I am not a nice person when I don't get enough. I love my sleep. I would sleep in every morning if I could. I would go to bed early every night and I would take at least one nap every day if my schedule permitted it. Now, I have heard that breastfed babies don't sleep as long of stretches as formula babies do. I wouldn't know. This is because when Sadie gets up to eat in the middle of the night I simply bring her to bed with me, latch her on and promptly fall right back to sleep. Since she doesn't cry I assume she eats and falls back asleep too. I usually wake up about an hour later with her using my boob as a pillow. When I was dealing with PPD a few weeks back before I got medicated, I contemplated stopping nursing. I was going through all those emotional and didn't like feeling tethered to the baby and was having a hard time feeling like me. I thought to myself, if I quit nursing then others could feed her and I could get out of the house. The one thing that kept me holding on was that I didn't want to give up my nightly nursing. Mostly because I didn't want to get up and actually have to fix a bottle while Miss Sadie became even more awake because she was hungry. I'm glad I held on too because it's worth it.

But I'm dirty!

Sometimes I really feel like I blink and Sophie has grown by leaps and bounds. Sometimes she will say or do something and I just shake my head and wonder how in the world she learned it.

One of her favorite things right now is playing in my make-up. If I let her she would spend the majority of the day, every day, slathering on whatever she could get her hands on. As it is, I like my make-up and would prefer she not waste it so we save playing in mommy's make-up for special occasions only. Like when we have no where to go, because in all honesty it is a pain in the ass to try to clean her face after she gets through.

Most mornings now, she will wander into the bathroom while I am getting ready and tell me she needs to put on my make-up. When I tell her no, not today she will look me in the eye and say "But I'm dirty!". I really have no idea why she thinks being dirty will be remedied by putting on make-up but it never fails to make me laugh!

Other things she has started to say? Well I got this one this morning "Leave me alone" or "No touch me"- especially when I am pinching her tush or trying to tickle or kiss all over her, so it is starting already. Nice.

Of course there are still the sweet moments, like last night when she crawled in my lap and told me she liked me and loved me with her whole heart and then we sang and danced together to Raffi. Or how we cuddled up under the covers in my bed waiting for Daddy to come in so we could scare him. These are the things that makes being a parent so worth it.