pumping..my love/hate relationship

I would 1st like to say that I know I'm TOTALLY lucky to even be able to produce enough milk to breastfeed my LilyBug & pump enough to stash.  That being said I have a love/hate relationship w/pumping....

I love pumping because it allows me to feed LilyBug when I'm away from her w/o giving her formula.  I'm also amazed that my body has the ability to produce milk.  When I'm pumping, I actually have this goofy grin on my face because I'm so excited about all the milk that comes out.

Now I ate pumping because there is so much work involved, cleaning the pump, making sure I have all the pieces (I have been known to forget them), keeping batteries, massaging the milk out, waiting for my body to catch up & put out more milk, the pulling on my poor nipples, the awful loud sound my pump makes, storing the milk at work, the dirty pumping location at work...If I could just push a button (my nipple would work, lol) and all the milk fall out into the containers, I would be a happy camper.

Even though I have this love/hate relationship w/pumping, I will not stop until I absolutely have too.  I plan to breastfeed/pump until LilyBug is a year old.  I'm going to need to keep a lot of patience.

I'm back...I hope, LOL

I remember saying that since I was on maternity leave early, I would be able to spend more time on this wonderful blog of mine.  LOL.  That did NOT happen!  My last day of work was at 37wks pregnant, Ms LilyBug decided to show up at 38w 4d!  I was totally not expecting her.  I have a lot more to say now that I've been a mommy for 9w5d.  Hopefully it will end up in this blog. 
Stay tuned.

A belly journey II

It's back.  I'm 38wks today & figured I should go ahead and add the next round of pics.  My belly is out of control right now.  I wondered what it would look like closer to the end & now I know, LOL.  I can't believe I thought I had a belly at 10wks.  There was nothing there but a little bloat.  I now know what a real belly is.  The past two weeks I've been gaining 2lbs a week.  I hope this doesn't keep up.  I know that's only another potential 6lbs (if I go past my due date), but still...  Well here goes, my belly from 27w6d to 37w5d.  Enjoy.

I hope I get my belly back & that these new stretch marks that keep appearing will disappear!!

1st day off

It's been so long since I've given my blog any attention.  Between working crazy hours/trying to get everything ready for LO, I've been exhausted & just haven't had time.  But now I'm back!!!!  Today is my 1st day of leave & I have nothing but time on my hands.  It's actually pretty weird to be at home again.  I'm not sure what to do with myself.   There isn't much left to do for LO, so I'm just twiddling my thumbs today.  There is plenty of housework to do, but yeah who wants to do that?  NOT ME!  So I'm not going too!  Hmmmm, off to see what I can get into.

low iron

I went to the dr Monday & found out that my iron is low, 10.7 to be exact.  My 1st thought was that I'd have to start taking iron pills & I do NOT want to do that.  Instead the nurse gave me a list of foods to take to try to raise my iron levels.  This list is TORTURE!  I have no idea how I'm going to eat these things.  But I guess if I don't want the stupid pills I'll have too.

not so bad
enriched whole grain cereal..ie raisin bran, shredded wheat
raisins

just kill me now
organ meats..ie liver, kidney parts, liver sausage, etc
lean meat..ie pork, veal, lamb, beef
dark green leafy veggies..ie greens & spinach
oysters
clams
dried apricots
dried beans..ie nay & pinto
eggs

The "just kill me now" list totally outweighs my "not so bad" list.  I go back to the dr on Valentine's Day.  I'm so hoping there is some improvement by then.  Iron pills=constipation & who needs that?!  NOT ME!!!

1st naked belly pic!!!

It was not really in my plan to take a naked belly pic.  For some reason, when I go to the restroom I always raise my shirt to show my belly.  While I was washing my hands, I was looking @ my belly in the mirror & thought...hmmm, I should take a pic today, showing it all.  The shape isn't perfectly round, but I love my belly.  I think it's cute, even w/the few stretch marks I have on the sides.  I am wondering how different it will look in a few weeks.  I feel like now every week it's growing.  I think I might continue w/the naked belly pics.  We'll see what happens next week.

a few of my faves

These are a few of my fave things that were bought/picked out by daddy all by himself.  Very cute.