The Adventures of Lactating Girl

Hello Miss Dea,

You are 1.25 years old today! How exciting!

Most notably, this month you’ve moved into our first house. Sadly, Mama had to spend a lot of time away from you to paint said house. You did surprisingly well though. You were very happy to spend the day playing with your grandparents until Mommy showed up to nurse you, then you’d suddenly realize I was gone for the last few hours and get upset. Happily, we’re done with the painting and are now moved in (before and after pictures to come shortly for my blog readers).

You’ve also decided that crayons are for coloring rather than eating and your favorite thing is to climb up the stairs “like a big girl”—like at The Treehouse Museum where they have a shorter handrail. You’ve also figured out that you’re not allowed to do it at home or by yourself. You love books and are instant friends with anyone who will read one to you. The library is one of your favorite places too. You got your first haircut which was mostly just to get your bangs out of your eyes. You certainly look cute!

Mama has also started to let you watch TV. I know, I know, bad Mama. Honestly, I need something to entertain you so I can have a moment to myself (like right now while I’m blogging for instance). You still feel the need to sit on my lap and hit the keys every time I’m on the computer so if there isn’t some other way you can be entertained I never get on. I think that if we’re doing it in moderation it should be okay. I actually started letting you watch it a couple-few months ago, but you’ve just barely decided that it’s fun to do. You actually dance when I put on Yo Gabba Gabba. You just watch that and Signing Time (which is really more for me to learn new signs than for you it seems).

Speaking of signs, you’ve figured out how to mimic the signs that I’m doing. There are certain signs that you do by yourself to request things (look for an update on that soon too!) and other than that you’ll repeat just about any sign that I show you. You’ve also started calling cats “tat!” (it’s important to insert the excited voice there). And of course dogs are still called “dah!” too—even pictures of dogs. When we were at The Treehouse a couple weeks ago you pointed at the fire truck and absolutely screamed “dah!” and I looked at it puzzled because it wasn’t a dog, it was a firetruck. On closer inspection, there was a book that had a dog on it on the side of the firetruck!

Speaking of firetrucks…

Love, Mama

This post is a copy of a Letter to the Editor I sent in to my local newspaper The Standard Examiner. I wrote this in response to an article about parents complaining that their children are taught about “breasts, how babies nurse, and penises.” I’ll let you guys know if it gets published.

To the parents who complained to Davis County School District about their fifth graders learning about breastfeeding. First off, really? Shame on you if your fifth grader doesn’t already know what breastfeeding is. It’s as simple as telling them “Some babies drink from bottles, some babies drink from breasts.” Only in a sociality like ours that has sexualized breasts to such a degree that we have have people thinking breastfeeding is sexual. Every few weeks I read about another mom being kicked out of Target or being forced to nurse her baby in the bathroom at Ikea. Breastfeeding is not sexual! Many moms don’t even try to breastfeed because they think it’s yucky (which they wouldn’t think if they didn’t think it was sexual) and those poor babies are put at a higher risk of a range of diseases including asthma, obesity, childhood leukemia, SIDS, diabetes, ear infections, etc. A study published in the journal Pediatrics earlier this week found that 911 less babies (in the United States) would die each year if breastfeeding rates were higher. By talking with these kids when they’re preteens, we’re getting it set in their minds that breastfeeding is good before they are anywhere close to having babies. Maybe those same kids will grow up without the preconceived notion that breastfeeding is sexual and hopefully that will save lives.

I wrote this yesterday, but forgot to publish it because we took Peanut to after-hours care after she vomited. Luckily, she’s fine.

About a month ago my husband and I were wandering around Babies R Us and looking at toys when we stumbled upon this device.

I immediately turn to my husband and say “This is ridiculous! Yet another stupid thing people buy for their kids that they don’t need!” Then I realized that it might actually be really neat. It always kind of grosses me out that Peanut is eating off of tables at restaurants that are wiped down by those washcloths that aren’t changed often (I used to wait tables before I had Peanut), but I’m sure that if we tried to give her a plate she would just throw it off. Perfect solution? We decided to give it a try.

Yes, it is the perfect solution! When Peanut drops things they don’t go to the floor! At home since we put a table cloth under her it’s no big deal to pick it back up and give it to her, but out and about I don’t want to give her food off those floors (once again, I was a waitress). She even picks up the food out of it!

This is the first day we used it!

“Look, there’s a Barbara O in there. NOM!”

I am truly amazed at how much easier going out to eat is with this thing. It even rolls up so you can easily stick it in your bag! There is one kink in the design though.

There are suction cups on the three “lips” of the mat. These suction cups are awesome and somehow stay put while still being easy to take off when you want to. The problem comes in the number of them. The side lips have three suction cups like this:

This is a great design, but for some reason they didn’t do it with the top lip—it only has one suction cup. I don’t know what brainiac said “hey, we can cut 20 cents per mat in production if we eliminate these two cups” or something along those lines, but they should be fired. It’s not a deal breaker, but it’s pretty frustrating that the top lip is constantly trying to roll up. We can’t even put anything on it to make it go flat because Peanut can reach it (just barely).

Even with this annoying flaw, this mat is awesome. It’s BPA free and easy to wash. I definitely recommend it.

After trying Weight Watchers for a few days, I quit. No, it’s not that I don’t want to lose weight, but I feel like I need more of an emphasis on healthy living. I don’t want to eat low-fat cheese and milk, I don’t think that a diet soda is more healthy than a regular soda, and I think that eating out on occasion (yes, even fast food) is a horrible thing. Everything in moderation is my new motto.

I’m still keeping track of what I eat. I’m not going to write down exact measurements and calories of each item, but I’m keeping it in my mind all day. I don’t think that a food diary is something that I could do long term and this is all about the long term. I’m just working to be more conscious of what I eat. When I go to a diner and get a sandwich with fries, I’ll tell myself later that night that I don’t need ice cream. That kind of thing. Portion control is another thing I need to work on.

I’m also trying to exercise daily. I live too sedentary of a lifestyle. So I will work to do something every day, whether it be jogging a mile, vacuuming the house, or even doing the dirty (teehee, I know TMI), I will try to do something that works up a sweat every single day. I’m currently letting Curtis sleep in, but after he wakes up he gets to watch a Dea so I can go jog.

Starting Weight: 163 lbs

Current Weight: 160 lbs

There’s a little town in Eastern Utah called Duchesne (pronounced doo-shane) that I visited today. Well, some little off town of it, but who really cares?

I went with my parents and Peanut to visit my step-brother, his wife, his 3 year old daughter, and his 2 week old daughter. Dea is 2 months and 2 days older than Olivia, so I figured they should meet.

This is my eldest step-brother. He’s named after my dad and used to be such a shit when we were growing up. This is the same brother that yelled at me for “putting his dad in jail.” God knows why I felt nervous about seeing him again?!?!?!

Well I’m happy to report it went well. He has grown up quite a bit and was even speaking directly to me about the challenges and changes of parenthood. I’m happy things are okay between us. I’m also happy he no longer chases me around the house with a lighter.

Doo-chez-knee is quite a long drive where the internet/phone service is few and far between. Though even with the stress and headache from riding in my parents’ god awful Dodge truck, I’m glad I went.

Plus, isn’t this frickin priceless?