Last Friday was the marker of my son's three month birthday, and a pretty big deal in my book. This was also an important day for me other than the birth of my son. It was my day to give myself a pat on the back for having exclusively breastfed (with the exception of the occasional bottle of breast milk given by dad) my baby boy for three months as well. I have earned my bronze boobies! This is a popular term for breastfeeding mom's who have set a goal to breastfeed their children for a year. You earn your bronze boobs at three months, your silver boobs at six months, and your gold boobs at a year. I'm not really sure why they don't have a nine month mark, but oh well. So Oliver and I have reached the bronze and are going for silver! I am a little nervous about those teething times and when we introduce solids. To be honest though, we made it through a difficult time in the beginning so I have no doubt we will figure the rest of it out as it comes along. When I was pregnant with the triplets I thought it would have been amazing if I would have been able to breastfeed, but I knew this would be close to impossible unless I just wanted to hook myself up to a machine and give them straws! But when I was pregnant with just one baby, Oliver, it became a little more realistic. I was very nervous before we began our journey as I was not sure how either one of us would handle it. I read books and what not, but it is a little different than on the job training. About an hour after Oliver was born was when we first began to see what this new skill would be like for the both of us. Women have told me about babies just being born to nurse and how it's the natural way so there might not be too many complications. Right. Well little baby Oliver latched on right away and "acted" like he knew what he was doing and destroyed my nipples. (I have to enter a disclaimer here because "destroy" to me is something completely different to what some mothers have to go thru. I did not have cracking or bleeding. Just soreness and hickeys pretty much on the daily. It still wasn't fun) Thankfully the hospital has what I like to call "breastfeeding fairies", a.k.a Lactation Consultants, to help with any kind of problem, and we were then well on our way. When we got home we had some struggles as I felt pretty much the equivalent to a dairy cow who was just a milk machine for this baby. All he did was nurse! And proceed to poop it right out. All that hard work! Well as time passed and as we got over our, mainly mine, freak out moments, we are now a well oiled machine. I have noticed I track Oliver's growth in how different he nurses now versus the beginning. Before I had to help him so much because he had just not developed the strength. Now I can be pretty much hands free while he nurses unless he gets distracted. My little guy is growing up. So after all of our leaps and bounds up until now we are doing great, and we will take on the new hurdles with a little more confidence!
Another difficulty we have come across over the months is clipping fingernails! Oh my how they grow so fast! If I don't trim them every two days, Oliver starts to get little scratches and sometimes chunks taken out of his face by his own doing. As you well know, this is only a task completed with a sleeping baby. Often I don't realize I need to trim them again until I notice a new injury from his little baby claws on his face. Like today. He was trying to soothe himself to sleep by sucking on his hand while I rocked him for his morning nap. Well he kept bursting into tears and screams and I thought it was his nose bothering him as it is often full of baby boogers which fill up his little nose every day. So I'm trying to excavate these things who cling on for dear life in his nose in order for my little one to breathe. He also proceeds to cry and scream as he does not enjoy booger excavation either. Well I got one little nostril clear and felt this was good enough for his nap, but yet he continued to cry and scream on and off as he would wake up. Meantime he was still sucking on his hands and moving his fingers about in that little mouth of his which has begun to create more drool than I've ever seen. He got his hand out of his mouth and accidentally grabbed his nose in attempt to make a fist to re-enter his mouth and then the real scream came out with more cries. I look down and my poor baby who just cannot get to sleep and see a little spot of blood on his nose where his baby claws had attacked! Then I scold myself for not trimming his nails this morning as it is the day for claw trimming, usually done after bath time because he's asleep. Not today! Nails had to be trimmed this morning to prevent future injuries. I will have you all know I successfully trimmed and filed those nails down so he could no longer injure his face. For a couple days at least.
Like I've said many times before, it's the little victories.
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