Three babies!

The boys keep me hopping these days...here they are, after waking Maddie up from her nap, playing "baby" in her crib. She thought it was great though. Love the bed head too, oh wait, that's how Maddie's hair looks all of the time! We've been staying at home, Cade has been sick all week with a horrible cough and cold. I took him Wednesday to the doctors office and his chest x-ray was clear. His nebulizer treatments leave him WIRED but have helped. Maddie's been showing little symptoms here and there of it, hopefully she won't get it to the extent Cade has it. She's teething on top of this. Also wanted to announce that I'm officially done pumping now too!!! I quit on the 1st of November, said goodbye to my friend, the Medela Symphony Pump, and I have so much more time on my hands now...enough to change the look of the blog :) I was barely getting 1/2 of what she needed in a day so I slowly cut the number of times I pumped. It was a gradual process to lessen the pain! Almost 8 months of pumping was enough and we have frozen breast milk stored to last a while too, although she's been preferring the formula over the frozen milk. She's doing ok with her solids, it's hit and miss, and she's still very much a "snacker" with her bottles, only taking around 20 oz. a day, 3-4 oz. per feeding. I guess as long as she keeps gaining, I'm not going to stress about it! Wish I had her little appetite!!!

Got Milk?

Ok...I'm running out of things to blog about here. Maddie won't smile for the camera, so I just had to post this since my life (and Maddie's) revolves around breastmilk! Pumping every 3-4 hours around the clock then feeding that "liquid gold" to her every 3 hours is exhausting after a while! Not to mention washing all of the paraphernalia that goes with bottle feeding and pumping! You mom's out there that are doing this can empathize!I could seriously start a "hate to pump" club! Just look at our stock pile...we may need to invest in another freezer! This picture's really not giving you the full-effect of this stockpile either and since I'm so anal, I've kept a log of all of my pumping since March 16th. The grand calculation as of today is, get ready...2,017 ounces of milk! MOOOO, yes I'm a cow! Of course she's consumed lots of this already.

Many have asked if Maddie is able to nurse. She can for a little while (mainly for the bonding) but she also burns more calories nursing and we need to know exactly what she's getting, so we bottle feed and fortify the milk with a little bit of Enfamil formula. She gets "amped" up breastmilk at 24 calories/oz. And I know some of you have been impressed with how I've been able to keep up with the blog, find time for thank you's and announcements, emails, play DJ on blog, etc....well, I have to mention that while "hooked up" to the pump, I can multi-task with 1 hand! You have to do something to pass the time and this is about all I'm coordinated enough to do!


Here's a look at my indoor "bathing beauty"...and a look at her scar. Some have asked what it looks like...we think she has a nice zipper!