A Day in the Life

I've seen this done before by other bloggers and I thought it would be nice to have a real, full-day record to look back at in the future and recall what life was like at this point in time. So, here goes. I'm not picking any day in particular for any particular reason. I'm mostly a stay at home mom now so my days kind of blend together anyway! This was all done on Thursday, July 18. Evelyn is 2 years old and it's Adam's 4 month birthday!

11:30 pm - Adam is up. He's been asleep since before 8, which is typical, but we didn't swaddle him tonight since he's started rolling over. We'll see how the rest of the night goes. I nurse him and say a quick prayer before putting him back to bed.

1:14 am - Adam is up again. I nurse him and tell myself I'll wait until he's good and asleep before trying to transfer him. 

1:40 am - Fell asleep in chair (it's funny, I almost NEVER did this when Evelyn was a baby. Now, I have the hardest time staying awake during night wakings. Talk about sleep deprived), Adam leaked out of his diaper (finding a solution for diapering him overnight is a whole other story), change Adam, get him back to sleep, crawl in my bed. Feels so good!

2:40 am - Adam is up. Again. Sigh... I guess it's going to be one of those nights. Have a fleeting thought of just sleeping in the chair or on the couch. Let's see if I can't get him back in bed.

3:49 am - Fell asleep in the chair again. Back to bed for me.

4 am - Adam is up again. To the couch we go. Nurse Adam back to sleep. Praying he decides to sleep longer than an hour.

6:28 am - Good morning sunshine. We hang out in the couch for a bit (aka I keep my eyes closed as long as humanly possible).

6:54 am - Rob heads out the door for work so I finally decide to get up and change Adam's diaper. So. Freaking. Tired. I dream of dropping Adam's adorable, smiling little tush in Rob's arms on Saturday morning and sleeping until noon. It probably won't happen but a girl can dream, right? Nurse big boy and set him down to play for a bit. He found his toes the other day and is loving it.

7:09 am - head downstairs to continue doing diaper laundry I started last night (I've got some exciting news on this front to announce soon!). Cloth diapering 2 kids has definitely meant an increase in laundry, but I still love it!

7:16 am - assess the damage from last night's lack of sleep... me in all my morning glory. Just keeping it real! Splash some water on my face, put my hair up, and go sit for a bit to browse Facebook, Instagram, StlWed, etc. on my phone until Evelyn gets up. This will likely be the only quiet time I get all day. Hoping she sleeps until at least 8. But with construction going on to build more houses you just never know.

7:45 am - I get Adam down for a nap in his swing just in time to hear Evelyn awake in her room. I get Evelyn up and change her, then walk in the kitchen and realize that the trash smells terrible so I take it out.

8:20 am - I put Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood on so I can sit down and pump. Then I text my mom to firm up plans for swimming this morning. It's supposed to be in the 90's today and I'd like to beat the heat.

8:30 am - Done pumping. Get some breakfast for Evelyn and I (Cheerios and apples and peanut butter). Adam is waking up in the swing, but he's content so I let him be. Side note: I'm off dairy in an attempt to help Adam's tummy. It sucks. I'm attempting to like almond milk and chocolate almond milk, but it's just not the same. I miss my big glass of chocolate milk in the morning. I really, really miss it. And on mornings after a night like last night, I sometimes consider forcing myself to like coffee. Or drinking. I guess it would be too early for that though...

8:53 am - I finish breakfast and empty/load the dishwasher and put my pumped milk away while Evelyn finishes. Another side note: this is actually two days worth of milk. I pump every morning to manage my oversupply. Some days I get 20 oz (when everyone sleeps well) some days I get 5 oz. Depends on the day. I'll be attempting to wean myself off the pump when Adam is around 6 months old.

9 am - I clean the magnets and such off the fridge so they can take it away (it's broken) and move the loaner in, get my swimsuit on, and run a rinse cycle on my diapers. Adam is fussing again, so I change up his scenery.

9:15 am - Get Evelyn cleaned up from breakfast and (attempt to) get her swimsuit on. Adam is fussing again, so another change of scenery. I'd like to wait to feed him until right before we leave for the pool but I don't think he's going to last that long.

9:28 am - Adam is done. So I sit down and feed him while Evelyn dumps a bag of diaper samples on the floor. Whatever keeps her occupied.

9:32 am - Way too distracted by sissy to actually have a good nursing session but he's a little more content.

9:37 am - Sit down to put Adam's swimsuit on and find he pooped! Woo hoo! We've been having some poop trouble lately, so I get excited when he goes.

9:40 am - Mom and James arrive and we get the kids slathered in sunscreen.

10:00 am - Load up the ridiculous amount of paraphernalia it takes to go to the pool and head out the door.

11:45 am - Get home, feed Adam, change clothes/diapers, hang suits to dry and decide on lunch while the kids play for a bit.

12:30 pm - We head out the door to Arby's for lunch. Evelyn eats a ham and cheese sandwich and I have a French Dip. Nothing too exciting, but since we haven't left the house except to go to the pool for three days it was kind of nice.

1:30 pm - We get home from Arby's and Adam is way beyond ready for a nap. He screamed the whole way home in the car, through Evelyn's diaper change so I could get her in her room for a "nap" (lol), and through his own diaper change until I sat down and nursed him for bed. He konked out pretty much immediately.

1:45 - Adam is asleep and Evelyn is in her room, so I grab the laundry from downstairs and hang the diapers out to dry before sitting down to get started on this post.

2:17 pm - Adam is up, coax him back to sleep.

2:37 pm - Call Lowe's to try and figure out what's going on with the fridge issue. They are supposed to be picking up our broken fridge today and moving a loaner into the house until our new one arrives in a couple of weeks. Except they haven't called or come yet. Come to find out one of the delivery men cancelled our visit because he didn't have anything to deliver. They said they would call me back and let me know what's going on.

2:45 pm - I check on Evelyn to find her standing on her art desk turning the light on and off (oye) and with a poopy diaper. I guess quiet time is over. I get her up, change her, and give her a snack.

2:55 pm - Lowe's calls back and says they are on their way. Crap. I haven't emptied the fridge yet. So I go find a couple of coolers for the frozen stuff and empty it all onto the counters. My kitchen is officially a disaster area. I finish just as they are arriving. Evelyn is pretty fascinated.

3:40 pm - The old fridge is gone and the loaner is in place. Now I have to figure out how to get everything from our 22 cu. ft. fridge into this 18 cu. ft. one. I guess I needed to purge anyway. Nothing like being forced to clean the fridge out!

4:00 pm - I figured since it's all out, I might as well bag and label my milk to go into the deep freeze. Then Rob calls and reminds me that his mom is bringing his grandma and great aunt by to visit. Crap. Again. The house is a disaster and they will be here any second. Oh well. Not much I can do at this point since Adam is now awake (woo-hoo for a 2 hour nap!) and hungry.

4:30 pm - I finish nursing and changing Adam just in time for my mother in law to arrive with Rob's Grandma, great Aunt, and our niece. Evelyn is super excited to see Isabella and they immediately run off to play while everyone else dotes on Adam. Thank goodness he is rested/full/clean!

5 pm - Rob gets home.

5:30 pm - Our visitors leave and I coax Evelyn back inside. She really wants to ride her bike, but it's really just too hot. I bribe her with another snack. I try to clean the house up a bit more while we relax and play with the kids a bit.

 

5:54 pm -I get dinner started, while Rob entertains. We're having leftovers: Mini Meatball soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, and homemade calzones.

6:15 pm - Dinner is ready so we sit down to eat. In his perfect time, Adam starts fussing, so I get him down in the swing for a little cat nap and continue our dinner. Yummy!

6:45 pm - Evelyn needs a bath since we swam today, so I decide to take her in the shower with me. This is what we typically do, but as Adam's gotten older we've been doing more tub baths with them together. And since I've pretty much decided to give up on getting her to nap, we're moving bed time back from 8:30 to whenever she seems tired. She was pretty glazed over at dinner, so we get the process going. I love taking showers with her because it's one of the few times when we just quietly play together. She has her tub crayons and we talk to one another and sing songs. Love it.

7:10 pm - We're out of the shower and I get Evelyn dressed, her teeth brushed, prayers said, and nurse while Rob gets Adam in his pjs.

7:30 pm - Evelyn is in bed so I start working on Adam while Rob starts on cutting the grass. He's not always so easy and tonight is the second night we didn't swaddle him. He's rolling over now and seems to prefer his tummy, so that's what it ends up being.

8:11 pm - Adam is in bed so I sit down and work on this post a little more and start researching ideas for a little secret project I'm working on. :) What a busy day!

9:00 pm - Adam is awake. Coax him back to sleep.

10:00 pm - Join rob on the couch to watch a little Netflix while he draws on the tablet.

10:30 pm - Crawl in bed, praying for a good night's sleep but worried about Adam sleeping on his tummy.

Another long night was had as Adam was up at 10:45, 11, 3, and 6. And just for good measure, Evelyn was up at 4:15. Blah. This too shall pass and I comfort myself knowing that I get to start fresh everyday. Tired or not, I love being home with my kids and wouldn't trade it for anything.

Sleep Drama

I've come to the realization that I need to accept the fact that nap times for Evelyn are gone. Woe. Is. Me.

This all started about 6 months ago. Evelyn was skipping naps occasionally in her crib. I didn't think much of it, chalked it up to being a phase, and ignored it. Then we moved her to a big bed since Adam would be needing the crib and that only exacerbated the problem. We tried timing her to sleep, laying next to her in bed, ignoring her, etc. She still wouldn't sleep.

Then, about 3 weeks ago I decided I needed to make one last-ditch effort to save nap time (in the midst of my sleep-deprived survival-mode) and we called a sleep specialist. I firmly believed my two year old should still be napping and the bags under her eyes proved it.

The "Sleep Lady," as she's known around here, put us on a strict schedule. We essentially shortened her night time sleep by putting her to bed later and walking her up at a specific time everyday in hopes that she would then feel tired enough to nap in the afternoon. You guys, I needed my sanity. At least an hour of quiet everyday.

She showed slight improvement in the first couple of weeks. Then she plateaued. Then she regressed. She has mapped once in the past 10 days. Once.

So I called the sleep lady again and asked what I should do. She was shocked that she still wasn't sleeping. She thought the fact that she wasn't in a crib was the problem, but when I told her that she goes to sleep in her bed at night without a problem everyday, she discounted that idea. She said she would give me one last suggestion and then she wouldn't really know what we could do from there.

That's where I am now. I'm trying to decide if I want to limit her already minimal nighttime sleep even more and try to manage dual car naps for a week or if I want to just let it go. I think if I can get Adam to keep taking consistent afternoon naps it won't be so bad, but feel like I'm done fighting this battle. The Sleep Lady said she has only seen 4 or 5 kids in 24 years do what Evelyn has done.

It's been hard. I've had very little patience and my sleep-deprived brain needs the respite from toddler babble and being a human jungle gym. But I think if I change my mindset, it will be okay. If we can get her rested with nighttime sleep, we'll survive.

Hopefully.

Evelyn Being Evelyn

I was finally able to capture some video of Evelyn. Usually when I get the camera out she becomes obsessed with it and I don't get much beyond her fingers in the lens. But, this time she was just being herself. A little glimpse into the life of my sweet toddler!

#2: 36 Weeks (Baby Says Hi!)

How far along: 36 Weeks

How big is baby: A honeydew. Baby's skin is getting smooth and soft, her gums are rigid, her liver and kidneys are in working order, and her circulation and immune system are good to go. Her lungs are the only organs that still need to fully mature, but every day she gets a little closer to breathing on her own.

Weight gain/loss: Around 35 lbs. Not too bad so far after a rough start!

Stretch marks: I'm not sure at this point. It looks like there are a few popping up around my belly button, but I only see them in a certain light. I've still got some time (hopefully) for them to really appear.

Sleep: Every day is different. Some days I sleep well and others, not so much.

Diet/Cravings/Aversions: Again, I feel like I'm wanting a lot of what I was craving with Evelyn's pregnancy. Fruit, sub sandwiches. Though I'm still loving some chocolate.

Movement: Slowing down and more patterns, but sometimes this kid just goes to town! See for yourself!

{Yes, that is the baby moving, not me moving my belly!}

What I'm worrying about: Not a whole lot. Of course I have some moments where I worry about a safe labor and delivery but at this point I'm kind of accepting that it's out of my control. Getting anxious about what's coming but so looking forward to having another little one!

What I'm loving: Thinking about snuggling a newborn again and that sweet newborn smell.

Symptoms: Indigestion, SPD, gall bladder pain. I just keep on keeping on!

What I'm looking forward to: Weird as it sounds, experiencing labor and delivery again. I'm praying that it goes as well as last time, but I am looking forward to that rush. The whole thing was just so indescribable. I'm getting ready!

Best moment of the week: My meeting with my doula. I'm so happy already that we hired her again. She came over and we talked a lot about things and my expectations. She gently reminded me that I'm 36 weeks which means I might want to start thinking about packing my hospital bag (yikes!) and she brought me a really nice little bag of goodies including an herbal sitz bath and some tea and breastfeeding necessities. It was also nice to talk to a mom who just went through L&D a few weeks ago herself. 

Moving to the Big Girl Bed

This post has been brewing for some time and will probably be long! Don't say I didn't warn you!

In June of last year, right after Evelyn turned 1, we found out we were pregnant with baby #2. We were super excited. It definitely happened a little faster than we expected, especially after our fertility issues the first time around, but we truly were thrilled. Upon getting that positive pregnancy test, I did two things: I calculated my estimated due date - March 11 - and I calculated how old Evelyn would be - 20 months.

This created a bit of a conundrum, seeing as how I hadn't really planned on moving Evelyn out of the crib until she crawled out or significantly outgrew it. But the cheap side of me really questioned buying another crib when I had a perfectly good bedframe I could use. So, after discussing it with Rob, we decided that 20 months - while young - was an okay age to move her up.

I had lots of fun decorating and I'm very anxious to reveal it to you but... sorry. Evelyn's kind of been sleeping in there and has successfully pulled things off the wall and dresser which means that it doesn't look anything like it should and I didn't take pictures before she got to it. I'm going to try and get it back together this weekend and take some pictures.

I had a goal date in mind of February 1. Baby #2 is due on March 11 and I wanted to give time to adjust. February 1 would give me at least a month and also some wiggle room in case the baby comes earlier than expected. We hit crunch time when I finally had to start threatening Rob to get him to move furniture out of the room so I could do decorating. We finished it including bed, wall decor, storage, closet, clothes moved, etc. on February 1st and just went ahead and moved her that night.

I didn't really know how to approach it. We decided not to do a bed rail for two reasons. One, I wasn't sure if we could get one tall enough as her mattress is pretty thick. Two, I just didn't want to deal with it. It's a full size bed (only because the frame is full size) so we put one side against the wall and I put a body pillow under the sheet on the other side with her crib mattress on the floor for some padding.

Then we just jumped in with both feet. I had everything prepared to do her nighttime routine. We put her pjs on, brushed her teeth, she came in and turned her music on, we nursed and rocked on her new bed, I laid her down and left. The first night was okay. She got up several times and I tried consistently going in and putting her back in bed. That didn't work at all. I tried going in and nursing/rocking again, no luck. Finally, we had friends over and my girlfriend went and laid down with her and she finally went to sleep. Thankfully, after getting her to sleep, she didn't get up until morning.

The next night was better, but she didn't take a nap that day and was exhausted. She went down on the first try after falling asleep while nursing and slept till morning.

The third night was worse. A repeat of the first. She again, didn't take a nap again and was over tired. Finally, she went to bed around 11 and slept till morning. I was beginning to question our decision. Neither her nor I could function on her sleeping this little. It was turning bad quickly.

The fourth night was when we hit rock bottom. Over and over again, we put her down. She cried. She'd get up and bang on the door. I'd try again. Then she completely lost it and had a utter melt down that lasted 45 minutes and involved LOTS of crying from her and me. I was exhausted. She was exhausted. She was crying herself to the point where I thought she would throw up and nothing I did would calm her down. Finally, I guess she wore herself out, climbed in the bed with me, nursed again, and went to sleep at around 11.

Then, I had an epiphany. The next morning, I looked in her mouth. BINGO! She was working on not one, not two, but THREE teeth! The only symptom we ever have of teething is sleep and every time I figure it out way late.

She's been napping terribly for a couple of weeks and throw everything else on top of it was a recipe for disaster.

So, the fifth night (after a nap at my moms in the pack and play, THANK GOODNESS), we did our routine on time and this time I gave her some teething tablets. She nursed/rocked, I laid her down awake, and left. I heard her in there a little bit. She got out of bed and was wandering, but was quiet. Within an hour I stopped hearing anything and went to check. She'd climbed back in bed and went to sleep! She's done this for the past three nights and slept all night long!! Her taking an hour and fidgeting/playing is totally normal so I think we may have found some success and it was all thanks to her ridiculous teeth!

Top that off with her taking a three hour nap today and I am one happy mama! Granted, I've had to hold and sway her to sleep for her nap, but I'll take it if we can just get her back on her good sleeping schedule.

I'm not calling the move a success just yet, but we've definitely made progress and I'm feeling much better. I have not worries anymore about her falling out of the bed and she has proved she can easily climb in an out of it (we have a little box for her to climb onto and I showed her how to step on the box spring to climb the rest of the way up) so I know that even if she gets down she can get back up. Also, it seems that she knows she is supposed to sleep in her bed and not on the floor. Hopefully this trend continues and we will have the worst behind us!

Here's my big girl sleeping in her big bed! I guess she's not a baby anymore... :(

Tidbits

• Oh dear. I am way behind. I was talking to Rob today to reminded me that it is currently February 2. WHAT!? So, not only have I neglected to take pictures of Evelyn's big girl room after completion (more on that in a minute), I also have a weekly bump post due in two days and I'm late on Evelyn's 19 month post. 
• I can't believe my baby is 19 months old. And I completely forgot about it. I feel like the last 2 weeks haven't even existed as I've literally been pouring every spare ounce of time and energy into completing her room for the big move this weekend.
• Speaking of her room, we officially made the move meaning that it is done. Not necessarily to my vision, but some of it I realized just isn't really possible with the age she is right now. I'm going to write a whole post about her room before and after and all the logistics of everything, but I'm pretty happy with it overall!
• Evelyn's first official night in her new bed was last night. It started pretty rough as she just didn't want to stay in bed (not surprising), but finally my good friend asked if she could lay with her and lo and behold, she fell asleep! Dallas managed to sneak out and Evelyn slept the rest of the night. She didn't even get up before she normally does! Look closely and you can see Sweet Pea sleeping in her big bed!

• I wish I had slept as well. My body slept but my mind didn't. You moms out there would understand. And, as soon as the sun came up I was wide awake just waiting for her to wake up early. Totally unnecessary, but oh well. Maybe I'll sleep better tonight.
• I finally got my official Christmas present today! Rob got me a second band for my wedding set, but he got the wrong one. So, today, we went and made the exchange. I'm pretty much in love. Hopefully I get to wear it a little before my hands swell too much!

• I have been nesting. Bad. Cleaning non-stop, working on Evelyn's room, working on the nursery to revert it back to "infancy." I even did my first load of laundry for the baby. Diapers and washing things like the Boppy and Rock N' Play covers. Yikes.
• I gained 1 lb over the last two weeks putting me at around 35lbs gain. Things have definitely slowed down!
• My next OB appointment starts my weekly visits. Oh dear. It's coming. FAST.
• Evelyn has not been napping well. It's frustrating me and her. She gets super cranky, but I'm not sure what to do. It's even worse now that she can climb out of her bed. At least I can say that moving her to her new bed didn't ruin her naps. They were bad already. But I'm sure it won't be helping the situation.
• I'm done with winter. It hasn't even been that bad this year either. But, I'm ready for leaves on the trees and adventures to the zoo and the swimming pool! And walks! I can't wait for spring!
• I really hope this summer is a mild one. The last two have been brutally hot and I'd love to spend a lot more time outside this year. Evelyn will be at a great age for the park and the new little on will still be nice and wearable, I think.
• We've been attending a new church. I'm still getting used to it, but I really like it. I love the messages and the worship. Seriously, the guy can teach. And I like it when I'm learning and being taught, not always preached at. If that makes sense. My biggest struggle is the size of our new church. I've always attended small churches (200 or less) and this church is very large. It has multiple campuses and multiple services per campus. But, I think with some effort on our part to get involved, we can call it home. That's what I'm looking for, home.

My Breastfeeding Journey: A Year and Beyond

When I got pregnant (well, before really), there was no question that I would be breastfeeding my baby. As with everything else I've done when it came to pregnancy and parenting, I researched and educated myself on everything breastfeeding related. I read blogs and articles. I watched YouTube videos. I took a class. I knew of all the benefits of breastfeeding and prepared myself to take every step needed in order to make our breastfeeding relationship successful. In fact, it was probably the one thing that worried me more than anything when it came to having a baby. I had no doubts about my abilities to birth a baby, but the anecdotes you read and hear about moms who didn't produce enough or the baby didn't latch, etc. were terrifying. I wanted this so badly. So, I prepared myself for the "booby traps" and hoped for the best. Here's a post outlining my adventures with breastfeeding in the beginning.

I thought, however, it might be helpful to someone to get an idea of breastfeeding beyond the typical beginning troubles. It seems that once you overcome those initial hurdles, it's just business as usual. But I know I still had questions along the way and I never imagined I'd be where I am now. Staring in the face of tandem nursing (dum, dum, duuuummmm....).

There, I said it. I never claimed there wouldn't be controversy in this post! I'm just sharing my experiences and what is working for us. That doesn't make it right for everyone, but it's right for my family and I stand by that.

Let me back up. Start from the beginning - and by that I mean after the real beginning. Things were pretty uneventful for the first 6 months. I was working part time and Evelyn took a bottle just fine while I was gone. I was pumping about 20 oz a day over what Evelyn needed and storing it "just in case." The end result when I finally weaned myself from the pump at about 7 months was a freezer stash consisting of about 3000 oz of breastmilk.

I was so lucky to have it. I was even luckier I didn't need it and was able to gift some of it to a friend. Evelyn was drinking it from sippy cups until about a month ago. Let's just say the the pump and I have a love-hate relationship. I was not sad to put that thing away.

At 6ish months, we started Evelyn with baby led weaning. She took to food extremely well.

{This picture cracks. Me. Up.}

No issues. I just kept nursing on demand and my supply remained perfect. I never experienced mastitis though I did verge on plugged ducts a few times that I had to work out in the shower and with nursing. Weaning from the pump was a rough few days. I went cold turkey and eventually my body adjusted though I did encourage Evelyn to eat just a little more at that time to relieve the pressure a bit.

I continued to lose weight and stuff my face with obscene amounts of food to compensate. I know, rough problem to have, right?

Then, came the day everyone warned me of. Evelyn started teething. And she bit me. It wouldn't be the last time, but I think my utter shock and scream scared her enough to not try it again right away. Thankfully, it never became a huge issue like I know some moms experience, but my best trick in dealing with it was to just pop her off and put her down. She would be mad at me and I would wait a few minutes, then let her latch back on and if she did it again I would repeat it. She seemed to get the hint pretty quickly. I was a little on edge for a little while during that time (I mean, who likes to get bitten?) and just as everything difficult with babies, that stage passed. She now has 10 teeth - two on top, four on bottom, and four molars - and doesn't cause me any issues. It is very true that when a baby is properly latched, the teeth won't be an issue. So, don't let anyone scare you when they say, "Just wait until that baby gets teeth!" Totally not worth the fear.

My goal was to make it to a year. At that point, I would play it by ear. Before getting pregnant, I used to hope that I'd have a huge oversupply and be able to wean her at 6 or 7 months and be done. Wow. Little did I know how naive I was being. How much I would just adore this relationship. How much it would mean to me to hold on to those precious baby moments as long as humanly possible. To continue to give her a little boost in immune protection and a way to comfort her when nothing else works. Not to mention the benefits to my body!

My first thoughts of weaning came when Rob and I started talking about when we would want to try for another. My cycle returned at 9 months postpartum and low an behold, I was ovulating. We weren't trying really and my cycles were getting progressively longer. So, I went ahead and made an appointment with my OB to see, more than anything, if there was something I could do to at least keep things regular without any other interventions that might affect my nursing relationship with Evelyn. Little did I know that at that appointment I was probably implanting. Five days later, I got a positive pregnancy test.

{Hello, baby #2!}

Well, I wasn't going to wean her just for that. I started researching nursing while pregnant and talked to my OB about it. There was no medical reason for me to stop and Evelyn certainly didn't magically stop benefiting from my milk when she turned one, so we kept going. She has slowly dropped herself to twice a day (and not always that) - morning and night. She sleeps through the night and if, on the rare occasion, she wakes up I do still nurse her.

I prepared myself for her to wean because of my milk changing with pregnancy, but she hasn't. I'm so amazed at my body. My milk is now almost completely back to colostrum and ready for the new one. It will continue to be tailored to the new baby's needs so there are no concerns there. I'm actually pretty happy because that means that Evelyn is getting some pretty awesome antibodies and such during the flu season.

So, what is the plan, then? Well, I don't know. Rob, at this point, is completely on board with us continuing. He knows the benefits and couldn't be more supportive and I love him for that. It's hard to say that I would never nurse her past 2 when I used to tell myself that I would wean at 7 months if my freezer stash were big enough to do so. I thought it was weird when moms would nurse their toddlers and here I am. I will certainly be setting boundaries when the new baby comes. His/her nutrition will come first. And I'm mentally preparing myself for the possibility that she could wean at any time. But, I think I'm just going to follow my gut. It's yet to lead me astray and I remain confident in my choices for our family. I also remain confident that I will not be nursing my daughter through college. So, for now, I'm just going to keep enjoying the peaceful moments and making memories of her waving at me and "blowing me kisses" while nursing. One day I'll miss it.

{A little vintage Evelyn from her first swim in April, 2012}