A few breastfeeding tidbits and sleeping

I wanted to post that earlier this year, Indiana passed the following bill:
The Indiana Senate has approved a bill that would create new provisions for women returning to work after a maternity leave. The legislation would require any business with 25 or more employees to make a reasonable effort to provide a private place for an employee to pump breast milk for her child. It also requires the business to provide some form of refrigeration to store the milk.

THIS IS GREAT!!!!!!!!!

Also - just recently learned of a few new interesting blogs that I wanted to share:
Moms Rising
Breastfeeding 123
The Lactivist
Breastfeeding Motherwear Blog
Kellymom
It is amazing how much is out there. I love it. Love love love love love love love it! And I love that people love to say, "You're STILL breastfeeding" and I think - of course I am, but in reality, just smile and say, yes I am and am not stopping anytime soon. My goodness, Brennan would have a breakdown if I took the boob away! So I would I!

Oh oh oh - check this out - a breastfeeding challenge - Love it! Hey all you nursing moms out there, join me!


Okay - so I just have to voice some thoughts on sleep. Sometimes I worry about what I post and that I will offend people, but then I have to remind myself - this is my blog about my son and I can write what I want and no one has to read it, so if people don't like, oh well, don't read. Okay, enough with my attitude.

On to my thoughts on sleep.
Sometimes I feel like I am the ONLY mother in the world who does not believe in the cry-it-out method (but I know I'm not and I am thankful for my kindered spirits!). And sometimes I feel like I have to defend the choice that PJ and I have made NOT to participate in what I consider a horrible method of getting your child to sleep (and let's reiterate that CIO does not = sleeping through the night - and yes, some babies are better sleeping then others, but the two are not related imo). Now I know, people who do it say it's not that bad. I am not buying it. No one can tell me that listening to your child cry and cry and cry feels okay. And if it doesn't feel okay, why in the world would someone do it!? Luckily I know there are a lot of others out there "like me" who will continue to nurse their child to sleep for god only knows how long and that prefer to do other "strange" things like delay vaccinations and advocate for breastfeeding and hope for a natural birth (even though it didn't happen and my goodness, I was in so much pain, I don't know if I could have done it, but, that's neither here nor there, just a next time). Anyway, I am not going to really get into why we don't cry it out - just leave it at the fact that we don't want to. We don't ever want to. We like what we do. And you know what, yes, my child does still get up 2-3 times a night. And yes, I wish that he slept through the night. And yes, I am VERY tired during the day, but here's the thing.....I don't care. As long as I am meeting his needs and meeting my needs, and meeting the needs for our family, that is what matters. As I have stated in other postings, parenting is such a personal choice. And this choice is ours. And you know what, I am going to stop feeling bad in front of others about our choice to not cry it out and our choice to let Brennan sleep with us some nights. It is what it is. And well, I am happy with our choices.

Okay - enough said.

Sleep

Sleep - or lack thereof....

Sleep in our house is interesting - Brennan sleeps great when he is laying on one of us......but not so great in his crib, co-sleeper, or moses basket - well, not for more than 20-30 min.....I have to admit, I love having him in bed with me, but for many reasons, we need to work on getting him more comfortable sleeping in the co-sleeper, at least for part of the night! He does sleep well in the swing, and today took a 25 minute nap in the Moses Basket, which is in the co-sleeper at the moment. I am going to keep working on it, but I absolutely refuse to let him cry it out; just don't believe in it.

Anyway, he is getting himself on a somewhat schedule - if he falls asleep at 11pm, then he tends to wake up at 2 for a feeding, then 5 - stays up for an hour or two, and then we take a nice two hour nap in the am - and I need to be better about sleeping in the middle of the day when he sleeps. Though last night he slept from 11-4 and then was up until 6 - mommy is tired today!

Let's see, what else his he doing? Well, he is really good at holding his head up and does some form of crawling attempt when he is on his playmat over the pillow - does a lot of pushing with his legs -such a smart baby!!!!!! He is "talking" lots as well - and loves to smile.

Oh, it was so funny last night, I was in the kitchen and PJ came in and was like, Kyle - I think he spit up on me - and no joke, it was all down PJ's back and on his pants - and then we found more on the couch and carpet!!!!! Ha ha - smart baby! Not so great for PJ's work clothes!

Welcoming Brennan Patrick McCool!
Brennan is now just over 3 weeks old and doing so well. He is a thrill to have around and I am loving motherhood. Brennan breastfeeds like a champ and is generally a really happy baby. Of course he has is fussy times, and no, doesn't sleep through the night, but what baby does at this age (okay, if yours does, just don't tell me!). He loves to be held and his favorite place to sleep is on mom or dad, which we love as much as he does - something so wonderful about a sleeping baby on your chest. Brennan coos and makes the greatest little noises - he is perfect!