Pumping

We are getting seriously close to the time in which I get to start weaning from the pump and amazingly the only thing I can think of is "why am I doing that again?" and "will there be enough milk to get her to a year?" Crazy right? I mean all I have done for the last 8 months is complain about how much I hate pumping - it takes up too much time (3 hours a day), it means that I don't get to sleep (because I still get up to pump at 5am every morning) and that it's the last thing I think about at night and the first thing I think about in the morning. It is the center of my universe (well, second to Mariko anyway). My day revolves around it - when will Mariko sleep so I can pump? and trying to fit it in when we have other things to do. I have pumped more hours than I care to think about and pumped who knows how many ounces (I have it written though starting from the end of February so I'm really only missing the first month and I can probably guess based on what she was eating because at that point, honestly, I was just barely making enough to feed her).

So this weekend I will go down from 5 pumps to 4. Doesn't seem like a big thing but over the last few days Mariko has been eating like a champ and it makes me think that maybe I won't be able to get her to a year. Yes, plenty of kids do just fine on formula (Jason, Jeffrey and I!) but I feel like since that was my goal, I want to make it. I'll spend a week at 4, a week at 3 a week at 2 a week at 1 and then hopefully be done. I've read about others doing it and they say from 2 to 1 is the hardest and then at the end you might have to pump a couple of times (every 2 to 3 days or so) until you no longer feel like you need to. So. I will be done when she turns 9 months old, or there abouts.

When we go to Medford I will bring the pump (since this will be just after I get done with my week at 1) however I am hoping that I will be able to make it the whole trip without pumping. We shall see.

It's weird how I thought this was going to be so easy. I hate spending all this time with the pump, but it really is more difficult than I thought it would be. Reading what other people wrote about trying to wean and then not seemed crazy to me but now that I'm getting closer to doing it, I get it. Not making it to a year makes me seem like a failure even though I never planned to make it that far. I planned to make it to 6 months and I have gone way beyond that. I have done the best I can for Mariko and I will get her darn close to a year. I look forward to spending time with her and enjoying her nap time (and maybe being able to be productive and play some clarinet or something?) instead of running to the pump every time she goes down for a nap.

Medford, OR

Toshi was offered an interview in Medford, OR. This is the first interview that he's been offered for a job that would start in July once he's done with fellowship. I am excited that he got an interview but I'm not excited about how far away it is. However, at this point it's the only one he's gotten and we need to be realistic about where we might end up. There are not a lot of radiology jobs and this may be the only one. However, I'm trying to be hopeful about it all and since we still have 9 months maybe something else will turn up.

He scheduled the interview for November 1st. We will leave on the 31st and drive down to Medford. They are putting us up in a hotel (I am going to call once we've got info and see about if we are going to have a fridge and a kitchenette and if not see if we can pay to upgrade to one. With Mariko I think that having a bigger room and a kitchenette will be really really helpful.) We will stay there Thursday night, Toshi will interview on Friday, we have a dinner on Friday night. We'll stay in Medford Friday night and then Saturday we will see the town. After that we will drive to Coos Bay to see Clarks and stay with them Saturday and Sunday night. Monday we drive back. Should be an adventure with Mariko - first time for her a in a hotel!

Adventures in swaddling and napping

Mariko is a swaddle addict. She takes all her naps and sleeps at night in a swaddle and always has. I think that we are getting to the point of needing to stop swaddling her - as she can now roll over in the swaddle. We have tried stopping before and it didn't work. She flails and cries and even if she does get to sleep, she doesn't sleep very long because she moves so much in her sleep. I bought a Zipadee Zip sleep sack which has enclosed hands and is supposed to be a transition to stop swaddling. She's too small for it and it's still too much freedom so we put a lose swaddle blanket on the outside or inside. We will see how it all goes.

Also, naps. Mariko has always been a 45 minute napper. For the longest time she was taking 4-45 minute naps and then dropped to 3. Now she's taking a long nap (usually during nap 1 or 2 time) and then taking 2 other short naps throughout the day. However, over the last couple of days, she's gone to taking one short nap and one long nap! And last night she slept 13 hours. I only let her sleep in that long because it helped with going to Stroller Strides class this morning. I really don't want her to be a "all sleeping at night, no nap" kid so I think I may need to start waking her up in the morning. I think that two naps is ok for her at this point as long as she doesn't try to give up the late afternoon short one (which she does sometimes when she has taken a short first nap and long second one). It would be great for her to sleep from say 10-11:30 and then 1:30 or 2-3:00. That sounds fantastic. I'm going to work on that ;-)

Anyway, the adventure continues! Everyday is an adventure with her!

Adventures with food

Watching Mariko learn to feed herself has been so much fun. She clearly loves to eat and has a serious determination to do so. I started with her just sitting on my lap and not too long after that, she started reaching for my food. So I would leave little pieces of things for her to grab as I was eating. Around the time that she turned 6 months old my dad bought her her highchair. The Tripp Trapp is incredible and we love it. It looks like a big kid chair (with an addition to help her not fall out of it) and allows her to sit at the table with us when we eat. I love having her involved in meals that way, with her own place at the table and everything. I think that she likes it too.

We've been doing the food thing about 6 weeks or so now and so far she's really seemed to like everything. We need to come back to peas and avocado though as peas made her cheeks really red and avocado made her spit up (that was the first thing I gave her and I think it might have just been too much at the beginning). I think that she has favorites and honestly, it's mostly fruit - peaches and pears I would say are her favorite - but she also LOVES broccoli. Yesterday she started raspberries and it is fun to watch her working on her pincer grasp! I really believe that kids should eat this way, it's so much more natural than purees and even though it's really messy, the prep is so much easier. I also think it's good, especially for a kid like Mariko who was early and is still a bit behind, because it makes her work on her coordination and fine motor skills. 

I can't wait for the day when she will just eat what we eat and I can just give her food off my plate. So looking forward to that!