7 Quick Takes - 11/4/2011

It's still Friday in my time zone, so here we go with 7 Quick Takes Friday... if you want to read more, click over to Jennifer Fulwiler's Conversion Diary!

-1-

Are you happy that Halloween is over? We attended several costume parties for the kids, went trick-or-treating, came home with buckets full of candy, and handed out some, but the only decoration in our house was the one and only jack-o-lantern that we carved together. Well, I carved, and the kids were watching. But it was fun!

-2-

And just because it's too cute not to show off - here is the pumpkin, plus little girl in her costume:

-3-

Yep, little girl is not such a little baby anymore. We had her 6-months-checkup the other day. At 7.4 months, because our pediatric office is so booked that it takes almost 2 months to get a well-baby checkup appointment. Anyway... the bad news: she dropped in percentile both for weight and height. That is partly due to her starting to crawl. But partly it's due to me not having had enough milk. Even though I nursed her often, I just felt empty in the afternoons/evenings. My suspicion that she didn't get enough was confirmed when she woke up in the morning with dry diapers and got constipated easily. So we started giving her formula in the evenings, and I knew it'd be a slippery slope to weaning her. Sure enough, she is nursing now only in the mornings and late at night. But hey, at least that. And during the day she gets formula. However, the doctor recommended giving her at least 24 oz of formula, and that's way more than she will drink. Today I gave her the bottle 6 times, and we didn't even make it to 20 oz. I'm not that concerned though, because otherwise she is very healthy and well developed, and her motor skills are above her age-level.

-4-

I don't know why I suddenly started not having enough milk. I nursed big girl longer and didn't have any trouble. My only guess is that my nutrition wasn't sufficient. I dropped to below my pre-pregnancy weight pretty quick, and I haven't been good at eating proper, regular, sit-down meals. This week I watched another baby (Baby D) for 2 days. He is almost 3 months old, and his Mom in her final days as a service member. Because getting her orders took longer than she expected, she had a few weeks after her maternity leave where she had to rely on friends to babysit her son. Long story short: between little girl and him, and picking up the big kids from pre-school, and then putting the babies down for naps and the big kids in quiet time, there was no lunch in it for me, until I almost fainted at 2 pm. I need to work on that.

-5-

Having Baby D in our home confirmed once and for all, what I already knew: big boy LOVES babies! He loves everything about them. He was practically glued to Baby D, and delighted in picking up pacifiers, holding bottles, fetching diapers, and just touching him. Big girl followed suit, so little girl felt kind of neglected. Until she got distracted by her new discovery, i.e. that she can pull up on stuff and press random buttons on the DVD recorder... she is growing up too fast for me!

-6-

Both the big kids are now in pre-school! Five days a week. I'm happy, because they learn so much, and even though I would like to be the home-schooling kind of Mom, I know that it's not for me. Just sitting down and helping/supervising big boy's "homework" is already sending me to the limits of my patience and self-restraint. "I just told you 5 times that for the letter A you go up and then down, and then from left to right. And you still start at the top? Let me go bite a pillow really quick...". I'm very thankful that our pre-school has motivated, talented, and caring teachers who love my kids. And my kids love to go to pre-school to. Now, the only draw-back of having them both there, in one group: big boy will get along with everybody, but he forgets all his social skills when it comes to his sister. There is no sharing among siblings, apparently!

-7-

I'll have to do more "Sharing of Shelf" before long. I've been reading "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin, and inspired by her St. Theresa de Lisieux's "Story of a Soul". Great nourishment for my own soul! What was your best read recently?

Have a great weekend everybody!