Kids cuteness

"I'm as hot as a snickerdoodle!" -Lacy, today after her bath.

Lacy has been really cute today. She was playing that she was a mommy and first gave birth to baby Elizabeth. Then, surprise, Elizabeth has a twin sister, Charlotte! Finally, a third girl came into the world, but I can't remember what Lacy named her. Then she asked Rose to watch her children because she had a very important meeting she needed to attend. I asked her what they would eat while she was gone, and she said, well, they can have formula. Which really, really surprised me because lately she's been quite the lactivist! I questioned her about it, and she said, "Mom, it's just for pretend!"

Suddenly, she was a queen, and she was making clothes with swatches of fabric. I was *this close* to getting her a simple sewing machine for Christmas, but I don't think she's quite ready for that yet. I think I'll teach her how to knit first.

I've been under the weather for the past two days, and can I just say that my mom saved the day by getting Rose a collection of children's songs and music for Christmas? I didn't much feel like reading to the kids tonight, but I was feeling guilty for not reading as much as I should lately and for excessive use of the TV (we actually skipped TV-free Tuesday this week- shame on me!), but I was able to put on a story CD for the kids tonight at bedtime, and now I'm feeling just fine about it! No guilt whatsoever. In the collection is three or four CDs of just stories, including many famous fairy tales, Peter and the Wolf, Peter Rabbit, Alice in Wonderland (condensed version obviously) and several others I hadn't heard of before. The other day, Lacy just sat and listened to stories for about an hour. I'm sure these CDs will get a lot of playtime in the next couple of months!

A few photos from Christmas and Christmas Eve...

First off, I was 35 weeks on Christmas Eve, so Dave very kindly took a belly shot of me by the Christmas Tree (at Dave's dad's house).

My sweet girls all dressed up on Christmas Eve
Reading the Christmas story from the Bible

What Santa brought...
A choo choo train and a piano for Rosie, and a telescope, veil and The Sound of Music DVD for Lacy, plus stockings full of all sorts of good stuff! The easel they got earlier that evening from their Papa (Dave's dad).

Christmas Day at my parents' house... Rose, Regan and Lacy all in their beautiful Christmas skirts that Les and Mom sewed up for them! Don't they look great?


We had a really fun Christmas this year! I'm really excited about my new sewing machine, and Dave is stoked that he got gift cards to Wholesale Sports from both his Dad and my parents! Lacy and Rose got some really great gifts and we are so appreciative of everyone who thought of us this Christmas.

Hope you had a great Christmas, too!

Dave found Rudolph

...and he's going to taste delicious!



For any of you from out-of-state, who may be used to other species of deer (especially mule deer), this is actually quite a large black tail deer. And with a bow, it's an absolute trophy! We rarely ever see deer this large, and we see deer quite often living out near the woods. I'm so proud of my hubby! (Not that he was looking for a trophy- as he always says, you can't eat antlers! This deer also has a big body and will provide us with quite a bit of meat)

Is all I ever do baby updates anymore? Plus other good things.

Yet another midwife appointment. Baby apparently had a growth spurt, because I gained 3.5 pounds (a total of 26 pounds thus far- not too bad!) and am measuring a bit ahead of schedule again fundal-height wise (last time I was measuring exactly right on). Everything's looking great- baby's still head down and he's not posterior at the moment, and he's feeling like he's more average sized (I am capable of delivering a 12 pound baby I am sure, but I don't really want to!). I'm feeling like he's going to be in between Lacy and Rose's size- high 8's or low 9's.

AND I went BY MYSELF to my appointment! My sister was so kind as to watch my children for me so I wouldn't go crazy while I was there. They love going to the midwife with me, but honestly, it gets to be a little too much sometimes with them!

After the appointment, I went by K-Mart because I figured they wouldn't be as busy as other stores would be a few days before Christmas. I was right, however, their selection stinks and I couldn't find anything because I never shop there, so I still spent an hour in the store. At least I didn't have to deal with stinky parking situations or long lines, which I dread. I was able to find a few things I needed to get, but forgot to look for the materials I need for this year's funny gift.

After shopping, I went back to Leslie's, and we spent a little time in the kitchen making a few Christmas treats. The girls had a lot of fun eating them and playing with their cousins. We went home to have leftovers for dinner (yum!) and now the girls are settling in their beds. We'll see if they actually go to sleep- their sleep schedules have been so wonky since school got out.

But the BEST NEWS OF ALL: Dave's friend had two beef cows. One was butchered last week. Ever since then, their remaining cow has been going crazy. Escaping and going into the neighbor's yard, destroying fences and property, and basically acting wild. They decided they can NOT have this in their yard anymore. But because they're already going to have an entire cow to put in their freezer, they have opted to give it to us! Dave went out this afternoon to try to find it, and he killed it himself, dressed it out, and is taking it out to a close friend's house who has a meat locker and a processing center. Next week will be butchering time! If that wasn't good enough news, he ALSO shot a 3 point buck with his bow today (for those of you on the east coast, that's a 6 point buck, and for a black tailed deer, which is all we have around here, that's a decent size)! He didn't have time to track it and find it, but he knows he got it and he knows exactly where it is and will get it tomorrow to dress it out and hang it. I don't have any more details than that at the moment. I'm feeling incredibly blessed that our family will have plenty of meat to get us through the next year. Not only that, it is all good, basically organic meat that ate the food naturally intended for that animal to eat, and locally grown, too!

UPDATE: Dave went back and got the deer already! We are going to be overflowing with meat soon!

Wee One Update

Today I am 33 weeks! Just 4 weeks until I am considered term, and 3 weeks after that until I will likely deliver my baby! Lacy and Rose both came right around their due dates, so I'm not expecting anything earlier than 39 weeks with this one.

The good news is the birthing center is almost finished! I walked around it today- they're just doing detail stuff like caulking around the giant whirlpools and such. They need to furnish it still and get approval from the health department, and then they're in business! Hopefully they'll have it all done in 5-6 weeks so it will be ready before I go into labor! It's going to be beautiful! I'm so excited! My city has needed a birthing center for a long time. The closest one is 30 miles away in a larger city, but there are two out-of-hospital birth midwifery practices in my city, so there is certainly a need being filled with this birthing center.

As far as I go... today my blood pressure was super high- 120/80. For me, that's really high. Normally I'm in the 90/60 range. Baby's heart was at 150 and is still head down. I was getting worried because I was feeling hiccups all over the place over the last few days, but I thought I was feeling his bum at the top so I wasn't sure. Sure enough, I was right- that lump I was feeling at the top of my uterus was indeed his bum.

The best news- I am measuring right on at 33.5 cm and I only gained 2 1/2 pounds since my last visit 2 1/2 weeks ago. Considering we've had Thanksgiving and lots of cookies and candies because we are in the midst of the Christmas season, I'm thinking that's pretty good! I would really like a baby slightly smaller than my Rosie, so not gaining two pounds a week (like I did in my 3rd trimester with both girls) is really encouraging. I'm not feeling as giant as I felt when I was pregnant with her, too.

I'm keeping my hopes up that this upcoming birth will be easier than Rose's. I ended up having several complications that emerged at once, resulting in a hospital transfer. My labor with Lacy was only 4.5 hours, and Rose's labor, which should have been shorter since usually 2nd labors are faster than first labors, ended up lasting 9 hours. I was exhausted and just done by the end, but once my (sunny side up) baby arrived, I was over the moon and ready to run a marathon (okay, maybe not quite, but I felt great). I'm hoping this time for a fast labor like Lacy's followed by an easy recovery like Rose's.

Santa Claus is Coming To Our Neighborhood!

Tonight was the food drive put on by the local fire department. They come through the neighborhood with the lights and sirens going and have Santa with them on a sleigh to help collect food. We told the girls that Santa was in the neighborhood and they were so very excited. Lacy immediately put on more appropriate clothes for wearing outside, and I swear we waited outside for 20 minutes because she couldn't stand waiting inside where she could possibly miss Santa coming by our house.

It was freezing cold. But the girls were so happy that they got to sit up with Santa on his sleigh for a minute. Thankfully I remembered the camera.

'Tis the Season... for Static!

This time of year when the humidity is low (except when it is raining) and it is cold, my thin, dry hair always seems to be very staticy. My lucky children also have the type of hair that lends itself easily to a lot of static. Here we have Rose, who just came in from the freezing cold outside.

Wish Lists to Santa

Here's what my girls have asked Santa to give them:

Rose:
Piano
Doggy
Choo Choo Train

Lacy:
Wedding Dress
Veil
Cake Topper

Lacy's a bit obsessed with getting married lately. The other day, she packed all her clothes in a suitcase and told me she was moving to Utah because she was getting married and her husband had a job in Utah.

What's your guess?

I asked all my family members what their guesses are for this new little baby. Here are our guesses, and we'll see who is closest! If you want to play, too, just respond with your guess in the comments!

Rose
Date: January 22
Time: Night/10 pm
Hair? Lots of blond hair
Weight: 9 lb 3 oz
Length: 22 inches

Lacy
Date: January 31
Time: 2 am
Hair?: Lots of blond hair
Weight: 8 lb 5 oz (shockingly, that's Lacy's birth weight)
Length: 21 inches

Carolyn
Date: February 2 (my second choice is January 25)
Time: 10:30 am
Hair?: Lots of brown hair
Weight: 8 lb 12 oz
Length: 20 inches

Dave
Date: January 21
Time: Sometime at night
Hair?: A medium amount of light-colored hair
Weight: 8 lb 14 oz

Past history to help you make your guess: Both Lacy and Rose were 21 inches long. Lacy was 8 lb 5 oz, Rose was 9 lb 6 oz. Lacy was born 5 days before her due date, Rose was born on her due date. Both girls were born at night. Lacy had a smallish amount of light brown hair, Rose had a ton of dark brown hair. As far as Dave and I go, I don't know many details on Dave's birth. I believe he was on the larger side, but he was early (his mother had complications due to the shape of her uterus though, which probably resulted in the early birth). He was a blond, bald baby. I was born in the morning at 9 lb 2 oz/21" long with tons of dark brown hair just like Rosie.

Conversation in the car today

Lacy: I'm going to get married in the Seattle Temple!

Rose: I'm going to get married in the PARTY Temple!

Um... I don't think there's a party temple my dear... but at least you're planning a temple wedding! Even if you are just three years old!

Baby Update

I love going to the midwife! The best thing is the hour long appointments that I get to have with them. It was also exciting to see all the progress on the birthing center that they're building! I bring my girls with me to my appointments because they love to hear the heart "beep" and help measure my belly. They're very good student midwives! I actually wouldn't be surprised if one of my children ends up being a midwife someday!

So upon arrival to the midwifery office, I went in and weighed myself and tested my pee (lovely!) for protein and sugar. I believe at most OB offices, the nurse does this for you. It's just as easy and accurate for me to do so myself! I unfortunately gained 8 pounds in the past 4 weeks, which was a huge jump, but only 20 pounds gained thus far, so it's not a big deal.

Then we went over my tests from last week- the gestational diabetes glucose tolerance test and hematocrit (iron) level testing. The first result was excellent- my glucose level was 80! They're looking for anything under 130, so I was better than okay. I tolerate sugar just fine. It's a good thing, too, because I have a bit of a sugar addiction! I am trying to be better about my sugar consumption, but it is just soooo good! At least this time when I have a 9-10 pound baby, there will be no question that this was just a result of me making big babies rather than having a GD big baby (I didn't get the test with Rose, and she was over 9 pounds, which is why I opted to get tested this time around).

The iron levels, however, are a concern. I've been pretty good about remembering to take my iron supplements, but apparently my body needs a little more of a boost because my iron level was at 30, which is the lowest it's ever been in any of my pregnancies. I need to work to get it up so I don't have to transfer care to a hospital midwife at the end of my pregnancy. I'm now drinking a pregnancy tea which includes nettle and dandilion root which have iron in them. I'm also taking an herb, yellow dock, which helps with iron absobtion. I cook off of cast iron pans already, and have been taking a whole food iron supplement along with my prenatal vitamin. They'll retest my iron level in 6 weeks. Hopefully by then it will be higher! At least now I know why I've been so tired and cranky all the time!

I complained about my aching back, and I will be referred to physical therapy! Unfortunately we can't afford chiropractic care with this pregnancy (as much as I would love to be able to afford it) so this is the only option that my insurance will pay for. I'm hoping with the work Dave's been getting recently I'll be able to get some adjustments at the end of my pregnancy.

Then, the fun stuff. We measured my belly (29 cm, which for me is normal- about 1-2 cm ahead of how many weeks pregnant I am), and listened to the heart "beep" through the fetoscope. I was able to hear it quite clearly this time! It is so hard to hear the heartbeat in one of those. It's different than a doppler, which has adjustable volume controls. This one you have to really focus and listen for it. It is a very faint thumping, but it was clear as a bell once I heard it. Lacy got to listen to it to, and use the fetoscope herself. She loves doing that! The midwife also felt for baby's position, and my guess was right on the money- he is still head down. I determined this based on where I was feeling the hiccups! I think he was flipping all over the place the other day, but went back to head down before the day was done. Then she took my blood pressure and said, "wow, this is high for you!" It was 100/60. Yeah, that's a high blood pressure reading for me, all right! After I had Lacy, I was on my back on the floor passed out because it got down to 60/40! I tend to run low. Last time I think my high number was in the 80s or 90s.

I don't have a new belly picture to post, so for now you'll just get the update. I'll understand if most of you don't want to read this- it's just technical stuff for my own enjoyment later on, anyway!

Fall Fotos

Today we decided that the weather was nice enough, so we went up to take pictures at the capitol campus with the fall leaves. We try to do this every year, but missed last year because we couldn't find a good weekend with no rain! This year we learned our lesson, and the first day that wasn't raining where the leaves had already fallen enough, we took the opportunity to take the pictures.

Here are a few of my favorites from today.

Field Trip!

Lacy went on her first field trip with her kindergarten class on Friday. I was able to volunteer and attend the field trip with Lacy. I'm really happy that I was able to go- I met some of Lacy's friends, including friends from the other kindergarten class whom she plays with at recess. I was also able to spend a fun morning with her. I won't be able to volunteer in her kindergarten class much after January, so I'm taking advantage of the time I have now!

With the giant 638 pound pumpkin on display in front of the cider mill (where the pumpkin patch was located)

A taste of delicious fresh cider- their specialty! They also got apple cider donuts. The best part of it was, I got cider and donuts, too! Yippee!


The pumpkin patch

Lacy and her buddy with their pumpkins!

Feeding the goats was a highlight of the trip! Lacy's buddy's bag got eaten whole by a greedy goat who took it right out of her hands!

This goat pulls the bucket of food up the pulley with her mouth! Cleaver!

They have a wooden maze set up in the back. The kids got a kick out of running through it and finding their way out!


It was a really fun trip and I'm glad I was able to go, though I was soooo tired at the end of the day! I actually had to have a few hours of kid-free time this afternoon to recover and take a nap! I was exhausted! I'm volunteering for the class again this week as the parent helper. I'm very excited to observe a day at school to see what they do! I'm also going to help out at their harvest festival later this month, assuming I can find a babysitter. I'll have helped out in Lacy's class three weeks in a row this month!

A little pregnancy update

I'm almost 24 weeks! Yippee! I had a midwife appointment today. Everything's looking really good! Baby's head down, at least he was today, though it's so early that he could easily change positions and flip flop all over the place. Eventually he'll (probably) settle down into a good vertex position.

The good news- I've only gained 12 pounds thus far! True, 5 pounds have been in the past week, but with both the girls, I had gained about 20 at this point. I'm really happy since I started out heavier this pregnancy, and I really didn't want to have to lose a ton of weight to get to my pre-pre-pregnancy weight! Also, the birthing center should be finished in December or January, so I'll likely be one of the first to deliver there! I'm so excited! The midwife said that now that there's going to be a birth center, they are having about 50% of their clients signing up for birth center births, whereas it used to be maybe one or two a month. They're also turning clients away because of increased interest in their services now that they have a birthing center going in.

I've decided to go ahead and get the gestational diabetes test done. I'll be between 26 and 28 weeks when it's done. It's my third pregnancy and I've declined it every time before now, but I'm at a slightly increased risk for gestational diabetes based on my history. I really doubt I've ever had it, or that I have it now, but the midwives strongly recommended it this time.

New Niece!

Dave's brother Tim's wife Julie had a baby tonight! Little baby Hailee was born around 5 or 5:30 and weighed in at 7 1/2 pounds. She is gorgeous with a full head of dark brown hair (the old wives' tale proved true this time- Julie had near constant heartburn the whole time). I am happy to report that everyone is healthy as well, and I've heard that baby is nursing like a champ. Yea!

Tonight we went to my niece Allison's birthday party and got the news that Hailee had arrived once we got there. We had lots of fun seeing family and friends, and at dusk when the park closed, we all headed off to Chris and Kelly's house (Allison's parents) and met Big Dave there, who had pictures of the new little beauty.

Dave's grandpa is having some health problems and can't live alone anymore, and Chris and Kelly were gracious enough to invite him to live with them. He was able to see the pictures of his newest great granddaughter when she was only a couple of hours old. I was really happy that he was able to see her pictures so soon after her birth. It was nice that we were all able to say hello to him, too.

Kelly was such a sweetheart and printed out a picture for Lacy to take to school tomorrow. This is "H" week at school, and Lacy's sharing day is tomorrow, so she is taking in a picture of baby Hailee to share with her class! She is so excited to share about her newest cousin!

Family Project

In Lacy's kindergarten class each month, she is assigned a special family project that she is supposed to do with all of her family. Last month, she did a "getting to know you" apple, with a picture of her on the apple. She put lots of things about her on the apple and colored it herself. I did all the writing on the apple.

She was very excited to get going on it this month! They gave them a blank pumpkin, and told them they could decorate it any way they wanted, using whatever they chose. During general conference this morning, we decided to get going on Lacy's pumpkin. All four of us helped out with making pumpkin. Here is what we came up with.


A little elaborate? Maybe. Can you even tell that it is a pumpkin?

Well, we had fun with it at least! She gets to share it in her class on Monday.

Family Home Evening

We had a nice family home evening last night. A good lesson from The Friend, ice cream, reading scriptures together, and of course a fun game, chosen by Lacy. Who always chooses hide and seek.

Rose was hiding. She thought she was doing a pretty good job of it too.

Here's where we found her.

It's amazing anyone could find her at all.

My Kind is in Kindergarten

Today was the first day of Kindergarten! Lacy was so excited! She could hardly sleep last night because of all the excitement, and then she woke up at 7 on the dot this morning. Which means she fell asleep before 8 o'clock tonight.

Getting ready to go!
She found her seat in her classroom. She is excited to sit at the yellow table, because the yellow table has purple handled scissors.
But Rose was pretty upset to have her sister gone
Really, really upset. She cried all the way home. OK, actually she cried until Dave gave her some M&Ms (which she calls yum yums)
But she was excited to come pick her up at the end of her first day of kindergarten!
Lacy emerging triumphantly from her first day of kindergarten!
She had such a good time! She can't wait to go again tomorrow! Tomorrow she's riding the bus! I will be driving to the school and meeting her there to make sure she knows where to go, and on Wednesday, she'll go it alone! I'm a little bit nervous about that, actually. But I know she'll do great!

Lacy Won!

Tonight was our school's open house. School starts tomorrow, except for kindergarten, which starts on Monday. But we wanted to take a look around the school and see Lacy's classroom, meet some of the other teachers, and see the other kids. We had a lot of fun!

One of the events was going into the gym, visiting all the booths and getting a stamp from each of them, and entering a drawing for 8 passes plus pizza and drinks from Charlie's Safari, a locally owned fun center for kids that is kind of like Chuck E. Cheese, only way cooler because it has a giant playland (like McDonald's but much larger), bounce houses, and laser tag. I forgot to grab the entry form, so we had to go back through all the booths again so we could enter. But I'm glad I did, because Lacy won!!! She is so excited to get to go to Charlie's Safari and have a little party there with her sister and 6 other people. I'm so surprised that she won! It's such a huge blessing to our family, since there's no way we could afford going there without free tickets.

(Almost) Halfway There!

On Thursday I will be 20 weeks. So halfway there! Today I went to the midwife and we had a great appointment. I may have to give up my dream of having a birth center birth in my city, because it looks like there's a big possibility of it not being completed in time. I called the birth center farther north and will schedule myself there, but if it's snowy, I'll probably end up having a homebirth because I'd be much more comfortable there than, you know, giving birth on the side of the road (which is entirely possible, since my first labor was quite short, and if we're held up because of bad weather, which is entirely possible based on the weather we experienced last year...). Plus I've already had a homebirth, so it's not like it's an idea I'm not at all comfortable with anyway.

So, the appointment went really well, and Constance (the midwife) was able to hear the heartbeat with the fetoscope, which was great considering I'm not yet 20 weeks. My blood pressure was extremely low- something like 80/46. I was impressed with how low it was. So far, I've gained 7 pounds, and my fundal height was 22 cm (so, a little bigger than average, but I'm a 3rd time mom and I have bigger than average babies anyway). I'm feeling pretty good other than a ton of braxton hicks contractions that I'm getting several times an hour. Constance said if they got to be too many, just lie down for a while on my left side, and I really only need to call if they feel labor-y. That's kind of what I figured anyway.

The girls really enjoyed going to the midwife with me, and were excited about telling her that the new baby is a boy. They got to listen through the fetoscope, too, which they enjoyed. It's a lot different than listening to the doppler, but it's more fun, too, since you have to put on your ears.

Baby #3 on HIS way!

Today we got to get a sneak peek into the womb, and discovered that we are going to have a boy! The ultrasound technician said she doesn't give absolutes because nothing is certain until the baby is born, and the highest she gives is 90%... she gave us a 90% chance that this little one is a boy. And looking at my pictures, I believe it!

So here he is... your first look at our first little guy!


It's a boy!

Weaned.

I'm an extended breastfeeder. I decided when I read my first breastfeeding book when I was pregnant, I would breastfeed my babies until at least age 2, per the World Health Organization's recommendation. Well, the second birthday came and went for both my girls, and I knew they weren't ready yet, so I continued on. Lacy weaned at 39 months, a little less than 2 years ago.

Rose is just under 39 months. And she hasn't nursed in three days. I gave her the choice last night and the night before. Tonight I didn't even offer. I did ask her vaguely if there was anything else that she needed before she went to bed. All she wanted was to read Wolf's Coming and get a drink of water. I tucked her into bed. Ten minutes later, she was asleep. I'm not going to offer to nurse her again. If she asks, I'm going to tell her that they're for the new baby. She'll probably have mostly forgotten about nursing by the time the baby comes in January, anyway. Sure, she'll always know what it is, but by January, with a new baby cousin coming a few months before, she'll associate it with babies, not with herself. Which is fine by me. I was ready to be done nursing her. I think that's the beauty of extended breastfeeding. When it's time to end the relationship, everybody's ready, which makes it easier to deal with. Plus, the gradual weaning means less engorgement (unless, like me, you're either nursing a younger sibling or pregnant again with a diminished milk supply).

I'm not sad about weaning her, but I am a little sad about the end of an era. How did my little Roo Roo go from this:


To this:


But soon, another little nursling will be added to our family, and a new era will begin.

WARNING!!! Disturbing and/or Creepy Photos in the Following Blog Post!

There's a new doll in town. OK, maybe not in OUR town exactly, but it's available in Spain. It's a breastfeeding doll. You put the little halter top with flower "nipples" on the child, and put the baby up to the "breast" and it makes little nursing noises.

While I personally wouldn't buy a doll such as this for my child, I understand the appeal of it to parents wishing to encourage little children to think of breastfeeding as the normal way of feeding a child. That's not my beef. My beef is with other people's reactions to this doll.

Here's a quote from one article I read: "Although many health care providers promote the benefits of breast-feeding, parents around the world have criticized Berjuan, saying the idea of breast-feeding is too grown-up for young children -- and may even promote early pregnancy."

Um... no. Because we've been promoting bottle feeding of babies for years and years. If you were to use that argument, you'd have to use all types of care taking of baby dolls as promoting early pregnancy. Breastfeeding is just another way to FEED a BABY. That argument really just doesn't make any sense, unless you are promoting the idea of taking away all baby dolls completely. Then children would go back to using corncob dolls like Laura Ingalls and nursing those instead of baby dolls! I personally breastfed all of my baby dolls and I gave birth for the first time at age 26 after nearly 4 years of marriage. Perhaps in some cultuers that is an early pregnancy, but I was one of the later ones in my group of friends to begin having children, so I don't think so!

Another quote from the same article:

Dr. Manny Alvarez, managing health editor of FOXNews.com, said although he supports the idea of breast-feeding, he sees how his own daughter plays with dolls and wonders if Bebe Gloton might speed up maternal urges in the little girls who play it.

“Pregnancy has to entail maturity and understanding,” Alvarez said. “It’s like introducing sex education in first grade instead of seventh or eighth grade. Or, it could inadvertently lead little girls to become traumatized. You never know the effects this could have until she’s older.”

Seriously, I just want to knock some sense into this guy right about now. Honestly. Traumatized? By mimicking how a baby is fed? I really don't know how pregnancy comes to play in this argument. Many little girls pretend to be mothers, and are pretending to be their biological mothers. They'll stuff dolls down their shirts and "give birth" to them on their beds. So somehow, breastfeeding a doll will speed up maternal urges more than pretending to be a doll's biological mother? How, exactly, will it do that?

But seriously. Traumatized? By pretending to breastfeed their doll? Really?

“What’s next?” wrote Eric Ruhalter, a parenting columnist for New Jersey’s Star Ledger. “Bebe Sot — the doll who has a problem with a different kind of bottle, and loses his family, job and feelings of self-worth? Bebe Limp — the male doll who experiences erectile dysfunction? Bebe Cell Mate — a weak, unimposing doll that experiences all the indignation and humiliation of life in prison?

"Toy themes should be age appropriate. I think so anyway.”

Oh, for heaven's sake. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life. Little girls like baby dolls. What's wrong with having a nursing baby doll? I've often wished for a baby doll to come with a little pretend breastpump instead of a bottle so my girls could pretend to pump like mommy does sometimes. Because it is something that some little girls are interested in playing with, and would like to pretend to be a real mommy. How is a breastfeeding doll not age appropriate? Little girls see their mothers, aunts and other females in their lives breastfeeding their babies. They want to be just like them. Therefore, a doll company is filling a niche.

But the worst of all is comments from people who think that little girls breastfeeding their dolls are disturbing or inappropriate.

Comments from an online publication asking for opinions about this doll:

"This is sick!!! Why not go ahead and show young children how to use a condom. I have 4 children of my own, aren't we supposed to protect our children from knowing things like this? Wait until they are old enough, then let them in on things. This doll is taking it way too far!"

"...However, if my sweet, innocent daughter came to me and wanted this doll; I would be mortified. Why don't I just tell her about sex and how babies are created why I am @ it? There are just some things that need to be learned later in life. Breastfeeding is something she will learn about in Sex Ed."

"Yes this Breast Feeding doll is going to far, I can't believe someone would come up with this!!!!! Whoever thought up something sucking on little girls non grown boobs yet is sick and you need help."

Seriously, my head is going to explode any second now. And this is just scratching the surface of what I've heard about this doll. People calling the sight of seeing a little child pretending to breastfeed a doll "disturbing," or "creepy." Seriously, people! It's a CHILD mimicing a loving act between a mother and a baby! All children should know about breastfeeding, and how it is the NORMAL way for a child to eat, and doesn't need to be hidden from view. It is not a shameful act. Why are we treating it as such? If more people saw breastfeeding on a regular basis, it wouldn't be such a big deal, and we wouldn't freak out about a silly little doll that breastfeeds. And, we'd probably have higher breastfeeding rates, too. Which isn't a bad thing! In fact, breastfeeding rates are abysmally low in our country, so anything to help little girls start thinking of breastfeeding as the normal way to feed a baby will be beneficial in the long run.

With no further adieu, the disturbing and/or creepy photos I took of my daughter tandem nursing her "twin" babies the other day.

Isn't that disturbing? She's pretending to be a mommy! Of twins! That's just WROOOONG!

Update on Dave

This morning, Dave wasn't any better than he was Saturday or Sunday (although, he was quite a bit more hydrated thanks to the 2000ml of IV fluid he got in the ER). None of the medications he got were working, and his joints were very painful and he could hardly stand to be touched. We knew he needed an evaluation by our family doctor.

Dave went in for an appointment this morning just before noon. He got a diagnosis (which I'm not going to name on my public blog because it's his illness and since we're talking GI tract illness, I'm leaving it up to him), an antibiotic, a non-narcotic but strong pain medication, plus he was instructed to double up on another medication he was prescribed. Considering how poorly he was feeling this morning, the turnaround he's had this evening is simply miraculous. He has truly turned the corner, and I think he's going to be better in time for our hot date on Wednesday (our 9th anniversary!).

I have a lot to be thankful for tonight.

Listening to Promptings

Dave got sick on Friday. Really sick. He tried to get a hold of our home teacher to give him a blessing of healing, but wasn't able to get through to him. About 10 o'clock on Friday night, we get a knock on our door. It's our home teacher, bringing us a bag of clothing from his sister-in-law. He felt a very strong prompting that he needed to bring the clothes over then. He was able to give Dave a blessing at that time, which was a huge comfort to us.

Dave knew, however, that his illness was more than just a run-of-the-mill virus. We lost our insurance in July, but thankfully Dave had enough hours banked to have insurance in August. So Saturday, August 1, we ended up taking him into the ER so he could get some fluids into his body- he was pretty dehydrated, despite his best efforts to hydrate his body. He just was unable to absorb any liquids at all. He ended up receiving two liters of fluid via IV, and then a couple 'scripts, and then we left for home. He still feels poorly. But the doctor said all tests came back negative, so it is probably just a GI tract virus, which should last about 72 hours. If Dave still feels this badly tomorrow, we will have him visit the family doctor in the morning. Hopefully his meds will start working and he can get feeling back to normal quickly.

The Best Time to Wean

Yes, Rose is still nursing. She's 3 year old, just turned in May. But the time has come (for me, not for her) that the nursing relationship needs to come to an end. Mainly because I'm too hot to nurse her anymore. Which is why July is the ideal time to wean- incentive to keep plugging along until the task is done! I still give her five minutes before bed, then I lie down with her for a few minutes. Usually Dave will lie down with her until she's asleep, but tonight 1) Dave's not home and 2) It's so hot she's having trouble settling down anyway. So she's in the bedroom crying and whining. I'm doing what I can to console her, but I can't lie down with her the entire time. I would like to have her in her own bed before another little munchkin joins our crew, and that's happening in the not-too-distant future!

But we'll keep plugging away. It will only get hotter, so my distaste for being touched will only increase. The next step (after she's mastered lying down in bed and falling asleep sans mama) will be to nurse before spiritual time, then brush teeth and stories, then bed. Then, cut it out altogether.

I weaned Lacy right around this age, too. It's funny that she seemed so much older and more mature than Rose seems.

Camping

We went camping the first weekend in June. Yeah, I'm a little behind! Like I said before, June is my worst month, and after this weekend campout, my allergies acted up like never before (since last year anyway) and I started getting the morning sickness. That combination wasn't pretty!

Here's where we stayed... beautiful Wynoochee Dam


But it was a little cold. The past few days had been in the 80s and 90s, so silly me only packed one pair of pants and one sweatshirt for each girl. And no jackets. Of course, Rose, who hasn't had an accident in months, had an accident within a couple of hours of arriving at the campground. Nice.

Fortunately, I did bring footie jamies. Which are actually difficult when you're camping and there are no working bathrooms, just outhouses. Bummer.

Lacy loved playing on this old tree stump. It was her platform where she would perform, do tricks, jump, climb, and just chill out. It was right by papa's campground, where everyone hung out most of the time.

This next one looks like we've been walking for hours. But really, we just walked down to the lake and back. I have no idea where my girls get their drama queen attitudes from. Really, none.

With Aunt Julie. Notice Rose polishing off a can of peanuts! That girl was so hungry all of the time this campout! And no wonder-- she just got weighed a couple weeks ago and she was right at 30 pounds! The little stinker gained 4 pounds on me!

The real reason we went to Wynoochee was because of the fishing. The fishing used to be good, but this year, only one fish was caught. And it wasn't even a steelhead, which is what we were after. Fortunately one of the kids caught it, so that was nice. Rose here is showing you the kind of bait you have to use to fish for steelhead. Just need a little cocktail sauce and we'll be set...

I love these girls! Is there anything cuter than three grubby little girls having the time of their lives camping?

I'm still working on getting out some of those stains in those shirts.

We had a little birthday celebration for Rose while we were there, and also for Justin, who had a birthday around the same time as Rose. They had cupcakes, and Rose got to open a present.

She got a stuffed pony, which she absolutely adores! She loves horses.



On the last day, we went for a nice long hike. Most everyone was already gone, so it was just a few of us there who hiked. The hike was absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous, and the kids were such troopers during the whole thing. Lacy marched right along and had a great time! Rose mostly rode on people's shoulders.


Pretty soon it was time to say goodbye. We had such a great time, and look forward to our next camping trip!