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.