A Proud Moment

I have recently put the baby books down.  I don't look at Babycenter.com anymore.  If I have a burning question that I feel has to do with the safety of my child, I consult a pediatric medicine book that was sent to me from my insurance company. 

I don't like anyone telling me when my child "should" be doing something, and then follow up with, "well, really, who knows when your child will do this because babies, like all humans, are different." So, I was tired of the non-answers, the not very well cloaked bias, and the crazy high expectations.  I mean, one book said to not watch TV while nursing as it would impede the bonding time between mom and baby.  I took this one especially personally because for the first five weeks of his life, my Toph would nurse every 1.5 to 2 hours.  Each nursing session would last upwards of 45 minutes.  Did I mention those nursing sessions were painful?  I love nursing now, but those initial weeks were enough to make me wonder what sick joke nature was playing on me.  My DVR, Law and Order SVU marathons and Adult Swim got me through those times.  And my baby and I are completely bonded and these days I don't watch nearly as much TV because he's on a 3 hour schedule and nurses 20 minutes tops (okay, 30 if he's tired, but it's cute when he falls asleep latched, so I let it slide).  Plus, each nursing session is extra special because soon, he'll be on three bottles a day, thus diminishing our actual nursing time.  But don't tell me I can't nurse my baby while watching TV!

I didn't mean for this to turn into a rant...

Anyway, before I retired the baby books I did read that it was a good idea to build up a good supply of expressed milk for when you have to go back to work.  One of my big hangups is losing my supply because as a teacher, I can't just run off and pump when I need to.  I have good classroom management and everything, but even the best kids are likely to hang off the ceiling if their maestra is gone fifteen minutes.  We also don't have the staff available to come into my room everyday to watch my class for fifteen minutes while I spend quality time with my breast pump.  So, I have been fretting.  Another thing I have been doing is building up a crazy milk supply.  It got so big that my dad felt it was necessary to buy us a deep freeze to store it.  I don't think he liked opening up our freezer, expecting to find juicy steaks to grill, only to find a bomb shelter of frozen breast milk.  Thanks for the deep freeze, dad!

Here's my crowning achievement:

Now remember, I'm slow on the uptake and it took me awhile to realize that freezing the milk flat will save a lot of room, thus all the frozen milk blobs you see on the right hand side.

I'm proud of that freezer.  More so, I'm proud of this guy: 

He's been a gem in daycare.  He is loved by all.  I finally have the staff convinced that Toph is an actual nickname and yes, we do call him that at home, so please, call him that during his stay with you.  For awhile he was Tope (as in the color taupe, a great compliment to tan..."the guy said it was tan and taupe..." name that movie!).  But if name clarification is the only problem we have, we're okay.

I am still getting teary eyed when I strap him into his carseat in the morning.  It's okay, I've got waterproof mascara.