September 30, 2010
Our baby girl is growing up. Is it really the last day of September already?! My goodness that went fast, with the Fall Season and the change of weather, it has proved to spark changes with Brooklynne as well which have been good but at the same time if I'm being 100% honest a bit sad as well. Both Brooke and I were pretty sick with a yucky cold bug (the one that I hear is really going around,) it starts in the head and sinuses, moves to the throat and then for me the whole achey body and then watch out here comes the drainage and constant running faucet (I mean nose) and finally the caboose that pretty much runs you over...the congestion and cough~pretty typical of this time of the year. This past week has been on the miserable side for Brooklynne since she ended up with a triple whammie, after too many sleepless nights her two top teeth FINALLY cut through the skin, so that along with the sickness and then since Saturday night she couldn't sleep and fussed, well literally screamed all night long yet she didn't want to nurse since she was so stuffed up and couldn't breathe when she'd attempt to latch on. Matt and I decided it was our perfect opportunity (unfortunately under not so perfect circumstances) to weane the baby from breast feeding. I figured she wasn't wanting to nurse so I might as well cut her off all together, cold turkey. Being a year, it was time for her and me, it was more of a habit and comforting thing for Brooke to wake up through the night to nurse (way too many times) then I'd also nurse her typically once in the afternoon and before she went to bed but table foods had started to pretty much agree with her system and she was eating them quite well. My only concern was that she wouldn't drink milk for ANYTHING out of a bottle or sippy cup and I knew that babies need that fat in milk until at least two years for brain development so I wasn't even quite sure if milk would agree with her tummy since our kids take a little longer than the norm to adjust lactose. Matt felt that if she wasn't given an option that she would eventually take it and... he was right! Because of her strong-will, you can call it that or completely spoiled baby of six syndrome, Brooklynne is pretty used to getting her way and all temper breaks out when things go different. Who would have guessed from such an adorable, happy sweet baby right? We had some very challenging days and nights following the initial weaning process!!! It was pretty miserable but if a mother is already going to be sick with a yucky cold, you might as well throw in a fussy miserable baby and painful engorged breasts full of milk into the mix right?! Like anything, things could've be worse though... Not sure how smart that move was but I am delighted to say that things are getting so much better. Brooke will now drink milk (it does have to be warmed first, I have never warmed regular milk for any of my kids besides her...but she drinks it and it agrees with her and that's all that matters, THANK goodness!) There were a few nights of Matt sleeping on the couch and I trying to content a crying baby who only wanted the main comfort she knew and loved for the past year of her life while tears in my own eyes (not sure if mine were tears of pure sleepless exhaustion or tears of sadness I felt for Brookie and the change it was for her- maybe a bit of both.) But with her personality, I knew the longer I waited to weane her the harder it was going to be on the both of us. So, she is officially weaned of nursing and all in all it really is a good thing! I just wish I could speed up the "drying-out" process of this engorgement stage, I don't remember it taking so long and being this painful with the other kids, maybe because I weaned them out in a slower process. (However, I've nursed Brooklynne the longest out of any of our kids.) In reality, maybe I should just savor this time because after nursing six kids and I am dried up, there probably won't be much left in that department, ha ha- sad but true! As far as the colds go, both of us are a lot better and on the down hill which makes one have a completely revived appreciation for the blessing of good health. Only now the rest of the family seems to be coming down with the bug...yep, the inevitable here we go again! On a side note: We are THRILLED to say that for the first time in her 13 months of life our Brooklynne slept through the ENTIRE night last night, from 8:30pm until 7:00am this morning- hallelujah, it was nice to be reminded what a good nights rest feels like- we love you so much Brooklynne Pearl!
Along with two top teeth, no longer a nursing baby yet now a walking baby- Brooke also finally crawls down the stairs. She has crawled up the stairs for quite some time now but before now she was just too scared to crawl down; however, now she has recently taken our instruction of turning her little body around to crawl down the stairs- way to go Brookie! So I am just wondering- where were all of those pass-a-fires hiding when we so needed to find just one the other night, for some crazy reason you either have none or you have all of them.
