More Boob News and Other Stuff

Let's get the Boob Report out of the way first. There's good news and bad news. We'll start with the bad news and move on to the good news. My left breast has some strange mystery pain. It's very sensitive and sore, but I can't find any clogged ducts. I will be returning to therapy on Monday to figure out what is wrong. Ugh, more titty torture! I hate it! I also don't have enough milk to satisfy my daughter, but the good news is that my milk supply is increasing!! I'm taking a number of herbal supplements that my lactation consultant recommended. Fenugreek, Goat's Rue, Blessed Thistle and Mother's Milk Tea. Fenugreek has a maple scent to it so if you hang out with me you may end up having the urge to drive over to IHOP and get a large stack of pancakes. So far the mix of herbs is working quite well. YAY!! That's not the only good news. We're off the nipple shield!!! Well, we've had two feedings without it. So far so good! It feels great to be free from the nipple shield. It's just one less thing to deal with.

Aislinn had her two week check up the other day. She now weighs 6 lbs. 15 oz. and is 19 3/4 inches long. She's right on target, but the fact that she's growing up breaks my heart. I know it's just a tiny bit of growing but it breaks my heart that she will soon no longer be my itty bitty baby with itty bitty features. She will never be this tiny ever again so I'm trying to enjoy every moment. The doctor also told me that Aislinn was holding her head up like a one month old. She's so strong, I'm so proud of her!

While my little peanut is gaining weight I'm still losing. I don't remember the last time I was so thin. I'm 17.5 lbs. below my prepregnancy weight!!! I've lost 28.5 lbs. since the baby was born. I actually wore a pair of old jeans that were tucked away in the back of the closet today. It's great, I hope that I keep losing. It's probably a combination of breast feeding and forgetting to eat most of the day. When I do eat during the day it's usually something light like soup and I am really good about drinking lots of water and juices. It's like being on a liquid diet until dinner time when Howie and I either eat something that our parents have made for us or something I made and put in the freezer before going into labor. The only thing I don't dig is the weird flabby belly, but please, I was so huge and I can't expect ALL of that skin to shrink down that quickly. It may not ever shrink down completely, but it's ok. She's totally worth it.

I managed to pull off a surprise Valentine's Dinner for Howie. I made garlic breaded chicken breasts, potatoes, and I wanted to make some sort of veggie but we didn't have any at all so that was it. Pretty limited dinner. I was disappointed with that, but we also had the tiny bottle of champagne that we got with our brunch at the hospital. We didn't drink it there because I hadn't breastfed Aislinn yet so we decided to take it home with us. Dessert was the best part. I had made chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting. Nothing big but I have been dying for chocolate cupcakes for months. Aislinn sat quietly in her baby papasan while Howie and I ate, then we opened Valentine's Day cards. I had been looking forward to watching Lost later that night but because I was busy during all of my spare time preparing cupcakes or preparing dinner, cleaning the kitchen table and doing dishes I hadn't had a nap. Once we sat down on the couch to watch Lost I passed out and was pretty much useless for the rest of the night. Howie went to Walgreens after Lost to return something and lost his keys to the house. When he got home he forgot to turn off the headlights on the car. The next morning the battery was dead so our neighbor had to give us a jump and then Howie drove it to the neighbor's garage to get recharged while he was at work. Because Howie and I only have one car and nobody else that we know has a carseat base for our carseat I was unable to bring Aislinn to the doctor that day, so I had to reschedule for Friday. At some point on Friday we got a hole in our back left tire so Howie spent the morning laying on the frozen ground putting our spare tire on. When our neighbor returns home on Tuesday we will bring the car in to have the tires replaced. We have a full spare so we'd rather wait for our neighbor to come home so that we can get a discount on the tires. We're all about saving every cent now that there's a third person in the house. Our luck hasn't been so great the second half of this week, but we've been handling it pretty well. I think we're just too tired to find the energy to get all worked up about it.

I think it's now the time to drink a Pepsi or a cup of coffee so that I can finally get through the piles of laundry in Aislinn's room. Howie just went through through all the junk on the dining room table so that we can eat on it tomorrow when my parents and sister come to visit tomorrow. The only room in our house that ever seems to be clean is the kitchen. That's just because we're afraid of those nasty little fruit flies and cockroaches returning. The rest of the house can wait. It's amazing how quickly the house can get messy. I don't even know how it happens. I hope to see my house completely clean again someday but for now I don't have the energy to worry about it.

Sorry I didn't get a chance to add pictures the other day, but for those of you asking for new pics here you go!