Saving the Ta-Tas...My Ta-Tas!

Yesterday I quit breast feeding. Hallelujah! Looking back, I should have stopped a while ago. The problem with quitting (besides my unwillingness to admit that I couldn't do it) was really the lactation chicks at the hopsital. They need a hobby that doesn't include other people's boobs. Seriously, they are dangerously close to needing posters at the hospital that say "You should breast feed. You're a bad mom if you don't. No, really, we will judge you." Or maybe a poster that says "You should breast feed until your child gets his own place. And he won't ever need therapy for it." I get that some people actually like to breast feed. You hear people call it magical, a wonderful bonding experience for you and your baby. I think those people should be tested for drugs. Monday night I was feeding my son, Grant, for the last time before bed. He feel asleep with my nipple in his mouth clamped between his little gums. I imagine that's what it would feel like if my nipple had been caught in a bear trap. Yet that was not what made me quit. That came yesterday morning...when it felt like Grant was chewing on the already sensitive part of my anatomy. He's 8 weeks old and has no teeth and yet it felt like all his grown up teeth came in while he was sleeping. At that moment my husband was coming in to say good-bye to us (he was off to work) and I looked at him and said "I'm done. I quit. I can't do it anymore." And this is why I love my husband...he said "Thank God!" So for almost two days I've been pumping and bottle feeding my little boy. And I love feeding him a bottle!

October is breast cancer awareness month!



Thank You Notes

So, I've been really bad about sending out thank you notes. It's not that I'm not grateful! I am. But I always think I sound cheesy when I write those things. Plus, it's hard to carve out the time in the day to do that when I can't even manage a shower every day (Seriously, it got so bad last week I thought a hazmat team may have to dispose of the clothes I was wearing). So, weeks after my son was born I get a card and gift from my grandmother - who I never hear from or see. We shall call her The Thank You Note Nazi. It was very sweet of her and I have no doubt it was done out of an obligation she felt rather than actually wanting to do it. Less than a week later my father is calling me to say "Uh, can you send a thank you note to your grandmother?" What? People who went to my shower were still waiting for thank you notes at that point! I shouldn't have been surprised. This is a woman who once gave my mother a box of thank you notes as a Christmas gift. And she expected a thank you note for it. There should be medication for that. So anyway, I finally got around to sending her a thank you note (and an announcement so she'd stop complaining that she hadn't seen the baby yet). And last week, what do I get in the mail? That's right folks, a thank you note for sending her a thank you note! I only wish I was kidding. For a very brief moment I considered sending her a thank you note for the thank you note for the thank you note. :)