Natalie’s Blog

Wow, does time fly. Seems like yesterday we were writing about Natalie turning nine months old…

Chris took a series of pictures yesterday evening, so they are a bit blurry due to low light. I just love the expressions he caught, so I don’t care. Natalie was very happily playing on the new toddler slide Grandma got her. Thanks, Grandma!

Natalie standing on top of her slide, looking like she’s on top of the world:

Here is a close-up of Natalie mid-laugh:

In this photo you can see how vigorously Natalie likes to wave. It looks like she’s frowning—not sure why:

I love this picture, because Natalie looks so happy and content. Plus it was really humid so you can see her beautiful ringlet curls. Looks like she’ll have Dad’s blond hair with Mama’s curls:

I’ve been debating about whether or not to continue pumping so Natalie can have breast milk while I’m at work. Natalie is eating enough solid food that she only gets one bottle each day I work, so that’s only 3 bottles per week. The bottles are mostly for comfort and for aid in getting her down for a nap, not really for hunger.

On the one hand, it really isn’t that hard to pump at work. I am extremely lucky to work for a feminist organization where I feel totally comfortable pumping at my desk and can schedule my clients around when I need time to pump. Plus I worked really hard to pump enough breast milk so that Natalie wouldn’t need any more formula, since we used it to supplement when I was struggling with thrush and when I first returned to work. It’s not like formula is evil or anything, but it is expensive and feels unnatural. I felt a certain pride about Natalie only getting breast milk for the past 5 months or so. For these reasons, I felt like I should just continue to pump.

One the other hand, pumping is kind of a pain (literally and figuratively). Not only does it take time from my day at work and make scheduling clients tedious, but when I get home from work, I need to hand wash all the parts to get the pump ready for the next work day. Also, Natalie is still nursing around the clock, so she’s getting plenty of breast milk. There’s no harm in her getting formula three times a week as a supplement. So there’d really be nothing wrong with not pumping anymore and using formula as a supplement when I’m away from Natalie.

Neither side of the argument felt compelling enough to outweigh the other, so I’ve been going back and forth, unable to figure out what I truly wanted or what I felt was best for Natalie. Then my pump broke! It fell off the counter and I didn’t even realize it was broken until I went to work the next day. Freud would say there are no accidents, that I must have left the pump in a precarious place unconsciously. Others might say it was a divine intervention.

Whatever, I’m just happy to not have to wrestle with this decision anymore. I had a Lansinoh Double Electric Pump that cost $150—actually pretty cheap compared to other electric pumps—and we’re not replacing it at this point.

After talking to lots of other moms and the nurse at Natalie’s pediatrician’s office, I realized that Natalie can have cow’s milk as a supplement. That eliminates the problem of using expensive, unnatural formula. Today she had her first taste of organic whole cow’s milk (in a sippy cup). At first she seemed to like it and drank a lot quickly, but then after she ate some peas, she didn’t like it quite so much. Natalie is accustomed to having water with solid food, so perhaps the milk was just too thick to wash down her food with. We’re going to watch her over the next few days for any signs of lactose intolerance and then see how she likes the milk in a bottle from Grandma.

Natalie looking unsure about the cow’s milk:

Okay, now she’s definitely not happy about it:

We took Natalie to the park for her first ride down the slide! Not to worry, we accompanied her and didn’t let her go headfirst, even though she really wanted to. Half the fun (for us at least) was how the slide made her hair stick up like crazy!

Thanks for the sweet cat shoes, Cora! Meow, meow!!

Natalie’s latest thing is to make no noise when she wakes up from a nap. In the past, she would cry (if she didn’t sleep long enough) or would start babbling (if she was well-rested) upon waking. Now she’s trying to be all stealth and climb out of bed and crawl out of the bedroom before vocalizing at all. Luckily our house is nowhere near sound proof and I can hear her knees hit the floor from the living room below. By the time I run upstairs, we meet each other at the bedroom door.

Here she is crawling in pants that are slightly too big, hence the droopy look. Plus it seems like a lot of pants for babies now are “low-rise.” Who came up with that dumb idea? Some designer who doesn’t actually have kids and didn’t think about the fact that babies wear diapers!