Rolling and Nursing
Well, it happened! Olivia was able to finally roll from her back to tummy officially yesterday. She has been working hard on this and would get stuck and then mad because she was stuck. It was that darn arm that got in the way when she would turn. She's been able to roll from tummy to back since around 2 months, but now she has both movements. Crazy how fast they grow. Makes me a bit sad too.
Our dog, Bear, is not a fan of the kids when they are on the move. He's weird. We started joking that now that Olivia is rolling over, she's going to be chasing him before he knows it. Even my mom was like, "Watch out Bear!" It makes me laugh.
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So I am going to switch gears a bit and talking about nursing. How many of you enjoy nursing? I know some people struggle with not producing enough. I also know the flip side of that where they produce way to much. But regardless of the situation, do you enjoy it? I have my moments with it to be honest. I love the fact that I can give her such great nutrition unlike what I could for Anna. I tried to nurse Anna, but I couldn't get her to latch and I felt very odd asking for help when we were in the hospital out of fear. Silly, I know, but knowing she was adopted, I wasn't sure how it was going to be received with me wanting to nurse her. I gave up, found donors, and supplemented as well.
So, when it came near the end of my pregnancy with Olivia I was scared that nursing wasn't going to work out for us. I am very happy to report that it's going well, and she nurses like a champ. Almost to much of a champ as she doesn't care of bottles, at. all. It makes it frustrating as I've had lots of sleepless nights where I wish I could hand her off to Steve so I could sleep. We have tried all kinds of bottles, but holy moly, we just couldn't find one that she liked or would take. We tried Dr. Browns, Advent, Evenflo, and even Tommee Tippee. We did find that she'd take the Tommee Tippee bottles better than any others, but she still did it with major complaints. Finally, after much research, I found the bottle by Munchin called the Latch bottle. This bottle was a game changer for us. The nipple on the bottle pumps like when a baby nurses at the breast. She took the first bottle with no problem. A couple after that, she would complain a little about, but she'd still drink from it and seemed to do well.
The first week I went back to work, I had to actually go into office that whole week for training. She had a tough time at first with taking the bottle again (as we got out of the habit to give her one at least once a day), but by the end of the week she was doing much better. During that week, I had to make time during the day to pump as well. Pumping is not only a lot of work, but I also feel like it doesn't fully empty me. So by the time I get home, I would nurse her and she would drain me and pass out because she would fight the bottle during the day. By the end of the week, she wasn't doing it as bad, and my pumping skills were getting better.
I do enjoy nursing, but it's sometimes rough too. Especially with having Anna. Being a toddler, she doesn't really understand fully, except that sissy is eating. She's funny though while I'm nursing. "Sissy's milk" is what she'd say. Or sometimes she'll come up and touch me and go "oh hot". I'd say, "no, just warm" and she'd repeat "warm". It's so cute to watch her curiosity build as she watches me nurse. She's nursed her dolls, her owl, her bunny, and pretty much any of her toys with a mouth on it. It's quite cute!
This is a picture of her nursing her baby. You can't tell, but she even pulled her shirt up. It even cracks me up as she looks at Steve and point and go "baby's milk". HA! Silly girl.
These two girls are my whole world. It's funny as I think back to life without my little family and it's honestly very hard. With Steve and I being married for 14 years, it's really hard to imagine life before him. We met in 1998 and then in person in 1999. I was still in high school when we met (it was my senior year). We then met in person December of 1999, and have been an actual couple since. Even though we've only had Anna in our lives for 2 and a half years, I don't remember life without her. It's so natural that she's apart of this family. Then there is Livy. She's only 3 months old, but again, I don't remember life without her. These girls have brought even more joy and love to this family. We may have struggled for a long time with starting our family, but God sure knew what He was doing. I don't know if I will fully understand why our wait was so long, but I do know that we were meant to have them both. So far it's been amazing to watch them grow and learn, and we are looking forward to the many more years to come.
I think the thing that really melts my heart and see the love in Anna's eyes for Olivia. I know that they will fight from time to time, but I do pray that they have such a great relationship. I pray that they have that great sister bond.
The look Anna gives her sister just melts my heart. Olivia also likes to watch Anna play as she follows her around the living room. I pray the bond continues to grow and develop into something sweet.
Our dog, Bear, is not a fan of the kids when they are on the move. He's weird. We started joking that now that Olivia is rolling over, she's going to be chasing him before he knows it. Even my mom was like, "Watch out Bear!" It makes me laugh.
********************************************************************************************
So I am going to switch gears a bit and talking about nursing. How many of you enjoy nursing? I know some people struggle with not producing enough. I also know the flip side of that where they produce way to much. But regardless of the situation, do you enjoy it? I have my moments with it to be honest. I love the fact that I can give her such great nutrition unlike what I could for Anna. I tried to nurse Anna, but I couldn't get her to latch and I felt very odd asking for help when we were in the hospital out of fear. Silly, I know, but knowing she was adopted, I wasn't sure how it was going to be received with me wanting to nurse her. I gave up, found donors, and supplemented as well.
So, when it came near the end of my pregnancy with Olivia I was scared that nursing wasn't going to work out for us. I am very happy to report that it's going well, and she nurses like a champ. Almost to much of a champ as she doesn't care of bottles, at. all. It makes it frustrating as I've had lots of sleepless nights where I wish I could hand her off to Steve so I could sleep. We have tried all kinds of bottles, but holy moly, we just couldn't find one that she liked or would take. We tried Dr. Browns, Advent, Evenflo, and even Tommee Tippee. We did find that she'd take the Tommee Tippee bottles better than any others, but she still did it with major complaints. Finally, after much research, I found the bottle by Munchin called the Latch bottle. This bottle was a game changer for us. The nipple on the bottle pumps like when a baby nurses at the breast. She took the first bottle with no problem. A couple after that, she would complain a little about, but she'd still drink from it and seemed to do well.
The first week I went back to work, I had to actually go into office that whole week for training. She had a tough time at first with taking the bottle again (as we got out of the habit to give her one at least once a day), but by the end of the week she was doing much better. During that week, I had to make time during the day to pump as well. Pumping is not only a lot of work, but I also feel like it doesn't fully empty me. So by the time I get home, I would nurse her and she would drain me and pass out because she would fight the bottle during the day. By the end of the week, she wasn't doing it as bad, and my pumping skills were getting better.
I do enjoy nursing, but it's sometimes rough too. Especially with having Anna. Being a toddler, she doesn't really understand fully, except that sissy is eating. She's funny though while I'm nursing. "Sissy's milk" is what she'd say. Or sometimes she'll come up and touch me and go "oh hot". I'd say, "no, just warm" and she'd repeat "warm". It's so cute to watch her curiosity build as she watches me nurse. She's nursed her dolls, her owl, her bunny, and pretty much any of her toys with a mouth on it. It's quite cute!
This is a picture of her nursing her baby. You can't tell, but she even pulled her shirt up. It even cracks me up as she looks at Steve and point and go "baby's milk". HA! Silly girl.
These two girls are my whole world. It's funny as I think back to life without my little family and it's honestly very hard. With Steve and I being married for 14 years, it's really hard to imagine life before him. We met in 1998 and then in person in 1999. I was still in high school when we met (it was my senior year). We then met in person December of 1999, and have been an actual couple since. Even though we've only had Anna in our lives for 2 and a half years, I don't remember life without her. It's so natural that she's apart of this family. Then there is Livy. She's only 3 months old, but again, I don't remember life without her. These girls have brought even more joy and love to this family. We may have struggled for a long time with starting our family, but God sure knew what He was doing. I don't know if I will fully understand why our wait was so long, but I do know that we were meant to have them both. So far it's been amazing to watch them grow and learn, and we are looking forward to the many more years to come.
I think the thing that really melts my heart and see the love in Anna's eyes for Olivia. I know that they will fight from time to time, but I do pray that they have such a great relationship. I pray that they have that great sister bond.
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