11 Months

I have to post this before my little boy turns 1 tomorrow! I can't believe he's turning one....at all. Time has gone by sooooo fast! I'm so sorry it's taken me a month to get these few pictures posted, but better late than never! Stay tuned for pictures from Caleb's one year session with Sarah McAffry and photos from his birthday party we're having tomorrow!



R

My Jouney to Becoming a Milk Donor - Part II

Please read Part I of this series of posts before reading this one!



It was just me and my sweet boy that day at home. I had sat a days supply of breast milk out from the deep freezer so that it could defrost overnight, as instructed from my breastfeeding class. I warmed the milk before Caleb's first bottle and settled in for the first meal where my "girls" were free! The excitement I felt at this very moment was indescribable! Now I could just pack a diaper bag with as many packages of my milk as Caleb needed and head out into the world and become a part of society once again! Traveling to see family would now become so much easier because I didn't have to stop along the way to pump, no more sterilizing the (what seemed like thousands) breast pump equipment, no more packing the breast pump on our trips, no more crying baby while I pumped. Today was the day!



As I turned the bottle up for my little darling to drink, I realized all of my hard work had finally paid off. Until he refused to drink it. "Huh," I thought. "Maybe he's just not hungry right now." I dump the bottle and try to comfort my crying child. I don't know why he's upset! He has a clean diaper, he's had a nap, he doesn't seem to be hungry. I guess he's teething. I don't know.



Feeding hour comes around again and I get the second pouch of breast milk out and ready for Caleb. He acts like he's starving! He grabs the bottle, yanks it to his mouth and as soon as the milk hits his tongue he screams bloody murder and won't have anything to do with it! Now, I know it's not the bottle. Caleb had been getting my breast milk through bottle feeding for quite some time now. So what was it? The nipple wasn't clogged, the milk was warm, he was hungry....what was going on? I decided to make sure the milk wasn't ruined. It shouldn't be though. I followed all of the milk pumping and storage guidelines down to a T. I unscrewed the nipple from the bottle and took a big sniff. Oh my goodness. It smelt rancid! What was wrong with my milk?!? As any great and wonderful mom would do.......I tasted it. Yes, I tasted it. Don't judge me. It tasted like soapy, metallic-like, and just pure disgusting. No wonder Caleb didn't want it! Oh well, I must have just messed up that package of milk somehow.....right?



I go and get another bag. Open it, smell it......same thing. I do this again and again. All of the milk smells ruined. I panic. What now? What's going on? Why is this happening? What did I do wrong? I can't tell you how many questions I had popping into my head at that moment. I did have formula at the house because Caleb drank one bottle of formula at night to help his hunger during the night, so I just fixed a bottle of formula and Caleb drank it like he was starving to death! I called Jason. I told him something was wrong with my milk and I didn't know what. That night we did some research and this is what we found out.



I have what's called, Excess Lipase. After getting home, Jason got on the computer (and if any of you know Jason, he can find ANYTHING on the Internet!) and did some research. He found several things, but this blog called Simply Rebekah was the most helpful. Rebekah had the same issue as me! After reading several of her posts, I had a better understanding of exactly what was going on. Basically, I produced too much Lipase causing my milk to smell soured after 24 hours (even if it's frozen), even though it's still nutritionally acceptable.

Read more about her explanation of Lipase HERE.



On this mom's blog, she had several posts about her milk and how she ended up donating it to a milk bank because her daughter wouldn't drink it. While I was reading these posts by Rebekah, my heart sank. It hit me in those moments, that Caleb wouldn't be receiving the benefit of all of my hard work. I know that sentence is short, but the impact it had on me was tremendous. You can't understand until you've gone through it, but let me try and help you out. My heart was ripped out of my chest. Tears welled up in my eyes and once I started I couldn't stop. MONTHS OF HARD WORK! Months of listening to my newborn cry for his mommy but she was pumping because she loved him. I told him this over and over while I was pumping, both for his benefit to hearing my voice, but also for my benefit of reassuring myself I was doing the right thing. It felt like a death in the family. I had spent God knows how much money on pumping supplies, a deep freezer, and not to mention time spent away from society and my family! I had given up everything to provide for my son and it was taken away from me in one single blow. All the benefits I had learned about a baby receiving breast milk for the first year were running through my mind. Now he wasn't going to have those benefits. What the heck was I supposed to do now? All I could do was cry. And cry I did. A lot.

Please read about Rebekah's experience HERE. She explains it really well also.



After reading Rebekah's post (above), it got implanted in my brain about becoming a milk donor. But how does one start this process? I have so much milk! I told Jason that I would never throw all of that milk away. If it came down to it, he would have to because the thought of just throwing it away made me want to throw up. I'm not kidding. So, I started doing some research the next day. My heart was broken.



To be continued...

R

My Jouney to Becoming a Milk Donor - Part I

Disclosure: In this post, I will be discussing breast milk. Yes, I just said "breast." For those of you that are already squirming in your seats, grow up. Breast milk is a part of how God made a woman and it's perfectly natural. This post is important to all the new moms or expectant moms out there. You're welcome to not read this post if it freaks you out, or you can choose to become a mature adult. It's your choice.



Somewhere in mid-September 2010, I had succeeded in delivering my letter of resignation as a part-time employee of a Medela breast pump. I had pumped enough breast milk for my little darling to have nothing but until he was a year old. This equaled out to be about 20 hours of pumping a week. I know some of you need to pick your chins up from the floor after that bit of information, but it's true. I pumped and I pumped and I pumped. Why? Because I love my son. I knew that breast milk was the best source of nutrition for him and I was able to provide it. I'm not against people that choose formula over breast. Everyone has their reasons, but I didn't have a reason not to choose breast milk for my baby. I'm blessed to be able to be a stay-at-home mom and so I had the privacy of my home and the constant connection with my child in order to provide.



I'll be honest with you though. Pumping that much was tough. There were many days I cried,... a lot. You see, my dear Caleb has reflux. He's had it since he was a few weeks old and so after he eats, he has to be held up for at least 30-45 minutes. He was eating, for a while, every two hours since he wasn't gaining enough weight in the beginning. But even after that, he was eating every three hours, so not a big change. So, here's the rundown.....I would feed Caleb and this would last about 15 minutes. Then, I would hold him up for about 45 minutes. Then, I would get all of the pumping gear out and ready and pump for about 20 to 30 minutes (all the while, usually listening to Caleb cry because he wanted me to hold him). For those of you that are great at math, you'll notice that this leaves me with about 30 minutes before Caleb was due to eat again. In that 30 minutes, I was lucky if I got to eat anything myself because I still had to clean and disinfect the pumping equipment. I would usually just try to eat while I pumped and listened to a screaming kid. Relaxing, right? You know how they tell new moms, "sleep when they sleep?" Those people were never in my home. Sleep? Who has time for that?



This process continued for about 5 1/2 months. I was sleep deprived, exhausted, trying to adjust to being a mom, and forget about cooking, cleaning, or time for my husband or family. I got to the point where all that my prayers consisted of was asking for strength and patience. At one point, Jason and I took Caleb to one of his doctor appointments and the pediatrician told ME that I looked pale. She told me I probably needed more iron in my diet and said to go eat a big cheeseburger or any red meat that suited me. I was thinking, sleep would help, but I digress.



By God's grace, I got through it and finally met my goal of having enough milk for Caleb (about 1600 oz) saved up in our deep freezers (yes, we have two. We had to buy a second one when we ran out of room in the first one....). Medela ended up having to send me a new pump because I wore the first one out in just a matter of a few months! It was still under warranty, so I got a new one. So, a new pump and new deep freezer later, I finally achieved the goal. I wanted to do this because, again, I love my son, but also I wanted to have freedom to go out and do whatever it is people do before they have kids. I didn't want to worry about Caleb needing me for food, but I also wanted his food to be breast milk. I didn't have a choice but to pump like crazy. The sooner I reached my goal, the sooner I could go out and see the light of day.



That day in September, I put the pump away and got out the first bag of frozen milk for my little man.

To be continued...

R

Why Windex is Profitable

R

One Weekend, Not Long Ago.....

Ok, so sorry this is a little late being posted, but it's been a little crazy as always around here. On January 16th, we had Caleb dedicated at Powell Church where we attend worship services. Caleb did great and even scrunched up his little nose at the crowd and smiled. He then slept the rest of the service on Grandmommy. It was great. You can view the video of the dedication below if you choose.



That Sunday as we sang "How Great Is Our God," I couldn't help but think of how truly awesome He is. As I sang, I looked down the rows and saw all of my family, my church family and my immediate family. I saw my nephew, who is now five, sitting there and couldn't help but think of how just yesterday he was Caleb's age. It made me realize even more than I already had, that time goes by so fast. In James 4, he reminds us that our life is but a vapor, it's here for an instant and then vanishes. The older I get, the more this verse, and so many others like it, really close in on my heart. I'm learning more each day to be thankful for the time I've been given. For the family, love, shelter, food, forgiveness, salvation, and grace I've been given. The list can go on forever. Jason and I have so many people that love us and care for us and would do anything for us and for Caleb. We are so blessed. Thank you to all who dedicated themselves to being an example for Caleb that day. We're going to need all the help we can get. :)


On another note....


On Saturday the 15th, we celebrated Jason's 30th birthday with friends and family over dinner. I had planned on it being a surprise, but eventually told Jason in order to get his feedback on where he wanted to have his dinner party. I did surprise him with an awesome cake (thanks Melissa!) and a few other gifts. His cake was so tasty, but it also told a story. Each tier represented a decade of Jason's life and had things that represented important milestones through his life. It was so cute! I believe he had a great time and once again, it was wonderful to be surrounded by all of our family and friends.

Caleb loved the soft pretzels!

I would love to post pictures of everyone who came, but there were so many! Thank you again to all who came out Saturday and Sunday in support and in celebration of my boys. It meant so much to us.

R

10 Months

January was a busy month, despite my lack of blogging. I'll catch you up soon enough, but until then, enjoy the few pictures I could get of my little boy when he turned 10 months old. It was not a great day in the Norris household. Caleb was not having a good day due to teething and mommy was not having a good day due to Caleb teething, so these are the results. Sorry.










Yep, that last picture pretty much describes it all. Not any smiles this time around. Oh well.

R

Christmas: Take 1! (and 2......and 3)

I know most of you have long fallen out of the Christmas spirit, but here's my Christmas post for Caleb. If kids that get presents make Santa's good list, then Caleb must have been at the top because the amount of presents this kid got (at 9 months old) was ridiculous! To be honest, there are still tons of toys (still in the box, I might add) sitting in our dining room because we just don't know where to put them all. I'm not complaining, Caleb is very blessed to have such a giving family, but dang. There's no way pictures can do it justice, but here's some shots of Caleb's three Christmases.

Christmas #1 (Grandmommy & Granddaddy's house) - December 23rd

It's rare to get all 4 grandkids together.....I'm sure you can imagine why. Thanks Uncle Jared for trying to hold it all together!

Caleb LOVES books. He gets that honest! He cared less about anything else after opening this book.

Caleb had lots of help opening gifts. Cousin Will was his handy helper!

Sweet Ezra coming in to make sure we're doing it right. All three cousins have a way of always making Caleb smile.

Carter toughed it out as long as he could, but alas, he drifted off sporting his new hat from Aunt Rachel and Uncle Jason.

Uncle Jared reading Caleb's bedtime story. Thanks Uncle Jared!

Christmas #2 (Mommy & Daddy's house) - December 25th

Since this was Caleb's first Christmas, we decided to go easy on the gifts. Jason and I got each other one thing and we didn't even wrap it. We just stuffed it down in the stockings and called it done. Jason gave me two books and I gave him a new Tennessee Vols hat. Merry Christmas. For Caleb we got him five things, I believe. One from Mommy and Daddy and Santa brought four gifts. Our Christmas was very quick, but the part we enjoyed the most was relaxing together as a family for our first Christmas together. We had tons of food and fun waiting for us that day. Here's a few shots of Christmas Eve (we always give each other ornaments) and Christmas Day. Please remember make-up did not exist that day......

Caleb's ornament from Mommy & Daddy

Jason's ornament from me

My ornament from Jason

Caleb's ornament from Grandmommy and Granddaddy

Our attempt at a family photo on Christmas Eve.....they just kept getting better...

See?

Told you so

Caleb's first Christmas present from Mommy and Daddy

Nana and Papa joined us on Christmas morning via skype


Merry Christmas everybody!!!

I love the look on his face here. What is this?

He loves books!

We all know who the center of attention is around here...

A beautiful white Christmas!

Overall, Caleb played his little heart out. Christmas will never be the same.

Christmas #3 (Nana and Papa's house) - January 1st

We drove to Nana and Papa's house on December 30th for New Years and we celebrated our Christmas with them on New Year's Day. We had a fun night on New Year's Eve playing games with family and friends, eating (of course), and playing with Caleb. Our friends Jay and Leigh from Knoxville also happened to be in Nashville, so we invited them to join us on New Year's Eve for all the fun at my parents' house. A great time was had by all!

Our great friends, Jay and Leigh

This is what you get when Jason and Jay get together....

Jenny & James

Sisters!

Does it get any better looking than this? I don't think so! :)

Momma and her girls.....her short girls.

Brother-in-laws and their beards

Dad with his two "sons"

Christmas morning!

Look what Santa brought Caleb!

He LOVES his wagon

Cat and Dog that sings "Jesus Loves Me" to go along with his bunny

Yay! More books!

Going for a ride

He was scared of his new tunnel, but he was cute anyways

This kid loves his bath time!

Jenny and James at their new house!

Congratulations Aunt Jenny (Nini) and Uncle James!

As many photos as I've uploaded for you, they just can't do our adventures justice. We had such a great time and I wish I could share more photos with you, but it takes forever! You can always find me on Facebook and look at all of the photos from our trips. Trust me when I say there are some funny ones. It's not everyday you can work Kenny Chesney, a shake weight, Jurassic Park, and creme fraiche into Christmas, but we did. Inside jokes are priceless. Thank you to everyone who made our first Christmas as parents so memorable. We love you all!

R