The Unadventures of Tracie

I have talked before about my experiences with breastfeeding . Things started getting better around 10 months, which made me happy. I looked forward to nursing Morgan for many more months. But alas, it was not to be. I'm now in a period of mourning. Around 14 months or so, Morgan started losing interest during some of our remaining 2-3 daily nursing sessions. It was not the same as the nursing strike s that he had had at 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months in which Morgan fussed and refused to nurse consistently for a period of a few days before returning with gusto to nursing regularly, as is what normally happens with a nursing strike. It was different. He just didn't seem as interested. I realized that my milk was decreasing as I had stopped pumping and I had stopped talking my lactation supplements. I think he was getting frustrated with how little milk I had left, which just decreased my supply even more. I tried to continue nursing as I realized that I wasn't ready ...

Morgan Danger Being a new mom is difficult and time consuming. I've been meaning to write this for a while now, but I've been having trouble finding the time to do so. For those that haven't heard my birth story, here it is: My last few weeks of pregnancy I'd been having Braxton-Hicks contractions on and off. My due date came and went with still no real sign of going into labor. Because things didn't go exactly as we planned with the condo we were trying to buy, Austin and I decided we needed to have a backup plan. So on Tuesday June 16th we went with Justin, our agent and brother-in-law, to look at other condos. While we were out with him, I started having contractions. Nothing regular or serious but definitely different from the Braxton-Hicks contractions. I called my mom and my doula when we got home from house hunting (which was around 8pm) to let them know I was in early labor. My mom predicted I'd have the baby by the next morning. If only. It was ar...

Austin and I recently went in for our twenty-week ultrasound. I was really nervous for several reasons. Like other obsessive, neurotic (or otherwise normal) people, I constantly worry about the health of my baby. Am I getting enough nutrients? Is the baby growing? Does our baby have some weird birth defect? Has our baby stopped growing? Am I going to lose the baby? These fears have been compounded upon due to the fact that I have not yet felt the baby move. :( (Still stressing about this one as I am coming upon 22 weeks here.) I was also nervous because we were finally going to find out the sex. Though I (and many others) have been convinced it's a boy from the beginning, I was a bit anxious to discover for sure. It was SO relieving to see our little baby. There were two arms, two legs, toes, fingers, a belly, head, back, spine, brain, heart, and other organs. I can't begin to relate the relief that it looked like a baby (albeit a very small one) instead of a mutant. Since ...

Yesterday I had the much fun experience of getting my wisdom teeth out. I've been dreading getting this done for months and months. I was extremely nervous and almost backed out a few times. I called HayLee the night before to get some reassurance that everything would be okay. And it was. It really wasn't that bad. I got up yesterday morning, ate breakfast (on Hay's recommendation), and drove to the dentist. I picked the movie Hitch to watch, and they got me set up on the nitrous oxide (a.k.a. laughing gas). The gas really helped to calm down my racing heart. Dr. Pincock came in and swabbed me with the bubblegum-ish numbifier stuff. I then got several shots, which frankly were probably the worst part of the whole thing. I got good and numb and then Dr. Pincock yanked out my three wisdom teeth (two on bottom, one on the top left). It was over before I knew it. I couldn't believe it was so fast. After going through it, I don't know why people would want to be put un...

Lilyan Mae McNeil was born on August 22, 2008 at 6:01pm. I'm so excited to have a new niece! She's utterly precious. Austin and I visited baby and parents in the hospital on Saturday and took them dinner yesterday evening. You can check out "Trent & Jess" under my blog list for more pics and information. Congrats to Trent & Jessica for the new addition to their family!

Today was my last day with the boys. I made pudding paint for them again and we colored and had puppet shows and they rode around on their scooters and I went and got lunch for them at Wendys. I got all emotional as I was leaving, and I was teary-eyed driving home. I didn't anticipate feeling as sad as I did. I'm going to miss them so much. Of course I'll still see them, but it won't be as frequent. I'm so glad Tyler and Cheryl gave me this opportunity. Not only was it a blessing as I needed a job while I was in-between jobs, but it was also so great to spend so much time with my nephews. They don't get my name mixed up anymore. I feel I know them so much better and that they know me so much better now. I hope they enjoyed their time with me as much as I've enjoyed spending time with them. Highlights of the summer with the boys: pushing them on the swings, doing exercises in the mornings, playing "army," having the boys help me carry my ...

So we're all moved in now. We're not all unpacked yet, but we will be before the week is over. Then I'll just need to buy cute decorations... So we obviously have internet. We pick up a really weak signal. We'll still get our own internet set up in a few months. Not only do we not have cable, but the TV doesn't work at all. We're not even getting local channels. We can still watch movies and stuff, but we haven't had time for that yet. I really LOVE my new apartment. I don't even miss our old place. This place is just much nicer and feels more like home. I just like it much better. I'll post pics later when it's all finished. Good news! Austin got a promotion at work. He gets a raise starting next week! Woo-hoo! Bad news. Still haven't heard back from Covenant. I'm beginning to think that I'm NOT going to get the job which will be depressing. The one downside to this place is that it takes me twice as long no...

Sniff. Austin and I are moving out of our first home we made as a married couple. I'm sad and excited to go. I took a few pics of the old apt that I will post at a later date. (EDIT: THE PICS ARE NOW UP) I'm writing now because we don't know how long until we'll get internet set up at our new place. It might be *gasp* a few weeks. How will we survive without the internet? We also will have to survive without cable. No cable and no internet?!? What will we do??? Guess we'll have to actually interact with one another. Maybe we'll actually start working out or working on our novel. I would write more, but it's one in the morning, and we've got people coming over in eight hours to help us move. We're almost done packing up. Sigh. I would like to give thanks to my wonderful, macho husband who has moved so much of our stuff over to our new place. Maybe the experience will help me convince him he really needs to go to the doctor. Anyway, adie...

Today I took my last final E V E R. I'm proud to say I did well. I got 100%. Now if only I had done this well my entire college career my GPA would be looking a little nicer. But I could care less about my GPA. I'm a college graduate! Tomorrow is my graduation. I'm excited, but also a teensy bit sad and of course I'm overwhelmed. I've been defining my whole life and identity for the last 17 years as a student. What am I going to do now? It's weird that I'm not going back to school ever again. (Also glorious.) I've been working part-time and going to school full-time for so long it's going to be weird once I finally start working again. No more boring classes that I have to decide whether or not I'll make the effort to show up, no more late-night studying, no more boring/pointless reading, no more ridiculous assignments, no more PAPERS, no more getting sick during every finals week like clockwork, no more forcing myself to go to s...