End of Pumping (27 weeks)

Since I have made it 6 months exclusively feeding Austin breast milk, I have decided I am done. Wednesday was my last day of pumping. It is really sad for me. I really wanted to give Austin the best nutrition possible for the first 6 months. I reached that goal. However part of me felt like I should keep going longer. I did not have an issue with my milk supply so why should I stop? I had to stop for myself. I know that sounds extremely selfish. Unfortunately I could not keep pumping all the time. It was making me crazy. I want to have my body back. I am hoping my hormones will be going back to normal soon too.

My pump was like a best friend for the last 6 months. I would spend hours a day with it in the beginning. Every morning before work, I would have to pack all my supplies up and bring it with me. It was a real pain. While pumping most of the time I played on my phone. Melissa even got me hooked on the cell phone game Angry Birds for a while. I played angry birds while I was on maternity leave when I was pumping every 2-3 hours around the clock.



I hated pumping when Austin would start crying. It seemed like no matter how I timed it Austin would start crying as soon as the pump turned on. That was not really the case but it felt that way. I felt trapped to that machine so many times.

Since I still have a good milk supply it’s been hard now that I stopped pumping. My breasts are like bricks. It is extremely painful. It is even hard for me to hold Austin right now. I really don’t like this feeling either. I am hoping it goes away soon. I have tried cabbage leaves since I read on the internet that helps. It helped a little bit but I am still miserable.

Melissa and Jonathan came up on Tuesday for a concert. Jonathan did not want to attend the concert so I went with Melissa. It was a nice night out for me. Melissa and I had a good time. However we are getting old because we needed to wear earplugs. It was way too loud.



My mother in law has been in town for the past two weeks. It has been nice that she has been able to spend time with Austin. However the reason she is in town is Gramps is extremely ill. He was placed on hospice a few weeks ago. It is really sad because we all know he is dying. Today we went to visit and gramps did not even get out of bed while we were there. Gramps is so important in so many people lives. This is going to be extremely difficult.

Also today we went to Brian’s Dad’s grave for the first time since Austin has been born. That was also really sad. Tomorrow marks 6 years since he has died. It’s unfortunate that he never got to meet Austin. We know how much he would have loved Austin. We can hear him now telling all his friends about Austin. Right before we left the grave site, Brian had Austin on the ground next to it. Brian told Austin to give Grandpa a hug goodbye and Austin started patting the grave like he was giving him a hug. That broke my heart.

This week Austin will be traveling on an airplane for the first time. We are going to Milwaukee. Brian is presenting at a conference there. I am hoping we all have a good time.

Crawling and a little bit of walking (26 weeks)

Austin is 6 months old already. He is getting so big! Last week, Austin started crawling. He likes to go after the diaper wipes that we usually kept on the floor near his changing pad. He will now crawl across the room to get them. He also will crawl towards toys or anything else he wants. It’s really cute except now it’s really hard to leave him in the living room alone even for a second.

Last night, we had an outdoor movie night with our friends. It was a bad weekend for many people so only 10 people came over. It worked out because it ended up raining and we had to watch the movie inside. This was the first time that many of our friends met Austin. He was so good. He loved all the attention. Any one that would hold or play with him was his new best friend. Our friend Theresa held Austin’s hands and Austin started walking across the kitchen floor to me. Brian and I could not believe it. He just started crawling and now he is taking steps! It was amazing to see. Check out the videos below:





This morning after Austin woke up he crawled everywhere in the living. He is so active now. At our party, our friend brought their 3 week old. It is hard for us to imagine Austin was ever that small and non-active. It does not help that Austin is so big for his age. Everyone told us that babies grow up fast. They are right!

I am extremely happy that I exclusively breast fed Austin for 6 months. That was my goal and I did it! Nothing about breast-feeding was easy. Since I mostly pumped, I did not feel that special connection that many breast-feeding mothers talk about either. I did it because I knew it was what was best for Austin. However I really cannot do it any longer. I am now only pumping twice a day. I am hoping in about a week I will be completely done.

We bought formula at the store for the first time tonight. It is kind of sad for me too. I wish I could continue pumping. However it is so time consuming and it’s hard to do. Brian did the math. If you add up all the time I have spent pumping in the past 6 months and it is at least a week and half nonstop. That is crazy. Most of the time when I was pumping, I had to take care of Austin too. I can’t tell you the number of times I got everything set up and then Austin started screaming. That was painful. Also there were so many times I would pump in the middle of the night day after day too so I would ensure I would have enough milk. When you care for a baby you don’t get much sleep. When you tack on pumping too, it gets exhausting.


I was worried how Austin would react to formula. He seems to be doing well with it. Right now I am mixing half breast milk and half water to make the formula. Soon though it will be solely water. Austin is still not too sure about eating solids. He has had rice cereal, carrots, squash, green beans, and bananas so far. He will eat all of those foods but not that well. It is still really new for him. It will take time.

We took some 6 month photos with Austin today and they came out really good. He is such a cute baby. People come up to us in the store to tell us how cute he is (actually people come up to Brian - it is interesting that people regularly come up to him when he is alone with Austin, but they won't whenever I am around).

Starting Solid Food ( 25 weeks)

On Saturday, we celebrated my mom’s birthday. Her and my dad came over and spent the evening with us. All she wanted for her birthday was a picture of her, Dad, and Austin. Because Brian purchased all the equipment of a photo studio, Brian took their pictures. It worked out perfectly because Austin was in a good mood.

At dinner Austin sat in his booster seat at the table for the first time. Brian and I usually do not eat dinner at the table but now with Austin we are going to start doing that. Austin really liked his booster seat. He could see everything that was going on. He got to play with his own spoon too. We were getting him ready to start food this week.

After dinner, we took Austin outside and put him in his new swing. He is a little small for it yet. We used blankets to fill up the swing. He loved it. It was a beautiful day and Austin was so happy.

Tuesday night was the big night when Austin got rice cereal for dinner. We mixed the cereal with breast milk. I followed the instructions and it was pretty runny. I later realized he does not need it to be that runny. He was excited about eating. He was waving his arms like crazy. It was like he was saying: give me more! When it was in his mouth though, he was not so sure. He made funny faces. He pushed a lot back out with his tongue.

On Thursday night, we gave him rice cereal and carrots. I made the rice cereal not as runny. It was easier to feed him that way. However he got so messy! It gets all over his face, bid, clothes, hands... basically everywhere! We even made a video of the clean up process for Austin. Brian and I had fun making it.


Austin is not a big fan of carrots though. However it might just be that it is so different. He makes a rather unhappy face, but it may be because he is trying something so new and different. We are spacing out the food we give him so if an allergic reaction occurs we know what it is. I think he will be having squash next.


It is a lot of fun now that Austin is eating. We waited until he was almost 6 months old before he had any food. That is what the American Pediatric Association recommends. This is a whole new chapter for us. Austin seems to be enjoying it though. I wonder what will be Austin’s favorite food. Time will tell.

Austin's Reaction to Bananas

Baptism (24 Weeks)

On July 3, 2011 Austin got Baptized. We had about 25 people who attended. The mass was at noon. Then he got baptized after mass at 1:00pm. Austin slept all though mass. We could not believe it. We woke Austin up after mass. It was a nice ceremony. Melissa is Austin’s godmother and Dean (my brother) is Austin’s godfather. My brothers, Dean and Donnie, and their families came up from Texas to spend a week visiting Ohio and for Austin’s baptism.


I was so happy to see my brothers and their families. They live in Texas so we usually only see them once a year. Dean was up in March so he met Austin. However Dean’s wife, Karen, and Donnie’s wife, Cheri, and son, Zach got to meet Austin for the first time on Sunday. Everyone loved Austin.


After the baptism, we had a picnic at our house. It was a beautiful day. Austin enjoyed everyone playing with him. He was so good all day! It was nice to spend time with family all day long. It was a perfect day! In addition to my brothers from Texas, Brian's mom and sister were in from South Carolina. Other family members from the surrounding area also joined us. It was nice to see everyone.




Donnie, Cheri, Zach, Dean, and Karen were in town until Friday so we spend as much time as possible with them. Monday was the 4th of July. Most years we attend the parade however because of the sirens we decided not to take Austin and stayed home. I was kind of sad we did not go but it was better for him that we stayed home. We went to my parents house in the afternoon for a cookout. It was another great family day.



On Thursday, Brian and I were both off work. We wanted to spend time with everyone before they all went home. We decided to go to the zoo. I love the zoo. When Melissa and I went we were only there a few hours. On Thursday, we were there most of the day. I think we saw everything. Austin did not like being in his stroller. Aunt Cheri was so nice and carried him most of the day. I don’t know how she did it because he is heavy. Austin now weights 19.2lb. Everyone had fun at the zoo, especially Austin.









After the zoo, we went out for family dinner. We went to Outback. Brian and I have never been there before. It was pretty good. Austin slept though the first half of dinner. Then he was up and played with everyone. After dinner we had to say good bye. It was sad because I know we won’t see them for a while. Hopefully we will be able to make a trip down there soon.

The last two weeks have been great with all of our family in town. Now that everyone is back home we are getting back into a routine. Things have been extremely crazy for us over the past few months. I was working full time since going back to work. That was extremely hard. Then we decided I should be working part time but Brian had to go to China. Once Brian got back from China we were busy with the baptism and visiting with family. Now it’s time for us to get back to our new normal.

Brian's Home (23 Weeks)

My mother and sister in law were in town all week. I was excited for them to come up. It was nice to have some more people be able to give me a break. It’s sad because we only get to see them a few times a year now. So we have to make the best of the time we do have together.

On Thursday, Melissa and I took Austin to the zoo. I love the zoo. It’s fun to walk around and show Austin the animals. He is not too impressed with them yet. Melissa and I had fun. Thursday night Melissa spent the night with me. She wanted to babysit Austin while I went to work on Friday. Since she does not get to see him often I agreed. Plus it helped she was with us all day Thursday so she learned his routine.

Austin had been sleeping mostly though the night for me when Brian was gone. I think he knew that I would not be able to handle being up all day and night with him. However Thursday night was a different story. Austin woke up at 1:30am and did not go back to sleep until 5am. I had to get up at 5:30am for work. Melissa and I got very little sleep. Austin kept crying that night for some reason. I still really don’t know why. I went to work and Austin was awake. Luckily my mother in law came over to help Melissa on Friday. Melissa did not like not having any sleep.



Friday morning I was really sad. Brian texted me that his plane was going to be over 2 hours late. I knew that he was going to miss his connecting flight in New Jersey. I searched the computer for other flights that night. Unfortunately there were not any. I knew he would not be coming home that night. I had been waiting for this night for two weeks and now I had to wait another day.

Friday night was lonely but I knew in the morning Brian would finally be home. I have been talking to Austin but he cannot talk back. Sometimes I needed some adult interaction. Taking care of Austin all by myself was difficult but a little better than I expected. The worst part was trying to get everything done. I had to take care of Austin, pump, and take care of myself. Some nights I barely got to eat or go to the bathroom. I hope Brian does not have to travel for a while.

Saturday morning I got up early so Austin and I could go the airport. Even though I did not get much sleep it was worth it to see Brian. Austin and I went inside the airport so Brian could see him as soon as he came out. I was so happy. Austin was glad to see him. Everyone was happy that Brian finally made it home.


Once we got home, we unpacked. It was weird for me to unpack however I never went anywhere. Brian was so tired. He cannot sleep on airplanes so he had been awake mostly since Thursday morning. He only got a few hours of sleep Friday night at the hotel. Brian had to stay up all day though because he needed to get back into the correct time zone.

Melissa and Laura were nice and came over to help me set up for the Baptism. Austin was getting baptized on Sunday. I was so glad they did because Brian was not functioning very well. Melissa made Austin’s cakes. Laura and I set up the table and chairs. Then my mother in law came over and brought us dinner. I was glad I did not have to make something. I was too busy trying to get everything ready for the Baptism.

Even though everything was a little crazy, it was so nice to Brian home!