Trouble

I thought it would be no big deal for James to start taking a bottle even though I've been nursing him for 5 1/2 months.  Wow - I was so wrong!!  It took 5 days of me trying, Josh trying, and even neighbors trying to give him a bottle before he gave in.

Josh finally got him to take the bottle.  Success!!  Can you see how proud Emma is of her little brother?

It turns out that I can't pump milk.  It's not that uncommon but I had never heard of it before.  So if this has happened to you, you are not alone!  I was especially baffled by the whole situation since I did pump for the first week while he was in the NICU.  Apparently I was able to pump then because my body/mind knew my baby needed it.  Now that it has been so long, my body won't let the milk out for anything but my baby.  Who knew?!  It's called "not bonding with your pump."  I know it sounds ridiculous.  I tried and tried for about a week but I finally accepted that it isn't happening for me.  I still nurse him in the morning and before he goes to bed but I have had to slowly wean him during the day.  He has zero problem taking the bottle now and thankfully will still switch back to nursing in the morning and at night.

Trouble number 2:  Separation anxiety!  

Since I'm paying for daycare anyway this whole month I decided to take James for a couple of hours on February 11.  Here is a picture of Emma and James before his first day of school.

He was fine the first day because I only left him for two hours.  But on February 12, I was going to try for three hours.  He was fine for about two hours and then I got the call saying he had been really fussy and upset.  I hightailed it over there and picked him up.  As soon as I had him in my arms he was totally fine.  I'm not going to lie and say it didn't make me a little bit happy that he missed me.  But then reality kicked in and I didn't know how I was going to fix this.  Since I had been nursing him exclusively for so long, the absolute longest I had been away from him during his whole life was 2 hours.  I guess I can't be surprised that he was upset when he couldn't find me.  Bless his little heart! 

I am so thankful that I did take him that day to see how he would do because we were able to use these past two weeks to work our way up to his first full day at school yesterday.  He did so good.  His teachers say that he is very happy and watches all of the other kids intently.  They take them on a stroller ride each day and they go by Emma's classroom so she can say hello to her little brother.  I don't have to tell you thrilled she is with that new development!

I don't want to go back to work next week but at least now I can go back knowing that James will be perfectly fine.  All those working moms out there know how important that is!