The squeaky wheel gets the grease!

Tanner went to daycare today so Tobin and I could get some things done around the house. This is my second Wednesday off now. Tob is washing (scent-free detergent) and line-drying all of his hunting clothes. He has several hunting trips coming up beginning next month. I am spending the day working on Tanner's room and closet. He is out of newborn clothing and I need to wash some of the 0-3 mo stuff. Plus, I received my vinyl word art verse in the mail and I would like to figure out how to adhere it to the wall in his room.

Another chapter to the breast pump drama is that I have made three calls to Medela to see what can be done about this $279 pump that lasted a total of 5 months (2 with my sister and 3 with me). To make a very long story shorter, the first two phone calls ended up with me frustrated because they said there is nothing that can be done due to it being past their 90 day warranty. Melody used it for a short time and then it sat around for about 2 years until I needed it. I found out very quickly NOT to mention that two people had used the one person only product. Still, that just wasn't good enough for me because that is a lot of money and they should really stand behind their product better than that. Who cares if it sat around not being used? So, the 3rd phone call was to try and get a different person on the line. It is unfortunate that I was trying to be honest, yet they practically force you to lie to get what is right. I ended up asking for a supervisor and pleaded my case about the faulty product and how it should last a lot longer than that for that kind of money!! Plus, it took us a longer time to get pregnant than we expected. I could have lied and said that I bought it Dec. of '07 which is the last month that they made my model, but I didn't. They never requested a receipt. End result: They overnighted me a brand new '08 advanced shoulder strap model, with kit and freezer bag, and asked me to pay the S&H on returning my older model. No problem!!!! A lot of diligence and persistence paid off and it was a good PR move on their part. Now, I can return the borrowed backpack-style and keep the older model from my friend as a backup or take it to school. Yay for Tanner! He gets to stay on mommy's milk!

It's meant to be!

HAPPY 3 MONTHS OLD!!! For the last two weeks, I have been in a dilemma on what to do about breast pumping. Tanner is a healthy baby and has done so well so far. I have gone back and forth in my mind about continuing forward or drying up and going to formula. I have done quite a bit of research and solicited advice from many. I have spoken with my lactation consultant and she naturally advised me to stay the course. The schedule I had developed over the summer was a rigorous one that was intended to stockpile milk for the baby. Once school started, I really wanted to keep it up, for Tanner's benefit, but it has just been too difficult considering my duties at school. Therefore, after much thought and prayer, my overall decision at this point is to scale back to 4 pumpings per day. This is half of the pump times and places six hours between every pump session rather than three. Of course, this will cut the supply in half, but now that Tanner is on 50/50 bottles, it actually continues the same production in a way. This will allow me to pump only once in the middle of the night, on my conference hour, right after school, and again at bedtime. (2:45 and 8:45 am + pm) The process has been somewhat painful, but my body is adapting. Now, my main goal is to keep Tanner on 50% live breast milk through the winter. Due to the fact that he was preemie, and is now in daycare, I feel that it is even more crucial for him to receive the immunity benefit throughout the flu season and respiratory illness time period. The frozen breast milk doesn't provide that benefit, but is still very good for him.

Having said all of that, I now have a story to tell, well more like a drama or stressful saga! My mom, aunt GeGe, Tanner, and me all went to visit family in Bolivar today. I took my pump (actually Melody's pump) with me and pumped in the backseat of the truck on the way back home. I have done this one other time using an A/C adaptor and the cigarette lighter. It worked like a charm the first time, but decided to completely stop working 3/4 of the way through the pumping this time. The adaptor was extremely hot to touch and the machine would NOT come back on, even using the 120v outlet back at home. So, beginning at about 4pm, I called anyone and everyone that I could think of to find out who could rent a breast pump on a Saturday! I knew I had to pump again around 8:45 and time was ticking! Let me tell you, I was stressed out!!! I got online and called Target, Walmart, and ToysRUs. There was one breast pump in town for $279. That was going to be my last resort. I called the 1-800 Medela number to find out that they don't work on the weekends. I was thinking, "I cannot be the first person this has happened to on the weekend!!!" I called both hospitals, the women's center, friends, family, the NICU, the maternity ward, a medical supply rental, and then my son's pediatrician! The urgent care nurse called two different medical rental facilities. The first one that returned the phone call was a male and he admitted that he had no experience with breast pumps and didn't know how to help me. Geez, I wasn't asking him to use the darn thing! I literally prayed at this moment. If God wanted me to continue to provide breast milk for my son, then He needed to make this happen, and soon! About 20 minutes passed while I waited for a phone call from the urgent care nurse. Then, within a 5 minute time-period, she called me back and told me that the regional emergency medical supply man would be calling.
Then, a friend of a friend called and said that she had a Medela pump that was just collecting dust, and that I was welcome to use it as long as I needed it! We made plans to meet tomorrow after church! WOW!! Then, the regional guy called and arranged to meet me at the support center. He took the newest model demonstration pump off the shelf and told me to take it for the remainder of the weekend. We'd touch base on Monday and decide what to do from there. I could rent it or return it and we'd just deal with it at that point. No money exchanged hands whatsoever. I offered to pay for his gas and time since he met me on a Saturday evening, but he refused. How nice is that? So, tomorrow, I will actually have two pumps at my house! WOW again!!! My aunt summed this whole story up by saying that obviously God still wants Tanner to receive my milk. I think she's right!
Sidenote: Kodi, please show Emmarie that the lil' recycle outfit she got Tanner now fits him! Thanks again!!

Happy Wednesday!

I didn't do anything exciting on my day off. I didn't accomplish much. But, I got several smiles and I watched Tanner fall asleep in my arms several times and that was worth it for me!
The highlight, other than that, was when "Aunt" Cindy, my friend since 2nd grade, came over to see lil' Tanner. We had a great visit and took some really cute pics! I hadn't seen her since April, so it was fantastic to see her again! She is the one that bought us the wonderful video monitor that you see in the pic above! It is one of those purchases that isn't necessary, but once you have had it, you can't imagine NOT having it! I remember crying when I found out that she bought it! Since Tanner is in his own bedroom now, it provides such peace of mind to just hit the button and see what he is up to! If he is crying or whimpering, I can just check in on him without getting out of bed! Otherwise, with my personality, I would be up and down a million times!

Weekend Update

This weekend has been much better overall. Tanner hasn't been quite so fussy in the evenings, or at least it doesn't go on and on for 5 hours straight. He also doesn't seem to be in so much pain. I am now on a first-name basis with the after-hours urgent care nurse. Beginning on Friday night, and after talking to nurse Shari, Tanner has had a few changes. She even left two sample 8oz cans of Enfamil AR at the desk for Tobin to pick up for free! Here are the updates:

• He went on Axid for possible acid reflux
• He began a routine of a 100% formula bottle at bedtime only
• The rest of his bottles are 50/50 AR and breast milk
• We started swaddling him overnight

It is difficult to say which is making the difference, but he is sleeping for 4.5 hours once he is put to bed for the night. He also goes back to sleep fairly easily and sleeps another 4.5 hours after his bottle. This has made a huge difference in Tobin and me!

Trevor, Sonja, and Hunter were in town this weekend to celebrate Hunter turning 6 years old. They finally got to meet baby Tanner also! Well, Hunter had seen him a couple of times already, but his parents had not! We took a family picture in the backyard at Grammie and Gumpa's.

This will be the first FULL week of school and should prove to be quite tiring! Looking forward to Wednesday! haha TGIW?

It's all fun and games...

"I'm gonna tickle your belly!"
"I'm gonna get your nose!"
"I got your ear!!"



It's all fun and games until someone gets thrown up on!!! (sorry, PaPa!)

Robbed!

Finally! Friday is here! I cannot tell you how happy that makes me! If the night doesn't go well, I can nap tomorrow like I did this summer.

Tanner has been doing wonderfully at daycare! The ladies seem to love him to pieces and claim that he is happy and full of smiles all day. That really makes me happy. He still loves to be upright in the swing or vibrating seat or just propped up on a blanket in the middle of the boppy. I will have to say that NONE of this is true for us at home though. It really makes me want to cry (in fact it did today) that he is so fussy and appears to be in pain all evening long. The daycare ladies get the best of Tanner and Tobin and I get the fussy, mad, crying mess that seems to be hurting or frustrated all night. Honestly, he starts crying when I pick him up and it is off and on all night until bedtime around 11pm. He must sleep a lot there. He is up all evening long with no naps, so you'd think he'd crash before 11pm, but rarely does he go to bed when we want him to. I guess I just broke down because these days of newborn and infancy go by so quickly and I feel like Tobin and I are being robbed of some really sweet times with our son. We are surviving on fumes, short-fused and exhausted. Tanner still doesn't sleep for more than 3 hours on a good stretch and is sometimes up every hour or even 30 minutes after he finally goes down. It can be maddening.

I did not end up giving him any rice cereal as I wanted to know if the formula mixture worked on its own. The 50/50 ratio has been used in his overnight bottles, but not the daytime bottles. I cannot say for sure that it has made a difference, but he has only been on the formula for two nights. I called the urgent care nurse last night and she suggested that I switch from Enfamil Lipil to Enfamil AR because the rice is already added and is specially formulated for babies with acid reflux and fussiness. After delving into THAT decision, it was determined that Tanner probably has an acid reflux issue and that is why he hurts so much. This isn't surprising since most of the females on my mom's side have experienced acid reflux. Evidence of this for Tanner:

• Likes to be held in an upright position and high on the shoulder
• Straightens his legs out and turns red
• Arches his back in anger
• Eats too often to drown out the burning sensation b/c babies don't know the difference between pain in the torso and hunger
• Not sleeping well overnight

It was suggested that he goes on Axid ($40) for babies and that we give him a bottle of straight "AR" right before bed and do the 50/50 bottles overnight. He ended up drinking 6 oz which is two ounces more than usual. Let's just hope he sleeps for awhile and the medicine takes care of his pain.

Changes

This has been one heck of a week and it's only Wednesday! I don't even have students yet!

First of all, as I mentioned in the previous post, Tanner started daycare since I went back to work. I cried on the way there and teared up upon leaving him, but didn't outright bawl in front of anyone. The night before was another BIG change. Tobin decided that Tanner was ready to move into the crib in his nursery. He had been taking afternoon naps in his crib, but had never slept there after dark. I should have moved the bassinet into the nursery first as a transition, but didn't think of that until it was pointed out to me later. (would have been a good idea, Mel) We do have a video monitor, so the fact that I can see him helps immensely! (Thanks again, Cin!) I would like to say that he has done fine with the move, but that just wouldn't be true. I cannot honestly say that the bed itself has anything to do with it, but he has NOT been sleeping well overnight. Both Sunday and Monday nights were rough. We both got about 3.5 hours of sleep and that is not even consecutive sleep. The lack of sleep has affected both our moods, energy levels, relationship, and ability to work the next day. When I picked him up at daycare and the ladies said that he had slept most of the afternoon, I knew that last night was going to be more of the same. I just couldn't deal with that, so I called Tanner's doctors office. It was advised that I put him on a half n' half recipe of breast milk and formula before bed. The idea is to satiate him, increase the amount of time in between bottles, plus help him sleep for longer stretches overnight. There is NO way I would put him on straight formula if I didn't have to, especially with breast milk in 4 freezers, and a good supply still available. Melody convinced me that this was just supplemental and would help him in the short and long run. He is still getting the immunity and other benefits from me, so that makes me feel good.

I started off with one scoop of formula in his 4 oz bottles. He received that in his bedtime bottle and in the 2 throughout the night. As for now, I will leave the afternoon bottles simply breast milk unless they find that it is running straight through him. Then, I will supplement those with 1-2 tsps rice cereal again. He slept for 3 hours straight last night, woke up for a bottle, and fell right back to sleep for another 3 hours. I'm fine with baby steps because anything is an improvement over 3 hours of sleep TOTAL! Tonight I will increase the formula to 2 scoops for 4 oz as the can recommends. I anxious to see how that plays out.

Middle School Open House was last night and I met many of my new 8th grade students, plus had several former students stop by. I am ready for school to begin tomorrow. Well, maybe not physically or emotionally, but as ready as I will ever be nonetheless. The best part of school starting is that I will be taking off every Wednesday for the 1st quarter!!! My principal agreed to my offer and allowed me to take a sick day every Wednesday to stay home with Tanner or take Tanner to daycare and get caught up on sleep. My choice. This was in contrast to me staying home for 6 or 12 weeks maternity leave or taking the whole year off. Therefore, he was very cool about me only missing one day per week and starting the year off with my new classes! In fact, they have already lined up my sub for each Wednesday. I think I'm gonna like not working more than two days in a row!!

First day at daycare

4:45 am came very early to me considering the fact that I had just finally gotten to sleep around midnight and gotten up to pump at 3am. My mistake though...right before bed, I changed his outfit. Tobin had gotten him calm and I messed that up. In my mind, I thought it would be better to have on a gown for the middle of the night diaper change. Well, he got so riled up when I changed his outfit that it took over 2.5 hours before he calmed down and stayed asleep! Lesson learned! The picture to the left was taken at 6:30 am right before I left the house. I was so nervous for the big day ahead!!

When I got to his school, I was the first person there. I thought I was late. But, one of the daycare ladies arrived and helped me carry everything inside. She seemed like she could hardly wait to get her hands on Tanner which made me feel good. She immediately started rocking him and loving on him. I was able to check out the place and pick his crib! I was also instructed to put his diaper bag in his cubby. Yes, I said CUBBY! My almost 11-week old has his own cubby at school! LOL!! His cubby is the last one on the right! I started telling them things about Tanner, his likes and dislikes. It was cool to see that everything I told them they would repeat to each other making sure that everyone knew what he was used to. I also did the typical 1st time mom thing and told them things that I am positive they already knew about babies in general. They took it all in and he ended up having a wonderful day there. Miss Tammy even texted a picture of him to me around 10am. He was in a side-to-side cradle swing and smiling up a storm! She said he had been smiling a bunch and just loved his vibrating seat there. He hates his swing here at the house and won't stay in his vibrating seat for more than 2 minutes!! Why is it that they do things at daycare that they won't do at home?

Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better experience on our first day of being away from one another. I had been told that there was going to be 11 babies for 3 teachers. Well, some of those babies aren't even born yet, then maternity leave, so he will be one of 4-5 for quite awhile. YAY! More attention! They said he was delightful and only cried when wet or hungry. They did feed him more often than I do, but it sounds like he worked up an appetite having so much fun!

Last weekend of summer!!!!!!!!!

I never like saying that, but this summer is different. Not only has it truly been the shortest summer since I started teaching 14 years ago, but it has also flown by because of Tanner. I really, really wish that I could afford to stay home with him and continue to build that bond, but financially that is just not an option. I am not nervous about the care he will receive at his daycare, but rather the fact that I will only see him in the evenings for the next 9 months or so. That's going to be tough for both of us. I know all working families deal with this, but I completely dread the drop off come Monday morning. It is only a work day, no students until Thursday, but the emotions will be high nevertheless. I almost bawl my head off just thinking about it. Since he came home from the NICU, I haven't been away from him for more than 4 hours (grandma's houses). I was also fairly certain that he never cried in his crib for more than a few moments until grandma got to him. However, one of the benefits of going to daycare is that he will get on a schedule. I am not certain of how this happens, but I feel fairly sure that it might involve some crying until Tanner learns to self-soothe, and realizes that I will return and he is not alone. He has also been on more of a feed-on-demand type schedule. I will be curious as to how they accommodate that schedule. I actually hope that they can get him on a better schedule where he can go for longer periods between meals and isn't such a "snacker."

On a lighter note, today was the last "Friday lunch date" with my cousin-in-law and my aunt. While running some Tanner-related errands, I was able to get Tanner a crib mobile! Now that he can focus on things and literally be entertained by it, I thought this was the time to do it! His nursery is jungle babies, but for some reason, everything to do with the crib is an ocean theme! Oh well, I shouldn't have ever chosen an exact theme anyway. His new mobile has a remote so that's really cool! But, the best feature is the nightlight that projects stars and moons all over the ceiling at night. GeGe, Amanda, and I enjoyed lunch at the Olive Garden and then finished off the afternoon with pedicures, plus I had a manicure! My aunt GeGe and I had never had pedicures before, but overall it was an enjoyable experience! I especially enjoyed the massage chair!

I have also enjoyed Monday afternoons! I have had the unique experience of hanging out with a former student who had her baby one week after Tanner was born. How wild is that?! Ashley and I are now friends and have met for lunch several Mondays in a row and walked our babies in their strollers at the mall. The really cool thing is that Tanner and Jaxon will be in daycare together and then school K-12. Hopefully they will be good friends since they will have so much history together!

Tobin has gone on a weekend fishing trip with his brother, so my mom is staying with me. I know Tobin will miss his little "TT" as he calls him. My mom never did stay over when Tanner was first born, due to the NICU stay, so I am really enjoying her being here now. There is just something comforting about having your mom stay with you even when you're 38 years old! When Tanner wakes up for a feeding, mom gives him the bottle while I pump, so we all three go back to bed at the same time! That is so wonderful compared to me trying to hold Tanner on my lap and keep his bottle propped up while I keep the breast pump funnels on me! Quite a challenge! Mom and Dave are bringing dinner over this evening and then mom will stay the night again. YAY!

Tanner's Menu

With school starting one week from today, I really need to iron out a few things. This year will be unlike any other--EVER--not only because I have a baby, but because school will start earlier. So, I have written down my game plan and we'll see how it works. I did a trial run the other day and I was a basket case trying to remember if I had everything in the truck that both Tanner and I would need throughout the day. Also, Tanner wouldn't cooperate and kept crying because he wasn't being held while I got ready.
Looking at my itinerary, the 12:05 pm pump time will depend on students getting out of my room quickly and going on to lunch, since my lunch is only 25 minutes as it is! I have a closet in my classroom with no windows and a lock on the outside, plus a fridge in my room to store the milk. I had planned on taking fresh milk over to the daycare during my conference hour, but it seems that will be unlikely. Washing dishes will be an issue due to my time constraints. I may not have much of a conference hour this year due to it being taken up with pumping milk and washing the pump parts for the next go 'round. (Hope I don't have any parents actually needing me on my conference-haha-what will I tell them?) Plus the hot water in my classroom is full of sulfur and stinks up the whole room, so I will have to wash the pump parts in cold water and then microsteam them. No time to run to the home-ec room to wash parts. Tobin will help me some in the mornings because it will be hectic getting us both ready and out the door by 6:30am. I was barely out of the shower by that time last year and hard a hard enough time getting there by 7:45. I'm just not a morning person. Tobin and I will both need to be in bed by 8pm if only Tanner will cooperate!

• up at 4:45am and try to shower unless Tanner needs food
• pump from 5:15 to 5:35
• leave house by 6:30
• drop Tanner off at daycare at 7am
• be at school by 7:10 (virtually impossible--10 minutes!)
• pump from 8:45-9:05 in the classroom closet
• eat lunch and pump in the closet from 12:05-12:25
• school is out at 2:30, so I'll pick Tanner up at daycare and pump again at home around 3:30 OR pump again at school and pick up tanner by 4:15 or so. 4:30 at the latest!

I could possibly have to wash dishes and pump at school 3x!! YUCK! Guess I need to buy a dish washing bin and keep some Dawn liquid at school and use the lab sink in my classroom?! haha Lunch will be boring and I won't get to eat with the other teachers. This will be a real challenge to keep Tanner on breast milk for at least the first 6 months of his life. Of course the stock in the freezer will carry him through a few more months after that. The black tray seen in the pic is full of 6oz servings. Actually, we have breast milk stored in 4 different freezers. Three here at the house and some frozen milk at my mother's. Just in case any freezer dies or anyone loses power. The goal is to keep Tanner on breast milk through Christmas break. Wish me luck!

Guess who this is!

Someone has their own little "mini me"...