While Kellen takes a nap...

Some awesome things:

1 - I get to stay home with Kellen for another month! Yippee!! How did this happen?? Well, as the weeks were winding down and I was nearing my return to work, I began feeling really depressed at the thought of being away from Kellen already. I was crying daily, sometimes multiple times a day, just thinking about how horrible it was going to be to be away from him for such long hours. I know, I know: 1. Why was I already crying and dreading my return to work while I was still on maternity leave (when I should've instead been enjoying those precious moments)??? AND 2. I should've just felt very lucky that I got 16 1/2 weeks of maternity leave in the first place!! Believe me, I know how lucky I am to work in a district that supports mothers in their efforts to work and be present mothers. I feel so lucky, in fact, that I'm constantly praising my district for this reason (I hope my praise doesn't sound like I'm bragging - I truly wish every other mother had the same opportunity to stay home as long as I've been able to). So I ended up calling Aaron on the Monday morning 3 weeks before I was to return to work to see how he felt about me staying home another month (which he was supportive of, even though it meant another month without paychecks from my end). I called and talked to my HR rep and my special ed supervisor, and they said they'd look into it for me. I had to make a formal request in writing that same day. I ended up having to wait a week to find out because they had to move some things around to be able to keep my long term reserve at my school for the rest of 2010, but it all ended up working out! Now here I am, looking forward to 6 more weeks of being home with my sweet little man. I am more thankful than you can imagine!!!!!!!!

2 - I'm super in love with this lullaby CD we got from our friends for Kellen. It's called Rockabye Baby Lullaby Renditions of The Beatles. There are about a dozen classic Beatles songs all transformed into lullabies (no words, all instrumental), and let me tell you, it is awesome. We went to their website rockabyebabymusic.com to see if they had other CDs, and they have soooo many different options to choose from (including Metalica, Kanye West, Cold Play, Black Sabbath, Bob Marley, etc). We are going to order the Nirvana and Green Day ones for Kellen for Christmas. Super excited! I'm not a huge fan of singing the traditional lullabies because a) they're kind of boring and b) I don't really know the words so I end up making up my own words half of the time. With these CDs, you're singing along to songs you've loved forever, and you're exposing your child to good music! :) You should check out the website if you're at all interested.

3 - Breastfeeding has been going wonderfully for me! Now, I've been breastfeeding for quite some time (almost 16 weeks), but I realized I haven't really blogged about it, so I decided, why not do it now? First things first, it makes me feel so happy to know that I am able to give my son the best, most healthy nutrition possible. It is so wonderful to see him growing and thriving; to know that he is doing all of that from the milk my body is producing for him makes me feel really good. I kind of look at and think of my breasts in a whole new light now - these things were not intended for the sole purpose looking at or to make my clothes fit better. They were created by evolution so that I could provide for my child (I know that sounds kind of weird of me to say that, but it's the truth). Second, I love, love, love the bonding that I get to experience with Kellen while I nurse him. It's a mutual need that we have for each other, and I soooo love the way my heart feels when I hold my baby boy in my arms and see him looking up at me, happy to be skin-to-skin with his mama, having nummy milk. I honestly don't mind that I have to wake up in the middle of the night to feed Kellen because I look forward to spending the time with him. Even though I know he won't remember the late nights, hanging out in the glider with his mommy, I know that the bonding will somehow have a positive effect on his future. Third, it is such a cheap and convenient way to provide for my son. When he's hungry, I don't have to go prepare a bottle or run to the store when the formula starts running low - all I have to do is pull out my boob (and if I'm in public, simply cover myself up with a nice uddercover or hooterhider). My body makes the milk that he needs, and it doesn't cost me any extra money to do this (other than the food that I eat, which I would've been eating anyways)! I could go on and on about the benefits of breastfeeding (health benefits for Kellen and me, losing the baby weight quickly, bonding with other moms who are passionate about breastfeeding, etc), but that would take an extremely long time. I guess it would suffice to say that I've become passionate about something that I never expected to be passionate about, and I am so thankful that I was able to make breastfeeding such a successful experience for me and Kellen. My initial goal for a breastfeeding timeline was 6 months, but now that I've been doing it for a while, I don't see why we don't extend that goal to a year! Cheers to breastfeeding!