So a ton has happened since my last post way back in August. I'll try to get everything up here eventually. But I at least wanted to introduce our newest addition (who's already 7 weeks old! WHAT?!)
Drumroll please...
Tada! Declan Mac Martino. Born 9/30/2010. 9 pounds, 1 ounce. 21.5 inches long. BIG BABY!
He's got a ton of dark hair, which threw me through a loop. I don't know what I was expecting, but when he came out and they put him on my chest, my first thought was, "Who's baby is that? I make blond haired babies.". How's that for being a great mom?
Seriously though, he's the best little guy. Already sleeping through the night and eats like a champ. I'm only breastfeeding this time. With Jonathan, we supplemented with formula so Joseph could take a feeding. I also didn't produce very much. Now that we have two kiddos, we decided that I would do all the feedings and Joseph would wake up with Jonathan at 7 so I could sleep in a little. It's worked out great.
This might be a little TMI for some of y'all but I gotta keep it real. Like I said above, I didn't produce very much milk with Jonathan. A friend of mine let me borrow her double breast pump since I only had a single, and told me to pump after every feeding for the first 2-3 weeks in order for my milk supply to be substantial. Well, she was right! I'm literally a cow! After the first couple of weeks, I had about 80 ounces of milk stock piled in my freezer! What the heck am I gonna do with all of this? Here's where it gets cool...
An acquaintance of mine had adopted a little boy within the past year and was relying on breastmilk being donated in order for her little guy to eat. She wasn't totally against formula but really wanted to give him solely breastmilk for a year as best she could. I didn't know her very well. In fact, we had met just once last August at my high school reunion. She married a guy who I was in band with in junior high. And we are both Mormon. That was the extent of my knowledge about her. That and she's way super nice. :) Anyway, she had blogged about their adoption journey and how their little one was eating donated breastmilk. As I was pumping for the millionth time one day, a random thought popped into my head - I wonder how Candace is doing on milk for Sawyer? I Facebooked her this very question, thinking she'd write back and say they were fine. I was shocked to read her very quick response. She said Sawyer had just turned 11 months and only had 1-2 weeks of breastmilk left. She was planning on putting him on cow's milk as soon as he turned 1 but in the meantime she didn't have anything to feed him the last 2-3 weeks before his birthday. She really didn't want to give him formula for just 2 weeks since it would be a little rough on his digestive system but she didn't know what else to do. Oh my goodness! My thought was definitely inspired! I told her I was producing enough for the both of us and she could have my stored milk as soon as she needed it. She was so excited and so was I! I felt like I was doing exactly what the Lord wanted me to do. And I was so proud of myself for listening to the Holy Spirit because I knew that thought wasn't my own. It's so easy to shrug off random thoughts, thinking they're just that...random. I'm really trying to listen to that "still, small voice" and take action. It was such a great feeling handing off over 100 ounces of breastmilk so sweet little Sawyer could have a well balanced meal.
Let's see...what else?
Jonathan has adjusted wonderfully to having Declan around. He loves him so much. Almost too much actually. He loves to give him kisses and he's constantly saying, "I kiss mouf.". Unfortunately he takes Declan's breath away - he tends to linger. He talks to him in this hyper pitched shrilly voice too, which is hilarious. I think he's trying to copy my voice but his is a tad bit more piercing. :) He loves to hold his hands and "make him dance". And he's very helpful getting his binky if it drops, throwing away his diaper and bringing me water. I'm always dying of thirst!
Overall, things are fantastic in the Martino home!
I'll post more later...
4 comments:
Hee hee, if by "Worst mom" you mean "Best mom" then, yeah--I can see that :)
Awwww. Seriously, Declan is such an angel. I'm glad Jonathan is getting along so well with with baby D.
Congratulations, Erin! He is beatiful! And good for you! You're doing a great thing for Declan and your friend.
Your amazing. I love how I can feel the spirit reading your blog.
First impressions of babies are funny. The first time I saw Tucker (I had a c-section) they put him next to me with me tied down to the table so I could barely move but I moved my head to see him better and my only thought was, "Oh. He looks like Nate." Where's the love?
I think it is AWESOME that you donated your breast milk. When Maddox was in the NICU I was known as the NICU cow (I would accidentally fall asleep in the middle of the night pumping and the bottles would start overflowing so I would wake up to breastmilk all over me) so I donated literally coolers full of breastmilk to a local milk bank and was so glad I could do it. I did it after our freezer was full. All we had in there was breastmilk top to bottom and I had milk in the NICU freezer. I love it that you found someone who needed it. Okay, done pushing breastmilk now.
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