4 Months 4 Weeks: Weaning

First of all, my baby is almost 5 months, Wow!
Where did the time go????  My iphone is now full of her pictures.  I was looking at pictures when she was born and the first months.  She has changed so much and I cannot remember how small she was because she is pretty big now!

Lately, I am hearing "Tick..tack...tick...tack"
Yes, weaning off breastfeeding.  I am getting so closed to the target 6 month mark.  I know it's absolutely NOT to go cold turkey on this one.  The process has to go gradually because of the discomfort I will be experiencing as I wean off.  Like many other women, I am having a hard time on this.  I wish my body decided that it was about time to dry out, so my production goes down.  Not a bit....I am currently pumping 5 sessions and producing about 27 oz, which covers Haley's daily milk intake.

Here are the thoughts I am struggling...

- Some women have troubles with their production and do as much as they can to keep or increase their milk supply but I am PURPOSELY going to dry out my milk production.
- Once it's gone, it is GONE.  Even though I could never "breast-feed" my baby, I could still provide my liquid gold to my baby and she has grown so much.

As much as I complain about pumping / waking up at night to pump, it's a big transition from my routine.  I felt really connected to and responsible for my baby girl by feeding my milk.  If I wasn't over 35, didn't have IF issue and didn't want another kid, I probably would have try BF as long as I could.  We want to start TTC #2.  We are assuming it will take sometimes for me to get pregnant or have to go through a fertility treatment again, so we cannot wait too long.  I have about a month to wean off breast milk and I am hoping I can keep thinking about all the positive things this will bring to us.

I need to write down all the positives this will bring to overcome my anxiety.

• A sibling for Haley!!
• Sleeping through the night (Not the baby, MEEEEE!)
• No need to be glued to the black pumping bag.
• No more washing pumping parts.
• I can drink!  
• I can do high impact exercise such as running.  
• No need for padding. 
• I can wear my old cute bras.

I reduced one lunch session from today, so I will be pumping only 4 times and I will reduce more as the week go.  Please please please let the process go smooth without feeling too much guilt.  

4 Months & 2 Weeks: Baptism and Many Other Things

I am so past due for my blog post and my baby is already 4 months!

Baptism
I am proud to announce my little Christian baby :)  A decision on choosing god parents were not easy, but we choose my sister in law and her DH.  She was so thrilled to be a god mother, so I hope they can help Haley in her christian faith.  The baptism went really well and she did amazing.  I was stressed out about it because so many things went wrong....the baptism time changed due to the church festival, a cater showed up with his food a week before the party, etc, but many people showed up for her and I say the ceremony and the party was success!!

Baby Classes
We signed up for a music & gymboree classes!!  It's so nice to find a class where we can do it together.  The music class is a lot of fun and I can already sing some of their songs!  I try to play the music CD while we are in the car, so I am wondering if H recognizes some by now.  There are so many different gymboree classes offered, but unfortunately, the one for babies is offered during weekday and I am at work, so we have been taking a family one which consists of all age range.  I met some moms there, but the class size is too big and not really suitable for a baby, so I hope she can get into another class with babies with similar age.

Mom's Club
I attended one of their ice cream socials!  The event actually had a decent turn out of 9-10 moms and tons of babies/kids.  Moms were pretty friendly and it was a first time for some moms, so I wasn't the only new one.  It's really nice to have a community like that because we all need support, right?  I really enjoyed talking to moms who had a baby similar to H's age because we could relate so many things.  I found this group from meetup.com.  The internet does make things so much more efficient and I don't know how our moms/grandma made mama friends back in old time!!! 

New Toys
H is 4 months and we could tell she is getting bored with her swing & bouncer, so we purchased new toys!  Excersaucer & Sophia the Girraffe Teether.  The daycare teachers say H loves excersaucer.  I think she is in the beginning of her teething phase because she is dwelling and sucking her fingers a lot.  I've read great review about the Giraffe and some mama said it was one of the best purchases they have made, so we got it.

4 Months Wakeful Period
I was reading about this prior, so I was not surprised when Haley stopped SSTN.  I was hoping that she is such a good girl and wouldn't go through this period, but noooope, she is going through it now.  Around 3 months old, she started SSTN from 9:30ish till 5.  It was awesome.  I still had to get up to pump around 4, but I was pretty happy she was a good sleeper.  Then, she stopped SSTN when she turned 4 months (that's why it's called 4 months wakeful period) and it's still going on for 2 weeks...She would wake up at 2am and then 2 or 3 hours afterwords.  She would usually go right back to sleep after she is fed, but it was nice for me to have a long stretch of sleep.  I am dreaming about being able to sleep for 7 hours straight (maybe after I am done with pumping & her SSTN is back) now, but I am pretty sure I will miss our night time feeding session once it's over because it's so peaceful to hold sleepy Haley in my arm.