Tough Day for Mommy and Baby

Today was the first time Will was taken care by someone else other than his grand parents (on a work day basis; he's been watched by family before). The lady that watched is family and a wonderful person, but Will doesn't get to see her often. She's Dan's Aunt's mother-in-law. She's like a grandmother to Dan because he's known her since he was a little kid. My parents are down in Florida on a much needed vacation with my niece and nephew. This is a big trip for my father because he's seeing his brother for the first time in 37 years. I won't touch on this story because it's really his to tell, but you could imagine how big this trip is.

Back to Will. He saw her on Saturday at his cousin's birthday party. He loved her. He threw his arms at her, laughed, and was just adorable with her. Yesterday, we went over her place to bring the playard, stroller, and food. She wanted him to get use to her and the surroundings. We hung out for probably a good hour and everything went well. Will crawled and walked (cruised) around her place.

I knew he was going to feel strange because since he's been a month old, my mother has watched him. In fact, he eats better with her than me. So when I started walking over a different building, Will had a serious look on his face. He wasn't sure what was going on. I was talking to him letting him know that he was spending the day with Titi (that's what we call her). I went in her apartment and his serious face did not go away. He did, however, smile at her at one point and threw his arms to her. I was relieved. So, off to work I went.

I didn't want to pester her with my phone calls. So, I waited until 11 to call her. Breakfast was due at around 8-8:30. I didn't want to catch her while she was feeding the baby. And feeding the baby was the problem. He was asleep when I called her and she told me that he refused to eat breakfast or drink milk (that's when I sort of panicked). I kind of expected the food, but not the milk. We left it at that she would try and feed him again when he woke up.

Well, he has to eat when he wakes up? Right? Not so much. I called her again around 2 confident that he had eaten. She again told me that he didn't eat (only half a jar of food) and refused to drink milk. He had fallen asleep again. She was going to try again when he woke up. The funny part of this story is that he never cried and was having loads of fun playing.

At this point, I decided I would give it another hour and if he hadn't eaten by then, I would go pick him up. Do you know how horrible I felt that my little guy was on a food strike? I was panicking. She felt horrible too. She kept on telling me that she just wanted him to eat.

Luckily for all of us involved, the food strike ended at 3 pm. He ate the yummy soup I made him the night before, which by the way I had for lunch today, and drank about 6 ounces of milk. What a relief! She was even able to give him another 6 ounces of milk before I got there. Poor baby!

The rest of the week, he's hanging out with us. Dan is taking off tomorrow and Wednesday and I'm taking off Thursday and Friday. Monday he's back with Grandma (and Grandpa).

On a totally different subject, I am no longer pumping. My milk supply has dwindle to the point that it's not worth dragging my electric pump all over Manhattan. I'm still nursing him in the mornings, but I have to give him the bottle afterwards. I have been giving him whole milk (I know I'm suppose to wait until he's one, but I wasn't about to start him off on formula to then switch him to whole milk in a few weeks). He's reacted very well to the whole milk. So what I do is mix half breast milk and half whole milk. He hasn't even noticed the difference. Today was very liberating in the sense that I no longer have to pump at work. My load has gotten easier. Carrying that thing around is a pain in the ass.

Well, I must go. My kitchen is a mess (like always) and I want to go to bed very soon.