WE DID IT!!!

Caution: if you are easily offended by the breastfeeding topic, please do not continue!!! :) 


 That's right, ladies and gents, Avery and I have reached our goal of breastfeeding for 8 months! Many of you know that in the beginning I really was not sure we would ever reach my goal. During the weeks and months leading up to Avery's birth I had set a personal goal to breastfeed her for 8 months. Then she was born and everything changed.  When my milk came in she immediately stopped nursing from both sides during one feeding... I guess she was just full after the first side. I couldn't stand to feel so lopsided, so I began my long journey of pumping. Nursing did not come naturally to Avery and I literally threatened to quit nursing every single day. Needless to say, my goal of 8 months seemed impossible and I quickly set a new goal of 2 months. It was torture! I suffered through the pain for the first 9-10 weeks until Avery finally learned how to latch on and suck properly. We then had good nursing periods and bad. The majority of the time she would only nurse from one side and then was full, but on occassion she would actually nurse from both sides during a single feeding! My goal then became a monthly goal.... hoping I could make it to 6 months. By this time it was no longer hurting, I was just having to deal with my own frustrations of trying to get my child to eat and eat well. I finally made it to 6 months and was so happy. Once I made it to 6 months I knew that I could easily meet my original goal of 8 months. WOO HOO! Over the past two months I have given up on pumping the second side and am a little more used to being lopsided. Pumping is just a very frustrating process and it is so time consuming. I was pumping up to 3 or 4 times a day for a while and that was AFTER I nursed Avery. It was just too much and now I only pump before I go to bed at night or if I need to have a bottle ready for Avery. It has made such a huge difference. Avery is still not a fantastic eater-- or maybe she is just a very efficient eater??-- I'm not really sure. Sometimes she will nurse for 10 minutes, other times I can only get her to nurse for about 4 minutes and that drives me crazy! I know she will eat if she is hungry, but it has been so hard for me, the provider of her nutritional intake, to not know if she is getting enough. I also have to nurse in complete silence. No T.V., no phone calls, no sitting there and talking to my husband... nothing! The girl is so easily distracted and so very social that I have to be sure no one disturbs us while we are feeding. I just know that she will be my child that sits down at the dinner table and takes two bites of food and then asks if she can go play. I see that in her already!

I am so proud of myself for persevering and reaching my goal of 8 months! I couldn't have done it without the love and support of my wonderful and amazing husband who has been on the receiving side of my venting moments and even the moments when I just couldn't take it anymore and just cried and cried. Chris, you helped me make it to my goal and I thank you so much for your support! Thank you to all of my dedicated readers for your encouragement, especially in the beginning... you know who you are! :) Your personal stories, prayers and encouraging words really helped me through those first 9 weeks. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

out of my comfort zone...

This past weekend I nursed Avery in public for the first time in 7.5 months. Sure, I've nursed her on an airplane before, but that is still fairly secluded in the back of the plane and next to the window. This weekend I nursed her in a Starbucks and in the Fontainebleau Hotel Lobby. Don't worry, I still tried to find to most private area in both locations and was quite successful. I found the back corner of the Starbucks and was able to turn the chair away from the rest of the store and nursed Avery there. The next day, we were walking around the Fontainebleau hotel and Avery decided she didn't like the thawed milk I took, so again, I had to find a somewhat secluded area to nurse. Thankfully, the Fontainebleau is HUGE and the lobby was so spacious and had a bar area, so I went to the side of the bar behind a big column and nursed her there. I just kept reminding myself that I was in Miami and nursing your baby is public is probably NOTHING compared to everything else you see in public.... which turned out to be true when we saw a very plus sized lady walking through the lobby in a thong. (No offense to Miami!!) SO, there is my story of finally having to step out of my comfort zone and nurse Avery in public for the first time. It wasn't that bad, but I still prefer privacy when I can have it!

The Ireland family goes to Baltimore

Last weekend we had the opportunity to visit Chris' grandparents in Towson, Maryland- just outside the Baltimore city limits. We always look forward to going up to visit, but this trip was extremely special for us all because it was the first time that Nanna and Poppop (Chris' grandparent's- Robert and Doris Ireland) were able to meet Avery and Micah. This was such a special weekend and I'm sure we have a thousand pictures from our time there, but I will try my best to pick out some of my favorite photos to share with you. It was also Avery's first time on an airplane and she did absolutely fabulous! We are so proud of our little monkey! Here is a recap of our weekend.

Saturday March 12: What a long day! We woke up at 5am to get ready for our trip and I have to admit, I was a bit anxious about flying with Avery. I didn't want to be "that passenger" with the screaming baby. I was also really nervous about having to nurse her in public since I have made it 4.5 months without having to do so! We woke Avery up (2 hours early) when my dad arrived at our house around 6am to take us to the airport. Our first flight from FL to ATL went so smoothly. I nursed Avery after we boarded in hopes that she would still be eating during our take-off. Unfortunately, we were a few minutes delayed on the ground and she was therefore finished eating and had no interest in her pacifier during the take-off. I was worried about her ears since she wasn't sucking on anything, but she didn't seem bothered at all. I had to laugh because I had myself all worked up about having to nurse her on the plane and it turned out to be NO BIG DEAL! This plane was super small and we were seated in row 17- the last row on the plane. There were two teenage boys next to us, probably around 15 years old and they loved Avery. The best part was when they looked over to find her under my nursing cover eating- they immediately looked the other way and it was obvious they were quite uncomfortable- but we had a good laugh! Avery fell asleep for the last 20 minutes of the flight and didn't even flinch when we landed. After a 2 hour layover in Atlanta we were back on a plane, which was much bigger this time, and I was able to successfully nurse Avery during our takeoff. She slept maybe 30 minutes on this flight. Guess what else? For those Real Housewife fans- Bethenny Frankel was on our flight from Atlanta to Baltimore. Pretty cool, huh? Avery didn't make a peep on either one of our flights that day. She did so well and we were so incredibly proud of her!

{Avery's very first time on an airplane!!!}

{A's first time in the Atl airport!}

{Finally asleep on the last flight of the day!}

Ed, Cheryl, and their dog, Holli, picked us up at the airport and we made our way to Nanna and Poppop's house. Avery fell asleep almost immediately once we got in the car- poor thing was absolutely exhausted! Unfortunately, it wasn't too long of a nap and when we woke her up when we got to the house she let us know it! We walked inside and were so excited for her to meet her great-grandparents when she had the biggest meltdown to date. Seriously, we have NEVER heard her cry the way she did on Saturday. She was absolutely exhausted and just wanted to keep sleeping, but we had so many people who wanted to meet her for the first time. Not only was she getting to meet Nanna and Poppop, but she was also meeting her Uncle Dick, Aunt Lori and cousins David and Andy. Uncle J, Aunt Adriane and Micah were all there waiting for us to arrive as well- so she had quite an overload of people waiting to greet her when we walked through the door and boy she lost it! It took us a while to calm her down and after a good nap she was ready to meet and greet. We enjoyed the evening visiting with family and were sad to see Dick, Lori, David and Andy leave. It was so great catching up with them and we are so glad they were all able to visit for the day.

{The Ireland girls- Avery is the first Ireland girl born into the family in about 80 years!! Here she is with the rest of us who have all married into the family. She is a true Ireland female!!}

{Poppop with Micah and Avery}

{Nanna and the babies}

{Nanna sang Avery to sleep- it was so sweet!}

{The Ireland boys with the Ireland girl.... They aren't too sure what to think of having a girl in the family now!}

{Cousin Andy with Avery}

{Cousin David and Avery}

{Nanna, Chris and Avery...Avery was ready for bed by this point.}

{Tummy Time!!}

March 13th and 14th: Sunday and Monday we just hung out at the house and enjoyed each other's company. On Sunday, Cheryl, Adriane and I went to the mall for a few hours and got some cute outfits for Micah and Avery. The boys were on baby duty and enjoyed the time with their grandparents. On Monday, Justin, Adriane, Chris and I went to Trader Joes for a little while but that was our only outing. We spent a lot of time trying to capture every possible picture of the babies and their great-grandparents and just relaxed while enjoying time with family. Monday night was quite interesting... Everyone was in bed except for Ed, Justin, Chris and myself. We were all sitting in the den watching T.V. and talking when we saw this grey little mouse run across the room. OH MY GOODNESS!!! I was up on the couch in a heartbeat. To make a long story short- we (and I mean the guys while I watched from an elevated surface) spent the next 1.5 trying to capture this mouse and came really close, but in the end, it got away. Let's just say I didn't sleep very well that night.... Oh! Nanna and Poppop also took us all out for lunch at a place called Bob Evans and we had the best burgers! Thanks, Nanna and Poppop!!

Tuesday March 15th: Our long weekend ended way too quickly. The Birmingham Ireland's and the Florida Ireland's had to say goodbye around 10am. We were sad to leave Nanna and Poppop, but we had a plane to catch. It worked out so well that we were all on the same flight back to Atl. Justin, Adriane and Micah sat in the row directly in front of us. The best part about the flight was that there were about 6 empty rows behind us so we were able to freely walk around with the babies and change their diapers easily. Both Micah and Avery did great on the flight. Again, I nursed Avery during take-off and she did fantastic. I still can't believe I was so nervous about feeding her on the plane. I wasn't uncomfortable at all! We landed in Atlanta and headed to our next flight. We were only 6 gates down from Justin and Adriane, but had to say good-bye quickly because they did not have much time before their flight back to Birmingham. We had a 2 hour layover which of course was delayed some and that meant that I had to feed Avery BEFORE we got on the plane. Nursing Avery in the airport was the only time I was really uncomfortable and out of my comfort zone. Thankfully, we were in a fairly private seating area behind a gate desk, but still, I was slightly uncomfortable. Not long after 5 we finally boarded the plane and then had to sit in line for take-off for about 45 minutes. Avery slept the entire time we were waiting to take off and then woke up about 5 minutes into the hour long flight. This was the only flight where she was a little fussy, but Chris was able to stand up with her and that seemed to help. We had the best weekend and were sad that it went by so quickly. Hopefully we can make another trip up to see them again soon!

{Aren't they the cutest babies you have ever seen???}

{Lean on me......}

{Thanks to Uncle J for the onesie!!}

{The Florida Ireland's in front of Nanna and Poppop's house}

{Chris and Avery in the backyard}

{Me and my baby girl in the backyard}

{she is beautiful!}

{Chris with his baby girl and his grandparents}

{Chris and I gave Ed this diaper tool belt for Father's Day last year. This is his first time wearing it with Avery}

{Ed went to Duke and for Christmas he gave the babies these T-Shirts... of course we had to get a picture!}

{The brothers and their babies on the flight from Baltimore to Atlanta}

{Family photo on the plane from Baltimore to Atlanta... notice all of the empty seats behind us!? It was awesome!}

Baby weigh day

The family birth place has a baby weigh day on the second Wednesday of every month. I decided to take Avery this past Wednesday and am happy to announce that she weighed in at

9 lbs 4.3 oz!! She has gained 2 pounds in her 6 weeks of life. It was such a great reassurance for me that she is indeed getting enough to eat. Over the past few weeks several of you have asked how breastfeeding is going. This might be a little TMI, so I won't be offended if you don't finish reading this post. :) Things are definitely getting better. We have our good days and our bad, but we are working through it and I'm so thankful that I am able to provide for my daughter in such a special way. She still prefers to nurse from one side only during a feeding, but I've really been working with her and maybe twice a day she will latch on to both sides during one feeding. Chris has been giving her a bottle once every other day and we are slowly increasing the number of bottles she will take. It's a great time for Chris to bond with her and again, it's a nice break for mommy. Thank you to all of you who have encouraged me through the difficult times of nursing and for your prayers. Praise the Lord for the improvements!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!!

Thank you!

I cannot begin to explain just how much you all mean to me. In my last post I told you about my difficulties with breastfeeding and the outpour of encouragement from several of you means so much to me. The comments, facebook messages, emails and phone calls have been a huge help in boosting my confidence. Thanks to all of you who have shared your stories with me- they have been very encouraging to me over the past 24 hours. I'm thankful for the "blogging world" and how it is a great outlet for sharing my thoughts with you all. Thanks for being faithful readers - You each mean so much to me!!