Steep Learning Curve

= FREEDOM


Disclaimer: This post is all about babies and nursing. After 10 months of fussing/bottle-REFUSING, cutting date nights short, phone calls from a stressed Daddy or Grandma, excessive night wakings, etc. etc.
Lily just spontaneously decided to take a bottle about a month ago...
...and it has changed our lives!
I am not trying to bash nursing, because I believe in it and I will try to nurse all future children... and I am definitely not trying to bash my child, but I will just say that some things have a very steep learning curve and for us keeping Lily happy and satisfied via nursing has been one of them. It all started making sense to me ( the way-too-frequent feedings, inability to nap, slowed growth) and I have come to the frightening conclusion that she has been borderline starving for the last 10 months. She's been eating solids since 4 1/2 months, but she eats like a bird and her weight percentile has been steadily decreasing since her 4 month appointment--definitely a worry since she was a peanut to begin with. I think she just never got enough milk. I literally tried the bottle weekly and sometimes daily...to no avail for 10 whole months!! THAT STUBBORN LITTLE BUGGER!!!
I'm not really even sure why I am posting this except that it has been this huge life-altering phenomenon as a fairly new mom to be able to leave for longer than an hour and a half and know that my child will be happy and full; to actually be able to go on a childless date with my husband- heaven forbid; to be able to go to my hair appointment and not have to leave the chair in a frenzy with wet hair when I get a frantic text!
My sister tried to drill the concept of getting a nursing baby on a bottle asap so you aren't stuck as her only source of nutrition/comfort... and I just didn't listen. I'm sorry Whit! (boy am I sorry...)

Anyway...I truly feel like Lily's whole temperament has changed this past month...not even kidding. EVERYTHING is now better, easier, less stressful and less dramatic than it used to be. I guess you have to learn some things the hard way...

A Stroke of Really Bad Luck

We got a call from our neighbor on Saturday night saying "Uh...hey you guys better come outside..." and when we did we found the alarming scene shown below. A drunk driver had come swerving up our street and somehow managed to clip the back bumper on Chris' new truck and drive with two wheels along the entire length of his car, before tipping over. Highlights of this evening included:
* Practically the entire neighborhood congregating in front of our house along with an ambulance, a fire truck and two cop cars.
* The woman's incoherent apology and inability to walk the straight line
*The woman attempting to climb back into her tipped, smoking vehicle for her cigarettes
* Her begging every neighbor on our street to keep her startled and upset dog (an innocent passenger) overnight while she was taken to jail so it wouldn't end up at the pound. My sweet elderly neighbor Dennis obliged.

But the good thing was no one was hurt and we would much rather it be a smashed car than someone's child. We are super bummed though... In the meantime Chris is loving driving his rental Dodge Charger;)
We still aren't sure how she managed to shatter the window
Chris thought I was naieve for being in disbelief that a mid-thirties-ish driver of a Landcruiser is the type of person to get a DUI. I thought this type of behavior was reserved for celebrities and white trash folks...