Hayden Goes on a Nursing Strike

I guess the title says it all!!

New Years Day, I tried nursing Hayden first thing in the morning, as usual, and she wouldn't.  I gave her some breakfast and we got going on our hike.  When we got to the destination, I tried again and she wouldn't.  She just screamed and arched her back like I was torturing her!!  What in the world??!  I didn't understand why she was acting like this and by that time, it was getting painful for me.  Every time I tried to nurse her for the rest of the day, she did the same thing.  I was incredibly frustrated and a little offended, I won't lie.  I hadn't done anything different- no change in laundry detergent, lotion, body wash or deodorant.  She already had her 1 yr molars so I knew it wasn't teething.  I started getting a little concerned that she hadn't had any liquids for the day.  I pumped when we got home and thankfully, she took the milk in a bottle.  Imagine that- the girl that hardly took a bottle one month ago was taking it like a champ now!  Things got really interesting during the night since she usually wakes up a couple times and won't go back down without nursing.  I tried and she refused again, just cried.  I snuggled her next to me and when she settled down, I put her back in bed.  Matt helped the next time she woke up.

I did get her to nurse the next morning for a bit but then she was back to striking all day long!  I just pumped when I normally would be feeding her and gave it to her in a bottle.   Let me tell you, that Medela pump has been one of the BEST purchases we made!!  I don't use it often but I couldn't have survived without that thing!  I posted about the situation on Facebook and several people suggested just switching her to formula in a bottle, but I'm thinking #1, she's NEVER had formula, why start now?  and #2, I don't want to transition her to a bottle at 1 year and then have to wean her off of that later.  Some also said maybe she was ready to wean, but I knew better.  I read an article that said a nursing strike usually only lasts 2-4 days so I figured we'd ride it out.  I'm not at the point where I'm done with nursing and really, I didn't think she was either so I just plugged along.  I took away all other forms of solid foods and only offered breastmilk.  Eventually, after two days of protesting, she was back to nursing like nothing ever happened!!  Lil' stinker!

{milky chin}

I figure when it's actually time to wean, I will have wished I just ran with it now, but hopefully we can keep nursing for a few more months, at least long enough to get us through cold & flu season!

Happy New Year ~*~*~*~

Since being on Winter break, I have just been laaaaazzzzzyyyyyy and it's been so nice!  I really didn't want to make any special plans for New Years Eve, just hang out here with my cute little family.  At the last minute, we had Matt's sister Jen and her family over to join us in our NYE celebration and I'm glad they came!

Gavin and Adam watch from inside

All the kiddos!

After they left, we did a family toast with sparkling cider.

Someone was a wee bit tired....

To start our year off, we headed out to Usery Pass and hiked to the Wind Caves as a family.  It was the most beautiful day for a hike!  Matt strapped Hayden in the Bjorn and off we went!  I was a little nervous how the kids would do, but they were FABULOUS and they didn't complain a bit!  Preston was a trooper and he loved every second!  It was so funny on the way down, he kept asking, "Is that a cactus?  Is that a cactus?  Is that poky thing a cactus?!"

We made it!

 View from the top~

Our beautiful Arizona desert

We packed a picnic lunch and ate at a ramada after we finished the hike. (no pictures)  Then we celebrated by grabbing ice cream sundaes and blizzards from DQ on the way home! :)  It was a great way to spend the first day of the year together as a family and I look forward to our next hiking adventure.

Preston turns 4!!

What were we thinking having babies so close to Christmas??!!!??  Preston had been talking about having a "Christmas birthday party" for months.  I just couldn't do it.  Next year buddy, I promise!  Poor Preston.  Good thing he's still little! ;)

His birthday was pretty low-key.  When I asked Preston about going and getting his birthday balloons, he said he didn't want any.  The poor guy, he doesn't like the noise of balloons being blown up with helium and he is terrified that they will pop or fly up in the sky!  I convinced him that we had to get balloons, per our tradition.

He asked for pizza for dinner - easy, peasy!  I can deal with that!  We decided on rainbow cupcakes for the evening celebration.  They ended up being a lot of work, but turned out AWESOME!!

Preston has this obsession with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that came out of nowhere and he kept saying that he wanted Ninja Turtles.  Starting a few weeks before Christmas, I started looking for these Ninja Turtles at Fry's, WalMart, Target and Toys R Us.  I found ONE out of the four.  Every place was out of stock and of course, these $8.99 toys were going for ridiculous amounts on Ebay.  Hmmm, slightly reminiscent of LAST YEAR when I was trying to find the Toy Story characters for the Buzz Lightyear space ship!!!  I continued to make my rounds and miraculously, I picked the other three up, one by one.  Preston was thrilled with with his Ninja Turtle crew and their Shellraiser (what the???!), which he calls a "Subway."  He also got an Avengers set and Lego Ninjago spinners.

Preston's 4 year interview

What's your favorite color?  red
What's your favorite toy?  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Legos
What's your favorite breakfast?  Flat egg on toast
What's your favorite dinner?  Orange chicken and rice
What's your favorite tv show?  Gaspard & Lisa
What's your favorite movie?  Backyardigans
What's your favorite book?  Ten Little Fish
What's your favorite animal?  Zebra
What's your favorite song?  I Am a Child of God
What's your favorite game?  Skylanders (Wii)
What's your favorite snack?  Clif Kids Zbars
What's your favorite drink?  Water
What's your favorite holiday?  Valentine's Day (?!)
Who's your best friend?  Adam [Hilton]
What do you want to be when you grow up?  a police and put people in jail
What's your favorite candy?  Skittles

Merry Christmas!!

We started out Christmas Eve morning by cleaning the church building with the other bishopric families.  Matt had the day off and it was not exactly how I wanted to spend the morning, but I tried to have a good attitude about it.  A breakfast burrito from Fili-B's and Dunkin Donuts munchkins made it better. ;)

That night, the kids opened their one gift, new pjs.  They left cookies & carrots out for Santa and his reindeer, got showered, then we took turns reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.  I love having kids that can read!  Matt read the story of Christ's birth from Luke 2, we said prayers and tucked the kids into bed.

Tracking Santa on NORAD

I got busy baking and prepping food for the next day while Matt set the trap for the kids, put things together and we got everything set out under the tree.  We ended up staying up way too late which made it super hard to get up and going the next morning.

*side note:  About 3:30am, I heard crying and someone yelling, "Moooooooommmy!"  I patted Matt and told him Brooklyn was crying, which I thought was really odd.  He went in to check on her and she said she was scared because of the trap Matt had set, which had cardboard with a hole cut out blocking her bedroom doorway!  She thought it was an eye looking at her or something.  Haha!!  I guess Matt told her to climb in bed with Blake and she stayed there for the rest of the night.

The kids woke up around 7am and were ready to see what Santa brought for them!  They had to get through the trap and then we went downstairs to open gifts.

Santa brought Lego Friends sets for Brooklyn, a tournament chess set for Blake, plasma cars for Gavin and Preston and a Radio Flyer tiny trike for Hayden.  Stockings for the kids were full of Pokemon cards, a Lego minifigure, toothbrushes, yo-yos, gloves, a small lego set for the boys, a scarf, sunglasses, nail polish and earrings for Brooklyn, Origami paper for Blake, Nerf darts for the older boys, Hot Wheels for Preston and a little bit of candy, with an orange in the toe of the stocking.


The kids got lots of good stuff~ and I think they liked everything!

Matt blew our $100 limit for each other and bought me a Bosch.  

I stuck to our budget (thankyouverymuch) and got Matt an Apple TV.

We got a couple of dance games for the Xbox Kinect and a couple family board games- Apples to Apples Jr. and Hedbanz.

Our family gift was a basketball hoop. And of course there HAS to be a story.  We got the approval from our HOA to put the pole in the ground so Matt cemented the bottom portion in last week.  He started putting the rest of the pole and backboard together in the garage a couple days before Christmas.  He was ready to attach the backboard to the pole, he discovered that one of the pole parts was wrong!!  Obviously having is set up and ready to go Christmas morning was not gonna happen.  He called the company and said the new pole parts would be here Friday, so the backboard ended up in the house on display with instruction for Daddy to put it together later. ;)

The AFTERMATH

We spent the rest of the day with family; Palmers first, a quick trip over to see Grandma & Grandpa LeBaron, then over to Hamiltons.

I have to admit, I wasn't too happy with the way this Christmas season went down.  We were way too busy with something every single night and we hardly had time to do the little things as a family, the things that are important to me.  We never even put all our ornaments on the tree.  Neither Hayden, Matt or I had stockings until I bought three randoms from the picked over selection at WalMart Christmas Eve.  I never got to make treats to take to our friends and neighbors.  No Christmas cards sent out.  I barely took our kids' pictures (for cards?) three days before Christmas.  I know that having a big birthday party for Hayden took up a lot of the time that I would've otherwise spent on carrying out Christmas traditions.  And the fact that the kids got out of school only four days before Christmas made it seem like we had no time beforehand.  Next year, I'm hoping to simplify and be more picky about what we choose to spend our time doing together as a family.

Merry Christmas from our family!!