Early Preparations

One is in my lap.  The other is growing in my belly.  This is how Brian found us when he walked out of the office the other night.  Addie watching The Wonder Pets and me reading a book on nursing.

We are doing a lot of preparing right now.

Preparing Addie for our new addition.

Planning out the changes that are going to occur in the current bedroom layouts.

Keeping our eyes open for bedding and furniture (you know how I am about paying full price).

Trying to narrow down our boy's name list.  I definitely have one preference that Brian came up with, but now he isn't thrilled with the name.  We certainly don't know for sure, but the heart rate for Squishy was 133 bpm.  According to the old wives tale (which Mom was a very strong believer in and which worked in figuring out what Addie was before the ultrasound), that is a little boy's heart rate range.  I asked the doctor at our last appointment, and he said that until he sees the ultrasound, he cannot give any definite answers on the baby's gender.  Then he smiled and asked me, "What does your mother's intuition tell you it is?"  Hmmmmmm........

But I think my biggest area of preparation right now is preparing myself mentally and emotionally for nursing.  I was not able to nurse Addie for many different reasons- completely unnerved by losing Mom, allowing myself to be intimidated by the nurses who all had different takes and philosophies on nursing and the "proper" way for it to be done (I was definitely not a confident woman then), not having any time alone with Addie on our initial meeting, not nursing her until well passed an hour after she was born, having a nurse sneak a bottle feeding into Addie without our consent, having that same nurse scare me into pumping so she could see how much milk Addie was getting (and then the only way to give Addie the milk after that was through the bottle), and being intimidated by a little 7 pound 3 ouncer.

Not this time.

My friend, Sherri, had given me a book called Nursing Your Baby by Karen Pryor and Gayle Pryor (a mother/daughter team) before I had Addie, but I never made the time to actually sit down and pay attention to what was in it.  I did read other books on birth and after such as Baby Wise by Gary Ezzo and Robert Buchnam M.D., but they did not go into detail about the process, mechanics, and impotance of nursing or give my the amunition I needed in order to fight back when the nurses started pushing me away from what I as the mother wanted for my baby.

I am so excited right now about feeding this baby.  I am definitely packing this book in my hospital bag and keeping it in plain sight throughout my hospital stay.  The more I share with Brian about what I am learning, the more excited and supportive he is about the whole process, and the more we are convinced that God's designs are so perfect.