On the Mend

You know you have a large family when...

...your children feel sorry for families with only six or seven children.
...people ask if you're competing with the Duggars.
...even your friends aren't sure how many children you have.
...your family no longer fits in a 15 passenger van.
..complete strangers feel welcome to comment on your fertility and contraceptive methods.
...two of your daughters go for a walk...and get asked by a neighbor if they're foster kids.
...you have to carry three health insurance cards in your wallet- because that's how many it takes to fit everyone's name.
...you take the wrong child to the dentist...simply because your handwriting on the calendar was messy and both started with a "j".
...grocery shopping for 30 children and 12 adults for a two day camp constitutes a "small" shopping trip for you.
You find yourself relating some small incident to your husband and starting with the words, "Well, I only boiled twenty-six eggs for breakfast..."
...you buy a 40 pound box of bananas intending to make banana bread and freeze a bunch for smoothies...but your children eat them all first.
...you find an afternoon root canal relaxing.
...it takes you twenty-three minutes on the phone to schedule your children's dental appointments.
...you've given up on using your toaster entirely and make all of your toast under the broiler in you oven.
...you are seriously tempted by the stacking cribs you see at Goodwill for $19.99.
...you find yourself thinking, "Wow, the house is so quiet and peaceful with only nine children".
...you have enough children to constitute not one, but TWO large families.
...you have a laundry basket devoted entirely to lonely socks seeking their mate.
...when you got to buy your children those cool "spin toothbrushes" because you think they get their teeth so much cleaner...but the store doesn't carry enough styles/colors for your children to each have a different toothbrush.
...when you can't take all of your children to the doctor's office at the same time because the waiting room has only 10 seats.
...when you still have seven children that are required by law to sit in a carseat or booster seat.
...you call the doctor to get your children tetnus shots, and they tell you they don't have enough in the office and need to order more from the health department.
...you take up more than one entire pew in church.
...you take only half of your children to the library, and STILL get asked if they're all yours.
...you go to fill your children's flouride prescription at the phamacy and you clean them out of every pill they have...and it's still not enough.
...you spend sixty dollars on socks...and not everyone gets new socks.
...you go shopping at Costco and the cashier asks if you're having a soccer barbecue.

July 06, 2010

Apollo, 10 days

Don't you just want to smooch those little lips???

I'm on the mend over here. The pain hasn't been too bad...the hardest part for me is to feel so "limited". I have to watch my body/self so much closer than I have with my natural births. I get sore if I have to walk with Apollo too long. I left the house for the first time today after coming home from the hospital. I had a check-up by the OB who delivered Apollo. It felt good to be out and walking around.

And, Apollo is an awful nurser. I didn't notice in the hospital, probably because my milk wasn't in and I was on heavy pain killers that masked any pain on my end. But once home, by breast became more and more sore until nursing was excruciating...and I realized he had a horrible latch. Apollo is tongue-tied (as was his brother Enoch) and that is probably contributing to the problem. He won't open his mouth wide enough, he won't put his tongue down, and he persistently sucks in his lower lip while nursing. By Sunday, I was at my wit's end, and looked in some of Adalia's doula books. I got some hints on how to position him correctly, and with a lot of hard work can now get him to latch on properly. But it takes both hands and a stack of pillows...which means I'm more or less housebound until we can get our act together.

Its so crazy. Apollo is the 11th baby I've breastfed, and I'm having this much trouble?!

*sigh*

On the bright side, he is so big he can easily go three to 3 1/2 hours with out nursing, something my smaller babies could never do. Once we get the hang of this whole nursing thing, we'll be set. And he only wakes up twice at night to nurse. So we're surviving and making progress over here...Bear with me while I heal...

Emily Weaver Brown put up photos of Apollo, so be sure to click over to her site to check them out.

02:26 PM in Baby 2010 | Permalink