Saturday, September 18, 2010

Whose Life is This?

We've been in Switzerland for close to 4 years and this is one of the first years I've had where I feel like our life has dramatically changed. Everything was quite ordinary, even once we had a new child, until we returned from the States. Suddenly we are up every morning at 6:45 (both of us, including PC who is notoriously bad at getting up early). I eat a small breakfast, then make a znunni for Julian, and get his breakfast ready, and on certain days of the week, I prepare the milk and formula that we take to Krippe for Emily. Then we all drop Julian off at school which is a stone's throw from home and proceed to the Krippe across town where Emily goes. Since Julian started school, we've been forced to be a lot more structured in our day. This leads us to be totally exhausted in the evenings and weekends. It's not a BAD thing certainly. I realize now that, despite our working and taking our kids to daycare, we were still very spoiled, sometimes getting up late during the week, or just taking super long vacations whenever we felt like it. Now our whole existence revolves around Julian's school schedule. Normally we like to take a big fat vacation that lasts a whole month or more. Now I find myself pondering a short vacation to take during Julian's herbstferien time. It has to be short because we only have a few days. So it must be close by.

It's amazing how one small thing can change one's life so dramatically.

Monday, September 13, 2010

What a Difference Three Months Make

2,191 little hours. I'm reading back over my posts and sort of shaking my head at how far we've come. Or maybe not far, but where we are compared to then. Emily drinks from a bottle. In fact, she only drinks from a bottle because she is no longer breastfed, except occasionally at night. I had a huge work project which required me to be in the office from 8-8 every day for 3 weeks (SUCK!). I managed to pump the whole time and Emily was in the Netherlands with her grandparents, but as soon as she returned, I shunned the pump. Just thinking about the pump made me get jittery. I didn't even want to look at it, I was so DONE with pumping. I said I would breastfeed only in the evenings which has been ok for at least not drying up, but I have nowhere near what Emily needs. And once you decide you will no longer breastfeed every time your baby needs to eat, it's pretty much a slippery slope to no longer breastfeeding. And I'm ok with it. I wanted so much to breastfeed and to do it right, and I did. Despite a lot of difficult circumstances, I exclusively breastfed Emily for 5.5 months. Now we're all busy with other things and life has gotten a little more hectic - it is time for me to let it go, and so I have. It's been good for all of us.

Only one complaint - the SLEEP. I have no idea whether this is related to the breastfeeding, or the jetlag, but girl has the worst sleep ever now. I am totally pooped. I don't even want to put her back on the Contented Baby Schedule because I am TOO TIRED TO FUNCTION. Putting a baby on a schedule requires work. I'm just crossing my fingers this will also pass once she cuts her teeth. Maybe not...
 

ApfelStruedeli | Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial License | Dandy Dandilion Designed by Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates