A funeral toast to our television

Today we took our ~10 year old, somewhat but not really faithful, poor quality and very out dated TV to the waste recycle center. We haven't watched it, or for that matter, we haven't even put it on the TV stand nor plugged it in since we moved 4 months ago. It was well over due for us to get rid of our one and only TV.
In remembrance, Mr Siili bought an apple cider (it was one we hadn't seen before) for us to share (I drank a tablespoon at most). The TV will most likely be forgotten, but we'll treasure the space it freed up on our living room floor.

3 weeks old

Our little boy is now three weeks old (and one day, because I didn't get this posted yesterday)! I don't think I'm ready to say that it feels like he's been with us forever yet, but he's been here long enough that I definitely can't and don't want to imagine my life without him.

It's amazing how much Paxlet's growing and changing already.There's just so much I am enjoying watching and trying to take it all in.

Sleep
Sometimes we get a decent amount of sleep during the night and other times he is awake for 2 to 2,5 hour stretches at a time. A couple of nights ago was one of those awake for several hours at a time. It was rough. I wonder if the chocolate I had eaten was giving him an upset stomach? So, I've tried cutting out chocolate (and onions) for a bit to see if that helps. Thankfully, those rough nights aren't every night.

Food
My nipples aren't as sore as they were in the beginning. But the last few days, Paxlet has been clamping on quite hard and my nipples are a bit sore again. I'm so glad he's eating well and enjoying his food, but would it hurt him to be a bit nicer to his momma? LOL

Paxlet also gets very impatient if the nipple comes out of his mouth while feeding. He will grunt and root around for the nipple like crazy until he gets it back in his mouth. And when he does get it back, he makes a huge production of opening his mouth VERY wide and CHOMPING on the nipple so it won't get away again. He does not like to have his meal interrupted. I know how he feels.

I've thought about pumping, but that's as far as I've gotten. I just have no idea how to go about it. When is the best time to pump? How much should I try to pump? Is there any thing else I should know? I guess I could ask my friend, but again, I just haven't gotten that far.

Growth
Mr Siili was commenting just the other day about how much stronger his neck (it doesn't flop around as much as it did the first few days), legs and arms are (Paxlet's really kicking and waving his limbs around).

I also notice the boy looking, staring really, very intently at my face. Just last night, Paxlet was intently watching something behind me. We think he was noticing the light reflecting off the glass doors of a cupboard. Whatever it was, it was very interesting. We've also noticed that he is making more voluntary coos, grunts and other cute baby sounds.

Paxlet has already grown out of one newborn outfit. If I had cut the feet off, we could have used it a bit longer. But the feet were cute little froggies and I just couldn't do that to the outfit. Instead, we loaned it to a friend who is due in a week. There are a couple more newborn onsies and outfits that we've got to wear in the very near future (and take more pictures) before he's outgrown them also.

Learning
Mr Siili has been teaching Paxlet what his shoulders, elbows, hands, feet, etc are in Finnish. Mr Sili has also been singing some songs to the boy. I think I recognize the tune, although the words are made up. It's pretty cute to hear this.

I've also read the boy two books so far. His first ever book was The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. I remember asking my grandmother over and over to read this to me every time we visited. The second book I read him was The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Even though I only have this book in Chinese, I've read it enough times to know the idea of it to tell it myself. (I did find the book read and animated on Youtube. Very cute!)

My emotions
Hormones are still playing a part in my moods, but I don't find them getting the best of me as often. I still cry easily, especially at sappy or sad things on TV. I do get more frustrated and in tears during middle of the night feedings sometimes. But over all, I think of myself as very happy when it comes to Paxlet. Being able to get out of the house and go for walks or downtown on the bus helps. Also, having two friends and my mother-in-law over earlier this week helped too.

Nipple piercing when I was younger and how it might not have been the smartest thing to do

When I was 20 years old, I got my left nipple pierced. I had wanted to get it done for some time and finally found myself with a co-conspirator and a piercing place that I knew to be good. It was one of the coolest things I had done, along with getting my tongue pierced a couple of years earlier (that'll have to be another story). Mostly because I didn't know too many people who had their nipple(s) pierced (nor their tongue) and when people found out about my nipple being pierced, most people were shocked and maybe even a bit horrified.

Getting my nipple pierced was painful. Not nearly as painful as giving birth, I now know, but painful still. Having an ample bosom meant that the first couple of days any movement, especially laughter or movement that caused bouncing, was painful. I also slept with a bra on for the first few weeks just to make sure I didn't bump or snag the piercing at night.

The nipple piercing healed quite well and I never had any problems with infections. I ended up taking it out after some time because I started getting these sudden and sharp pains in my nipple, right around the piercing. I have no idea what they were and never had the pains again once I took the piercing out. It was such a pity and I was always a bit sad about it, but not enough to get it redone. Plus, Mr Siili wasn't and isn't too excited about "strange" piercings.

Fast forward 16 years to a couple of weeks ago when Paxlet was born.

I first nursed Paxlet on my right breast and everything was fine. When it came time to feed him with my left nipple, I noticed that the nipple itself was a bit smaller/shorter and that he had a slightly harder time getting latched on. This was especially the case once my milk came in and my breast was engorged and hard. I'm assuming that the reason my nipple is a bit smaller, or rather shorter, is because when it was pierced, a chunk of flesh was removed to make room for the jewelry (that's what hollow needles do and they are what should be used when getting piercings done).

Now that Paxlet and I have had some time to get used to breast feeding, the left nipple doesn't seem to pose any problems and he is able to feed just fine with it. The milk is still able to flow through the nipple and BabyBoy eats like normal.


Knowing now, what I didn't know then, getting my nipple pierced might not have been the smartest thing to do. But we do all sorts of things, smart and not so smart, when we are young and only hindsight is 20/20. I'm just thankful that everything still works as it should and I can feed my baby boy.