Thanksgiving with a Tiny Squee

Nappin' with her Doodad

We drove down to Corvallis on Tuesday night see my parents for Thanksgiving. TS slept the whole drive, which was fabulous. However, it did mean that we couldn't stop - if the car stops, she often wakes up. We stayed Tuesday night with my dad and had a leisurely Wednesday hanging out with him. He scrambled eggs for breakfast, which TS always enjoys. She also had some banana. Nothing exciting to report regarding Wednesday's activities except that my dad and I took a small walk and TS napped in the carrier. It was very nice weather for Thanksgiving. Sterling wasn't impressed with dinner that night for some reason. She kept forcefully flinging bites of it on the floor. Salmon? Fah! Onto the floor with you! Carrot? Fah! Banana? Fah! It just wasn't a night for eating.

Wednesday night we headed up to stay with my mother. We built a nest out of couches padded with (many layers of) blankets and TS and I stayed there, while Mike bunked in the guest bedroom. The bed there is a little small to comfortably fit 2+TS. Mike got to sleep in, which was good because he drove back home Thursday night after dinner. Wednesday morning, we had more eggs. TS ate quite an impressive quantity and also enjoyed some banana and avocado.

Sweet potatoes taste best when eaten with
the entire face.

We cooked a turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (in the crock pot), steamed broccoli, and had rolls. Everything was excellent and TS enjoyed it a great deal. She was underwhelmed with broccoli (a former favorite), but really got into the turkey. The grownups had pie for dessert.

Turkey is AWESOME!

Friday, I took the baby down to my dad's and we had breakfast (a sort of dutch baby pancake thing). TS skipped breakfast because I thought there was too much butter and sugar in the pancake. She made up for it later that afternoon, consuming half a banana and a quarter of an avocado in her mesh bag. This was after she'd had some turkey and possibly other things as well. She's turning into quite a good eater.

We gave her a bath in the kitchen sink
 on Friday afternoon.

My mother and I watched Avatar in 3-D, with breaks to potty and relocate the baby. She was pretty happy (and safe) in the couch nest. She napped through the beginning of Avatar, which was handy. We took a couple of breaks to do things (laundry, make sandwiches), which was good because it's a ridiculously long movie. We also watched LA Confidential, which was quite good. TS napped through part of it as well.

Fig, it's what's for dinner.

My mother drove us home this morning. We timed it exactly to correspond with the morning nap and the baby slept for nearly all of the 2 hour drive. Good job! We sat down and shared a Harry and David pear after my mother left, which was excellently tasty. Later, TS stole a dried fig (she was standing on the back of the couch and reaching over onto the table where the dried fruit is stored) and enjoyed it quite a bit. I think she ate the whole thing, except for the pieces that were plastered onto her face.

I started a loaf of bread in the breadmaker and chopped up some veggies to go in the turkey carcass soup (we'd boiled the carcass down at my mothers). TS did some excellent jumping in her doorway jumper while I cooked. Now, she's napping in the carrier while we sit in the recliner and blog.

Relatives

We visited my dad yesterday. He's totally in love with Sterling. He's decided that he's going to go by Doodad (my brother and I have called him Doo practically forever).

Two of my aunts and an uncle (my dad's brothers and sisters) were visiting and they were also very impressed with the baby. I learned something interesting talking to one of my aunts - she didn't produce enough milk to feed her babies either. She's the second one of my aunts to tell me that. I remember my aunt who lives in Portland mentioning it when she visited us when Sterling was probably about a week (or maybe two) old, but I apparently chose to ignore it at the time. But now, having heard about nursing problems from two different aunts, I think it's fairly likely that there's some genetic component to my low milk supply.

This news is both depressing and relieving. It's sort of a relief to hear that there's some physical problem 

and that there's nothing I could have done to prevent it or to have made it better if I'd done something differently earlier on. It negates a lot of the "what ifs" that I've had running through my head. On the other hand, it means that there's nothing that I can probably do to improve my milk supply beyond where it is. That's really depressing. I'm going through a grieving process about breastfeeding.