It is going to be a long week.

So, I have my mom in town for the week and I am thrilled. It is great to have her here but I am saddened by a comment that she made on her first day. This morning after breakfast Taj looked at me and said "nee nee please" and my mom looked at me and asked what that meant. I told her that he was asking to nurse to which she replied "Don't you think it is about time you knock that off? He is almost 3." I told her that it has been shown that a child will naturally wean between the ages of 3 and 4 and that I wasn't comfortable with forcing him to wean before he was ready. Her reply was "Well, maybe but come on we aren't living in a 3rd world country." I quickly ended the conversation with a "Well, he doesn't really nurse that much any more any way." This his hilarious because my almost 3 year old nurses more often than my 1 year old does. He practically nursed through an entire play date the other day.

So after this very brief conversation I have felt really uncomfortable nursing him around her and so I feel like I have been brushing his needs aside all day. At one point when he asked to "nee nee" I told him that we would nurse later and he throw himself on the ground crying. So, we didn't nurse before we went off to my older two's soccer games and at one point he was begging and trying to pull my breasts out of my shirt right there on the side lines. We had a quick talk about being patient and I promised that he would nurse before nap. So after we got home him and I went upstairs to nurse and the poor child seemed so frantic, like I better take what I can get now because I don't know when I will be able to do this again.

It was a long evening and can I say uncomfortable one. When you have two kids nursing on a daily basis and then all of a sudden just one, hello very full breasts! Finally it was time for bed and the poor child nursed for almost an hour. I can not go another 9 days like this, I need to figure out what to say to her and also how to not push aside Taj's needs because I am not feeling comfortable in a situation. He is only 2 1/2 and this is not his problem, he just wants to know why all of a sudden I am not allowing him to "nee nee" whenever he would like to.

Any good words of advice would be really appreciated right now.

Thank You

So this week we went along with Perry to Des Moines, Iowa where he needed to travel for work and we decided to add a little family time into it for a mini vacation. Because he was there for business I was left alone with the kids for a huge portion of the time. Every time we ventured outside of the hotel room I kept hearing "Are they all yours?" "Boy, you have your hands full!"over and over again. As if I wasn't stressed enough being in a strange town, on my own with four kids did they really think that these comments were helping?

Well, on our last day there I decided I was going to try an Art Museum with the kids. About 2 minutes after we walked in, Taj walked up to a painting and touched it. This sent the woman right over to us telling my two year old that he was not allowed to step off of the carpet. This sent my two year old into instant tears (She was not mean, she was just doing her job and Taj is really sensitive when being corrected). So I grabbed hands and walked right back out the door. We got outside and I took a deep breath and thought, "No, we came all this way and Zola and Ajay really want to do the treasure hunt. Everyone else thinks I am overwhelmed, maybe I am and we should just go back to the hotel."

Instead of listening to all of the negatives in my head and heading straight for the car, I decided to get some fresh air in the rose garden behind the Museum. Let the kids run around and maybe they will be ready for a quiet space after that.


So, after about 30 minutes of running around in the hot sun I decided we were ready to try this again. We walked to the van and got the stroller which Taj willingly crawled up into and Peylyn was in the Ergo. We walked back to the main doors and went in. We went back to the lobby to get the treasure hunt board and start all over again. We had to go past the woman that had sent Taj into tears earlier and he waved and said hello. So at this point I am thinking, ok we can do this. Then an older lady walks up to me and I feel myself stiffen and wait for the inevitable "Gee, do you have your hands full." comment. But it doesn't come...She looks at Peylyn in her Ergo and tells me "Of all of the babies I have seen being carried around next to their moms heart like this, I have only seen one that was crying." I replied with "At her first whimper, I am able to nurse her without even breaking my stride." She hugged my shoulders and told me to keep up the good work. It was all I could do to hold back the tears.

Being a mom is challenging enough, why do people feel the need to point out the obvious? We need more people like this woman telling us what a great job we are doing. Though I will never see her again, I hope that some how she may know how she really turned my day around. It was her praise that not only got me through our trip, but we had an awesome time searching for pieces of art and learning new things.

I even was relaxed enough to let out a loud laugh that rang through the entire place when Zola commented on how small the penis was on a particular sculpture.

Who Knew I'd be Shopping Like This...

Woo Hoo, our tax return came yesterday!!! So last night we loaded up the family and headed out to eat. That was a blast, we went to Nakashima, a hibachi restaurant, for a nice meal. Well, ok maybe not a blast as it was a Meinnert family night out. Ajay was crying because he didn't want to see the fire, Zola was laughing because she is so excited to see the fire, Taj was intrigued by all of the fire at the other tables and little Peylyn couldn't care less. Oh well, I always enjoy a night out when I don't have to worry about cooking for two meat eaters and two vegetarians. Then there is Taj who just wants to play with the food and throw whatever he doesn't want at my head.

Anyway, after we left Perry asked if I wanted to go to Kohl's. Well, since I am down to one pair of jeans that fits me (post baby) and three tunics that I bought at the hippy store downtown, because they are great for nursing, I of course was all over the thought of having a few new items.

Items purchased included 2 pairs of jeans, 2 tank tops (the ones with the spaghetti straps and the boob shelf also serving to hide my tummy when shirt is pulled up to nurse) and 4 cotton tunic type tops. As we are checking out, Perry is looking at the items I chose. He asked "is there a reason you can't ever choose something that actually sits next to your body and shows your curves?" My reply was "How the hell do you comfortably nurse two babies in tight fitting clothes?" The cashier was loving this conversation.

It hit me then how much everything I do is centered around nursing a baby. It doesn't matter if you are nursing one baby, two or even ten, when you decide that this is the path for you and your child/children it is amazing how you will alter your life to do just that. When we discuss going out to eat, I only go to places where I know I can nurse Peylyn comfortably, the women I surround myself with are all so supportive, the clothes I buy are all about comfort while nursing and even the church the kids and I started attending, I chose to continue going there after the second time we attended and a woman approached me to tell me how beautiful it was to see me nursing my baby.

It is a beautiful and amazing thing! When I look at my two precious babies I can not believe that there are people out there that think that a mother feeding her child with her own milk is unnatural.