back online

The mac laptop is back online if only temporarily.
It is hard for me to spend any time in the den where the desktop computer is...thus the lapse in blogging.

I went to the dentist Tues. afternoon and was pleasantly surprised by a good report. I used to brush multiple times per day before Claire came into my life. I've managed to keep up with daily flossing and using the electric toothbrush sporadically... I think that's what saved me.

Claire is still on a nursing strike. She will act like she is getting ready to nurse and then as soon as the breast goes in her mouth she cries. Sometimes she cries after just a few minutes of licking. And this is at times when she is happy between meals. I've been putting her skin to skin everyday to encourage her to become freindly with the breast again. She will usually lick it and play around for a few minutes then she gets upset. When I remove her from the breast, she calms down. She used to take comfort in the breast and suck for a while and fall asleep. She used to suckle while a bottle was heating during the night. Now she rejects the breast every time it is offered. I'm really bummed out about this turn of events. I went to the lactation consultant on Monday and didn't find her to be very helpful. I think I'm going to have a different LC come to the house. I've been reading articles on the La Leche League website. I tried taking her into the bathtub which started out well but then she got spooked and we had to cut the bathtime short. This was really disappointing because both the La Lehe articles and the LC suggested doing this to help her relax and be interested in nursing.

After several false starts with house cleaners we found someone to come. She will come on Monday for the first time. Hopefully it will work out and she can come regularly.

My mom has been a tremendous support the past two weeks. On Saturday she leaves us. It is amazing that even with help I was unable to squeeze in things like a visit to the YMCA or back exercizes or exercize video.