September 5

Today was Lily's first MOPS meeting!

I'm launching a blog for our group, and one of my responsibilities is taking pictures of the moms in our group for our directory. So today - our first meeting - I wore Lily on my chest while I ran around and took pictures of 64 women. She was fantastic! Then I took a break and pulled her out of the wrap, and she was a happy camper. 

Hi Lily! Welcome to MOPS! This is how Mommy stays sane!

The woman holding her is my friend Liz, who I've known since she worked with my youth group in middle school and high school. Now she's the mentor mom at my MOPS table. Funny how some people come back into our lives!

I went back to picture-taking, and Lily got passed around my table. Each mom said the same thing: "I think she's hungry! She was sucking on my shoulder/nuzzling my chest/pecking at my neck". And each time, I tried nursing her, to no avail. She was not hungry. She was tired. It seems that Lily prefers to put herself to sleep by suckling. The problem is that she won't take a pacifier. I keep trying, and she'll lick it, bite it, wiggle it around in her mouth... anything but suck on it.

I've been okay with this, and have been just letting her nurse whenever she wants. But the problem is twofold: 1. It's really nice to have an "easy" button when she's fussy for no reason.

2. Several times, including last night, Lily has nursed and nursed and nursed - 45 minutes last night, for example. But I have a GREAT milk supply, so she got milk that whole time. It was way too much milk for her, and out of nowhere she gagged and coughed all of the milk up, all over our bed. It was a mess. And as I said, this has happened several times.

So, how do you teach a 7-week-old to take a pacifier? We really need to get on this. That, and taking a bottle. But these things take time, and that's one thing I just don't have when I'm also taking care of a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old. Hmmm... these are the dilemmas of a stay-at-home mom.