February 26

It was a busy, busy day for us today!

I got Caleb off to school and took Daisy to preschool, and then Lily, Eli and I battled snow and rush hour traffic on an empty gas tank to go to Eli's second craniosacral therapy appointment. Then we ran bunch of errands before picking Daisy up, eating lunch, and putting the girls down for naps. In the afternoon, I got dinner ready, went to Caleb's parent/teacher conference, and then went to book club. By the time Eli and I got home from book club, I was spent. Thus, a late blog post with hardly any pictures.

I snapped these pictures because they represent life right now:

Eli spends a good chunk of each day napping in his swing. Usually he's not quite so bundled up, but he is always content there. If he's not in his swing, then he's sleeping on my bed or wrapped up on my chest.

It's funny how the big kids can run screaming circles around him, but as long as that swing is still swinging, he sleeps right through it. I love it!

Some details about today's events:

Eli's second craniosacral therapy appointment went really well. After the first, I noticed that Eli was able to turn his head and comfortably get into position to nurse on the right side. I saw an immediate improvement; he went from nursing on the right side 0% of the time to nursing there 30% of the time. However, the other 70% of the time he would attempt to nurse, but give up in frustration pretty quickly. I developed the suspicion that the mastitis has left enough lingering swelling that my letdown is slow, and Eli doesn't have the patience to wait for it.  

I discussed this with the craniosacral therapist, and she worked on Eli a little bit. He was due to nurse during our session, so she worked on him while he was latched on and nursing on the right side. It was absolutely our best  nursing session yet, and since then he has nursed significantly better. I still need to pump after each feeding and supplement with a bottle, though, because he is definitely nowhere near emptying the breast. But at least he's nursing on both sides,which gives me hope that we will someday have a normal nursing relationship!

(Side note: I definitely noticed some hippie-dippie weirdness from the craniosacral therapist today. It is definitely an alternative treatment. But man, does it work! One of the things that I thought was funny/sweet was that as Eli was nursing and the therapist was working on him, Lily came up and put her hands on Eli's head. The therapist had her eyes closed and was focused on Eli, but immediately put her head up, looked at me, and said, "He has a really strong bond with her!" I guess the combination of Eli's physical response and whatever "feedback" she was getting from him gave her the impression that Eli is really attached to his sister. How sweet is that? I'd totally believe it.)

Caleb's parent/teacher conference also went well. Chris stayed home with the kids while I went up for the 15-minute appointment. Caleb has shown a lot of improvement and development with school stuff, but Chris and I still have lingering concerns about whether we should have kept him home another year, and whether we should hold him back next year. His teacher, though, doesn't have any concerns. She said that he is right on track with where he needs to be at this point in the year, and that as long as he keeps progressing at this rate, he will be ready to move on. I was relieved and encouraged to hear that, and to hear all the little tidbits of information that tell me that his teacher really knows and cares about him. She even knew the girls' names, and that we call Lily "Lulu". I think that's pretty good for a teacher with 17 other kids in her class!