Odds and Ends

Instead of several, little random posts, I wanted to mention some odds and ends from our life:

*I FEEL LIKE A MILLION BUCKS! I got a solid 7.5 hours of sleep last night. I don't think that has ever happened since Justus was born. I've been trying to nurse exclusively at night and in the night since that's when I often have the most milk. But last night Justus didn't want to nurse so I gave him a bottle and he slept 9 hours straight! I went to bed about an hour and a half after his bottle feeding. After 3 months of continually getting up every couple of hours in the night, it is undescribably awesome to get a good night of sleep! The first two months he was only getting up once a night but then he started needing more milk and so it's been rough from October on! If I can, I'd like to get him nursing more in the daytime and taking formula at night so I can feel this good more often!

*My nursing vacation didn't end up being much of a vacation (surprise...surprise!) Lots of things came up and life continued on at a busy pace as usual. I have been really trying to nurse as much as possible and I came to these conclusions:
-Pumping doesn't help increase my supply. When I pumped, I had no milk for him to get by nursing and when I nursed, I had nothing come out when pumping. They say supply keeps up with demand, but my body feels broken. It just feels like it will only give out so much and it's too tired to give out any more. So, I stopped pumping since it's a lot of extra time and work and now I just nurse him regularly as much as I can. My letdown, which has always been strong to the point of painful, feels broken too.
-I've accepted that my body doesn't produce enough for our little Chunk-a-Monk and so I'm okay with bottle-feeding half the time. Our little guy drinks about 4-6 4 oz. bottles of formula in a day and nurses 6-8 times a day, as well as taking about 1/3 C. of rice cereal a day in two different feedings.

*Has anyone else tried the eSaver program on your Safeway or Smith's card? I just got an e-mail about them today and signed up. Now I don't have to worry about clipping and organizing coupons (for Safeway anyway) because you load the coupons you want onto your card and when you go in and use your Safeway card, it not only takes off the Safeway discount, but also the Proctor and Gamble coupon amount too! Yeah! I'll have to see how it works out. This will help make things faster at the checkout.

*Justus is my easiest baby, hands down! I wish everyone could have a baby this easy. None of my babies have been really hard or difficult or had health issues or ear infections, but they've all always needed to eat frequently around the clock for about a year, which is the hardest part. Jer used to always cry before every nap and bedtime even though we tried to get him not to. He just needed to cry himself to sleep, I guess. He was also always really clingy and attached to Mama, and only Mama but a very happy, easygoing baby. Ali was a pretty good girl, but seemed to demand more than Justus does or maybe it just seemed that way since she was my first and I wasn't used to the demands of being a mom. Justus hardly ever cries now that he's getting enough to eat and smiles a lot, is content to play with toys for a long time in his bouncy chair or exersaucer, likes to cuddle but doesn't need it, will take a pacifier but is fine without one, and happily endured a 5-hour shopping trip to Wal-Mart the other day! He's always been a great napper and goes down instantly without a fuss. I realize he could change and he does seem more opinionated than Jer was, but so far he is our easiest kid yet, which is what we expected during the pregnancy since he was the least-active in the womb!