Young Party of Four

Tuesday,  July 30, 2013 12 Months/1 Year Old Dear Mackenzie, Happy 1 st birthday Smiley Girl!! I can’t believe that you are now officially a toddler. What on earth is going on around here? This has been an emotion week for me (and your Daddy though I think he doesn’t like to admit it) knowing that you were getting ready to turn a whole year old and you were leaving infancy and entering toddlerhood. I just can’t believe that it has been a whole year since we first met you face to face and fell in love. A few minutes old...   Your year appointment at the doctor isn’t until tomorrow so we are still unsure of your exact weight and height. I figure you are around 20 lbs and 29 or so inches. That is the same as what I said last month I think but your weight and height gain have slowed a lot in the last couple months, especially considering how fast you used to gain weight and height. You are still the happiest baby I have ever met. Just yesterday you

I've been spending a lot of time lately, as Kenzie nears her first birthday, thinking about and reflecting on something that has been a staple of my life for the last (almost) 12 months. Breastfeeding. I wanted to share my thoughts on the subject since it is something that has been so relevant in my (and our family's) life for so long now. I am also working through some mixed emotions myself related to breastfeeding (or nursing as I use them interchangeably) that I will mention later. First, I feel I should tell our breastfeeding story. That's right. We have a "story". I'm sure all first time, and maybe some second, third, or more time, moms do. Ours had a very rocky beginning as I hear a lot of these stories do. Anyone who reads our blog probably knows that Kenzie was born at 37 weeks via a C Section. I should stop here and tell you that this was never my "plan." I plan a lot. I'm a bit OCD when it comes to planning and when things don't g