Life on the Happier Side

I haven't posted since my February update, so a quick recap of it:

Life was miserable for the weeks following that post.  She had a few good days and got worse than before (or maybe not worse, but it felt worse because her crying did not stop, but it was probably the same amount of crying).  When we took her in for her 6 month check-up she had lost apr. 10 ounces from when we took her in 2 weeks before that check-up.

So our doctor told me we should bottle feed her (breastmilk or formula, didn't matter, just wanted to check ounces).  After an extremely emotional weekend I made the decision to completely stop nursing.  We would feed bottles and I would pump until I dry up (getting sick shortly after that really sped up that process!).

I can say that although it was really really hard for me to stop nursing, it was the absolute best decision in our situation.  I had been so stressed out for so long, I just needed to be able to let go of something.  She had been nursed up till 6 months and I got her through winter.  So stopping then was perfectly fine with me, just hard emotionally.  I have theories as to how we got to where we were, so if anyone would like to know more about those, please contact me privately.  Maybe some day I will write publicly about those theories, but right now is not that day.

Since we switched to bottles all the time Ruth has become a very happy baby.  We hear lots and lots of babbling, she is become a more solid sitter and starting to hold herself in a stand when holding onto something (like the pew at Church it is the perfect height for her and perfect width for her hands).  That is something Samuel wouldn't hardly do until he was 1 year old!  He just did not like standing and Ruth has always loved standing.

I am now getting more excited about life again, though the stress of this year has left me with a mess, a messy house, always just barely keeping up with the class I teach and other things, so now I finally have the energy to start focusing on those other important things!

Something Ruth achieved recently that Samuel never did, was injuring my hip!  Saying Ruth loves bath time may be an understatement because she LOVES bath time.  In fact, she loves it so much that almost 2 weeks ago she splashed so hard she got lots of water on the floor.  I normally bathe her in a tub in the kitchen sink and as I shifted the weight between my feet I ended up on the floor doing splits.  Now my hip has been really sore!  A few days after that happened I could go up stairs normally and as of yesterday I have started to be able to go down stairs normally.  Maybe in 2 weeks I can start running like I was planning to 2 weeks ago?