Today is a very big day for Fraser, both in terms of "firsts" and "lasts." This is, of course, Fraser's very first Valentine's Day so I will join him in wishing you all a very happy Valentine's Day! It also looks like this will be Fraser's very first snow storm (at least the morning should be snow before it turns into freezing rain and ice, otherwise known as, Pretty New England Death Weather) and we took the opportunity this morning to play in the snow. Fraser seemed to enjoy the novelty of the snow, and didn't mind the cold, though as you can see he had a little trouble remaining in a seated position due to the mass of his snowsuit.

Today Fraser will also have his very last bottle of breast milk. As most of you know Fraser never learned to latch on correctly so, in order to provide him with breast milk, I pumped for four and a half months. Fraser had all breast milk for that time and then we began to supplement with formula. However, since I was pumping more milk than Fraser was drinking I was able to freeze enough milk so that he continued to have 18 ounces of breast milk a day until Christmas and then 12 ounces a day until last week. He has now been having six ounces a day for the past week and today will be the very very ever-lovin-last day of breast milk.

A few people have asked if I will pump again if our next baby doesn't learn to latch either, and the answer is yes but for a far far shorter time. Maybe a month. Maybe less. Don't get me wrong, I have done all the research on the benefits of breast milk and, if it were entirely up to me I would love to breastfeed. It is not entirely up to me however (as I am beginning to appreciate that nothing in my life may be entirely up to me again). Pumping is an insanely time consuming process (at least every four hours, 24 hours a day, and took approximately 45 minutes per session just to pump, then add time to wash the bottle and the breast pump and you can see why I might just be the tiniest bit bitter about the whole expereince) and, while I'm overall glad I did it, I think in this case ignorance was bliss. If I had known how time consuming and exhausting it was going to be I'm not sure I would have started. As it was only my incredible stubbornness kept me pumping as long as I did. So, I guess we can chalk this up to the first thing I went overboard on with the first baby that I will be far more flexible and relaxed about with the second baby.

Now that that is out of the way I can focus renewed energy on childproofing our house with dozens of baby gates, door locks, toilet seat locks, anti-tip furniture straps, cushioned table covers and bumpers, magnetic door alarms, and miles and miles of bubble wrap. I don't consider this a waste of time or energy of course since I am SURE I will take exactly the same reasonable precautions with our next kid.