Chrismukkah-tastic

We knocked holiday cheer OUT OF THE PARK on Saturday with a family photo shoot for our Christmas cards, a trip to see Santa at the mall, and a stop by the tree farm for not one but 2 trees.  Phew!

Cooper was underwhelmed

No baby carriers allowed in the breakable shop, so we waited while Ben bought the trees, a stand, and some ironicaly unbreakable ornaments

Cooper was wearing the most ridiculous elf outfit-- this picture does not do it justice

I think if we built this house in the winter, we'd have a fireplace with a mantle to hang our stockings.  Because we built the house in the summer, Ben had to move a couple pictures to make room for these.

The upstairs tree-- all of the breakable ornaments are on this one.

Downstairs tree, home of all of our plastic, wood, and handmade ornaments.  Also, damn there's a lot of blinds in this corner.

 I am fairly annoyed because there are no pictures of me at all from yesterday (except our family pictures of course), and I had on a cute shirt that hid my fat donut and cute hair.  I was too preoccupied to pose because we experienced our first breastfeeding hurdle yesterday, and I did not handle it well at all.  Long story short:  I chewed a shitload of spearmint gum (like 10 packs in the last 3 days), and it screwed up my milk supply BIG TIME.  I didn't realize that would happen until yesterday when Cooper was screaming at the breast after trying and trying and trying to get a let down.  I fuh-reaked out especially because he hates drinking bottles.  He managed to choke down enough pumped milk here and there to take the edge off his hunger so he could stand to put the effort into nursing longer.  He had tons of wet and dirty diapers and 8 nursing sessions, so it wasn't the crisis I made it out to be, but it still freaked me out.  Without knowing that spearmint was bad, Ben and I started talking about things I added to my decaf-coffee and graham crackers diet, and we wondered if the gum was making my milk taste funny, so I had already stopped chewing it by the time I turned to the Google today to see what the hell was going on.  For a few (terrifying) minutes, I wondered if I might be pregnant, but then I read about herbs that affect milk.  Cooper was also really fussy at the breast in the days after we made our Thanksgiving a home, and I thought maybe the awesome cranberry-oatmeal-walnut cookies I made from HyVee cookie dough were to blame because nuts can bother babies.  But then I read that sage can screw with milk supply, and I had bought a whole bunch of fresh sage and rubbed it on the entire freaking meal.  Ooops.  So, in conclusion, I am going to grab some Mother's Milk Tea tomorrow after a breakfast of oatmeal, and tonight, I am devoting my evening to drinking dark beer because I am a giver.  I *think* the gum was the culprit, although tonight, 24 hours after I stopped chewing it, I still have a really slow let down.  This is the first time in almost 3 months that I have had to think twice about breastfeeding.  Coop gained weight in the hospital, and we never looked back.  Ah, Cooper.  He is a baby who is so awesome he makes you want to have more babies.  I am going to feel really bad if my obsessive gum habit keeps him from his beloved milk.