I found it!

For the unaware (or incredibly dense), I live in NC. Here in lovely NC, we have 17 public universities in the UNC system. They are all over NC, and most are pretty self explanatory as far as location goes (UNC Wilmington, UNC Chapel Hill), or big enough that you just know (Appalachian State, NC State). Well there is one school that didn't have a damn cluse where it was. UNC Pembroke. I've never heard of Pembroke, never met anyone from there, or known anyone who went there. You could have told me that school was in the mountains or on the beach and I totally would have believed you. Well driving to Thanksgiving, I found UNC Pembroke. It is in the middle of absoluetly freaking nowhere, about half way between Wilmington and Charlotte. I actually woke Jay up to tell him I found it - he was not amused, and did not care. But now you all know, UNC Pembroke does exist.

17 Months

Just a few days shy of 17 months, and Finn is officially weaned. So as many of you may know, I was still nursing Finn twice a day, once when he woke up, and once before he went to bed. I was perfectly happy letting him continue nursing twice a day as long as he wanted. Well, in the past 4 or so weeks, he has started biting, which hurts like hell, and I honestly don't think he was getting much, if any, milk anymore. He would nurse in the morning for about 20 minutes, and then immediately sit up and say eat (which in Finn language means stuff as much food into my pie hole as you can right now lady, or suffer the consequences). So if he was getting anything, it wasn't satisfying him in the least. So knowing full well when the biting picked up (and when I planned a 4 day trip for New Years that did not include Finn) that Finn's nursing was coming to a close, I started to reintroduce milk to him. He started on cows milk just after he was 12 months old, but I stopped after about 6 weeks or so, it was really bugging his tummy. So I slowly began to reintroduce cows milk, and he had zero issues this time. He's been drinking two to three sippys of milk a day for quite some time now, so I wasn't worried he would be losing anything nutritionally.

I debated how I was going to wean him. I wanted it to be the least traumatic way possible for him, and the least painful way possible for my boobs. There have been quite a few nights where Jay has put Finn down, or mornings when he has woken up with him, so I knew skipping one session wouldn't be a problem, but we've only skipped two in a row twice. I originally planned to cut out the am or pm feeding first, and then cut out the second a few weeks later. As it turns out, that was completely unnecessary. Sunday morning, I nursed him like normal. Sunday night, Jay put him to bed, and Monday morning, Jay got up with him. So far, so good, as I wasn't in pain, and Finn wasn't asking to nurse (he used the sign for 'milk'). Monday night I figured would be a true test, Jay was working that night, so I put Finn down alone. I'd never put him down without nursing before, but figured I'd give it a chance. So I went through the whole bedtime hoopla, and instead of nursing, I picked him up, gave him a big hug, and put him in his crib. He said night night, I shut the door, and he slept through the night. I was SHOCKED. I expected this big to do. Nothing. So I went with it, and now Wednesday morning, and Finn still has not asked to nurse. Nothing has changed in his behavior or sleep, and he still hasn't nursed since Sunday. I'm thinking this just confirms my suspicion that he wasn't really getting much at all while he was nursing.

So that's the end. I feel good. My biggest goal was 12 months (which had a lot to do with being too cheap to buy formula). After 12 months, it was all a bonus. And for the concerned parties, my boobs are fine. No engorgement, so soreness, no anything. Except now I need to (and in my opinion deserve to) go bra shopping. And bras aren't cheap.

Sunday morning at Home Depot

I kind of want to start going every Sunday morning, LOL. I went after my photoshoot this morning to get my brother's birthday gift (hey Josh - put it towards fixing your bathroom!!!!), and to get some glue to fix my car. That's right, I clipped my side mirror off of my car, and glued that sucker back on. In all fairness, the previous owner had already glued it on once (although I was none the wiser until I knocked it off), so I'm not doing any more damage. So Finn and I get there at 9:45 this morning, and I was worried they wouldn't be open yet. Much to my surprise, they open at 8 am on Sundays. Finn was in his own little toddler heaven with a huge ass store to roam around in, and lots of people to look at. And I was totally cracking up. There were only two types of people at the Home Depot this morning. Cute couples, coffee in hand, obviously getting ready to start a project, and men no longer with their wives, looking bitter and worn down, obviously already fully into a project. I was so amused it wasn't even funny. After I got the glue and gift card I wanted to walk around, because I can find things I want anywhere, even Home Depot, but one small boy who will remain nameless, decided to throw a tantrum in the middle of the store. Sprawled out, on his back, screaming (I don't even know why, and this was only about 4 hours ago if that gives you any idea how unfortunately frequent these tantrums are becoming). Speaking of, that same small boy is throwing cheerios onto the floor right now, saying 'oh no' after every one he drops. Lovely.

4 year olds

In the last 30 or so hours, I have photographed three 4 year olds, on three separate occasions. I bow down to the mother of a 4 year old! All of them had endless energy and ran my ass out. I'm not sure if I can hand;e a 4 year old full time. I may be loaning out Finn when he turns 4 if this is the case. Julia keeps telling me Eva is the same way too. Seriously, do you women live on redbull? LOL!

You may resume blogstalking as usual

I was informed my photography is inhibiting the blogstalkers. My bad. I will say, it is helping immensly as far as holiday expenses (and my trip to DC for New Years :-) ), and I really enjoy it, so I'm not complaining, but because I love my blogstalkers, I will try harder to post.

So like every good Twilight fan, I went and saw the midnight showing of New Moon last night with Lisa, Dina, and Dina neighbors. The movie was as expected. As a stand alone movie, no, it's not that good. As a movie based on the book, filled with angst, shirtlessness, and love triangles? It's awesome. I enjoyed it, and will likely watch it an unhealthy amount of times once it comes on DVD, just like I did Twilight. I will say, while being vague (although it's not ruining anything), that Alice's vision of Edward and Bella in the future is a total joke. I laughed (as did every one else in the theater). That was my only real issue with the movie. It cut out all the boring parts of the book, and attempted to cover all the major points in the story (although the Bella and Jacob love story could have used more... well, more anything, it was lacking). Lisa and I would also like to note that under no uncertain terms should you EVER consider mixing red bull and red wine (not in one glass - although that would suck too - I just mean mixing in your stomach. It's just a bad call all around.

In I swear I'm not a fangirl news, Jay and I are headed to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Charlotte next week for afew days for Thanksgiving, and get to see my Grandma which I"m excited about. I swore I was not going to do Black Friday, especially since I'll be out of town, but I have changed my stance and you will find me at a Charlotte area Best Buy before the sun comes up next Friday. Joy. Shopping before sunrise doesn't exactly make my hot list, but I'm super cheep, and a deal hunter, so I'm doing it.

That's about all I've got right now. I swear I'll try harder this week. Swear.

Video

Sorry I'm still a crappy blogger. I can't promise it's going to get much better until after the holidays.

For the interested, we took Finn to the ped last week, he weights just over 25lbs and was 32". 50th percentile all around. Not bad for the kid who came out in the upper 90th percentile!!

Here is a video of Finn's latest words :)

WTF Nichole!

I know that's what you're all saying as you wonder if I'm ever going to post again. Sorry. I have been sooooo busy (in the good way!) with Nichole Louise Photography. Not only have I had fairly consistent shoots, its all the work after the shoots! I had no idea how much really goes into all of this. After my biggest shoot (Jamie and Tiffany's wedding reception) I had over 500 photos to proof and then edit. I made it through those, and after 4 days, and probably close to 10 hours, I had 144 fully edited photos for Jamie and Tiffany. Then Jamie asked for a leather bound album, which took about 6 more hours to get laid out, and then her mom asked for an album, and at least I was able to eliminate the learning curve, but that was still another 4 hours. Don't misread, I have loved every single second of it, and learned a TON, but the last time I worked 20 hours in a week was when I was pregnant 16 moths ago. And that's not counting the time communicating with other clients, working on marketing materials, working on the website, and being dorky and studying to try and better my work. At one point this week, Jay was looking over my shoulder and made a comment that 'it's weird watching [me] work'. And like a true sap, I got excited that he realized it was work, and I wasn't spending all of this time playing on http://www.perezhilton.com

So I'm sorry I've been MIA, I'll get better eventually! I should have another post tonight or tomorrow though, as I am finally taking Finnegan for his 15 month visit this morning. Only 6 weeks late.