Ellie's Baptism

Wow - I finally found some time to blog again! After two weeks of full time working, I've decided I'm not a "working mother" - I'm a "work and then mother and then work some more and then mother again". But I wouldn't want to miss one minute of any of it! I couldn't decide on the title for this blog. It technically is all about Ellie's baptism, but an alternative title could have been "Confessions of a Breastfeeder". I'll get to that in a minute. Ellie had both of her great grandmothers and two great aunts, Kathy and Judy, in town as well as a whole host of other friends and family members to celebrate her Baptism. We started off the weekend on Friday night by going to see Mimi and Judy at Lee's parents house and then having barbecue. The big event was on Saturday at 10:30 AM.

I had called the church on Friday morning to confirm the event and to ask if there was someplace I could privately feed Ellie beforehand. They said all of the rooms were taken so I came up with it brilliant (so I thought) idea of breastfeeding her in a confessional. It's quiet, private - perfect. They said that would be fine. We got there at 9:20 AM and I scoped out the confessionals. The one to the right of the priest's door just had a kneeler inside and so did the one to the left so I decided to use the one of the middle, usually reserved for the priest, because it had a chair. I locked the door and got down to business.

I should also mention that we had a photographer that was coming at 10AM. My dress zipped up the back so I unzipped it down to the waist but then realized that if I didn't take it off that it was going to be messed up for the pictures, so I just took it off. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly as I sat in the confessional in my thong panties breastfeeding when someone started banging on the door and trying to turn the doorknob. I thought it was Lee because I told him to stand guard, but I later found out he went to Starbucks. So the knocking continues and all of the sudden I hear an elderly woman say "Father?!! Father are you in there?!!". Oh crap. "Um, hi... I'm um feeding my baby in her. I called the church and they said-" "FATHER??! FATHER ARE YOU IN THERE?!!" I looked around and realized that the confessional closet was soundproof so the eager confessor couldn't hear me.

Then the door to the "Open Confessional" side opened and I heard someone moving around. Sweet Jesus - I'm about to hear a 95 year old woman's confession. Then she exited and came over to the "Closed Confessional" side. I figured out she was one of the women there to clean the church so I said "Hi there - I'm really sorry to be a bother but -". She cut me off and I think she was deaf because she screamed "That's okay Father!! You just do what you need to do in there!!". Wonderful. Now she thinks our priest has holed himself up in the confessional. When I finally exited, another little old lady who had obviously witnessed all of this was sitting in a pew praying the rosary looking at me like I'd been in there sacrificing small animals. Could all of this been avoided if I'd just brought a bottle? Yes. But when I had this baby, she ate my brain and I can't problem solve anymore so cut me some slack.

So back to the baptism... it was really beautiful and so many friends and family there. Ellie got a little vocal toward the end of the ceremony, but didn't make a peep when they poured the water over her head. Kathy said she's a future swimmer. My dad is Ellie's godfather and Lee's sister, Elizabeth, is the godmother. Afterwards, we had a luncheon at Lee's parents house catered by Angela's. It was wonderful. Since Mimi's birthday is the 18th, we went ahead and celebrated with a dinner that night. On Sunday, we went over to my parent's house so Ellie could spend some time with her great grandmother and great aunt. Ellie had been good all weekend, but I could tell that all of the passing her around was getting to her because she was getting cranky. She slept like a rock both nights.

Ellie has been doing very well at daycare. I really like her teachers and they seem very attentive to all of the children. I think they thought I was trying to starve her because they asked me to up the amount I'm sending with her in the bottles. She's up to 6 oz. in the two bottles I send. Full Ellie = happy Ellie. I'm still going at lunch to feed her which is working out fine. Because she's wearing 6 month clothing now, she went to school in all new outfits every day this week - and had a blowout every day. I guess she's testing my stain fighting abilities. When I was feeding her on Wednesday and Thursday, she had a blowout while I was feeding her. We had a near miss on my clothing both days. I told her that I felt honored that she was so excited to see me that she crapped her pants, but we were going to have to stop meeting that way. She also wants to touch my face all the time while I'm holding her. She'll reach up and start patting my cheek or grab my lip. Very cute until she grabs and pulls my lip.

One more picture - it's four generations.