Crabby mom

I’m in a foul mood tonight. Cranky and negative for no apparent reason. Cranky enough that Mark offered to go buy me some dark chocolate, which I had expressed a craving for. That did seem to help.

I wonder if I might be PMS’ing, something I haven’t experienced in a while. Or I might be feeling blue because the breastfeeding is really reaching its end. I know I’ve written about this before. But it seems this might be the end end. There is still milk in both breasts, though River will only take the left, if that. I later discovered that the milk from the right breast now has a salty taste, so I can understand why he goes for the other.

In the past few days, he either sucks for a very short period of time, or he’ll see the breast and either turn his face away or shake his head no. Like “No mom, I’m over that now.”

OK, I’ll accept it. I really will. He’s 12 months old. He’ll be fine. I will probably have another child someday so it’s not the end of the breastfeeding experience. I will have extra freedom, like not necessarily having to get up for the morning feeding, not having to return before his bedtime feeding, not worrying about breastfeeding if I want to go out of town for a few days. Nevertheless, there’s always a certain sadness in being rejected. And a nostalgia for the special time we shared together and that he’s now moving beyond.

Good news for pregnant sweet tooths

A friend of mine forwarded me this study that should make pregnant sweets lovers feel a little better about their cravings. Women who ate high levels of chocolate during pregnancy had a better chance of having happy, smiling babies than those who ate lower levels of chocolate. Even if the woman was stressed out during pregnancy, if she indulged her chocolate cravings, her baby was less fearful of new situations at six months old than her stressed out compatriots who abstained. Researchers say it's possible that the chocolate consumption and happy babies might be related to a third, unknown factor. But they think that perhaps the chemicals in the chocolate resulted in positive mood changes in the mother passed on to the baby.

In my case, pregnancy brought on a sudden craving for Snickers and french fries. I continued eating at least one chocolate bar a day, probably more than one more often than I'd like to admit. I'd say River ranks very highly on smiliness, happiness and ease at adjusting to new situations.

So, if you are wavering between saving the calories and the caffeine from chocolate and making yourself feel better, indulging yourself might have positive benefits for baby.

How does your chocolate consumption or lack of it compare with the study results?