Baby Girl's Fist 6 Months (and two weeks)

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Nursing in Public

I guess I'm not very modest but I don't get embarrassed about breastfeeding in public at all, even without a cover. The way I see it, if someone has a problem with me breastfeeding in public, its just that: their problem. Not mine. I just don't see it as sexual in the least. If I wear a tank top underneath and pull that down and then lift my overshirt there is basically nothing showing anyway. It just looks like I have a snuggly, sleeping baby. I have had TWO experierenes when I haven't used a cover in public and poeple would lean in and say "aww so sweet". Who knows, maybe they were undercover lactavists, but I'm pretty sure they didn't even know I was breastfeeding. Compare that to the completely failed attempts where I have tried to use a cover and just managed to bring MORE attention to myself.

I'm actually more uncomfortable nursing without a cover in a few situations at home or in familiar private spaces rather than "in public". Each tends to include a male presence of some kind and people who I actually care about.
Situation one: breastfeeding around a woman relative or friend when her husband/boyfriend is also there. Does she expect me to cover up? Is she going to think I am trying to expose my self to her partner if I don't? Probably not, but it still might make them uncomfortable.
Situation two: breastfeeding around male relatives.  I'm sure said male relative feels awkward because breasts are heavily sexualized in our society and sexuality does not mix well with family.

So, in each case a downward spiral of awkwardness will usually ensue: they become uncomfortable and then I'm feeling ashamed because I'm making them uncomfortable, and all I'm trying to do is to feed my baby! At these times I have had mixed success with a recieving blanket or even an unwrapped infinity scarf. It's becoming harder to cover though, now that she is older and wants go kick things off. Again, I feel that an under tank top, over shirt combination gives me the most coverage, and then I just do the best I can with a cover.

I will say that both situations above exclude my dad.  If my breastfeeding in front of him does make him uncomfortable, I can't tell in the least, and I am so appreciative for that! So for anyone who knows a breastfeeding mom, please try your best not to wig out, it will only make her feel worse!

Breast Storage Capacity

ILLL Breastfeeding Guide: Tips & Products

This pamphlet on Breastfeeding Tips from Le Leche League is really quite helpful. It's short and can be read at one sitting, but it really touches on all the basics.                               

Wishes for My Baby Girl

My Vote For Best Childbirth book!

If you are pregnant, I STRONGLY recommend purchasing this book: 

Pregnancy, Childbirth, and theNewborn: The Complete Guide by Penny Simkin, April Bolding, Ann Keppler, andJanelle Durham 4th ed.

 

It was by far my favorite out of all the books I had, SO GREAT. If you are looking for a book that breaks down pregnancy week by week or month by month, this is not the book you want. What this book does have, is the most comprehensive, straight forward, judgement free facts on the stages of childbirth and pain relief methods (including natural coping strategies) I found in any book or on the web. There is so much information out there, but not all of it is easy to read. If you know you want pain relief during labor, there is a great list of options which breaks  down the benefits and potential risks of each. If you know you want a natural birth, there are many natural pain relief methods included as well. There are no scare tactics for either choice, just straightforward facts. The exhaustive overview of childbirth alone makes this book worth a read, but it also includes information on eating well, exercise, and newborn care.

Pumping

Pumping at work has luckily been going really well. I was a bit scared because I had used up a lot of my stash before we went back to work and so I didn't really have a safety net in case we ran into problems. My employer lets me use a little private room and I pump on my regular breaks: 15mins in the AM, a 1/2hr lunch, and 15min in the PM. The amount  I produce fluctuates a bit day to day; the lowest amount has been 11oz and the most has been 16oz. I consistently produce more in the AM and it sort of dwindles as the day goes on. Also, my right side always makes more and I still get lopsided sometimes. A normal day could be something like 6oz in the morning 5oz at lunch and 3oz in the afternoon. I hear it is best if you actually cover up the bottles as you pump, because it might stress you out and you will produce less. I don't cover up my bottles, but I don't pay any attention until the end. Then I usually try breast compressions to squeeze out as much as I can :P. I will even manually express some extra at the end sometimes.

 I have been able to keep up with what baby girl eats a daycare so far. At first she was eating five 3oz bottles a day or two 3oz bottle and two 4oz bottles. But since our vacation at Christmas she has been eating quite a bit less, usually only four bottles a day ranging between 2-3oz. This makes sense though, since at first she was sleeping pretty much through the night, maybe waking up once. Now, she wakes up at least twice, more like three or four times each night to feed. I'm not sure if this is the "reverse-cycling" they speak of, or just a phase, but we will see.

Oh! and if you are pumping before you go back to work and feeding your baby at the same time, you will probably only get .5-2oz on each side unless you have an oversupply or are engorged. When I was still at home, pumped a few times when I was engorged and got 4-5oz on one side, but other times I tried didn't even make 1oz. My husband was really concerned, but it makes sense, I mean I had just nursed so there wasn't that much left. I've noticed my body is very efficient adjusting the amount of milk I make to what baby girl is eating. So, if you did continue to pump after feedings each day, you will start to make more milk (that is why they recommend pumping after you feed to boost your supply) but the last thing I wanted to do (or had time for!) after nursing so much was to be stuck in the chair pumping. It works a little better when I just nurse on one side and pump on the other at the same time, as long as baby girl isn't kicking the pump off of me haha. I will still do this once in a while if I didn't make as much one day and want a bit more for day care.

Throwback Thursday: My Lovely Baby Bump!

 

 

 

 

Photo credit: Haley J. Photography

Baby Girl's Nursery :)

We moved into our house TWO WEEKS before I had baby girl. So, it amazes me we even had anything in her nursery at all! But thanks to our amazing friends an family, it was painted and all put together by the time she came home. It was actually pretty much done before, except the changing table came in the mail the day before I went into labor. Thankfully, that got put up by her Papa while we were in the hospital. The only thing I have added since are the rug, the elephant picture, and the many stuffed animals she has received as gifts. 

Daddy painted the bookshelf the weekend before I went into labor (after I tried, completely failed, and begged him to fix it). I found the idea to make a bow organizer from a picture frame on pinterest, which turned out to be the easiest task ever, much more suitable for my pregnancy brain. And I used a baby bag from one of my shower gifts for the print. Oh and my mom gave baby girl the fairy decals for Christmas, so those are relatively new too. The only thing I want now is something to go over the changing table.

It might be a tiny room, but I sure love it :)

We have made the transition to cloth diapering!

We are still navigating these very uncharted waters. But so far so good. At this point I really like how the sized diapers fit. Baby girl is almost 6 months old and she is still only around 13lbs. So, the one-size diapers are pretty bulky on her. But I'm torn because if I by too many sized diapers it negates the cost benefits of choosing cloth. I think finding the right balance is going to be the biggest challenge for us.

Here are the diapers we have so far rated from worst fit to best fit:

• Fuzzibunz, One size elite, Pocket diaper- Way too big as of now, and no snaps to customize rise UPDATE: this just shows how much of a novice I am. Fuzzibunz does not have snaps, but the elastic around the legs is adjustable. This is an interesting theory, not sure if I have a preference between this or rise snaps as of yet, except that I did make the mistake of unbuttoning both ends and had to fish the elastic out with tweezers! Mommy brain really got me that time. The diaper is still quite big, probably the bulkiest, but it is soft and I think I will like it when baby girl gets a bit older.
  
  
  
  
• Blueberry, One size, Pocket diaper- Going to be bulky for a while, but it does have snaps to adjust the rise, which helps.
  
  
  
  
• Tots Bots, Easy fit One sice, All in One diaper- Pretty good, has snaps to adjust the rise    
  
  
  
  
• Grovia, One size, Pocket diaper- also has snaps to adjust the rise, still a little big for her but less bulky than the Blueberry
• Thirsties, Size small, All in One diaper but can be stuffed with extra pocket, very good but only rated for up to 18lbs
  
  
  
  
• Bottombumpers, Size small, All in One diaper, Side Snapping-Fits very, very good, but is only rated for up to 18lbs
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

The thirsties diaper comes in two sizes and the bottombumpers comes in three but I am skeptical baby girl will ever fit into the largest size before she is potty trained. I do really like the way the bottombumpers fits, its very snug and trim. I will definitely get the next size up but I'm not sure if I'm going to get anymore of the size small. I think instead, the very next purchase I will make is more of the thirsties small. I really like this diaper and it is only $16 where all the others were $20-$23. Plus, I can get them at a local store and not wait for them to come in the mail. The only bummer is the prints they have just aren't as cute as some of the others.

I'm still waiting for the Alva Baby cloth diapers and the size medium Blueberry to arrive.

Boob hats!

Did anyone catch this episode of Parks and Rec last week? Hilarious! Kinda how I felt writing that last blog post!

Our breastfeeding experience (first 5 months)

I wrote this for my daughter, and felt like sharing.

Hey baby girl, if you're reading this, I'm guessing your not a baby any longer :). I hope you have chosen to breastfeed your own children. I know that it isn't easy at the beginning, but hey, you've got some experience under your belt, even if it's on the other end. I didn't have any! And neither did anyone in my or your dad's family. Don't get me wrong, everyone was supportive, I didn't have any purposefully negative comments from anyone. But, I just think that some of the comments that were made, would not have been made if they had experienced the same pressure that I was going through. Maybe I was just being extra sensitive. But, really, what is more stressful than feeling like you aren't making enough food for you baby. Especially since you were just a little peanut, I sometimes felt that people thought you needed more. It was hard not knowing how much milk you were getting at one sitting, and slightly unsettling when you would eat for almost an hour at a time. Had I known then, that even though the books say every two hours, it is very common for babies to feed more often than that than I would have breathed a little easier in those first weeks, and had more confidence in myself as a new mother. I think that was the largest hurdle.

I would like to believe that when you have children, the skepticism that surrounds breastfeeding will be gone.  But, just in case its not and you have been hurt by any comments, please know that their concern only comes out of love. I'll tell you what I wish I could go back and tell myself: You are doing a good job. You are the most perfect source of nourishment for your child just keep believing in yourself. I remember when I learned that indigenous peoples breastfeed for just a few minutes several times an hour, it took a lot of pressure off. It just seemed like, hey there isn't a "right" way to do this, it's just what works for each mother and baby. I felt justified.

So now let me go over the more day to day trials we went through. We breastfeed right away, about 10 or 15 minutes after you were born. I asked to do skin to skin and then I asked to try to breastfeed. It was hard to tell if you were really taking anything in at that point. After we admired for you an hour or two, you were going to go get a bath and a shot in the nursery and daddy was going to go with you while I got settled int our new room. But you came back rather quickly because they thought you should try eating again. That time, I could tell you were really nursing. Honestly, I don't remember too much about that particular experience. I do remember, that the next morning, the lactation consultant came in to help me on my left side because it is somewhat "inverted". To make sure that I was producing on that side, I pinched myself and pulled a bit and, there it was, a drop of liquid gold: colostrum. I started nursing you in a football hold on that side, I used the foot ball hold and the cross cradle hold almost exclusively for the first 6 weeks (ish), which is funny because now I never use them. I think they are just the easiest ways to hold a tiny baby and have the most control over the latch.

Everything went great at the hospital and at home until maybe 4 days later, I noticed I was quite lopsided. I thought the left side was smaller because it couldn't produce enough, so I tried to feed extra on it so that it would make more and even me out. Well, in retrospect, I think it was really that I got engorged on my right side because when I finally pumped it down, it didn't get that big again. Meanwhile, you were having a harder time latching on my engorged right side, and it started to get a "crack" (really basically an open wound). This I think made engorgement worse since you couldn't suck effectively, and as a result, I the milk ducts clogged up. It got so bad that I ended up with a small bout of mastitis (again only recognized in hindsight). I had a red patch on my breast, I had a bad headache, and had really bad chills. It also happened at a time when I was really exhausted, which can lower your immune system and, whala -mastitis. So, like I said, I pumped, and the strings of rubbery milk clogs came out. I remember I filled up that little 5oz bottle that comes with the pump right to the brim.

We were over the clogged duct/engorgement/mastitis huddle, and on the the next- my sore cracked nipple. So I started to pump on that side and feed on my left, hoping that my right side would heal. Well, after a few days, my right nipple had NOT started to heal AND my left nipple had started to crack. It was pretty painful I won't lie, mostly right when you would latch on. But when the pain was bad, I used to tell myself that it was better that I was in a little pain than you being in pain.  I had heard a lot of stories of moms having to change formulas because they would upset their baby's bellies. So, I tried lansinoh lanolin cream (a side note here: lansinoh is the brand and lanolin cream is what it is, well some of the midwifes/doctors only refer to it as lansinoh and when I said I was using lanolin cream apparently they didn't get it because then they would recommend I try lansinoh :/ I expected more but from trained professionals but what can I say), salt water rinse, tea bags, leaving my shirt off as much as possible, and taking extra vitamin C with no luck. So, next I tried nipple shields. Mom was staying with us at this point, so she went to pick up some cool gel pads from the lactation consultants and some nipple shields at the store. I used the nipple shields for almost a week probably. You had no problem with them. It was quite painful at this point, but the nipple shields helped a bit. At first I thought they were making you more gassy, but now I think that was probably just coincidence. Then it seemed like my supply had gone down, which we thought was probably due to the shields, and so I stopped using them. At that point, the pain was pretty much the same with or without them anyway. The low supply could have also been the fact that I didn't eat until 3pm one day because it was a fussy day and I just didn't have time.

Who knows what caused it, but the next few days were probably the most stressful breastfeeding wise, I just felt like you weren't getting enough, one of the days you didn't poop at all (when you had been going 2-4 times a day). We started giving you some of the milk that I had pumped and frozen. I felt horrible. But you eventually did poop and got back on schedule. I started taking fenugreek as a supplement (in seed form ground up and put into pills), and my supply did seem to come back after a day or two. I thought it was the fenugreek but your dad just figured it was the natural reaction since I had stopped using the shields. That's the other thing that was so hard about those first few weeks, not knowing anything for sure, but I guess that is just what parenting is about. Because I have used fenugreek since then when I've been pumping and not really noticed much difference, I think your dad was probably right. It it is definitely true that it makes your sweat smell like maple syrup though! While it is popular in Indian/middle eastern diets, it is also used in maple syrup to give it that smell.

So, back to the saga of the sore nipples. When you were about 4 weeks old I went into a breastfeeding support group that EMMC had once a month. I showed them my positioning and latch, and they said it looked perfect. They tried to give me some advice but I basically said I tried all of it already. It was nice to hear the other moms talk about their experiences and know that, while pain is not normal and you should seek help to fix it, pain is definitely common. I didn't feel so isolated any longer. In fact, every single mom their had some sort of issue to deal with at first, most experienced sore nipples, but one was dealing with an oversupply. One of the moms had a story very similar to ours, and told me that she just stopped trying things and eventually she healed. I laughed to myself when the lactation consultant said "yes, I like that advice", well it's pretty easy to say that now that I have told you nothing else worked!

My nipples finally healed completely at about 2 months, it definitely got a lot easier before that though. I've ofter heard that 6 weeks is when breastfeeding starts to get easier, and I think that was quite accurate for us. You were gaining perfectly and no more pain! I had made it! At some point I ended up getting clogged on my left side which lead to engorgement and mastitis symptoms again. I don't even remember when it was or why, except that it was during a time when I wasn't getting that much sleep again. So I definitely think there is truth about getting enough rest and keeping your immune system. When I look back at how far we come I am so proud! I think there was one point in each of those first weeks when I thought, I don't know if I can do this anymore, but I just kept doing it. And now it is so easy! No worrying to remember to bring formula or have to warm it up. There has been some situations where I have brought bottles of breastmilk with me but honestly its just so much easier to nurse, that I pretty much always choose that now no matter where we go. The only worry that I have now is that I won't be able to stop ;)

Why I Chose to Breastfeed

When I was pregnant, I knew I wanted to breastfeed because it was the natural form of feeding, that was enough for me, it was so obvious that I didn't need to hear all of the benefits. In fact, I was a little annoyed that at our childbirth class on breastfeeding was mostly about the benefits and not really about the techniques. I thought, "hey, I'm already convinced that th is is best, now tell me how to do it". But as she pointed out in the class, sometimes it gets tough, and if you know HOW MUCH better it is for your baby, you are more likely to stick with it. Since then I've found some really fascinating articles and podcasts (don't worry,  I will post links to them later). But I for now, I just want to mention some of the facts/ideas I found the most intriguing:

• There are many anti-infective properties to human milk, not all of which are even fully understood
• There are hormones in human milk that help to create a healthy metabolism
• There is tryptophan in breast milk (the stuff in turkey that makes you sleepy, highest amounts at night)
• Breast milk contains the necessary enzymes to digest it efficiently, so it all goes to baby in a nice little package
• Breastfeeding helps prevent ear infections- it is thought to result from both the immunological properties of the milk, but also the suckling motion of nursing at the breast (this also makes babies jaws stronger and can aid in speech later on)
• There is foremilk and hindmilk, which is like the meat+potatoes(higher in carbs & protein) and then dessert (high in fat) of a meal, although the shift is gradual through the feeding, and milk gets slowly higher in fat as the day goes on
• Human Milk Oligosaccharides (not found in formula-if it wasn't obvious enough) are prebiotics, antimicrobial, immune modulators and HMO-derived sialic acid is thought to be an essential nutrient for brain development
• There are four types of mammals with apes, marsupials and humans being in the "carry" category because their young are typically always carried. We have the milk with the lowest fat and protein and highest carb content which means they need to eat more often (basically round the clock) than the other types of mammals that might leave their young to hunt etc.

So there it is: Breast is Best! But, after all that I just have to say that your experience will be your experience, and if you chose to go with formula, or maybe even a combination of formula and breastmilk, I'm sure you made the right choice. You know your baby the best, you know your situation the best, and you know what will work the best.

I made the plunge!

I have been debating blogging for the past few months now and finally decided just to give it a try. So here it goes. Hello world wide web, nice to meet you!