Hippie Mom in a Preppy World

Archive for the ‘Team Fox’ Category

It’s been a long time since I updated, various circumstances kept me from making progress on my draft for the longest time.  Wordpress has gone through various glitches and upgrades that have mutilated my draft and repeatedly lost my layout so this post will be barebones because my formatting still disappears everytime I try to save.

Normally I’ll tinker around with WordPress until I force it into submission but add to that the fact that I now work during the time that I previously blogged and it’s harder to sit down and properly tinker or allow inspiration to flow….

A lot has happened in this time that would take me too long to write and would further delay a post so instead I’ll summarize it by saying, one night Shammy went to sleep a baby and woke up a toddler the next morning.

He is just a couple of weeks away from turning 1 year and he is already asserting his independence, testing boundaries and more.  Plus we now have the amusing acrobatics while breastfeeding and requests to breastfeed his toys.

In the time since my last post Shammy got his first couple of teeth and a few weeks later Shammy got officially sick needing his first trip to the doctor (outside well visits) and prescription.  Thankfully he is all recovered now and back to his smiling self.  I credit breastfeeding with his speedy recovery as when he stopped eating he would still nurse and when he refused pedialyte at the ER the doctor didn’t push it further because he saw him breastfeeding (the look that I got when they found that that he still breastfed at 10 months was something else altogether, lol).

My boobs have gradually adjusted to not pumping at work, the first day I gave myself a plugged duct complete with a milk blister that took Shammy a couple of days to work out but it has been getting better since then.  I am really enjoying my job although the office days are draining because of the massive amounts of driving that I have to do.  I have been out of training for almost 2 months and I feel like I am making a difference with moms and babies but sometimes it’s an uphill battle with my higher ups as they seem to be very pro-breastfeeding but anti-breast, if they could have a baby breastfeed through a shirt they probably would.  That is all that I will say on that matter.

Because of my job I have been really inspired and interested in becoming a CLE (Certified Lactation Consultant) but I would have to suddenly find myself with $700 that could only be used for education and not for one of my many bills to get the training for that, IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant) would be a better  thing to pursue but that one feels very unrealistic, at least for now.

I have found a breastfeeding friendly bathing suit almost by accident.  I had a gift card and decided that a new bathing suit was in order, my bikinis still fit but I now find that the elastic in the bottom sits right on my scar making them rather uncomfortable so I bought my first one piece in over 20 years, it’s got a very plunging neckline for easy access, I have no idea when I’ll wear it for the first time.  Looking at it, it completely fits the criteria given by magazines as the bathing suit for a postpartum body, lol.  And that’s how I added yet another item to my “you know you are a breastfeeding mom when…” list, when you evaluate the merits of clothing based on ease of boob access.

I have been entertained planning Shammy’s first birthday party.  It has turned out to be a much smaller affair than originally as most people will not be coming which is a good thing since he won’t remember it anyway.  I just wish that I knew it was going to be this small before I started shopping, oh well, some stuff may end up on Ebay.

My husband had the idea to create an e-mail account for Shammy, this way we can write e-mails to him as he grows up and attach pictures, etc.  Once we get off our asses and finally send the first message we plan to share the address with family so that they can do the same.

 

Today’s rant is moms that say that they are going to “try” breastfeeding.  It’s now what they say but how they say it, it’s as if they are already convinced that they are going to fail before baby is even born, I hear this daily at my job.  Another observation from my work is that most moms don’t understand that  just because baby cries it doesn’t mean it’s hungry, they don’t bother to eliminate other possible causes of crying (like a dirty diaper) and instead say “I don’t have enough milk, my baby is always hungry”.  I actually had a mom tell me this last week as her baby feel asleep satisfied after nursing and she was still leaking though her shirt.  ”Hey lady, your t-shirt disagrees….”

In my work a lot of moms have never seen anyone breastfeeding, don’t know how to do it, didn’t research it yet they expect it to come naturally once baby is born and then give up because it wasn’t “easy”.  This article clearly illustrates how even in the animal kingdom it takes a village and breastfeeding need to be visible.

 

To help improve breastfeeding visibility (and try to set a new world record) I am the local organizer of the Big Latch On.  A worldwide event aiming to set a new record for the most number of mother’s breastfeeding at the same time.  I would love it if you could attend/sponsor/donate.  Even if you’re not currently breastfeeding we need volunteers and sponsors.  It will take place on Saturday, August 6th, 2011, click on the photo to learn more.

 

A “July Babies” message board that I belong to recently posted a survey for mothers to answer various questions about baby’s first year.  At a glance I noticed that formula fed babies had many more sick visits to the doctor than exclusively breastfed babies so the geek in me actually sat down and analyzed the first 100 responses to the survey and came up with the following analysis:

Babies exclusively breastfed at least 6 months had 0.66 sick visits to the doctor in the first year compared to formula fed babies that had 11.67 sick visits!  This figure included premature babies that only got formula.

When I take out formula fed premature babies out of the equation (I still counted breastfed preemies), formula fed babies that were born healthy still had 3.3 sick visits in the first years.

Let me put this in clear words:  This is 5.5 times MORE ear infections, colds, diarrhea, viral infections and other illnesses than breastfed babies!

And then people wonder why I am such a breast milk advocate….

 

I have been very pleased with my parenting decisions so far but there are a handful of things that I would do differently next time, nothing major.  This list is not comprehensive but it gives you an idea.

Would they get done?  Maybe some….

What I would do differently

1- I would hire a post partum doula and/or accept cooking/cleaning help.  The first few weeks were brutal, specially after hubby went back to work and I would spend the bulk of the day alone with baby while recovering from surgery.  Nothing got cleaned, I barely ate and it was just a miserable time.

2- I would get a real high chair, booster seats are not the same.

3- I would make sure that my husband has a carrier that works for him, babywearing rocks and I want him to experience it too.

4- I would get professional professional newborn photos.  We have hundreds of cute Shammy pictures but they’re all amateur shots.

5- I would not listen to the incorrect breastfeeding advice given by the nurses at the hospital, instead I would follow what I had already learned.  This would have saved time, headaches and sleep and Shammy wouldn’t have lost as much weight at first.

6- I would give elimination communication a fair chance.  I barely did it and got promising results almost instantly but laziness among other factors made me drop it.

7- I would research BLW more and try it.  Making my own baby food was fun but messy and he didn’t like purees all that long.

8- I would not limit the number of baby costumes that I buy for the 1st Halloween.  Gotta take advantage before I loose the ability to choose what to put on.  There are way too many cute choices out there!

9- Join the playgroup circuit sooner.  The only thing that has stopped me this time is not having a car.

10- I would not skimp out on newborn cloth diapers and get good tiny cloth diapers like Lil’s Joeys.  I tried to go cheap with prefolds and covers and Shammy couldn’t stand it so we had to use sposies until he grew into his one size diapers, don’t want to have to do that again.  With enough planning I can purchase them little by little and they have a good resale value so it would still cost less than sposies.

11- Take sign language beyond the basics, we did very good with it at first and once again laziness and life got in the way and I just stopped using it.  Shame on me.

12- I would fight for my placenta. It was Shammy’s roommate for over 9 months, it kept him alive and they just toss it?! It’s standard procedure for the hospital to take the placenta away and I tried to fight for it while I was lying open on the operating table and was so overwhelmed with suddenly being a mother that I didn’t push the subject after I was in recovery. To this day I feel a sense of loss about it and wish that I could get it even though I couldn’t encapsulate it I would still do art with it.

 

Things that I would totally do all over again

1- Labor at home.  I’m now high risk and wouldn’t quality for a homebirth in most cases but would like to still labor at home for as long as possible.

2- Have a doula.  My husband was awesome but he’s just one guy and great for some things but clueless on other, a doula provides the perfect complement and balance.

3- Skip on Vitamin K shot and eye goop.  No regrets about skipping it, it wasn’t hard for me to take the Vitamin K drops and passing it through the breastmilk.

4- Skip/delay vaccinations.  I don’t regret this one bit, in fact I’m tempted to take things a step further and delay/space them out even more.  Either way I’m definitely repeating the no shots until 6 months part.

5- No circumcision (if boy). If I need to explain this one you need a Prepuce Information Pack.  Heck, I’ll lend you mine!

6- Breastfeed.  I am so glad that I was determined enough to overcome the speed bumps and successfully breastfeed exclusively for 6 months and continue breastfeeding today (9 months and counting).

7- Co sleep.  Our bed isn’t big enough for traditional cosleeping (although Shammy made it work by kicking his daddy out of the bed and sleeping with me, lol.  I would buy a king size mattress and just put it on the floor.  Easier than attaching the bassinet/crib to the bed.  I’ve never come close to rolling over Shammy and in my sleep my mother’s 6th sense has been known to stretch out my arm and stop my husband from rolling over.

8- Babywear.  Babywearing saved my sanity during the first few months by being the only thing that would calm a screaming Shammy and even though it’s not necessary anymore I still thoroughly enjoy it.  I would like to get a better hang of ring slings though.

9- Cloth diaper.  So cute, so economical, so environmental.  I would love to have the wallet to be constantly trying new styles but have a good working stash with that I have.

10- I would again stay home as much as possible and not accept visitors outside of family for the first 2 weeks.  I am glad that I instituted this rule and stuck by it.

11-  I would still refuse to cry it out.  I can’t understand how someone can let their child scream for hours.  And for those that use the modified method of 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off, glad that it works for you but it’s still not for me.  It’s still contrary to Attachment Parenting and 1 minute is too long.

12- Use consignment sales. The only new clothes that we bought were on clearance, the rest were gifts or purchased on consignment, same for all of the gear and most toys.

 

This post would have been published over 2 weeks ago if I hadn’t tried to be geeky while juggling a baby and accidentally killed this website’s database.  By the time I finished cleaning the damage the muse had gone on vacation and I just didn’t feel like writing.  It’s still not my best work but at least it out there now….

I have officially weaned off the pump.  Breastfeeding is still going well and there is no sign of that stopping anytime soon but I am glad that I’m no longer a slave to the pump, I was so over it.  I am tired of stressing over ounces.  I still have it for times when I’m away from Shammy all day but those will be few and far between and it will be used more for my comfort and health than to keep up with a freezer stash.

I don’t get along with the pump anymore, I can’t even stand to clean the parts, it’s such a hassle, as regardless of whether I use the dishwasher or clean by hand I don’t seem to get the nooks and crannies clean enough.  Plus the pump has been part of a recall and I have yet to receive the replacement part, I am so over it! I used to think that Medela pumps were the best but if/when #2 comes I’m definitely getting a different brand.

Update:  the universe has found a way to get a new and better pump for me as I just won a Facebook contest on the Hygeia page where I won professional grade electric pump valued at $320.  My husband asked me if I was going to cash it out on eBay but I said no way, this will come in handy in the future.

In other news, I have started training to be a Breastfeeding Peer Counselor with the Health Department and Shammy gets to come to work with me anytime that I don’t have babysitting available, they’re that cool. I like bringing him to work but it only works out if I’m working for 3 hours, longer than that feels like torture on the poor baby that gets bored and is lacking on proper stimulation.  I have what feels like a thousand hours of training to complete so it may be another month before I see a client but I am enjoying it so far.

 

I can’t believe that Shammy is already 3/4 years old (9 months old), when I dressed him up for Easter he looked like such a big boy/little man.

He is starting to refuse baby purees as he prefers self feeding so I really need to learn more about BLW so he’ll eat more.  Meanwhile spreading purees on wheat toast seems to be working well to use up the massive amounts of food that I have accumulated.

Recently we have experienced a sleep regression, call it teething, growth spurt, separation anxiety or all of the above but he was no longer sleeping through the night and would wake up at midnight exactly and would only fall asleep with my boob in his mouth.  God forbid I tried to move to get comfortable and the nipple came out of his mouth and he would wake up and scream bloody murder.

I asked the doctor if there was anything that I could do about this and he said “let him cry and cry… and cry…”  I just stared at him in disbelief that he would recommend that and then he said  ”I wouldn’t do it if I were you, I didn’t do it with mine”.  I like him again.  I much rather get some sleep in an awkward position with a happy baby than not sleep at all and suffer while he screams for hours wondering why we don’t love him anymore.  I can never see myself letting him cry it out.

 

On to the rants for this installment…

I enjoy the sitcom “Raising Hope”, it’s very funny, most times.  Recently they had an episode titled “Sleep Training” on you guessed it, crying it out.  This episode was painful to watch.  Even though they tried to get fun out of this theme I was very disturbed by it, so much so that I felt the need to write about it the next day.  I can understand that CIO is ok for some but don’t feel comfortable with a popular prime time show giving ideas to parents that don’t know better because they don’t seek the information elsewhere and take TV fiction as gospel.

My current peeve is seeing mothers that won’t hold their babies when giving a bottle.  Apparently this is a big enough epidemic that companies make money out of selling “bottle holders” that will prop the bottle so mother doesn’t even have to hold it.  If you’re not going to breastfeed, at least do the bonding by holding your baby close and looking into their eyes while feeding them.  Even on the pre-requisite training that I’m taking for the department of Health in the nutrition module it emphasizes how a person should always hold a baby when giving a bottle.  I feel bad for the baby.