Hippie Mom in a Preppy World

Posts Tagged ‘pumping’

I commend those very active mother bloggers that are able to post content several times a week. They obviously don’t have a stream of consciousness writing style like mine as it’s near impossible for me to finish typing a thought before getting interrupted. I really wish that I could write more, there is so much I want to share!

The fact that this pregnancy has kicked my ass hasn’t helped matters. With Shammy I was huge and uncomfortable but didn’t have reason to call the midwife at all. This round I have had to call the Dr more than once a week for several weeks and have had to seriously contemplate the possibility of a trip to L&D more than once. I am at a point that any type of physical activity beyond moderate walking triggers painful and regular contractions. I can’t even load the dishwasher or do laundry without being out of commission for an hour afterwards while I try to get the contractions to stop. The Doctor’s response? “listen to your body… lie down and drink lots of fluids…. I don’t care if your house gets dirty…”

I do care that the house is getting out of hand, we’ve never been the poster family of OCD clean but I hate that something as simple as picking up toys from the living room floor is beyond my scope. So imagine how easy it is for me to chase after the toddler when I’m home alone all day, I usually feel like death by the time he finally goes down for a nap.

This round it feels like making it to 31 weeks is an accomplishment but enough whining about me…

 

I’m starting to become annoyed at the fact that so many websites/books make a mom feel like she can’t breastfeed without a breastpump. I know that I felt that way too the first time around and securing the right pump at the right time became a source of stress. I am not anti-breastpump, they are great, they have their place, but they’re not a must have item like consumerist advice sources seem to make us feel, specially if mom is not going back to work again. There can be some cases in which a mom may have to pump in the first few days (baby in the NICU, etc) but having it “just in case” seems to cause more trouble than is needed. I’ve seen cases of oversupply, nipple confusion from introducing bottle too early and unnecessary stress about milk supply because a pump is a horrible indicator of how much milk a breast truly has.

I’m not trying to tell people to not get a pump, but rather hold off on it until AFTER baby is born to see if you truly need it (they’re expensive!), I don’t recommend pumping for at least the first 2 weeks and if you must for a medical reason, the hospital or WIC can set you up quickly.

So what if you need to pump milk and don’t have a pump? Hand expression is free and not that hard. Feel like you must have a pump? go ahead, just don’t become its slave and let it mess with your confidence.

Speaking of WIC, there is a new petition floating around the internet to have WIC provide cloth diapers to low income families. As huge of a cloth diaper advocate that I am I did not sign this petition. Why? Because it will never happen! I’m not against the government helpingwithcloth diapers but this is not the program for that. WIC is a nutrition program funded by the US Department of Agriculture, cloth diapers are not food. It takes an act of congress to change anything about what WIC gives and even if congress wanted to support fluff, it will never be through the WIC program.

Speaking of fluff, I have become quite the fluff-activist lately. I’ve had the opportunity to teach a couple of cloth diaper classes and during Real Diaper Week in April I converted no less than 9 moms to cloth diapers, yay!

 

Shammy has gotten a new nickname from my husband, he is now the “boob zombie” because when he wakes up in the morning he walks around groggily saying “side…. side…. side….” until he finds my boob. (side is the word that he uses for nursing).

Even though he’s not going to finish weaning anytime soon, he is taking steps in that direction and my pregnancy hormones are making it very hard for me to cope with it emotionally. The first time he went to sleep without asking to nurse I cried. The other night I woke up in the middle of the night, remembered this poem and cried uncontrollably for almost 2 hours over the last 3 lines of it.

Wean Me Gently

I know I look so big to you,

Maybe I seem too big for the needs I have.

But no matter how big we get,

We still have needs that are important to us.

I know that our relationship is growing and changing,

But I still need you. I need your warmth and closeness,

Especially at the end of the day

When we snuggle up in bed.

Please don’t get too busy for us to nurse.

I know you think I can be patient,

Or find something to take the place of a nursing -

A book, a glass of something,

But nothing can take your place when I need you.

Sometimes just cuddling with you,

Having you near me is enough.

I guess I am growing and becoming independent,

But please be there.

This bond we have is so strong and so important to me,

Please don’t break it abruptly.

Wean me gently,

Because I am your mother,

And my heart is tender.

~ Cathy Cardall

 

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….

 

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.