Day 17: Pumping

Popcorn is 17 days old. Yesterday, I was so worn out from doing to much on days 14 and 15 that I couldn't function. My greatest accomplishment was watching the RHOA season finale, part 3.  And eating nearly a whole bag of dark chocolate Loacker Quadratini.  They really are delicious.  Anyway, it was a reminder that I just had a baby a couple of weeks ago and I still need to take it easy.  It's very easy, as a mommy, to try to get back in the swing of things too early.  You have to rest.  Pretty much every non-Western culture expects new mamas to get lots of rest and recuperate for 40+ days after giving birth.

I don't know why you don't get rest, Mommy, but I sure do!

I have been having a lot of leaking lately so I decided to try to save some of that milk. I'd rather save it than marinate in it.  The first time, I hand expressed after nursing and got about 20 cc from each side. Today, I got about 30 cc on one side while she nursed on the other.  It's not a lot, but I put it in some Lansinoh bags and froze it.

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That's her "I'm ready to nurse" face.

Even though Lettuce and I have pretty much decided that I'll be staying home with the kids, I think it's important to have some milk stored for emergencies.  My milk will keep at least 6 months in the deep freezer.  I'd really like to pump some, but I lost the flange from my pump. WIC may be able to help me with one, if I go back to work.

Avent Isis Manual

So let's talk pumping.  With the first two kids, I didn't pump. I didn't have pump money.  They can be expensive, as I'm sure you know.  I vaguely remember trying a Medela with no success. I hand expressed a little for the Astronaut, but my mother ended up bringing him to me to nurse. I know that sounds crazy but I worked super close to our house.

With Squirrel, I knew I was only going to be home for 6 weeks. I began pumping after about 2 weeks and we introduced a bottle at that time.  I am a heavy chested mama (about an F-yes F as in frog-cup) so the flanges of the pumps were an issue with me.  The flange is the part where you put your breast.   I decided to go with Avent for several reasons.  

•  I'd heard they were easier for bigger mamas.
• It came with a nice carrying bag.
• Avent nipples are wider, more like my nipples, so I figured it would be an easier transition.
• The price was right. It was less than $50, not too big of an investment if I couldn't use it.  

The pump was super easy to use and I pumped the whole time I was home.  I was able to exclusively breastfeed for 7 months, then another 2 months while we transitioned to formula.

But it was hard.

Pumping is so hard and I truly respect the pumping mamas. I nursed first thing in the morning before work, I  pumped on my lunch break at work (my job had a lactation room), which was very lonely business. I nursed as soon as I got home.  I pumped every night.  I was worn out and my supply diminished. There's nothing like baby to breast. In hindsight, maybe I could have used some fennel or Mother's Milk Tea to help me keep my supply up. I was also depending on a manual pump for some pretty high volume pumping. I probably should have upgraded to electric for her.

Avent Isis IQ Uno

With Side Salad, I was a full time student. I went back to school when he was 12 days old.  Initially, I took him with me, but he was the cutest distraction. Plus, I had a professor who was uncomfortable with my breastfeeding.  Yes, she was a woman.  Besides, I was only paying tuition for me, not the kid.  I was only gone a few hours at a time so he took a bottle if necessary, but mostly he slept during my class time. I Supgraded to an Avent Isis IQ-about $150 4 years ago-which is the electric version of my pump. It allowed me to customize the pumping action so it wasn't yanking my nipples off.  I could make the suction as gentle as I needed it to be.  I did not use the petal massager because my breast fit better without it. I told you, I'm a bigger girl.  We ended up with a freezer full of milk.  I was able to go on a cruise without him. He was about 18 months old at the time. He had plenty of milk and I pumped while I was gone to keep my supply up.  I loved my  pump.  As you know, Side Salad self weaned around 21 months.  I put the pump parts somewhere random and now I can't find the flange, though I have all the other parts.

Now I want to pump as a precautionary measure.  Worst case scenario, we use the milk to make her cereal when she starts solids.  Of course, we're team Avent again.

Soon as I can find a flange.

Reflecting on labor

As you know, I have given birth 5 times and each time has been totally different.  Popcorn's was by far, the best and not just because it was 35 minutes long.  I was talking to a like minded mama friend and the difference is that, with the first 4 I felt like things were done to me. With Popcorn, I did something. i gave birth. I wasn't a patient. I didn't need help. I gave birth to my baby and my midwives helped me. They didn't order me around or tell me what to do. They didn't do things to me.  My baby was a bit quiet and sluggish when she was born. They didn't take her away from me and do things to her. They helped her by giving her a little oxygen.  The circumstances were different than they were in the hospitals (I had two in one hospital, and two in another).  

I don't think I could go back to a hospital, barring an emergency.  

If Lettuce and I ever have another kid-which is highly unlikely because I'm getting too old for this!-I'd probably shoot for a home birth, like Jessica at The Leaky B@@b just had and live streamed.  It was baby girl #6 for her.  Watching her labor makes me even sadder that we didn't catch mine.  I thought someone had taken pics of Astronaut cutting the cord but no one did.   I wasn't actively watching her birth but the sounds she was making changed. There is definitely a different kind of sound you make right before you actually give birth.  

My camera can take like 4 hours of HD video and my labor was so short. We could have recorded the whole thing. I'm sad, but I'm not going to dwell on it...for long.  

But you know, it could happen. We could have a 6th baby someday. Who knows?

Day 7: Getting in the swing of things

Popcorn is a week old today and we are really getting in the swing of things.  She sleeps at night and naps at reasonable times.  She eats lot and though I am pretty swollen and leak a little, I'm not engorged. Engorgement can be super uncomfy to say the least-like sleeping on two giant red, leaky boulders. I nurse very frequently, on demand, so this isn't an issue. She's gaining weight nicely and interacts with us. She can lift her head, too.  I made her birth announcement today :) I like to wait a little while until that newborn newness wears off before taking pics, but Popcorn is crazy cute. She didn't peel at all, probably because she's never had a bath. I'll elaborate on that later. Anyway, here's the announcement:

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Okay, about the bath. I recently read some literature that indicated bathing immediately after birth could interfere with bonding. She was wiped down, though she really came out relatively clean anyways.  She hasn't been bathed since.  Unlike the other children, she never peeled and her umbilical stump has already fallen off.  The other kids, that didn't happen until they were about 2 weeks old. I only cleaned hers with water and used rubbing alcohol on the others.

Popcorn sleeps a lot better than the others. She takes timely naps and sleeps for long stretches at night. She tends to cluster feed, but I actually prefer cluster feeding because it frees up long stretches of time where I can do other things, like hang with the big kids or bathe.  She's a really good baby and I feel so blessed to have her! The kids treat her with so much love. Here's Side Salad singing to her:



I was looking at last year's Easter pic and it looked like someone was missing.  It already feels like she has always been her, like she's always been a part of our family.  It's amazing how she fills a void I never knew was there.

The Hypocrisy of Modesty, part 1

Today’s topic is again nursing in public.  If you read my blog you already know how I feel about it.  I don’t think nursing in public is an issue that deserves any attention at all.  It should be normal and boring, but for some reason it isn’t.

I was reading comments on various news stories related to the Hickman/Target incident and the ensuing Nurse ins.  Facebook, too, has been a hotbed of discussion on the matter.  I discovered an interesting trend to many “supporters” of breastfeeding.  It seems that many people say they don’t have a problem with nursing in public as long as the woman is modest. I find this statement to be fascinating, contradictory, and very telling.

I decided to look up the actual definition of modest so that I could articulate my own thoughts and be as concise as possible.

mod·est adj.1. Having or showing a moderate estimation of one's own talents, abilities, and value.
2. Having or proceeding from a disinclination to call attention to oneself; retiring or diffident. See Synonyms at shy¹.
3. Observing conventional proprieties in speech, behavior, or dress.
4. Free from showiness or ostentation; unpretentious.
5. Moderate or limited in size, quantity, or range; not extreme: a modest price; a newspaper with a modest circulation.

 In reference to breastfeeding in public, modesty means not drawing attention to one’s self.  I have breastfed 4 children for a total of 45 months, so I have done quite a bit of public breastfeeding.   I use my own experience, as well as that of women I know, to draw my conclusion.  I had the Astronaut when I was 18 years old and breastfed him for 13 months.  I was nervous about breastfeeding in public so initially, I used a receiving blanket to cover him.  Let me tell you, covering your child’s face with blanket in the muggy Carolina summer is the opposite of modest.

• ·        First of all, everyone knows what you are doing.  Why else would there be a blanket on your child?
• ·        Second, in case anyone wasn’t looking, your baby will draw attention by thrashing around wildly and making distressful noises. Hell, the heat index is over 100 degrees down here every single year.  This draws everyone’s attention to you. They all know what you are doing. 

Yet for some reason, drawing massive amounts of attention to yourself is considered modest.  Compare that to simply putting baby to boob.  Chances are, you’re wearing a shirt. If you aren’t NIP is the least of your concerns. I digress, back to blanket-less nursing.

• ·        There’s very little prep time. You put your hand under your shirt, pop a boob out, hold the edge of the shirt up, and VOILA! 
• ·  Unless they are staring right at you, no one knows what you are doing.  I have had people hold entire conversations with me without realizing that I am nursing.  It just looks like you are holding your precious babe.

·      That is the very epitome of modest-you are not drawing attention to yourself.  This is how it works for the vast majority of mamas. There are a few that are less modest, lowering or unbuttoning their shirts. These women are generally not from the US.  Few people seem to realize that this whole breastfeeding brouhaha is a purely American situation.  In the rest of the world, no one bats an eye.  So when people visit or move to our country, which is supposedly so progressive and advanced, they assume that we have a normal view of breastfeeding and do it the way it’s done in their own countries.  Poor ladies, no one warns them.  I’ll pause here so this doesn’t get too ramble-y.

What are your views on nursing in public? Do you have a modesty clause?

The Decision to Cloth

I never thought about cloth diapering in a serious way until after the birth of my fourth child. I used disposable for all the rest. However, when he was a few months old, I decided to give it a go.  Part of it was financial-the hubs and I aren't rich people.  Part was the gradual greening of me.  Anyways, he was on board and we gave it a go.

And never looked back again. Side Salad was my most natural baby in terms of the products that touched and entered his body.  There's a lot more concerning this journey on my old blog, you know the one I can't use anymore SMH

As we prepare to welcome Cinco into our family, I find myself most excited about breastfeeding and cloth diapering. Breastfeeding is free but cloth can evolve into a full blown addiction. I'll admit it-I have a chocolate goodMama  and four custom ScuttleButts aka Orange Diaper Co dipes.  But there's nothing I love more than fresh cloth.  Plus aren't they beyond cute?!

Anywho, Kebbie's Diaper Bag is looking for bloggers to review cloth diapering products. If you are interested, here's the link!

Looking Good, or how to birth a babe in style

So today I was sitting her ruminating about the whole birth experince and what I want it to be like.  This is my 5th baby so it's not my first ride on the merry-go-round.   I have had 4 vaginal births, two were induced-Prnicess and Squirrel, and two with epidurals-Astronaut and Squirrel.  The most medicated was Squirrel (my tiny baby)  and the least medicated was Side Salad (my mammoth baby).

Anywho, this is my first non-hospital birth.  Yep, that's right. I'm leaving the comfort of the sterile (hah!) medical fortress and going commando.  I'll be birthing at a lovely birth center with two fantastic midwives. 
[Sometime soon I will go into the mechanincs of how medical choices are impacted by finances and what that means to people like me, but suffice to say it's worth it.  I <3 my midwives and my visits are always so long. I haven't had some of the issues I suffered from with other pregnancies, such as hemmaroids and constipation.  It's different.  But I digress. I wanted to talk about my upcoming labor.]

At the ripe old age of almost thirty, I know what I want and what I don't want, and I am less afraid of labor.  By using the birth center, I can avoid things like invasive monitoring and epidurals.  I'm one  of those people Kim Zolciak refers to as a "dumb ass."  I prefer to think of myself as capable of rational thought and able to make decisions based on them. The research I have done and my prior birth experiences led me to this choice. I plan to labor in the tub but I don't know if I want to actual give birth in it. I think I'd rather use teh labor stool.  The idea of wallowing in a tub of poo kinda grosses me out. I want my daughters present, and Caeser Salad and my mommy.  Oh, and my BFF Stacy.  I want to be able to drink (Naked Orange Mango) and to eat if I'm hungry. I want to be able to get up if I feel like it. That's pretty much it.  There's a longer list of things I don't want than things I do!

Being unemployed gives me lots of time to read and drool over stuff I want and today, what I want is some labor apparal!  That's right, you can buy clothes for birthing and they are right cute, too! Binsi's stuff is pretty cool whethe you are hospital birthing, using a birth center, or birthing at home (maybe #6 will be HB. If there is a #6).  I am serious about possibly splurging on some if we can spare the moola. Why not just rock a bikini top and a sarong, you say?  Here's why:

• I'm a bit...gifted up top.  38G, to be exact.  I have yet to meet the sports bra that can accomodate my cuppage while being tight enough on my ribs to work well. 
• A bikini top *might* work, so I'm looking for one now. But it might also be a pain to put on, unlike the Binsi.
• Sarongs are meant to look pretty, not get wet. The only one I have is a gorgeous sheer turqouse number edged with tiny cowrie shells. Fancy, indeed.  Not birth worthy at all. 
• I like new and novel things and I love supporting small businesses. 

Since I'm planning on being sociable and chatty, I'd like to look presentable.  Therefore, the Thankiki and the Binis II Too would be great. The Thankini is long enough to cover up my midsection and the wrap is so versatile! I can use it for all kinds of stuff, like a sarong, a shawl, a BF cover, a light blankie, etc.


 So if you are feeling generous, you should buy me one.