Breastfeeding and Managing Alergic Reactions

I have been lucky in that the last few years I did not have severe allergic reactions in the spring or my expected spring sinus infection. I have been breastfeeding for 31 months and I was pregnant before that, so I have been avoiding medications as much as possible. I have read that antihistamines might affect a mother’s milk supply, but the research is inconclusive. I was so grateful for not having to deal with this.

This year, I have no idea what has changed. We have been in the same neighborhood for two years, so living in a new area is not it. All I know is that my head feels like two strong hands are squeezing it. I cannot keep track of how many times I sneeze in one day! Needless to say, it is time to do something.

I started by doing some research on the La Leche League website. Unfortunately, that did not lead me to any useful information. That was unusual; the website has been very helpful in the past. For example, I found an article with suggestions for visually impaired mothers and many stories of adoptive breastfeeding moms, among many others.

Back to managing allergic reactions, good old Google is awesome! And so is this website: http://www.kellymom.com/health/meds/cold-remedy.html#decongestants.

I now know which nasal sprays and which antihistamines I can try. Even better, I have a list of crunchy things to try, as my husband puts it! If you are breastfeeding or simply want to try other options before trying medications, here are some suggestions I got from the website mentioned above:

Saline nasal spray. It worked for me when I was pregnant. Don’t put a few drops in your nose. Keep spraying until you start tasting the water.

Boil some water, cover your face with a towel, and breathe the water for five minutes a few times a day. I have not done this, but I have found hot showers to be helpful, so I will try this too.

My favorite, just because I won’t hear the end of it from my husband! Heat some apple cider vinegar in a pot until it begins to steam. Inhale the vapor.

Put a quarter tsp of cayenne pepper in a glass of water and drink it. Not looking forward to it, but one is willing to try many things when she is feeling desperate! Actually, I change my mind. I am having super spicy Indian food tonight! I will tell my husband it is part of my treatment! Should I tell him that chocolate might help make me feel better too?! Just kidding!

If you are in a similar situation, what helps you? What does not? If you tried antihistamines while breastfeeding, did they have an impact on your milk supply?

News from the Potty Department

As a parent, I am always learning something new, even when I feel like I know everything there is to know about a particular topic. For example, I thought I had potty training all figured out. Not really!

Here is what I have learned the past few months:

A little potty seat in each car is a must.
In our case, I don’t drive, so Amor Chiquito and I get rides from both my husband and my mother. Just bought a potty seat for my mother’s car and life is good! No more worrying about Amor Chiquito needing to go to the bathroom, but not going because being on the big toilet in some strange bathroom makes her nervous. No more being on the highway and the child refusing to pee in a diaper and holding it in for half an hour!

We will continue having her ware a diaper at nap time.
I had stopped having her ware a diaper at nap time because her diapers were always dry. The other day, she wet my mother’s bed. Why go through that if she can wear a diaper? I am not saying that we ought to do that for years, but we will definitely do it for a few more months. Sometime in the summer, I will stop having her ware a diaper because she will not be wearing one in preschool. Something else we will be doing is asking her to try going to the potty before her nap.

A night time diaper is a must for us, for now.
Every now and then, we have a dry diaper in the morning, but most of the time we don’t. I can get her up in the middle of the night and have her go to the bathroom. Call me lazy, but I am not doing that! Sleep is a tricky thing for my family. I am not screwing with that! We’ll use diapers and deal with sleeping diaperless later.

She wears underwear when we go out now!
I’ve graduated; no more big diaper bag! Her snacks and the travelsize wipe container fit in a small purse just fine!

Different things work for different people and for different stages. This is what feels right for us, right now. I bet that in three months I could write a post about the same issue and I will be telling you about how differently we are doing things at that point!

Speaking of going to the potty, Amor Chiquito just went so I told her we needed to wipe. She said “no tote (don’t touch), p-eww,” laughed, and ran away! Silly kid!

Sometimes, the solution is in front of you and you just don't see it.

You know how every now and then you realize what is really going on, but it was obvious all along? That’s what happened to me two nights ago.

For the past few weeks, after sleeping for five to seven hours at a time, Amor Chiquito has been waking up many times. I was getting one to two-hour chunks of sleep at a time. To top it off, when she woke me up around 4 or 5:00 a.m., it took me at least an hour to fall back asleep. It has been hard, really hard. I don’t handle sleep deprivation well. I was showing multiple symptoms of depression. It made no sense. I kept thinking “Everything is fine. Everyone is healthy. The bills get paid. My husband is awesome. My kid is happy… What is it? Why do I feel like this?” And, of course, I was wondering “What the hell is going on? What am I doing wrong? What changed? Why are we going through this again? Didn’t we go through this for long enough? We’ve dealt with this almost her entire life. The break was welcomed appreciated, and great while it lasted.”

Each and every night, I kept waking up because I was hot. I figured it was just me. The thermostat was set at 65 degrees. Geeky Entrepreneur was sleeping comfortably, with two blankets up to his shoulders. Amor Chiquito kept kicking the blankets off of her. I didn’t think anything of it. What kid keeps the blankets on her/him, I thought?

Finally, it dunned on me. She might be hot. And, I am way too hot, so I will open the window. She slept great for the rest of the night. That was two nights ago. Last night, I opened the window and she slept straight through until 6:30 a.m. She woke up at 6:30, nursed, and went back to sleep for another two hours.

I feel like a new woman today. I feel like a moron, but a happy one! I know I am very lucky that this is the hardest thing the three of us are dealing with. I did forget that a few times, particularly at 5:00 a.m. when I had only gotten three hours of interrupted sleep, I admit.

Moral of the story: when your child is not sleeping well, think about the simple, common causes: hot, cold, hungry, diaper, teeth. Also, think of things that might not be directly related, but that might affect sleep patterns, such physical activity, what the child ate before bed, if you are a breastfeeding mommy, what you are eating, is the child sick but asymptomatic? Another suggestion: create a list and keep it somewhere easy to find at 3:00 a.m. That way, when the cute little person can’t sleep, you simply go down the list, rather than trying to think.

I am sure there are more things to keep in mind. If you think of something, feel free to add it to my list.

Shh, I didn’t say this, but she napped at a reasonable time today and I am cautiously optimistic that I might be able to get her back on schedule! It’s the little things! Geeky Entrepreneur and I would be happy if she goes down before 10 p.m. I swear we do try!

Duty calls...!

When in doubt, tweak it.

I learned, or, relearned, rather, this lesson about two months ago.

As I have written many times, sleep has been an on-going issue for us. I have felt like it is hard to find a solution. I don’t want to be the permissive parent who cannot set boundaries, but I am not letting her cry it out either.

One day, after spending quite a while trying to get Amor Chiquito to nap, it clicked!

As a parent, there is no black and white. There is lots of gray. I need to be ok with that.

There are various parenting styles and various plans we could follow to get Ari to sleep the way we wish she slept. I was forcing myself to choose between no crying or crying it out.

What about saying “ut-oh,” leaving her room for 15 seconds, returning, giving her a hug, singing the song, and putting her down?

Why the hell didn’t I think of that sooner? I wish I had because it worked that time, it worked today, and it will probably continue to work in the future.

There is no need to leave her alone for ever in our case. 15 seconds is enough time for her to get the message that there are boundaries.

Today, Ari used all her old tricks and some new ones to avoid napping, despite the fact she was sleepy and yawning. She asked for socks, said her hands were cold, said she needed to go to the potty… She also tried this strange, fake cry! I could not decide if I was angry or if I wanted to laugh! It was clearly completely fake!

I left for 15 seconds. I went back in and gave her hugs. Six minutes later, she was asleep!

Moral of the story: don’t obsess about following x philosophy completely. Tweak it. Get creative. Do what works for your family. In the end, you and your little one’s health and happiness is what matters.

Shoes...

Have I ever mentioned that I am a bargain hunter? I love finding deals! So, if anyone out there is about to buy shoes, here is some info!

Famous Footwear is having their buy one get one half off sale again.

I found two coupons you can use this weekend to get an additional 10% off the order.

On the coupon field, type "pumpkin" or "hol9999."

To find coupons you can use online, check out retailmenot.com. Type a website address on the search box (famousfootwear.com, for example). You will get a list of reliable and not reliable coupons.

I just got my mother and I very comfortable, highly recommended running shoes for $67 (for the two pairs)!

Happy shopping!