Article: Breastfeeding Information for the First Few Weeks of Life

Excellent advice for a new breastfeeding family:
http://givingbirthwithconfidence.org/2011/03/breastfeeding-information-for-the-first-few-weeks-of-life/

I would add one thing. If you are experiencing pain, meet with a lactation consultant or a La Leche League leader as soon as possible and ask that person to find out if your little one is tongue-tied. I don't know how often this happens, but Amor Chiquito was tongue-tied and that hurt like heck. That is an understatement, in fact!

If your child is, indeed, tongue-tied, the procedure to resolve this takes a minute. For us, it did not impact the way she nursed. As a matter of fact, she nursed about three minutes after the procedure and she was fine. My life changed on that day. Soon after I thought breastfeeding was a piece of cake!

On Inducing Lactation

I just came across this website. It explains in great detail how a woman can induce lactation. Basically, it involves birth control pills, some herbs and a fair bit of pumping.

http://www.asklenore.info/breastfeeding/induced_lactation/protocols4print.html

If you are adopting, you can still breastfeed! What can I say? Our bodies rock!

Three-year-old Checkup and a Rant

Today Amor Chiquito had her three-year-old well checkup. It was boring. And, for that, I am very grateful.

Height: 37.25” (60th percentile)
Weight: 31lb (50th percentile)
BMI is in the 40th percentile. She did not say what it is and I forgot to ask.

Blood pressure was 94/60. Just looked at this chart:
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/hypertension/child_tbl.pdf

If I am reading the chart correctly (which is a big if given the program that reads my computer screen), her blood pressure was a tiny bit high. I meant to ask the pediatrician and forgot to. I hate when I do that. I usually make a list of questions, but I did not know what to expect for today’s checkup. The pediatrician is very thorough, so my guess is that the blood pressure was fine. I think I will call the nurse, though. The doctor is human. She could have forgotten to look. Five minutes of my and a nurse’s time will ensure that Ari is fine and will give me peace of mind.

We talked about Ari’s diet. The pediatrician says she sounds like a typical three-year-old and she sounded surprised when I said Ari loves to have whole wheat pasta for dinner. As usual, she talked about limiting juice. Tell my mom, and every other grandma I know, doc, please!

The fact that Ari is still nursing came up in conversation. She politely suggested that we only nurse at home because, at this age, nursing in public tends not to be socially acceptable. She does not know that I don’t give a rat’s ass about what other people think, especially when it comes to my daughter nursing. Usually, she nurses at home, but if she really needs the comfort in public, I will not say no. If she just fell or is scared, why the hell should I say no? To make you happy? If you don’t like it, look the other way! I nurse in a way that you will never see what you don’t want to see. So, please, grow up, deal, and don’t be one of those annoying, nosy people! If you don’t nurse your child, that’s totally fine. Just don’t tell me I should stop because, frankly, it’s not your business.

Ok, rant over! My husband commended me on how politely and respectfully I listened to and ignored the pediatrician! The way he said it was pretty funny!

Ari got her finger poked to check her iron and lead levels.

She got the last HIB vaccine (prevents one of the bacterial infections that causes meningitis) and the flu vaccine. The flu vaccine was a nasal spray.

Vaccines, another hot topic, I know. We decided to do vaccines, all of them. There you have it, if you were curious. Yes, I would do some things differently next time around. I might delay getting some of them. The two, four and six month vaccines were fairly hellish for us.

On a different topic, we talked about seeing the doctor last night during dinner. Her response: “But why? I don’t have a booboo.”

I decided to talk about the shots at the doctor’s office, before the doctor showed up. I like to prepare Amor Chiquito for things as much as I can, but I did not want her to unnecessarily worry about shots for a day or so. Things went well. We got a few ows. We gave her Tylenol, in case she got achy. We dropped her off at school. The imp didn’t even look back. I didn’t get a hug today!

Poem About Breastfeeding

Just came across this cute poem about breastfeeding:
http://10centandbeyond.blogspot.com/2010/08/dr-seuss-for-nursing-moms.html

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?

Article on Co Sleeping, Breastfeeding and SIDS

Third attempt to share this article:
http://www.drmomma.org/2010/01/night-waking-protects-against-sids.html

I might have shared it months ago. I meant to share it, anyways! No time to search the blog right now; Ari just woke up.

This article was written years ago, but it provides some interesting suggestions and theories that are particularly relevant to parents of young infants.

An Adoptive Mom's Breastfeeding Story

Just came across this wonderful success story on the La Leche League website:
http://www.llli.org/NB/NBNovDec07p259.html

What can I say? I am so happy I can't go to sleep! I know this does not garantee that I will be as lucky should we choose to adopt. But I will definitely try. No doubt about that!

WIC, breastfeeding, formula...

Check out this article for an interesting debate about the WIC program providing mothers formula and what message that action might be sending to people who are not well educated on how much of a difference breastfeeding does make:
http://rixarixa.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-wic-breastfeeding-package.html

I wish there were more people at the hospital trying to help moms learn how to breastfeed, rather than handing us diaper bags full of formula. Don't get me wrong. I don't think formula is evil. But I do think that parents and parents-to-be should receive education and advice instead of multiple cans of formula.

If there is one thing I think mommies interested in breastfeeding should know before going to the hospital, it is the following:
There are lactation consultants. They are beyond helpful. Ask to see one at the hospital. Find out ahead of time if there are LC's at your hospital or at your pediatrician's office.

All about Breast Milk...

I just came across two very well written articles describing breastmilk: the different types of breastmilk, breastmilk composition, the benefits to baby, etc.

If you are or hope to be a parent-to-be, you will learn lots.

If you are breastfeeding/have breastfed, you might learn something new. If anything, read this and commend yourself for doing such an awesome thing for your child!

If breastfeeding did not work out for you, do not let guilt overtake you; educate yourself and get help so you can succeed next time around.

http://attachmentparenting.org/blog/2010/01/12/the-composition-of-breastmilk-part-1/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+APISpeaks+%28API+Speaks%29

And
http://attachmentparenting.org/blog/2010/01/13/the-composition-of-breastmilk-part-2/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+APISpeaks+%28API+Speaks%29

Don't you love unsolicited opinions? A rant, be warned!

Today I was chatting with someone and she was asking about Ari. Sleep woes came up.

She said: You have to wean her. She won't sleep well till you wean her.

Oh my God!!! Not again!

My response: *Name*, no offense, but that is bullshit.

I said it to her, I will type it on this blog, and I will say it 100 times if necessary. THAT IS BULLSHIT.

Tell me, why the hell do people insist in telling you that your child will sleep better once you… feed them cereal, feed them solids, wean them, get them out of your bed…? What’s next? Once they are potty trained? Once they go to preschool?

She said that so-and-so's baby is on formula, is on a schedule, never wakes up in the middle of the night because that routine is all he has known. Breastfed babies, on the other hand, get used to eating every two hours, so they wake up in the middle of the night until they are weaned.

Again, I repeat: that is bullshit.

The ironic thing is that one of her kids was breastfed until age one and the other one only until six weeks. Neither one slept "well." So there goes that theory!

I night-weaned Ari and she still wakes up. My friend weaned completely for health reasons at 21 months and five months later, her son still wakes up once. My former professor/advisor's breastfed son was sleeping ten hours straight at seven months. There are plenty of formula babies out there that wake up and want their parents in the middle of the night.

So, in case you did not read it above: that is bullshit.

Children want their parents at 3am because they are used to falling asleep with something of their parents' nearby, whether it is simply the parent's presence, a little walk in the bedroom, a hug, holding the parent's hand... Yes, the boob is what they want in many cases, but that is not it. Otherwise, they would magically put themselves to sleep the minute you night-wean them. As you know, that is not the case. You saw all my posts about our experiences with weaning and sleeping night after night. Ari understood that there was no nursing until daytime, but she wanted to put her hand on my chest. I am now working on holding hands, rather than the hand on my chest.

By the way, you know what, if the fact my child breastfeeds has anything whatsoever to do with her night wakings, I still would do it again, in a heartbeat. Breastfeeding benefits both baby and mother in so many ways. So many stories have proven or found correlations between breastfeeding and positive things... In fact, I will endeavor to find a few and post them on here.

Why the night wakings, you wonder? Children have shorter sleep cycles than we do. If I remember correctly, the length of a young child's sleep cycle ranges from 60 to 90 minutes. So all children wake up in the middle of the night, just like we do. The trick is whether or not the child can put her/himself back to sleep without any assistance from a parent.

I would sleep a lot better if Ari put herself to sleep independently. I would be more rested. That is true. But, you know what? Parenting is a 24/7 job. My job does not end at 5pm. Does this mean that I am happy with the current set up, that I do not want her to be able to put herself back to sleep independently? Of course not. I can't wait, in fact! I am freakin' tired, if you had not heard!

Here is the difference: we are willing to gently transition her because my #1 priority is that my child is securely attached to her parents. For those of you unfamiliar with psychobabble, attachment has to do with the relationship that a child has with her/his parents. Is there a sense of trust? Does the child know that the parents will protect her/him? Does the child know that the parents will always return, that he/she will not be abandoned? A securely attached child knows this. This, in turn, helps the child develop her/his independence. A securely attached child will be a better partner in her/his relationships as a grownup. That child will grow up to be confident, not clingy. Again, there are plenty of studies that prove this. An insecurely attached child, one whose parents did not respond to her/his needs during the early years, either cries inconsolably when a parent leaves or does not give a damn if mom walks away. These are the people who grow up to be non-trusting people or people who cannot have a close, fulfilling relationship due to their own, personal issues.

I know a two-year-old who is an excellent example of ambivalent attachment. He will be around strangers. His mother walks away and he could care less. He is so used to her walking away, to her ignoring his calls for help. Very sad. That is not what I want for my kid. That is why when people told me to let her scream it out at three months, I said no, not now, not ever. At three months, babies do not have object permanence. In other words, if you leave, you do not exist. They do not comprehend that you are simply in another room of the house, that you will return if they really need you.

Let me clarify... I don't mean that Ari never cries. There is always some crying. That is unavoidable. But we are there, visible, in her room, holding her hand if that is what she needs. What we need to work on is to make it so that we can slowly get farther and farther away until she does not need us in the room at all. I am confident that will happen. She will know that she can put herself to sleep but that mom and dad will be there if she is afraid, is not feeling well, is hurt, etc.

Woe, long rant. rant over! I feel better now. Time for bed...

Breastfeeding while working... It can be done.

Wow, how annoying... Just spent quite a while typing about breastfeeding, working moms. The post is gone, gone for ever... I want to kick something!

Here is the short version, as I don't have time to retype the post right now.

Usually, breastfeeding moms who work use an electric breast pump. The bad news: they are expensive. The good, most effective ones are anywhere from $250 to $350. The good news: apparently, you can learn to effectively hand express breast milk.

Check out this blog entry to learn more:
http://fabnaima.blogspot.com/2009/09/do-you-really-need-pump.html

I was one of those moms who, no matter what, only got three ounces of milk at a time. Pumping more frequently and drinking tons of water did not help. I am sure there are many moms out there who have the same problem. It is good to know that there are other options. Breastfeeding and working is not easy, but it can be done. If worse comes to worse and you have tried it all, some breast milk is better than none. Your baby will still benefit from your milk.

You know you are a parent when...

You never cared about cartoons as a kid, but, suddenly, you look forward to and enjoy singing the "Bob the builder" song! Your kid laughs when you sing, so you enjoy singing the silly song even more!

If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out PVS at 7:30AM!

And...

You know you are a breastfeeding mom with a working reproductive system when...
You are freezing one minute, boiling hot the next, and freezing again, all in five minutes.

To clarify, this does not happen to me all the time. It only happens during my menstrual period.

What causes it? Extremely low estrogen levels.

When you breastfeed, your estrogen level is low.

When you are menstruating, your estrogen level is low.

When you are menstruating and are a breastfeeding mother, I guess your estrogen level is non-existent! Ok, not quite, but it is extremely low.

There's a female biology tipbit for you!

It is pretty frustrating when it happens, but it is only a few days a month. I still love breastfeeding, even though I am getting hotflashes from hell this week!

The Adventures of Amor Chiquito (6/14/09)

Nothing big to write about. My memory is pathetic; I can't remember anything these days!

There are some new words, but I am still trying to figure out what they mean. Amor Chiquito is doing lots of "substitution." In the language world, this refers to when a child makes up her/his own word because she/he is unable to pronounce the real word. If a sound is being used consistently, it counts as a word, even though it is not a real word for us grownups.

When we come home, almost always, Amor Chiquito wants to walk around the neighborhood to look at the "doggies"!

Amor Chiquito is exposed to lots of things at Abuela's house that she does not see here, mainly girly stuff. I'm just not into lotions, makeup, or hair products. Just the basics for me! A few days back, she went in Abuela's room, grabbed the body spray and sprayed herself. She then put lipstick on herself. Lastly, she asked for "tata" (lotion). Makes Abuela very proud!

Something new: she is drinking more milk (cow milk, that is). That does not mean she is weaning, though. To her, they are two separate things. And, frankly, I'm in agreement. I'm much better than a cow, thank you very much! I know what I put into my body and my milk gives her immune system a boost. When she is sick, she can still drink mommy milk, whereas that is not true about cow milk.

Oops, did not mean for that to turn into a little rant. I just get frustrated when people say things like "why haven't you weaned her already? She should be drinking more milk. She won't eat good until you wean her." They imply that cow milk is somehow healthier than the milk my boobs make. What kind of crap is that?

K, off my soapbox.

Amor Chiquito has learned to take the cap off her sippy cups. Consequently, she drinks her milk with a straw now.

Everything at Abuela's is cooler than the stuff at home! That includes the disposable diapers that my nephew wears. When we say diaper time, she runs and grabs a disposable diaper. Guess what? She is incredibly alergic to them. In 5 minutes, she is itching badly, crying, etc. Unfortunately, she has not connected the dots.

We used disposable diapers for 10 months, always Pampers. We never had a rash. So I wonder if there are different chemicals in the different brands? The diapers at Abuela's are not Pampers.

Back to the weekly update, we met with the early intervention therapist last Friday. Nothing new, really. This time Geeky Entrepreneur was able to join us, so he got to hear the suggestions directly from her, which was helpful. Basically, the boildown is that we should use brief phrases, lots of repetition, and lots of narrating what she is doing. Some time between 50 and 75 words, she will start saying phrases. We have about 30 words right now, so hopefully we'll be hearing some phrases soon.

I guess that was it for this week. On to get ready to start another crazy week.

My Breastfeeding Experience

A certain husband might argue that breastfeeding was the beginning of "the crunchiness"!

Before I became pregnant, I hardly ever thought of breastfeeding. When I was pregnant, I felt that I would give breastfeeding a try. Frankly, I did not think about it all that much. I did a tiny amount of reading and I took a breastfeeding class. That was it, and, that is unlike me. When I am interested in something, I research it heavily. I did not research formula either. So, now that I stop to think about it, what was I thinking?! I was so focused on reading anything and everything about pregnancy, trying to detect any signs that Amor Chiquito was ok in there, that I forgot everything else!

It was not until after Amor Chiquito was born that I realized how determined I was about breastfeeding! The first few months of breastfeeding were very hard, particularly because Amor Chiquito was born tongue-tied and this was not corrected until she was 6 weeks old. That was my fault; I was a paranoid mom, afraid that my daughter would go through unnecessary pain. But, after 6 weeks, I realized that we would not be able to continue if we did not do the procedure. The procedure was quick and she did not show signs of being in great discomfort. Instead, I started noticing a huge difference right away.

Back to what breastfeeding was like during the first few months… She was nursing every 2-3 hours. She needed to learn how to latch. I needed to learn, too, and I found it very difficult because it was so visual. I had to adopt. I tried using my finger to help her latch on properly, but my finger would get on the way. It took weeks before I figured it out. My wonderful husband was there every step of the way. He helped us get her latched on each and every single time. No, I am not exaggerating; he really was there day and night. And, he was supportive each step of the way. He was not pushing formula, but I also know he would have been supportive had I opted to supplement with it.

Each time, when she first latched on, it was very painful for the first 15 seconds or so. Eventually, because of her being tongue-tied, it was painful the entire time. Not to get graphic, but my nipples looked like they were about to start bleeding any second. We tried having me pump instead of breastfeed every now and then because pumping was more comfortable. We also tried nipple shields. These are thin covers, if you will, that you put over your nipples. The idea is that you will not be as sore. These did not really help us, probably because of her being tongue-tied.

Another thing that was very difficult for me was cluster feeding. This is when the baby wants to breastfeed much more often, every half hour instead of every 2-3 hour, for example. Basically, this has to happen, no way out that I know of. As the baby grows, she/he will need more milk. The only way for your body to realize that it needs to produce more milk is for the baby to try to get milk more often. Turning to formula is tempting, but the result of that is that your body will not realize that it needs to make more milk. Of course, when you are at your wits end, you do what you need to do. We gave Amor Chiquito sugar water twice. So, if you end up turning to sugar water or formula, do not think it is the beginning of the end, Do not give up just because you turned to formula once.

The first time we experienced cluster feeding was our first night at home. If there is one thing I wish people had warned me about, that was it! We experienced it a few more times, but I cannot remember when. I know it happened again when Amor Chiquito was 6 weeks old. If I remember right, it did not happen much after that.

During the first two months, I felt that each day we kept on breastfeeding and did not turn to formula was a huge accomplishment. I would tell the Crazy Entrepreneur "we've done it for 2, 5, 12 days…"! Eventually, I switched to weeks, then months! At one point I said "wow, it's been 3 months! I can do this!" I was ecstatic. I started to feel like it was a piece of cake. We were both great at it. Eventually, she started latching on independently. It was and is convenient. We didn't have to buy formula. We didn't have to wash bottles! We did not need to remember to bring formula and bottles when we went out. And, most importantly, I knew it was great for Amor Chiquito!

Now, here we are! Amor Chiquito is 18 months old and she is still breastfeeding. She breastfeeds when she wakes up in the morning, before her nap, when she sees me after being apart for a few hours, and, sometimes, before bed. She also breastfeeds when she is in pain or uncomfortable, after getting her shots or when she is sick, for example. I can tell that I do not produce as much milk as I used to, but I know that she is still getting the immune system boost, so, to me, it is more than worth it.

My goal was to make it to her first birthday. Now, I have no idea when she will wean herself completely. And, frankly, I am in no rush!

I am starting to wonder if I'll be one of those rare moms who is breastfeeding a 3-year-old. I do not know how I feel about that. But I do know that neither her or I are ready to wean right now. So I have decided to play it by ear.

I am very happy that I have been able to do this for my daughter. I cannot believe that she never tasted formula. I am, still, amazed at how our bodies can do this, how they can provide all the nourishment a child needs during the first six months of her life.