Tag: newborn

Engorgement: Just Keep Cool (Cabbage Leaves On Hand)

March 17, 2016
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Via drgreene.com

It’s pretty sucky when you’re up to your armpits in swollen milk machinery, none of your clothes fit, and your boobs suddenly feel like they might actually burst open as if they, too, overindulged in too much Easter feasting the day prior (ugh, when will they start making nursing bras out of stretchy pants?).

I had oversupply, and would wake up many mornings for months so engorged that I could see my milk ducts rippling through the taut skin, totally horror flick style. The problem was exacerbated during my four months -long pumping stint, which tricked my body into scrambling to provide for MaiTai’s nonexistent twin, or so it felt convinced. And so, every day it made sure my milk-makers were stretched out to wazoo. It defied the laws of physics, really.

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Are We Going To Tandem Nurse? That Is The Question, Isn’t It…

January 15, 2016

Photo Credit: Javier Mantrana

And The Answer Is…

As with everything experienced in our breastfeeding journey, there’s no predicting what direction this nursing relationship will take with MaiTai once his little womb-dwelling brother needs sustenance ‘on the outside.’ MaiTai is currently older than three years old and will turn three-and-a-half when his baby brother is born.

And he’s still nursing… technically.

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This Is Your Brain On Breastfeeding

January 3, 2016

Photo Credit: Sugarsnap Photography

Sorry, Fuzzy Pregnancy Brain Continues with Breastfeeding

You know how your brain literally shrinks while you’ve got a baby in the womb, causing what’s commonly and oh-so-affectionately known as ‘pregnancy brain’?

Though you might feel like the dullest knife in the drawer for about nine months, the fuzziness does work for a good cause.

The evolutionary view is that the resultant mental fog allows women to literally forget about everything else and focus only on their babies. ‘Pregnancy brain’ also erases traumatic memories of labor and birth so women will be, you know, tricked by mother nature into doing that all over again.

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The First Six Weeks of Breastfeeding (& Special Birth Situations)

December 29, 2015
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Christina Valdez with her two month old, Oliver. Photo Credit: Ana & Ivan Photography

THE FIRST SIX WEEKS

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

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One in The Womb & One on The Boob: Breastfeeding During Pregnancy

September 19, 2015

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I really never imagined I’d be nursing during a pregnancy. It amazes me the endurance of this tradition we’ve made and how it’s seen us through so much.

I don’t know if almost three-year-old MaiTai will tire of it soon, or if aversion will strike the crazy into me and call a halt by my discretion. Or if we’ll just keep nursing like we always have, because it’s as normal a thing to do as would be not choosing to continue.

I do know that nursing isn’t so comfortable anymore. Aversion is milder so far than with bleeding cycles, but it just feels… different. Not all oxytocin-rush-of-pleasantness, squeeze-him-tight and never let go, butterflies of love swooping through my body kind of stuff like I wrote about here.

It feels how I imagine some people who’ve never breastfed might think breastfeeding feels like — a little person sucking on your skin, perhaps a most unwanted hickey? Still it’s not “gross” (he’s my baby, he’ll never be icky to me!) but it’s not a street paved in my favor as far as physical contentment. Emotionally though? Another story.

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If You Never See Breastfeeding…

July 14, 2015

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If you never see breastfeeding, you’re missing awareness of a few things, or a true understanding of the whole thing — just like I was before I eventually saw it.

This way of child nurturing is so natural it can easily blend in with everything else we attend to in our domestic, professional, and social lives. But blending in is not equal to disappearing.

If you never see it, you may not know it’s how many women learn to become mothers. You may not know it’s how they continue to learn about who they are as mothers. So we must make a point to not let the image and act of breastfeeding disappear.

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Very First Doctor’s Note for Baby (Copy & Bring to the Birth Hospital)

August 7, 2014

drnote

I’m a healthy full-term baby. I’m exclusively breastfed.

I trust that my Mommy knows best, so please ask her, _________ (mother’s name), whether it’s okay to give me anything other than her milk. This includes water, glucose syrup, formula, and even pacifiers.

I eat on-cue.

But please help my Mommy to breastfeed me every 1-3 hours while we’re in the hospital by tending to her childbirth recovery needs while she tends to mine.

I need to stay with my Mommy at all times.

Her designated birth partner, ________(birth partner’s name) will stay with me in the event that I might need to leave her side (let’s do all of my pediatric check-ups at the side of her bed or in her arms! Thanks!).

We’re both new to this, so we like to consider all decisions together very carefully.

  • We decided to postpone my first bath, so…

    Mommy will let you know when it’s okay to bathe me.

  • Also, I don’t want an unnecessary surgery right now, so…

    whether I’m a boy or a girl, my genitals will remain intact.

  • We have a limited list of approved visitors, so…

    please double-check about visitors because we need private time to bond.

 

With love and trust,

___________________________________________________ Mommy’s Signature

___________________________________________________ Baby’s Name

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