Sunday, August 16, 2009

Lactation Cookies Recipe

For this recipe, you need to visit a health food store to find the brewer's yeast. It is NOT the same yeast you use to make bread. It's around $11-14 for a huge jar.
Also, you want to use thick cut oats, not the quick cook ones. You can find those in your grocery store's natural food section, or maybe even in with the cereal/oatmeal. The brand I have is Bob's Red Mill and I bought it at Whole Foods.


Ingredients
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
4 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons flax seed meal
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats
1 cup chocolate chips
2-4 tablespoons brewer's yeast

Directions
1Preheat oven to 350°.
2Mix the flaxseed meal and water and let sit for 3-5 minutes.
3Beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar well.
4Add eggs and mix well.
5Add flaxseed mix and vanilla, beat well.
6Sift together flour, brewers yeast, baking soda, and salt.
7Add dry ingredients to butter mix.
8Stir in oats and chips.
9Scoop onto baking sheet.
10Bake for 12 minutes.
11Let set for a couple minutes then remove from tray.

I ended up in Urgent Care

First, let me say that I posted this the other day and for some reason it didn't post, so here I am again.
I've been having shortness of breath, chest tightening, headaches, and its been hard for me to catch my breath. I finally decided to go to the urgent care to check for clots, because my legs also are really swollen from the c-section.
We were there for like...4 hours. It was terrible!! I did an EKG, chest x-ray, blood work, and a CT Scan. I was hesitant to do the CT scan because it was with contrast. I had my husband look up CT Scan and breastfeeding while I was back there waiting, because they told me that I wouldn't be able to nurse for 2 days.
I at first declined the test. When they told me I would have to pump and dump for 2 days, I began crying. I said there is no way I would do that. I can't pump very well. Not only that, I just knew that would be it. Once she got a bottle, she wouldn't want mommy anymore! We've worked so hard to get to where we are (had a horrible time latching in the beginning and I was in SO much pain!)

The urgent care doc was really nice. She said she fully understood that nursing was important and that she wouldn't make me do the test. She took the time to Google an article by Dr. Jack Newman who basically specializes in breastfeeding. The article stated that so long as no radioactive dyes were used, I wouldn't have to stop nursing the baby.
I also whipped out my BlackBerry and went to KellyMom.com and read an article on the use of radioisotopes during nursing, and even they stated that its OK to continue nursing. So, that's what we did.
So, if you ever need to get a CT scan, God forbid, know that its ok so long as the contrast used is classified as an L1 or L2. See the link above for Kelly Mom for more info on the dyes used. The one that they used for me was Omnipaque. I was sure to have the RN phone radiology to double check. It's iodine based.

So anyhow, after all of that, everything came up ok. I have no idea what is going on with me. Maybe its all just a side effect of the spinal anesthesia or something. The doctor told me to just continue taking my prescribed meds because the pain in my chest could be from an inflamed chest wall, and the ibuprofen will take that inflammation down.

I don't even want to see the bills from this visit!!

Friday, August 14, 2009

Thrush Prevention Recipes

If you suspect that your baby has thrush, try this natural method of cleansing. First, be sure to check that the white spots on the tongue and cheek do not wash off with a gentle rubbing with a clean damp rag. Once you've established that it is thrush, you can do the following:

1/4 tsp baking soda into 6 oz water. Mix well. Dip a cotton swab into the solution and gently swab the baby's mouth wherever you see white. Do NOT double dip the same cotton swab. If you need more solution, you need to use a fresh swab each time. You cannot keep that batch of solution to use the next day. You need to dump it out and make a new one every day.

For mom's breasts:
As a yeast preventative:
1 TBSP vinegar to 1 cup water. Cleanse your nipples and surrounding area 4 times per day. Allow to dry thoroughly before applying any lanolin or nipple butters.

Emmaleigh Claire is here!!

Sorry that I haven't been updating the blog, but I've been too busy babymooning with my new daughter!!
Emmaleigh Claire arrived via c-section on August 7th at 9:55 am. She weighed in at 8 lbs 10 oz and was 19 3/4" long.
She came out crying and sucking on her hands. Ok, maybe crying is too nice of a word. She was screaming her brains out for about 15 minutes. LOL
Since I had a c-section and don't do well during recovery, I couldn't sit up straight all the way, but the nurse in the recovery room was nice enough to come lay Emmaleigh on my chest, skin to skin. I was amazed to see that when she was placed on my chest between my breasts, that she maneuvered her way over to my left breast- all from smell- and attempted to latch on!! It's called a Breast Crawl. Once she was there, we latched her on and she suckled and was comforted for about 45 minutes. It was amazing!
Needless to say, my Em is a breastfeeding pro, right from the womb. I am blessed that we haven't had any issues thus far.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Let the journey begin!

Wow! As I sit here typing this all out, I have come to realize that I will begin yet another breastfeeding adventure in 2 days! I haven't nursed a baby in...5 years!! At least I know this time the challanges that may lay ahead of me.
Thinking back to 2004 when I had my son, it was so unfamiliar. Thank GOD that I had taken time to actually sit and read up on breastfeeding. The La Leche League Womanly Art of Breastfeeding book was on my coffee table, and I used it religiously. Everytime my son would squeak or fuss at the breast, I'd have to thumb through the book to see what could be wrong.
"Why is he eating every 5 minutes!?" (running to consult the infamous book). Of course, I didn't take everything in that book seriously. I mean, even for me, that book was a little too serious and even ridiculous at times.

Why am I making this blog? Well, as a huge pro-breastfeeding mama, I wanted to sort of document my breastfeeding trials and tribulations. I wanted a place where people can read about the ups and downs, and get straight forward answers to questions from a 'real' person and not medical mumbo jumbo that has been Googled.
I am taking classes through Childbirth International to become a breastfeeding counselor. I am studying the composition of breastmilk, how breastmilk is made by the body, and everything else that comes along with it. It's sort of become a passion or obsession (if you want to call it that) to expose others to breastfeeding.
I wasn't always a breastfeeding mama. In fact, my 1st two children were bottle fed, formula babies. I was 22 when I had my first child. I didn't read up on nursing, but I knew that I wanted to do it because afterall, its best for babies! Yeah. I made it maybe one day in the hospital nursing, then cried desperately to the nurses to give me formula. My baby was big ( 9 lbs 2 oz) and was seriously crying at the top of his lungs, even right after feedings. As soon as he got that bottle of Similac, a hush fell over the room, and this first time mama was happy!
Because of that experience, I didn't even attempt to nurse baby #2 19 mos later. Eventhough by the time my milk had come in after having her, I could've probably fed an entire small village somewhere, I wasn't about to try it. I was scared.

Baby #3 was a breeze. Now, I will admit, I did have my 'Oh my God, he's wanting to eat every hour' freak out moment. I did call my husband from the hospital at 1 am crying because eventhough the baby had just eaten, he was crying again to eat. I was 7 hours post partum. I needed sleep! In reality, what was my husband going to do? Come to the hospital and nurse the baby? I just needed someone to vent to. Someone to gripe to. At 1 am, who else was I going to call (that wouldn't mind me calling at 1 am)?
After my new mama again freak out mode passed, I was able to successfully nurse him for 16 months. I am sure we would've had a longer nursing time, but it was my desire to persue becoming a surrogate mom, so we needed to wean in order to begin that process.

Speaking of becoming a surrogate mom- after I had my surrogate daughter, I did pump for a short time for her. I was able to ship her 480 oz of frozen breastmilk!

Now that I am getting ready to give birth in 2 days to my 4th child, I want to be sure to document every moment of our nursing experience.
My blog is entitled "Breastmilk is the best milk". I have bought a domain that I will also be making to encorporate a link to my blog, as well as post email questions and answers to breastfeeding questions onto the website. As I sit around "nak" (nursing at keyboard) when time allows, I plan on creating a website for new and seasoned breastfeeders to come to, to get advice, to chat with other nursing moms, to obtain the answers they are looking for, and possibly even find a needed milk donor or a milk recipient for their breastmilk!

I ask you, to make this a success, PLEASE pass on the link to my blog! Please become a follower! If you have any questions related to breastfeeding, please email me and ask me. I will take all emails and compile them into a Q&A session where I will post my answers every Friday for the week.

I hope you enjoy following my journey!