Geek in Heels - Page 112

Nov 16, 2010 • In Baby, Claire, Motherhood, Personal

Wednesday. It’s On.

I am pretty sure that I do not need a lactation consultant.

Claire has a perfectly good latch. I do not have any supply issues. I am comfortable in different breastfeeding positions. I have read La Leche League’s The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding front to back, and am always visiting breastfeeding support forums, so I am certainly informed.

What I do have is an impatient and lazy suckler.

One out of every five times, she will take from my breast and drink for a good 10+ minutes straight.

It is only the other four out of five times that she will only suck for a minute or two, tire of it (because it’s more work than drinking from a bottle), then proceed to start screaming. And the girl must have inherited my stubbornness, because once the screaming starts she will refuse to eat from the breast for the rest of that session.

So unless you think I need to pay someone $180+ (that is the going rate for a home visit by a lactation consultant in my area) to sit there to be a cheerleader, no I do not need a lactation consultant.

What I need is a lot of time and patience — and perhaps a bit of stubbornness on my part too. What I need is some time alone with just the baby and myself, so that I do not feel pressured, or feel bad for anyone who might be subjected to the crying.

I am pretty certain that if I stay gung-ho and only offer my breasts for a full 24 hours, no bottles allowed, Claire will need to admit defeat and surrender.

I have asked J to ask his parents not to come over on Wednesday for this purpose.

J asked if I would like him to work from home, and I told him no.

Wednesday will be a day for just me and Claire. A day when I will be adamant about teaching my baby to associate my breasts to eating, to prefer my breasts over any bottle.

And a day filled with many tears, to be sure.

Please wish me luck.

Crotch-Punching Cloudy

Last night J and I decided to dress Claire in her take-home outfit to see how it would fit her now, at 6 weeks old. (She was positively swimming in it when we brought her home from the hospital, as even premie clothes were too large on her for the first week of her life.)

No surprises there — the shirt now fits her a bit too snugly.

We kept the outfit on for her nightly picture with Cloudy. J even snapped a picture with his phone and immediately uploaded it to Facebook, only to receive the following question from a friend:

“Is she crotch punching Cloudy?”

We immediately took another look at the picture in question, and sure enough, there it was…

Gaaaa!

My baby looks like she’s inappropriately touching poor Cloudy the bear!

I decided then and there that this picture is a keeper. It will comes in great for future blackmailing opportunities, no?

I ♥ Sriracha Sauce

I haven’t craved much spicy foods since I got pregnant (the horror!), and I have continued to stay away from the stuff while breastfeeding. That being said, I am a connoisseur of spice/hot sauces and my all-time favorite remains sriracha sauce.

It is precisely for this reason that I believe this updated food pyramid to be awesome:

Source: The Sriracha Cookbook Blog. Via Angry Asian Man.

Trying to Do What’s Best

Claire has had thrush on and off for about a month now, (I don’t know why doctors prescribe Nystatin when it only works in about 50% of thrush cases) and it looks like it’s spread to my boobs too.

So now I am battling both thrush and mastitis.

Perhaps I had thrush first which caused the mastitis? Or did my weakened immune system from the mastitis help the thrush thrive in my breasts?

Either way, I’m friggin exhausted, in pain all the time, and I can barely hold my own baby due to anything even remotely brushing against my nipples or right breast causing red, hot searing pain throughout my chest.

Yesterday I got a bottle of grapefruit seed extract oil and have been treating both Claire’s mouth and my nipples with the method described here. I can already see an improvement to Claire’s tongue overnight (a PSA to all mothers who are dealing with thrush: skip the Nystatin and go straight to grapefruit seed extract!), but I am still experiencing pain in my nipples and through my breasts whenever they are drained.

As for the mastitis, the antibiotics that the doctor prescribed have lowered my fever, but my right breast still remains a bit warmer than the left and the painful lump remains.

Want to hear something funny? The antibiotics, which kill all bacteria — good or bad, are supposed to keep me at a higher risk for thrush. It’s like a fun, vicious cycle!

Sigh.

Between these two infections, all the trouble I have had breastfeeding in the first few weeks of Claire’s life, the side effects I continue to experience from breastfeeding, and — this is a new one — discovering recently that my breast milk seems to give Claire horrible gas (no matter my diet) while she is fine whenever she drinks formula, I am so ready to throw in the towel and quit. I want to wean now.

But then I see ads like this and it makes me feel horribly guilty for even considering quitting:

It’s only been six weeks. Please tell me that it will get better.

I Will NOT Be Your Father!

The best condom wrapper ever:

Via Geekologie.

Web Designers vs Web Developers

Being married to a software engineer (which would fall under the web developer camp in this case), I can attest to the accuracy of this infographic.

And just FYI, a There’s no place like 127.0.0.1 doormat graces our front door.

Via Six Revisions.

Mastitis

Yesterday I felt like crap.

I was aching all over, I alternated between the chills and sweats, and I could barely walk in a straight line.

(I had even failed to publish yesterday’s post on Jane Eyre. It was sitting there ready to go, and all I had to do was click on the “Published” checkbox, and I completely missed it. But fear not — it’s published now!)

As much as I wanted to stay in bed the entire day, last night was the evening of our scheduled date night — our first since the arrival of the baby — and there was no way in hell I was going to miss it.

We had a fantastic meal where I was able to gorge on foods I have been banned/restricted from since the pregnancy — shellfish and beer — and we watched The Social Network, which was appropriate since the campus scenes from the movie had been shot at the school where we had met. (It sure brought back tons of memories, and I was especially thrilled when I saw the building and my window from my freshmen dorm.)

I still wasn’t feeling myself when we returned home, and that’s when it occurred to me that I should take my temperature.

101.4…

I wasn’t coughing/sneezing, nor did I have a sore throat or runny nose. Then I remembered reading about mastitis.

My breasts always hurt whenever they fill with milk, so I hadn’t paid much attention to the additional pain in my right breast. But when I examined it, I found that it was red, hot to the touch, and there was a giant painful lump on one side.

J ordered me to bed and took the night shift. I was able to sleep a glorious six hours, and since I have been taking Tylenol regularly my fever has gone down. However, I am still feeling pretty crappy and my right breast grows more and more painful.

I have a doctor’s appointment later today and he will most likely prescribe some antibiotics to help fight the infection.

Meanwhile, I need to continue to pump regularly and get lots of rest (which is not easy to do with an infant). Luckily, I have the support of wonderful family members: J, who is taking a day off from work today to help watch the baby and to drive me to the doctor, and my mother who will be coming by tomorrow to help with the baby while I continue to get rest.

Here’s to a speedy recovery.

Fantastically Dark Trailer for “Jane Eyre”

Jane Eyre is one of my all-time favorite books, so I was thrilled to see this trailer for the newest movie adaptation. Directed by Cary Fukunaga, the film seems to have a dark, stylish feel that brings a modern twist to a story that is set in the 1800s. I love the fact that it treads on the thriller genre, because I have always believed that Jane Eyre is a thriller/mystery as much as it is a love story.

Jane Eyre is set to be released on March 11, 2011. I can’t wait to see it!

Via The Daily What.

Guest Post: Family Pets

I know that introducing Claire to Comang and his adjustment to no longer being the “baby” of the house will be difficult, but I am determined to make it work. So when Heather first contacted me about possibly writing a guest post on the addition of babies to households with pets, I jumped at the chance. It also didn’t hurt that she works for Trupanion, which is the pet insurance company that my vet recommends over all the rest.

I hope that all fellow pet owners will enjoy this post as much as I did! And if you have any additional family pet success stories, do share!

I’ve been following Jenny for a while now and among all her fun finds and interesting commentary, I have been really engrossed in her experience with combining her new motherhood with her existing motherhood of Comang.

You know Comang, right? He is the adorable Shih-tzu depicted in her blog header. It’s been fun to read Jenny’s musings on the similarities between caring for a dog and becoming a mom, as well as how Comang was preparing her for future motherhood.

Currently, Comang is residing with Jenny’s parents until they are organized enough to introduce him to the new family dynamic. Which got me to thinking: How difficult is it to blend babies and pets? With all the good intentions pet parents have with keeping things as normal as possible for their beloved fur babies, is it really possible?

Success stories are actually difficult to find, I’ve found. I’ve unfortunately read many more instances of families giving away their pets when a baby arrives. And while all situations are different, I am desperate to find those with happy endings. There ARE success stories out there, and that is what I want to focus on today.

Amber at Ambergontrail wrote a post back in August about how her dog Woofie and her daughter Piper were just starting to get past the adjustment period to become best friends. She wrote about how she was observing the two and it dawned on her that Woofie was actually playing with Piper — teasing her with a rope toy, then snatching it out of her reach when she lunged for it, then once again tempting her with the toy. Piper was laughing and everyone was having a great time. She called this the start of the “Piper and Woofie —Best Friends Forever” era. It took nine months to get there, but it did work out.

Kali at Evidently… had the task of introducing her new baby Sidney to her beloved cat Oliver and at first, Oliver was none too happy about the new ‘rules.’ He was no longer allowed in certain rooms of the house. He no longer had the rapt attention of his humans any time he wanted it. The basement was no longer entirely his to run to whenever he pleased. Kali said it took three months to establish enough of a routine with Sidney where they had free time to devote to Oliver. And once the whole family — Oliver included — adjusted to the new way of life, Kali found that Oliver became quite loyal and interested in Sidney, and vice versa.

Erin at Blue-Eyed Bride talks a lot about how her son Hudson absolutely adores her two dogs to the point where the dogs’ names were two of Hudson’s first words. Hudson is especially fond of Boudreaux, the family’s Golden Retriever. Boudreaux allows Hudson to crawl all over him and Hudson loves getting kisses in return. But at the beginning, she did acknowledge an adjustment period. Before the baby was born, the two dogs were re-trained to sleep on the floor instead of the bed. Then, when the baby arrived, big Boudreaux no longer fit on the couch with mom and baby, so he didn’t get as much snuggle time. Plus, while recovering from birth, the daily walks the dogs were used to were stopped and the dogs were cooped up inside a lot. But they made it through it and now enjoy being part of a bigger family.

What I take away from these stories is simple — things will change. And I’m guessing that realizing that is half the battle. Currently I’m babyless, and while it’s hard for me to imagine right now, I need to realize that when I have a baby I will be spending significantly less time with my fur-babies and 99.9% of my love and attention will be directed to the new addition, at least in the beginning.

Adjustments will have to be made and routines will have to be established in a different way. But I hope to learn from Jenny, Amber, Kali and Erin, and be able to make the switch from solely a pet parent to a parent of babies and pets.

Does anyone out there have other experiences with this? Any other tips or tricks to share?

About the Author:

Heather Reynolds is a pet lover and internet journalist at Trupanion, a pet insurance company. Feel free to contact her with any questions related to pet insurance at heather.reynolds@trupanion.com.