So a friend of mine at work recently had a new baby, and it was funny because I work with the husband!! But I guess in passing (I'm sure he really wanted to hear about it), I told him I was a Psycho Breastfeeding First Time Mom. Well I didn't even remember telling him my stories - I credit my "Mommy Brain" with that new skill!
But this week when he came back to work, he told me that he told his wife to call me because she was getting overwhelmed and frustrated that every person she talked to told her - oh I just gave up. Don't kill yourself trying. It's so much harder than anyone ever tells you. Blah-Blah, so her being 2 weeks postpartum - she was getting a little overwhelmed and frustrated. She didn't take him up on calling me - after all she's only met me once, but I wore that I was even thought of in a moment like that as a badge of honor! God knows I paid my dues with the breastfeeding Gods!! LOL!
So I'm going to write her a note of encouragement anyway...not being pushy or anything, but just sending her positive thoughts in a pretty overwhelming time! It's hard for me to even remember those days!! But I do remember that overwhelming feeling of worrying that your baby is getting enough milk, etc. Throw in some hormones...and that can quickly spiral out of control!!
Showing posts with label Breastfeeding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Breastfeeding. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Still only ONE tooth!
Okay, so I have to admit - I thought when he "got a tooth", he'd really get both his bottom teeth! I had no idea he'd get one and it would stay like that for a while! It's almost been 2 weeks I think! And I can already feel the hard ridges on the top, so at the rate he's going - he may get a top tooth before the other bottom one!
He bit me TWICE in one nursing session this week! OMG! I can't imagine what that will be like with BOTH top & bottom teeth! I spatted him before I even realized what I was doing....it HURT! The worst thing was that I knew it was coming! As I said "Don't you BiiiiiiiiiiTTTTTTTTTTTEEEEE - OUCH - me!" Then he latched off and smiled at me as I spatted him! OMG! That bottom lip immediately came out and the water works started! I told him I should have been the one crying not him! That was the 1st spat though! So then I immediately felt bad!! :( I could see that I hurt his feelings! Poor baby!!
Then when we switched sides - you got it! He did it AGAIN! Luckily, he hasn't done it since so hopefully we got that out of the way! I don't know if I'll be able to take that!!
He bit me TWICE in one nursing session this week! OMG! I can't imagine what that will be like with BOTH top & bottom teeth! I spatted him before I even realized what I was doing....it HURT! The worst thing was that I knew it was coming! As I said "Don't you BiiiiiiiiiiTTTTTTTTTTTEEEEE - OUCH - me!" Then he latched off and smiled at me as I spatted him! OMG! That bottom lip immediately came out and the water works started! I told him I should have been the one crying not him! That was the 1st spat though! So then I immediately felt bad!! :( I could see that I hurt his feelings! Poor baby!!
Then when we switched sides - you got it! He did it AGAIN! Luckily, he hasn't done it since so hopefully we got that out of the way! I don't know if I'll be able to take that!!
Friday, November 14, 2008
Mom's Instincts are Grrrrrrrrrrreat!
So I've quickly (in 3.5 months) come to know, that your motherly instinct kicks in either while you are pregnant (you become protective of your belly) or as soon as your child is born! And that we should trust them because they are usually right even when the dr's, friends and family say otherwise! It's the same as the 'you're the only one that knows your body' thing.
As most of you know, I've definitely had an uphill struggle with breastfeeding pretty much the entire time! But I have also been 1000% committed to breastfeeding. Here's 101 Reason's Why I've been committed to it from the day I found out I was pregnant. I realize it's not for everyone, so I'm not a breastfeeding bigot - I just knew that it was the right decision for me!
Anyway, it seems like every time we've thought we were over the hump with breastfeeding something else would come up. Finally, my lactation consultant aka "The Boob Whisperer" - Judy Eastburn - came back last week so she could see what issues Riley and I were having and help address them. As she watched what I was doing, she told me everything was right - position, latch, etc. But when we weighed Riley to see how much milk he had consumed it was almost nothing! She was at a loss! Then Riley had one of his infamous meltdowns. This time I believe it was divine intervention! As he was screaming, she noticed that his tongue was not touching the roof of his mouth. This is something known as being tongue tied. Extreme cases of being tongue tied don't even allow the child to stick their tongue out or their tongue looks heart shaped when they do. She said Riley's wasn't that severe, but she wanted to send me literature on the topic. Then Kelly and I could discuss it and decide what to do. She also said based on her 35 years of experience, this was her hunch and best educated guess as to why Riley wasn't able to get milk out because everything else we were doing was technically fine!
After reading the literature, Kelly and I felt like it was worth looking into. Our approach was that if the ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat) Dr was sure he was tongue tied and could do the procedure in his office locally without anesthesia, we'd have it done. Otherwise, I'd just resolve to pumping from here on out. So Tuesday, Riley, GiGi and I went to see the ENT. He literally looked in Riley's mouth for a millisecond and said - yes, he's tongue tied. Then we discussed the options. I ended up having him clip Riley's tongue right then and there. When children are under 4 months old, they can just do it in the office, and there are no nerve endings in that area so they really get more upset about being held than anything else! Thank goodness GiGi was here to go with us because she held him! Mom was a wuss and didn't want to! I just wanted to cuddle him after it was over! And he literally was over it within a couple of minutes. It was like he was still crying, then all of the sudden he couldn't remember what he was crying about so he just went to sleep in my arms!
As soon as we got home from the dr's office, Riley stuck his tongue out at Kelly. Kelly couldn't believe the difference, so he started calling him Gene Simmons (the guy from Kiss with his tongue clipped to stick out really far!) When it was time for Riley to nurse - OMG! Nirvana!! Seriously, I could tell the difference IMMEDIATELY! And so could he! He was calm and nursed without fussing at all! It was more in line with what I thought breastfeeding would be all along! It's still not perfect but we're practicing! He's learning how to use his new tongue now so we have to give it a few days! And now he actually takes so much milk, I can't keep up so we have to give my body a few days to adjust to his new demand too! But it's amazing what the difference is! And the dr actually told me there is NO PROOF that clipping a tongue tied baby will have a positive impact on breastfeeding! Is he crazy? Have you ever tried to swallow without touching the roof of your mouth? Not very easy, is it? The main piece of literature that convinced Kelly and I to give this a shot was from Australia. They are WAY ahead of us in their studies of breastfeeding, and they just released a study that does show (via sonogram) that tongue tied babies do have difficulty breastfeeding. This is also something that is more prevalent in boys than girls! Go figure! Man, do I wish we had figured this out back in August! But more than anything I'm thankful to have figured it out now before I return to work in December! Hopefully this will give us time to get things all lined out before we have to cross that bridge!
And once again, it has been confirmed that when my motherly instinct tells me something just isn't right - it's NOT! Almost every time I have 2nd guessed myself on something with Riley because I'm a 1st time Mom, I've ended up being right in the end! And every time it happens, I tell myself to trust my instinct the next time...and I don't until the end! I'll get it eventually!
On another note, this has also given Riley a new talent! He can roll his RRRRRRRRs like CRAZY now! And his favorite thing is to say Grrrrrrr back and forth with Dad for as long as Dad will do it! I guess that's what you get when you combine a released tongue with all that slobber!! Gurgly Grrrrrsss! And of course, I think it's the cutest thing EVER! At least until he does something next week that's even cuter! :)
As most of you know, I've definitely had an uphill struggle with breastfeeding pretty much the entire time! But I have also been 1000% committed to breastfeeding. Here's 101 Reason's Why I've been committed to it from the day I found out I was pregnant. I realize it's not for everyone, so I'm not a breastfeeding bigot - I just knew that it was the right decision for me!
Anyway, it seems like every time we've thought we were over the hump with breastfeeding something else would come up. Finally, my lactation consultant aka "The Boob Whisperer" - Judy Eastburn - came back last week so she could see what issues Riley and I were having and help address them. As she watched what I was doing, she told me everything was right - position, latch, etc. But when we weighed Riley to see how much milk he had consumed it was almost nothing! She was at a loss! Then Riley had one of his infamous meltdowns. This time I believe it was divine intervention! As he was screaming, she noticed that his tongue was not touching the roof of his mouth. This is something known as being tongue tied. Extreme cases of being tongue tied don't even allow the child to stick their tongue out or their tongue looks heart shaped when they do. She said Riley's wasn't that severe, but she wanted to send me literature on the topic. Then Kelly and I could discuss it and decide what to do. She also said based on her 35 years of experience, this was her hunch and best educated guess as to why Riley wasn't able to get milk out because everything else we were doing was technically fine!
After reading the literature, Kelly and I felt like it was worth looking into. Our approach was that if the ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat) Dr was sure he was tongue tied and could do the procedure in his office locally without anesthesia, we'd have it done. Otherwise, I'd just resolve to pumping from here on out. So Tuesday, Riley, GiGi and I went to see the ENT. He literally looked in Riley's mouth for a millisecond and said - yes, he's tongue tied. Then we discussed the options. I ended up having him clip Riley's tongue right then and there. When children are under 4 months old, they can just do it in the office, and there are no nerve endings in that area so they really get more upset about being held than anything else! Thank goodness GiGi was here to go with us because she held him! Mom was a wuss and didn't want to! I just wanted to cuddle him after it was over! And he literally was over it within a couple of minutes. It was like he was still crying, then all of the sudden he couldn't remember what he was crying about so he just went to sleep in my arms!
As soon as we got home from the dr's office, Riley stuck his tongue out at Kelly. Kelly couldn't believe the difference, so he started calling him Gene Simmons (the guy from Kiss with his tongue clipped to stick out really far!) When it was time for Riley to nurse - OMG! Nirvana!! Seriously, I could tell the difference IMMEDIATELY! And so could he! He was calm and nursed without fussing at all! It was more in line with what I thought breastfeeding would be all along! It's still not perfect but we're practicing! He's learning how to use his new tongue now so we have to give it a few days! And now he actually takes so much milk, I can't keep up so we have to give my body a few days to adjust to his new demand too! But it's amazing what the difference is! And the dr actually told me there is NO PROOF that clipping a tongue tied baby will have a positive impact on breastfeeding! Is he crazy? Have you ever tried to swallow without touching the roof of your mouth? Not very easy, is it? The main piece of literature that convinced Kelly and I to give this a shot was from Australia. They are WAY ahead of us in their studies of breastfeeding, and they just released a study that does show (via sonogram) that tongue tied babies do have difficulty breastfeeding. This is also something that is more prevalent in boys than girls! Go figure! Man, do I wish we had figured this out back in August! But more than anything I'm thankful to have figured it out now before I return to work in December! Hopefully this will give us time to get things all lined out before we have to cross that bridge!
And once again, it has been confirmed that when my motherly instinct tells me something just isn't right - it's NOT! Almost every time I have 2nd guessed myself on something with Riley because I'm a 1st time Mom, I've ended up being right in the end! And every time it happens, I tell myself to trust my instinct the next time...and I don't until the end! I'll get it eventually!
On another note, this has also given Riley a new talent! He can roll his RRRRRRRRs like CRAZY now! And his favorite thing is to say Grrrrrrr back and forth with Dad for as long as Dad will do it! I guess that's what you get when you combine a released tongue with all that slobber!! Gurgly Grrrrrsss! And of course, I think it's the cutest thing EVER! At least until he does something next week that's even cuter! :)
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