Is My Baby Malnourished?

 

A little over a week ago I ended up in the E.R. of our local hospital because my baby had croup. We're not a family who goes to the doctor for every little sniffle, and I tend to second guess myself when we have to go to Emergency. Well, it looks like I made the right call this time because he didn't respond to the first medication. The second medication didn't work much better so we were admitted overnight while they treated his croup very aggressively. The poor thing got so used to the mask he had to wear that he just gave in and didn't fight it after awhile. We were released the next day with an appointment to see a pediatrician in the hospital two days later for follow-up.

 

Now to the heart of why I'm writing. At the appointment while taking my baby's history I told the doctor that he still nurses about 85% of his calories (that's conservative - it's probably 90% or more). I told her that he sits at the table with us for every meal, and we offer him what we're eating. Most of the time he takes a few bites. If we're really lucky and he really likes what we're having he may even eat a quarter cup's worth. So I explained all of this, and then she told me my milk isn't nutritious enough and I need to start weaning him. Let's just say I was speechless for a bit.

 

Okay - is she not even looking at this baby in my lap? I know he was still recovering from being quite ill, but his illness had nothing to do with malnourishment. We're talking a little guy who nearly tripled his birth weight of ten pounds in one year - all on my breastmilk. I was so upset. She told me to stop giving him one of his feeds and when he is hungry he'll eat.

 

How do you make a baby go hungry? I was very upset. I came home and called one of my local La Leche League leaders. I didn't agree with the doctor at all and needed confirmation. Doctors, especially if they don't know you, don't always know best. They did a great job at helping Jonah recover from the croup. However, on this issue she was so clearly wrong. The thing that bothers me the most is that if Jonah had been my first I probably would have believed I was starving my baby in spite of evidence to the contrary sitting in my lap.

 

My point - please see a doctor when you need one, but also, please, remember they don't know everything. A baby can be malnourished while milking, but only if his mother is malnourished. A mother's body will deprive her of nutrients in order to given them to the baby. I have seen this first hand. While on a mission's trip in the jungles of Venezuela it was clear which women were mothers -they had no teeth and the babies were chubby and sweet. Their diet was low in calcium so their bodies took the calcium from the mother's bodies to give to the babies. 

 

My baby is developing normally, and I know that one of these days he's going to start eating solids all the time and there will be no holding him back.

 

 

What I'm Up To

Just for fun...

The idea for this post came from here.

Now it's your turn. What are you currently doing?

A Productive Afternoon

I like to read about other people's lives. I enjoy posts that give me a peek into what someone else has been doing. I'm guessing at least some of my readers are the same so I thought I'd give you a peek into my afternoon yesterday.

 

I had a lot of baking but I wasn't feeling that great so I had a nap first. I didn't get going until after 3:30. First I had to make a list - I love lists remember - of what I needed to do. Here's my list... 

• bread
• sourdough bread
• meat for supper
• chicken broth
• grape nuts cereal
• dessert? (not sure if I was going to do this)

3:36 - finished my list...time to start

 

3:37 - children decide to go play in the snow so I stop what I'm doing to dress my toddler (I was actually glad they wanted to go out because the house was quiet and they were burning off excess energy in a non-irritating way ☺)...then the phone rang...take a pencil case and its contents away from the baby

 

activating my yeast with warm water and honey

3:45 - try again...start the wheat mill going with six cups of spelt...take a picture of the baby watching his siblings outside...start my sourdough...start proofing the yeast for my yeast bread

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3:57 - the phone is ringing again and I search frantically because I never put it down in the same place twice

 

3:59 - decide I better have a tea to get me through this

 

4:06 - finish mixing up my sourdough bread...I won't need to do anything else with it until tomorrow

 

4:07 - start mixing my bread...As an aside, why am I making two kinds of bread? I need bread tonight and the sourdough won't be ready until tomorrow. Also, the sourdough only makes two loaves which will be gone in a blink and my regular recipe makes four loaves which will last a tch longer.

 

4:10 - more pictures of the fun outside

 

He's wearing the leg warmers I made.

4:16 - finished kneading my bread and set it aside

 

4:19 - time out to change the baby's diaper and nurse him. I enjoy my tea while he's nursing and may or may not have played a couple of rounds of Candy Crush also. ☺

 

4:42 - the phone again

 

4:49 - finish my tea and start mixing the grape nuts cereal. My husband loves plain cold cereal that he can share with the baby. This fits the bill, but it could be jazzed up with fruit or coconut or nuts (or chocolate chips - just saying)...the phone again - my dad this time.

 

5:00 - the cereal is ready to be baked...punch down and flip my bread dough over

 

5:02 - finally decide that yes I will make dessert...brownies...a double batch with walnuts and chocolate chips added

 

much later- the finished product

 5:05 - my teenage son agrees to chop up the stewing beef so we can use it in spaghetti sauce...we use the food processor for this

 

5:12 - the meat is ready

 

5:21 - the brownies are ready...phone rings...another nursing break...call my teenage daughter from her bedroom because she offered to make supper

 

5:38 - nursing the baby again...it's just that time of day when he wants to nurse a lot...the bread needs to go in the pans now for the final rise

 

5:43 - bread is in the pans...wash some more dishes

 

 

5:48 - put the chicken broth I made two days ago into Ziploc bags prior to putting them in the freezer

 

my method for holding the Ziploc bag so I can fill it

 5:57 - call my second son to take the chicken broth to our freezer in the basement

 

 

 

6:01 - supper is ready

 

So I now have six loaves of bread (in various stages of readiness), cold cereal, supper, brownies, and enough chicken broth for six meals. Not bad for a couple of hours of work. It feels good to get a bunch of stuff done all at once.

 

Do you ever do a bunch of stuff all at once in your kitchen?

 

 

Comforting My Sick Baby

 My baby has been sick with a slight fever for a couple of days (which partially explains why I haven't posted yet this week). Of course it's always worse at night so I've had a couple of nights of very interrupted sleep. I've had a lot of time to reflect in a sleepy, foggy kind of way. The first night I was thinking how happy I was that he was nursing. My body once exposed to his sickness started making antibodies to it which were then passed back to him in the milk helping him fight whatever is bugging him.

It can be very stressful taking care of a sick baby - They want to be held more, nursed more, they cry more for no apparent reason. But when I sit down to nurse him my body releases oxytocin which is a relaxing hormone. So the act of caring for my baby also cares for me helping me to spend a little time letting go of stress.

my sweetie when he's feeling well

When my middle son was the same age he was quite sick with some stomach flu. He couldn't keep anything down including breast milk. However, the breast milk stayed down for about 15 minutes which was about 14 minutes longer than anything else. I knew that he was at least deriving a little benefit from it, and since breast milk is so highly digestible he was probably getting even more than I thought.

Finally (I had a lot of time for thinking because I was up so much), I thought about how my body has been able to feed this "little" guy and help him go from ten to nearly thirty pounds in his first year. He is definitely my biggest baby (wearing size 2T already!) and the least interested in eating solids. He plays with them and takes occasional nibbles but he much prefers to get his nourishment from nursing. I think his picture tells how well that is working for him.

I know I've posted before on the benefits of breastfeeding but my baby's sickness has made me reflect again on how thankful I am that I have chosen this way to feed my babies.

How do you comfort your baby/child during sickness?

From Walking to Wreaths

 

This has been a fairly productive week not just for me but for the baby too. He's started to take a few independent steps here and there. It's so hard to believe that a year ago we were afraid he would be premature, and now he's twenty-six pounds and getting ready to take off with his walking.

I made a top for myself this week. I bought the fabric at least a year ago. I used this pattern for a nursing top only without the openings. I don't always find nursing tops as convenient as plain tops to use when feeding my babies.  I did the hem on the bottom and sleeves with a lettuce edge, and I'm so pleased with how it turned out. A word about the pattern I used. About twelve years ago I bought several patterns for nursing tops and dresses from www.elizabethlee.com. These patterns are wonderful. They are very simple. Even if you had never sewed or were a beginner you would find these patterns totally doable.

I've been doing a lot of scrapbooking this week. I'm now caught up to January of this year. Sometimes I feel like I will never catch up, but I keep working away at it. This is a hobby I really enjoy. I can work on it at our dining room table and watch a movie with the children at the same time. It's so exciting to see the photos come alive with the cropping, embellishments and journaling.

Today I worked on two Pinterest projects that I've wanted to do for a while. The first was some shaving cream. I used it and it was different. First of all, it doesn't lather like commercial shaving cream. It's made from oils so it puts a layer of oil between your skin and the razor. It was a good shave. Now I want to get my husband to use it and give his opinion. The recipe can be found here.

I like wreaths. My goal is to have one for every season/holiday. So far I have three: One is for Canada Day; one is for summer; and one is for Thanksgiving. Now I'm in the process of making one that I can hang up whenever we have a birthday here which, of course, happens on a fairly regular basis. This birthday wreath is a wreath covered in balloons. It's going well, but I need to buy a couple more packages of balloons, and I need to do it soon - we have a birthday next week. ☺

 So how was your week? Were you able to accomplish any goals?

Wrap-up and a Winner

This week has been so much fun - writing about a subject I am passionate about.


In case you missed any of the posts here is a re-cap.

• My experiences in breastfeeding
• The benefits of breastfeeding
• Resources for help with breastfeeding
• A verse about a special mother
• Challenges in breastfeeding
• The challenge of nursing twins

And, of course, what you all really want to know is who won the nursing cover. The winner is...

Debbie Tobler

Congratulations, Debbie. Thank you to everyone who participated.

I had so much fun that I'm thinking about doing another series in a couple of months about something else.

What would you like to see for a series of posts?

Couldn't resist showing this picture again. They are just so cute.

Nursing Twins – Double the Challenge

I'm very excited to introduce a guest writer today - Amber Schonhaar Nickerson, my sister-in-law. Amber had twins six years ago, and I asked her to share her experience in nursing them. Her story proves that although things may not go as we wish, we can still find a way to do the very best we can for our babies.

 

April 25, 2007. My husband Mark accompanies me to our weekly appointment at the High Risk Unit at the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus. Approximately 5 hours later, I’ve delivered our precious boy/girl twins by C-section. At a day shy of 36 weeks gestation, they are relatively big and healthy. We are overjoyed and overcome with emotion. Although we knew the twins could arrive any day, we are in disbelief that they are here!

 

Ours wasn’t a straightforward story: nearly 5 years of dealing with infertility, rounds of medications, countless doctors’ appointments, tests, and finally a successful IVF attempt. To say that we were ready to be parents would be an understatement! There’s a reason I’m giving you this background – this story is paramount in my decision to nurse the twins.

After such a journey, I was prepared, I’d done my research, Mark and I had attended the “Breastfeeding Twins” workshops, I had practiced the football hold with two eight-pound dolls, and we had a plan. But, as any mother will tell you, no matter how much planning takes place, no one is quite prepared for the realities of first-time parenthood, and having twins adds a few extra challenges!

As soon as I’d been wheeled into my recovery room, the nurses brought the babies to me. I fumbled with them, one at a time, to see if they would latch. They attempted to, but we could see they were both struggling. Our son had to be in the NICU for about 36 hours due to some fluid in his lungs, so they kept the twins together. It doesn’t sound like long now, but it was extremely difficult not to have them in my room right away. The nurses gave Mark bottles of formula and he fed them. Soon the twins were with me, and I attempted to nurse them every couple of hours. That football hold I practiced just did not work for me, nor did the other styles of holding them. I fumbled with nursing pillows, regular pillows, the Lactation Consultants doing all they could to coach me. The nurses told me that at 36 weeks, our babies were probably not physically able to latch, but I didn’t give up. We went to another workshop held on my floor. We were the only parents with twins. The baby blues struck (later I read that both moms of IVF babies and moms who experience emergency C-sections are more prone to this – a double whammy for me since I had experienced both). Things weren’t going as I had pictured.

I’ll never forget the first time I used an electric, double pump. I cried and cried. In part because of those baby blues, I’m sure, but partly because it felt so unnatural, and also because of the guilt and worry I felt. Was I doing what was best for our little miracles?

I recovered in the hospital for nearly 5 days never giving up on trying to nurse the twins as well as pump as much as I could. Thankfully I didn’t have any problem with supply. The day I was discharged I was very clear to Mark – “Go down to the hospital store and buy the most expensive, best double electric breast pump there!” It would turn out to be one of the best decisions I’d made.

At home, we were troopers. Mark was off with nine months of parental leave. With Mark’s help every step of the way, I got into a great routine of nursing (they eventually did latch on occasionally and I had a handful of successful times breastfeeding them but never at the same time), pumping milk, labeling and freezing milk, and sanitizing bottles. Life felt stressful but we were incredibly happy. And just slightly sleep deprived!

 

I don’t remember the exact moment, but at one point, I decided that the most important thing to me was giving our babies breast milk and the way it got to them – whether it was bottle or breast – didn’t matter. A few things played into this. We had been through weeks of attempting to nurse them. We were so fortunate to have a Lactation Consultant visit our home, as well as appointments every few days with the team at the hospital. Nursing them together was near impossible for me. I soon realized that I had to support my breast with my hand in order to nurse one baby at a time. They were growing fast and breastfeeding them one after the other was just not an option. Picture it: 2am, two tired parents, two hungry crying newborns. Feed one, and then let the other twin cry for that time, hungry? Something just didn’t make sense. The answer lay in that great Medela (http://www.medela.com/CA/en.html) pump Mark had picked up and the fact that he was off for 9 months! The perfect solution was to pump full time so we could enjoy feedings together.  

This was not how I pictured it, but it worked for us for nearly 8 months. At that point, I was exhausted to say the least. It’s difficult to look back now and think about exactly what lead me to stop at that point, but it was the right decision at the time. Ultimately, I look back on those months with pride and happiness. Parenting lesson #1: sometimes things don’t turn out exactly how we plan.

  

For tips and information on breastfeeding twins, visit La Leche League International https://www.llli.org/faq/twins.html

 

If you missed our first four posts for this International Breastfeeding Week you can find them at...

     Intro to International Breastfeeding Week

     The Benefits of Breastfeeding

     Resources and Help for Support with Breastfeeding

     Challenges in Breastfeeding

Also check out our nursing cover giveaway here.

Challenges in Breastfeeding

While thinking back over my nursing experiences and writing these posts this week, I realized that I have had relatively few problems. I've generally had an easy time feeding my babies after the first two to three weeks.

 

Obviously I won't be covering every challenge you could encounter in your breastfeeding experience - just some of the more common ones I  have experienced or heard about from others. Also, this post is in no way intended to take the place of medical help if that is your need. It could give you a jumping off point for knowing what you're facing, but I'm not a doctor. So if you need help, please see your doctor.

 

The first problem I encountered in breastfeeding was thrush. Thrush is a yeast infection that is on the mother's breast and in the baby's mouth. It is passed through the milk and can be difficult to get rid of. Your baby will have white patches in his mouth and be fussy when nursing because it hurts him. When my first baby was four days old, she refused to nurse. I was recovering from a C-section and dealing with all the post-partum hormones and now my baby wouldn't nurse - we cried together. Then I called my midwife. After a few questions she said we had thrush. She prescribed Nystatin which I applied to myself before nursing the baby. I also ended up not nursing for two or three days because of cracks and hoping to clear up the thrush. So we finger-fed our baby with whatever milk I could pump and formula to make up the difference. There are various natural remedies that some moms use for treating thrush - gentian violet being one. I believe that we had thrush because of the antibiotics I was given during surgery. In hindsight, I would have started taking a high-quality acidophilus supplement as soon as possible after surgery to help my good bacteria repopulate quickly. Some mothers battle with thrush for weeks so if you suspect thrush is your problem get help right away.

 

Daddy doing the finger feeding

 

After a few days of nursing my fifth baby I knew something was wrong. It just shouldn't hurt as much as it did. At the time, we were living in the country and my midwife couldn't come out to check on us so we ended up paying for a lactation consultant to come see us. Right away she saw that my daughter was not properly positioning her tongue. She showed me a technique for starting to re-train my daughter and there was improvement right away. This experience taught me that even though (for me) it hurts to nurse for the first couple of weeks I could tell that this pain was different and looked for help right away. When breastfeeding the sooner you get help the simpler the solution generally speaking.

 

Another problem I encountered was with baby #6. He was tongue-tied. He could not move his tongue out of his mouth to get a proper latch which resulted in painful nursing sessions and a fussy baby because he couldn't get full. When he was eighteen days old I took him to a breastfeeding clinic where they snipped the skin that was holding his tongue back. It took about four adults to hold him down so he wouldn't wiggle and about one second for the doctor to snip him. I| could tell that he was crying because he was angry that he was being held down. The relief when I nursed him was immediate. There are various kinds and degrees of tongue-tie. If you suspect this, get professional help to decide what should be done about it.

 

My sister has experienced mastitis many times in the course of breastfeeding her five children. This is a painful condition where you feel like you have the flu and one (or both) of your breasts is hot and painful. You need antibiotics for this and you need to go to bed. Go to bed and get your baby as much as possible to nurse from the affected side. This won't be fun, but it will help your body to heal. There's a lot of information on the internet for treating and preventing mastitis so do a search if you think you have this condition.

 

I've mentioned a few times that my first two to three weeks are painful. I usually experience this as a sharp pain when the baby latches on which gradually diminishes throughout the feed. It does get bad enough that I dread nursing my baby, but I also know that if I push through this everything will be great on the other side. One thing that really helps me is Lansinoh. Lansinoh is made from the grease that comes off of sheep wool when it is washed after being shorn. You can learn more about it here. I really do find a difference in my pain level when I use this regularly until my body gets used to the baby nursing.

 

Another challenge is unsupportive family and friends. Give your friends a miss for a while if they can't support you in how you feed your baby. It's not quite so easy with family, but have your husband speak to them if necessary. Prepare your family ahead of time. Try to educate them as to why you want to feed your baby this way. Given time even those most opposed can often be won over when they see how happy and healthy your breastfed baby is.

 

These are the problems I or my sister have experienced. I know there are lots of others - mom/baby needs surgery for various reasons, medications needed that may not be breastfeeding friendly, post partum depression, various conditions that make it difficult for a baby to nurse (think cleft palate). Generally speaking there is a solution to each and every problem. Don't give up nursing your baby right away. Research your options. It may take some effort but you will be so glad.

 

What was your biggest challenge in breastfeeding?

 

Tomorrow I have a special guest post about nursing twins. Please come back and join us for that.

 

If you missed our first three posts for this International Breastfeeding Week you can find them at...

      Intro to International Breastfeeding Week

      The Benefits of Breastfeeding

      Resources and Support for Help with Breastfeeding

 

Also check out our nursing cover giveaway here.

Resources and Support for Help with Breastfeeding

There are so many wonderful resources out there now that women did not have access to even thirty years ago.

 

My greatest support has been my husband - hands down. He has made meals, bought cream, let my cry, provided quiet by taking the children out so I could nap and just plain encouraged me when I was overwhelmed. I have also been blessed with an extended family and a church who support me. Beyond that here is a list of online resources.

 

The first one that comes to mind is La Leche League. This is a breastfeeding support group that meets all over the world. It now meets in more than sixty countries. The women who lead the sessions are volunteers and the emphasis of the group is on mother-to-mother support. I have thoroughly enjoyed going to these meetings over the years. The group was started in 1956 by a group of seven moms who saw a need for more support in this area. They have now grown into an international organization recognized as a leading authority on breastfeeding. Their most famous book The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding is in its 8th edition. I have three different editions of this - the first, one from the middle and the . You do not have to be a member to go to the meetings although membership is encouraged because the money is used to help women who have issues with breastfeeding. They also have an extensive website with lots of help and advice. On the website you can also look up a group for your area. There is also a Facebook page here.

 

 

 

Another well-known breastfeeding supporter is Dr. Jack Newman. He runs the Newman Breastfeeding Clinic which is a part of the International Breastfeeding Center in Toronto, Canada. I actually went to this clinic with Baby #6 because he was tongue-tied. Dr. Jack clipped his tongue and the relief in nursing was immediate. There is a wealth of information on this site.

 

Kellymom.com is another good source of information. I have not looked at this site extensively, but the leaders at my La Leche groups often recommend it to moms who are struggling with some breastfeeding issue. Just a fleeting glance shows that this site covers just about any question you might have.

 

A blogger that I read on a regular basis, The Humbled Homemaker, has just started a weekly series on Tuesdays about everything breastfeeding. By following this link it will take you to this series. These posts are on different breastfeeding topics. They are short and to-the-point. It's amazing the amount of information that can be packed into a post.

 

 

So there you have it. These are what I consider the top resources. If you know of a new mom who is struggling (or are one yourself) I cannot recommend highly enough looking for a La Leche League group in your area. Their book, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, is a fantastic gift for any mom who is nursing or planning on it.

 

What is/was your best breastfeeding support?

 

If you missed our first two posts for this International Breastfeeding Week you can find them at...

     Intro to International Breastfeeding Week and

     The Benefits of Breastfeeding

Also check out our nursing cover giveaway here.

 

     



The Benefits of Breastfeeding

Where do I even start with this one? The benefits are so many, and they're finding new ones all the time. I've done so much reading on this that I truly don't want to overwhelm you.

 

We all know the obvious benefit that breast milk is simply the most nutritious and easily digestible food there is for babies. From here I'm just going to go off the top of my head in no particular order on some of the benefits I know.

 

Colostrum, the liquid our babies get before the milk comes in, is an amazing substance that has antibodies to start protecting our babies. There is way more to this substance than that one sentence contains. For a fuller description, please go here. Once again I was amazed while reading how perfectly our bodies are designed to care for the needs of our babies.

 

In summer our milk is more watery to satisfy our baby's thirst needs in the heat. In winter it is creamier to help our baby fatten up and stay warm.

 

Generally, breastfed babies are less sick and rarely constipated.

 

Breastfeeding protects the mom from breast and ovarian cancers.

Did you know that when I am exposed to a sickness - cold, flu, etc. - my body begins making antibodies to fight the disease. These antibodies are then passed on to my baby through my breast milk to protect him. How cool is that?

 

In a state of emergency (like the blackout we experienced in 2003) breastfed babies can still get their food. I heard stories during the blackout of 2003 of mothers heating up bottles on barbecues or searching for other ways to feed their babies. Baby #4 and I never missed a beat.

 

Breastfed babies tend to struggle less with their weight as adults.

 

Many women find that breastfeeding helps them to lose their baby weight faster. It also helps to delay the return of a woman's cycle and is therefore a natural form of preventing a pregnancy. It helps to prevent post-partum depression. I'm not saying you won't experience this if you breastfeed, but breastfeeding lessens your risk.

 

Breastfeeding helps a mom to sit down and relax. It is a natural stress reliever as oxytocin is released every time a mom nurses. How many times have I sat down to nurse my baby to sleep and thought once the baby is asleep I would do A, B and C. Then comes all of those wonderful hormones and I think, "Hey, A, B and C will still be here tomorrow. I think I'll relax now." That's a great thing. Our work never ends as mothers. It's better to have a rested mommy than a perfect house - just saying.

 

It's free! This is a biggie. Who doesn't like free? With a tight budget, I don't know where we would fit formula in - we would because who's going to let their baby starve. I just don't know what else we would go without.

 

It's simple. Going out for the day I don't need to wonder how long we'll be gone and how many bottles that would translate into. Additionally, if we end up deciding to stay out longer I don't have to worry about running out of food.

 

The bonding is phenomenal. I love to watch my babies eating. I love when they stop and look at me with their big, gorgeous eyes and smile as if to say, "Thanks, Mommy. This is the best ever." I love the way they turn trustingly toward my breast knowing that I'm there for them.

 

It's like my secret weapon when mothering a toddler. "Did you hurt yourself? Have some num-num." After dealing with a toddler meltdown, breastfeeding is a great way to reconnect. Remember how it relaxes you? Who doesn't need to be relaxed after going through some toddler power struggle?

It's convenient and simple. The vast majority of women need no special equipment to help them feed their baby this way. The milk is always ready at the right temperature. No need to wait for it to warm up. This is especially nice in the middle of the night. ☺

 

Recently this article came out about breastfeeding increasing a child's IQ. You can check it out here.

 

Well, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Do a search on the "benefits of breastfeeding". They seem to be endless.

 

What is your favourite benefit of breastfeeding? Mine is the way it relaxes me.

 

In case you missed the first post in this series - Intro to International Breastfeeding Week you can check it out here.

Have you entered our giveaway yet for a nursing cover?

 

A Nursing Cover Giveaway

As we've mentioned before my oldest daughter, Eva, helps with some of the behind-the-scenes work on this blog. For this special week of breastfeeding posts she helped set up a giveaway.

Julie from Juls Sweet Designs Etsy shop has agreed to send a nursing cover to one of our readers. Nursing covers are a great tool to help you be modest when nursing in public or to help your distracted baby block out the world so he can nurse. We've all seen a mom with a blanket over her shoulder so she can nurse her baby. The difference here is a strap that goes around the neck to keep the cover in place and flexible boning at the neckline so you can look down and see your little one's face - and they can see yours.

Here is the cover that is being offered. You can go here to read the details about this cover.

 

 

Julie has a beautiful shop with a lot of great baby related items. I love her diaper strap which will keep your baby's diapers from scattering all over your diaper bag or purse.

 

Even if you don't need one of these they would make a great gift for a friend who is nursing. To win one of these covers leave a comment on this post telling me whether or not you ever used a nursing cover. For another chance to win visit Julie's shop here and tell me what your favourite item there is. For a final chance share this giveaway on Facebook and leave a comment to tell me you have done so. That's three entries if you so choose. I will randomly pick a winner on Wednesday, August 7th so watch for your name.

Intro to International Breastfeeding Week

I am excited to do this series of posts. I've been thinking about them for months. Over the next few days we'll talk a little about the benefits, challenges, resources and special situations of breastfeeding. Let's start out with my story. Why did I decide to breastfeed my babies?

nursing baby #2 in hospital

I think it started with dreaming about being a pioneer woman when I was little. I knew they would have had a hard time giving a bottle to their babies. The truth is I don't know when or why I made the conscious decision that that was the way that I wanted to nourish my babies. I had no idea what an incredibly healthy decision I had just made for me and my future babies.

When I was an older teenager I started to read books about birth. I was excited about having a baby someday and knew I would nurse that baby. However, and here's the interesting thing, although I read dozens of books about pregnancy and having babies, I can't remember reading a single book about nursing babies. I guess I just figured it would all happen naturally since that's the way we are designed to feed our babies. I was so sure that it would be a simple matter of putting the baby to the breast and letting nature take its course.

nursing baby #3 while
trying to read my Bible

Then I had my first baby. So many ideals were blown away. I went from a natural homebirth dream to a semi-emergency caesarean in a very short time. Perhaps I'll do a post on some of my birth stories someday. I LOVE reading birth stories. Each is so unique. Well, I didn't have the birth of my dreams, but I could still nurse my baby. In fact, she nursed in the recovery room. I was surprised by how painful nursing was. Not every woman experiences this, but I did and still do. For the first couple of weeks I'm just grinning and bearing it. Okay, sometimes I'm crying but there's a lot of fatigue and hormones mixed up in that too.

When my baby was four days old we ended up with thrush (I think it was brought on by the antibiotics I was given in the surgery, but that's another post.) So my breastfeeding experience was off to a rocky start. Thankfully the thrush cleared up quickly. I'm glad I was too naïve to realize how blessed I was in that. My baby was a fussy nurser though. In hindsight I think I just had a really strong letdown that she struggled with.

nursing baby #4 - stopped for
a coffee on the way to church

Someone advised me to give it six weeks and everything would smooth out. I didn't plan on quitting, but it was nice to give myself a goal to work towards. When it's working well breastfeeding is bliss. And when it's not working well it's still so good to know (and help me keep making the effort) that I'm giving my child the best food possible.

When she was three months old I went to my first La Leche League (a breast feeding support group) meeting. I'll cover this in another post. It was great. I wish I had known that I could have gone while I was pregnant. I would have been better prepared for some of the challenges that I faced in the first few weeks. Eight babies in I still go to these meetings. There is such a wealth of information, and I still have questions.

Baby #6 - my best nurser
 right after birth

Baby #1 was a fairly easy baby nursing-wise. She taught herself to sleep through the night at eight months. I had no idea how good I had it. That was the last baby who was a good night sleeper. My next baby set the rhythm for sleep being interrupted every two hours - sometimes sooner. It was h.a.r.d., but now my body is used to it. Not that I'm not tired from multiple night feedings, I'm just more prepared mentally. I also let my babies sleep with me so I can sleep while they nurse, but again that's a subject for another post.

I have been blessed to have very few problems compared to stories I have heard at La Leche meetings. I so enjoy breastfeeding. It is one of the best ways of nourishing and/or comforting your child. I feel that every woman should at least try to feed her baby this way. God designed our bodies to feed our babies and you can't improve on the design. I am very passionate about this subject so please bear with me if I seem a little zealous.

Please join me this coming week as I celebrate International Breastfeeding Week. I will be talking about some of the benefits, resources, challenges and special situations that arise when breastfeeding.

By my conservative count I have nursed my babies 32,880 times! Wow! That's going on eight times a day (average) and 137 months in total (so far).

I made another count awhile ago - I've fit in a few more nursing
session since then.

Did you nurse your baby? What was your favourite part?