Is that necessary

Is it really necessary to have something as nasty as Mastitis around to screw with breastfeeding? A woman's body has this powerful ability to provide all the nourishment a baby will need in it's first year + of life. What are we rewarded with? Clogged ducts and painful breast infections. About 2 weeks ago I found myself with a painful right nipple. I assumed that it was an infection (I know better now) and called my midwife. She asked me if I had a number of other symptoms, which I did not. She said it sounded like I was starting to get a plugged duct and told me a few things to do to prevent that from happening. A couple days later I found myself with a very hard boob and Googling phrases such as "breastfeeding white spot." That Google search led me to the bathroom where I proceeded to stick a small needle into the "white spot" on my nipple. Sounds kind of gross, but man did it do the trick. Milk came streaming out of that little sucker and I no longer had a clogged duct. A couple days later I had an even harder boob, but this time there was no "x marks the spot" place to relieve the pressure. I applied hot compress, forced Copper to nurse on it constantly, massaged, and pleaded with my boob to release the goods. Finally at the very last feeding of the day when my mood could get no moodier, I felt the steady stream of sweet milk running down my stomach. Ahh, relief. A few days later, the most sore, hard, 4 times larger than her twin, boob ever. Copper ate and I pumped and still it felt terrible. As the day progressed so did the pain. I longed for the day when I thought I had an infection because my nipple kind of hurt. Little did I know that this was just the beginning. I called my midwife again and explained that I was pretty sure that this time it was an infection. She asked if I was achy or running a fever. Nope. She gave me some things to do help ward off an infection and told me to call her if I developed a fever and felt like "you've been hit by a mack truck." I called her the next morning. I don't like antibiotics. They're harsh. But I couldn't wait to lay my hands on those little suckers. Luckily my mom was kind enough to pick them up from the pharmacy for me. I had a 100-101 fever and felt like I had a really bad flu. To top if off, I cried out in pain when Copper would nurse. I would compare the pain of breastfeeding with Mastitis to contractions pain. No joke. I was barely functioning for three days and fairly useless on the 4th 'cause I was still so tired. I just finished my 5th day of antibiotics (out of 10) and am feeling much better. Nursing causes only an initial twinge of pain and my boob is back to it's normal size. I'm now also taking a supplement called Lecithin that is supposed to help with lubricating the milk ducts. I will take them religiously the remainder of my breastfeeding time. I do not ever want to experience Mastitis again. It can kiss my ass.

Mommy or Daddy?

Who do I look like?

Mommy?

or

Daddy?

3 Months Old

Copper turned 3 months old on Saturday. Such a big girl!

Here's what she's up to:

• She can support her own weight standing (balancing is of course another story)
• She has started to reach for objects with her hands
• She can easily put her hands into her mouth and suck on all fingers at the same time
• For the past couple weeks she has been able to watch people and follow them as they move around a room
• She started laughing
• She now weighs about 13lbs 4oz (or so)

Quote of the Day

"Make time for yourself."

-Dove Chocolate Wrapper

(I ate 2 Dove Milk Chocolate candies today and both had the same message.

I think it's trying to tell me something.)

VooDoo Doctor

Copper went in to a NAET specialists today to get tested and treated for any food allergies that she may have. I've been off of dairy, nuts, fish, soy, and whey for about 2.5 weeks now and we've seen some changes in her already. She is pooping way less often and there have even been a few yellow dooks in the mix. She doesn't seem quite as fussy and it's rare that she has her little fits of rage followed by an explosion in her diaper. I won't even try to explain how the NAET treatment works, but here's a link for the lady that we saw that "explains" it. If it weren't for Lucy's success with the treatment I wouldn't even believe that it would work. Here's a summary of what we did today...I laid down on a table with Copper laying on her back on top of me. I touched her leg with my right hand and held vials of different allergens found in foods (in some sort of liquid form) against her skin. With my left arm in the air and hand rotated outward, the specialist would try to push my arm forward while I tried pushing her back. If the body shows signs of allergies, the muscles will be weaker. It was pretty obvious when Copper/I reacted to something because I could feel that I couldn't push as hard. Copper has a minor allergy to some stuff in dairy (casein and a couple other things I can't remember) and a very minor allergy to wheat. We did the testing portion for quite a while and vent through a lot of vials. She also tested my breastmilk, both pre food elimination milk and current milk, but Copper didn't show a reaction to either. Her allergies are very mild, but enough to give her problems. Today Copper was treated for the dairy allergies. For the first part of the treatment I sat up with Copper in my lap. I held a glass jar against her leg and the specialist would place different vials in to it while I received acupressure treatment along my spine while doing different breathing techniques and then she would do acupressure along Copper's spine. (She didn't have to do the breathing techniques though.) After that the vials were placed in her socks for about 15 minutes. I have to stay off of dairy for about 25 hours and then can start eating it again. She advised against having pizza with milk followed by ice cream and suggested that I start out with a glass of milk with dinner. Then it's a waiting game to see if Copper continues to get better while I've brought dairy back into my diet or if she gets worse or stays the same. In that case we will go back and do a more in depth dairy treatment or treat her wheat allergy. I'm hoping that this treatment took care of everything since her allergies were so minor. With NAET the allergies are eliminated, not just discovered and lived with. Even though our insurance does not cover this kind of treatment, it only cost $85 for the first session. If we need to go back it will cost $60 a session. Works for me.

35 Pounds in 3 Months. Word.

About a week ago I decided to flatter myself and try on a pair on my pre-preggo jeans. And low and behold, they slid right on! No sucking it in, thinking thin, or unsightly muffin top. I am officially back in my old pants. While I am only about 5 pounds shy of losing my baby weight, my body is not quite the same. I think that breastfeeding is making the weight come off without my knowing it, but putting the muscle back on will take a bit more effort. I am still avoiding my form fitting shirts, but at least my wardrobe is getting a little more diverse. As far as working out, I now completely understand Kellie's post baby request for 30 minute workouts. Last week (during my one workout all week) I attempted to complete a whole session of P90X Kenpo. Copper happily watched me punch and kick the air for about 25 minutes and then lost interest and started yelling at me. I finished up the last 15 minutes of the workout about an hour later. A few weeks ago while attempting to ride my bike on the trainer for 30 minutes, I had to listen to Copper give her father hell for the last 25 minutes of my ride. That allowed me 5 minutes of "a little time for myself" riding and 25 minutes of "sorry honey, I'm almost finished" riding.

It's just temporary

This is one of the positions we used while eating out Saturday night. The other was me standing and holding her. Can't get upset though. She won't always be like this.

After I left to go to the car and feed her (I did feed her RIGHT before going out to eat) a woman came up to Aubrey and told him that she really enjoyed watching our little girl. They have become grandparents to 5 kids in the past 4 years. She also asked if I had a chance to eat my dinner. I did, I just don't remember tasting it. Aubrey pretty much held her the entire time he ate. Like I always say, "Good thing she's cute."

Adjusting

Aubrey has been back to work now for the past 4 weeks. We now know what it feels like to be parents in the real world. The first 2 months we had so much flexibility since Aubrey wasn't working and I only worked a bit. Now that Aubrey needs to be in bed by 9:00 and is tired in the evenings our roles as parents have changed. The first week he went back to work was brutal. I wanted to write angry blog posts every night, but never had the time. We were working at getting Copper to bed sooner (which wasn't always easy) and I no longer had the extra help at night. I still have the flexibility in the mornings with my wake up time, so Copper duty is all on me now. Also, we had been away from our house for 2 weeks and when we got back it was all about getting ready for Christmas with my family. My house was a disaster and I couldn't find the time anywhere to get anything done. I've always had the moto, "Organized house = organized mind." I had a very disorganized house (and quite dirty) and a high maintenance baby who refused to let me get anything done and I was also back to work. At the weekend of that first week I managed to get the house cleaned and my head screwed back on and things were looking up again. Fast forward 3 weeks and I am blogging at 12:15 in the morning on a work night because it's the only chance I've had to blog. My house is once again a complete disaster and disgustingly dirty. I took yesterday off and got a lot of much needed chores accomplished, but am far from having everything crossed off my list. I struggle with going night after night of accomplishing nothing. I don't want to be the mom that passes off the kid to daddy the moment he walks in the door because I've had her all day. Aubrey still needs his down time after working hard all day. Copper's not always the happiest baby in the evenings. With breastfeeding, I generally feel like my whole evening is spent with her stuck to my boobs. I pretty much get home from work, feed her, eat and then feed her again before I start the long process of getting her to fall asleep. Our goal is to eventually get her to bed by 7:30 or 8:00 so that Aubrey and I can enjoy some time together and after he goes to bed I can have my own alone time. While there were a few nights we were able to get Copper down by 9-9:30 and she would stay asleep, this whole week it's been 1.5 hours plus of feeding her just so she can wake up 30 minutes after I put her to bed. After a crazy Monday this week I decided to take a bath after putting Copper to bed at 9:30. About 10 minutes into my bath I could hear her crying and eventually Aubrey brought her upstairs. I got out of my hot bubble bath and went downstairs to feed her again. At 11:30 I put her back in her bed and came back upstairs to drain my tub and take a shower. Not the evening I had intended. Tonight for example, Copper clung to by boob for almost 2 hours and still woke up and fussed when I put her to bed. My alone time didn't start until after 10:30 and then it was spent working on our budget and getting tax stuff ready for our accountant. Since it's already later than shit, I figured I'd finally write that angry blog post that's been on my list of things to do for 4 weeks.