Medela Calma Review!

I love Medela products!  I have been using them for 10 years now since the birth of my Sweet Pea.  In fact, my Pump In Style is still going strong to this day.  So I was very intrigued when I heard the first rumor that Medela was developing a bottle specifically for breastfed babies.

My breastfeeding story.

Thank you for listening to me talk about breastfeeding this week.  I really enjoyed getting the chance to talk a little about the topic.  I don't normally talk too much about breastfeeding on OTTW because I have a great blogger friend who covers the topic beautifully.  Mummies Nummies is a wonderful place to go to get support, inspiration, help and a few laughs too.  You can also join Mummie on Facebook where she has her fan page plus a closed group where you can go to get support and talk about those things that may be a little too personal for everyone to see.  The closed group is a wonderful place full of supportive Moms who breastfeed too.

I'm a Mammal....It's what we do!

Yes...I am talking about breastfeeding.

*For those who are offended by breastfeeding, I will let you know that there are personal pictures here.*

Many generations ago, women breastfed their children because it was the only choice.  Then there was the invention of bottles and formula.  It became a 'women's liberation' choice.  It freed these women to have options to be able to leave their children in the care of others without the child going hungry.  It was a status symbol...those who could afford to do it, did.  Because of this, bottle feeding became the way to feed your child.  There was a new generation and a new way of thinking.  Then the next generation came around....the generation of my parents.  This generation was really split in two.  There were those that wanted to conform to their parent's ideals.  Then there were others who wanted to forge their own way, go all natural, go against the grain, and 'fight the man'.  This is true for many issues, but one of them happened to be the choice of formula or breast milk.

LilyPadz Review and Giveaway!

It's been a while since we've had a fun giveaway.  I am very excited to get to share these with you all.

LilyPadz are a unique breastfeeding accessory.  They are for keeping you and your clothes dry from unexpected leaks.  The best part is that they are made not to absorb extra milk, like regular pads, but to keep you from leaking in the first place.  They work very simply.  First, you open the package.  Then you remove a pad from it's protective shield.  Then while it's inverted, you apply the middle to you, press down and apply it from center to edge.  This creates a pressure that will cause you to not leak.  To nurse, you simply remove the pad, place it on it's shield and then nurse.  There is nothing to clean off of you before nursing.  If your pad has a little residue on it, you can wipe it off with a LilyWipe and let it dry before reapplying.  Then, once a day, you wash your pad with LilyWash to keep the adhesive side tacky.

LilyPadz are safe and hypoallergenic.  They are made with medical grade silicone.  You can use nipple creams with the use of the LilyPadz; just be careful to only apply it to the nipple area because the oils can cause the adhesive properties to break down.

What I really love about the LilyPadz is the ease of use.  I also really like that they are comfortable to apply and to remove.  When they are on, they sit comfortably under any shirt or bra.  There is no rubbing or irritation.  This makes it very comfortable for sore nipples.  I am most excited that they compress the nipple, so they will be very useful under tight clothing or when dressing up so that I don't "show" under my shirt.  I plan on using them when dressing up even after nursing for that reason.  They are very comfortable.

One thing that I noticed with them is that I tend to sweat underneath them.  This was uncomfortable for me in the first 6 weeks because I had small cracks on my nipples from nursing.  This also dried up my nipples because of the salt that was on them, so nursing after taking them off burned a little.  But, I have very sensitive skin and I usually have a very hard time with any adhesives.  Even though this happened, I would still use them  through the day.  I also know that this is not a normal reaction.  I had a few friends who used LilyPadz and they never had the same sweating problem like I did.  They really enjoyed them and wore them all day and all night.

One lucky reader is going to get a chance to try it out for themselves!  LilyPadz is providing a LilyPadz Starter Kit.  It includes a LilyPadz set, a drawstring bag for your pads, the LilyWash and a box of LilyWipes.  Winners will be drawn at 12 am EST on January 2nd, 2012.

Questions Answered

Hello I had a question for you. Will a baby naturally end up sleeping through the night? Like my 11 week old daughter is on a pretty normal 3 hour schedule. She eats around 5 and then I end up waking her up at about 8-9ish to eat one more time before I go to bed, and she ends up waking up around 3-4 to eat and again between 6-7. When will she eliminate the 3-4 feeding? I just mainly want to breastfeed and not do cereal or anything. She has only had breastmilk so far. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. By the way, I love your blog. :-) As a young 22 year old wife and mother I appreciate the wholesomeness that is here. Thanks again.

By MrsLucas

Ah, yes....the age long question implored by all of us sleep deprived parents.  I can assure you that sleep will come again and it gets better with age (and then worse as they get to be teenagers, but that's a whole different story!).    Every child is different, just like every family is different.  It just takes some time to figure out what works for you.

To answer Mrs.Lucas' questions specifically, I will say this.  It is amazing that your 11 week old little one has a pattern already!  That is a very good sign.  Have you ever tried just letting her sleep without waking her up at 8 or 9?  I only ask this because our second child would go to bed at 6:30pm and would sleep until about 2am or 3am.  The middle of the night feeding will eventually work itself out of the schedule and usually it's the first one to go.  As for timing, it is different with every child.  You will be able to see cycles soon though.  The middle of the night feeding will go away for a night or two and then come back.  It is perfectly normal for regression to occur just before a good change happens.  I would never worry about middle of the night needs until at least 6 months.  After that point, then you can start working towards establishing good sleep patterns.  I always refer to this website when I have questions.  I am also a very schedule oriented person (and my kids are too, luckily), so I love to refer to this website too.

On a side note:  Be wary of people that urge you to start cereals, especially when you don't want to.  It won't help your little one sleep through the night, that just happens to be a coincidence that when they are ready to start solids that they are also ready for longer night sleep periods.  Talk to your doctor about it at her next appointment.  (If the advice that you get just doesn't sit right with your instincts, then I urge you to get a second opinion from another doctor.)  Exclusively breastfeeding until 6 months (give or take) is a very healthy way to go and it's supported by the APA.  Our Little Man had to start on cereals at 4 months and it was a very difficult decision because I was determined that he wasn't going to have anything but breast milk until 6 months.  The reason we started was because he was ready for it.  He was reaching for my spoon, making mouthing motions with his mouth and more importantly his digestive system was ready for it.  He needed the additional nutrition.  (We have been blessed to have such an amazing Pediatrician work with our children!  He is full of amazing advice and is very conscience of nutrition and breastfeeding.  Plus, he loves our cloth diapers too!!!)   So, follow what you want for your child, trust your instincts, and get good advice from a doctor that will help guide you on your journey.

And we're back to sleep:  An important thing to do for starting good sleep habits is to get a good bedtime routine down.  This will help your little one learn the cues that bedtime is near.  We would do a little bath followed by a nice rub with lotion.  Then I would nurse my little one to sleep (and rock to sleep if they didn't fall asleep while eating). I would then gently tuck them into bed.  When nursing stops is when we start to introduce stories (mainly so I could still get some cuddle time in, but it's also good for them too).  We would start the routine at the same time every night.  I am an insomniac and the one thing that I've learned (which applies to babies too) is that a night time schedule is very important to stick to.  Even getting off by a half an hour can make a difference; maybe not that night, but definitely the next and it will affect nap time too.

As she gets older, then it will be time to decide what you and her need from your sleep routines.  I personally have the middle road belief of 'parenting to sleep'.  I rock and nurse my babies to sleep and then tuck them in, and we do this until they are a year or two old.  I don't like the Farber method of 'crying it out', but I also don't agree with co-sleeping either.  We learned that with our son, he has to cry himself to sleep.  Once we figured that out and kept our night time rituals the same, it was an easy and painless thing for all of us.  He puts himself to sleep very easily now, even when he wakes in the night.  That first week of figuring this out was agony, but just stick with your plan (whichever one you choose) and it will work.  The important thing is consistency and patience.  If you give in once, it is that much harder to get back on track.

Thank you so much for the very kind compliment.  I greatly appreciate that you felt comfortable enough to ask me these questions.  I will never claim to 'have it all figured out'....in fact, I really don't.  I just know what has taken us years (and a couple kids) to figure out and if some of my experiences can help someone else, then I love to share them.

I would love to start doing a question and answer post routinely.  If you ever have any questions or are curious about something that you think I might have some interesting information on, please feel free to email me at obsessionsottw at gmail.com.  I know that most of the time it will be a parenting, kid, or marriage question, but I will even try to help if it's something odd, like your car, pets or jewelry.....

Breastfeeding Law

Hey there Nursing Mama's and Nursing supporters!  Something is brewing in Georgia and someone needs to put a stop to it.  Here is a link to Mummies Nummies that you just have to read!  No town should be able to put a restriction on breastfeeding.  Next they will try to ban NIP all together.  What is worse is that other towns could see this and try to pass something like this too!

Let's ban together and let our voices be heard!  Email Mr. Parker at jparker@forestparkga.org.  Let him know that this type of 'legislation' should not be passed!  His support of this is deplorable!

A Breastfeeding break

Well, as many of you know, we are pregnant again with Number Three.  I am 14 weeks along and finally in the blissful second trimester.  Little Man is now 13 months old and Sweet Pea will be 9 years old in a few weeks.

The original Nummy lover.

I am naturally a tall, slender person.  In fact, my fight to gain weight can only be described as a similar struggle as those who try to lose weight.  So, this makes the first trimester of pregnancies very difficult for me.  Keeping up with my battle of caloric intake for myself and then adding another person into the mix can be difficult.  History has shown that I usually lose about 8-10 lbs. in that first trimester.  (I know, I shouldn't complain...right?)  But it is very difficult.

I nursed Sweet Pea until 9 months.  That is when she decided that she was done.  I knew that I wanted to allow Little Man the same privilege of weening himself.  But, not all children will do that.  Little Man was still nursing 6 times a day (a scheduled nurser) when we first found out that we were expecting again.  We kept going and I was determined to let him nurse until he wanted to stop.  But, I had a very difficult time keeping up my supply.  Through morning sickness and constant queasiness, the added 1500 calories a day were very difficult to get.  My supply was starting to fade.  We found a recipe for amazing Galactagogue Cookies.  They were great until I couldn't stand chocolate, oats and nuts for a few weeks.  After seeing both my doctor and Little Man's doctor, we all decided that it would probably be in the best interest for all of us to start introducing cows milk and start weening from breastfeeding.

Last nummy.

Weening actually went a lot easier than I thought it would.  Even though Little Man loved his "Nummy time", he was getting so active and enjoys having his snack and sippy time now while playing on the floor.  In one month, we successfully weened.  We started by introducing his afternoon nummy time with snack and sippy.  He wasn't too interested in this nummy time for a few weeks, so it was an easy transition.  After a few days, we replaced second morning nummy time with a snack and sippy.  About a week later, we started to replace his nap time nummy with milk at lunch.  Surprisingly, he still goes down to nap easy...and now Daddy gets to cuddle him to nap!  Then we replaced morning nummy with milk at breakfast.  Just three days ago, we replaced nighttime nummy with a little cereal and milk.  So, we have successfully started giving Mommy a break.

I miss the cuddles.  I love the freedom!  For both of us!  He loves being able to play and not be interrupted or getting to be out with other people and not have to have Mommy there all the time.  He is enjoying afternoons with Neenee and Bonka when they come to visit and getting that much needed one on one grandparent time.  I am enjoying being late from a meeting or running errands and not feeling guilty for being late and making him hungry!  I know that, at the end, I was just not giving him what he needed.  Now I can tell that he is content and full.  He's become such a big boy!  I have also gained 2 lbs, which is a very good sign!!!!  Another perk, is that it won't be so hard for him to adjust once the baby comes.  Hopefully, Nummy envy won't be an issue.

LB197 - Will Nebraska Support Breastfeeding?

On January 26th, 2010, NE legislature was introduced to bill LB197 in it's unicameral.  This is the third time that a bill in support of breastfeeding in public has been introduced.  The first two bills were shot down in 2005 and 2009.  This bill simply states, "Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a mother may breast-feed her child in any public or private location where the mother is otherwise authorized to be."  

I am very proud that something as important as this is being addressed.  I have high hopes that it will finally pass.  One reason is because of the Surgeon General's statement that was released earlier this month urging Americans to be more supportive of breastfeeding.  What an amazing time for breastfeeding moms and those who support breastfeeding!  I can see that we are finally starting to make strides in our attempts to protect the natural way to nurture your child.

Personally, I breastfeed.  I try to support my friends and family who breastfeed.  I also try to support my friends and family who cannot (or choose not) to breastfeed too.  Either way, it is a personal choice that should be supported no matter what your choice is.  I urge everyone to contact their legislators to tell them simply that you are a voter and you support breastfeeding.  All it takes is a simple phone call to leave a message, or even find them on Facebook and send them a message there.  Let our voices be heard!