breastfeeding

My very favorite thing about breastfeeding was something I learned from a LLL meeting:

Nursing also allows your baby to give germs to you so that your immune system can respond and can synthesize antibodies! This means that if your baby has come in contact with something which you have not, (s)he will pass these germs to you at the next nursing; during that feeding, your body will start to manufacture antibodies for that particular germ. By the time the next feeding arrives, your entire immune system will be working to provide immunities for you and your baby. If you are exposed to any bacteria or viruses, your body will be making antibodies against them and these will be in your milk. Breast milk also contains a host of other immune molecules that also help protect your baby from germs. It's an awesome system!
source

Breast IS best; if possible!

the aftermath

I'm not really sure what I want to write about regarding the postpartum period. I was just talking to a new-mommy friend about how wonderful of an experience we both had. And it wasn't horrible like we had heard other people speak of it. I feel that I had a wonderful pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience and I want to share it with others. For the most part, I feel that a lot of information out there (or lack there of) can make women fear the whole process. I want others to know that it can be a wonderful and positive experience. As I spoke with a friend who is expecting her first, we talked about how fear has a lot to do with it. When my husband and I took our Bradley Method classes, we learned about fear and how it creates a repetitive cycle within us. My friend, Kami, has a great post about it here. And how our fear of the unknown can make it more of a painful experience. Because of that, I feel it is so important to prepare ourselves with as much knowledge as we can. I've said it once and I'll say it again, Knowledge is Power!!!

Here are some things that came to mind as I thought about my own experience. (I understand that everyone has a different experience and what I went through isn't what will happen for everyone)

*After after Eli came out, our student midwife asked how I felt down there. I looked up, with a smile on my face and said, "good!" An 8lb 4.7oz baby with a head measuring 14.25cm-that, by the way was crowning for a good 10 minutes-creating the much talked about "ring of fire" and I said I felt "good" down there? One wouldn't think that would be the word of choice, but it was. AND it was TRUE! Within a week or two I felt like I could do it all again right then and there.
*My midwife told me to pee, pee, pee. She wasn't going to leave that day I had Eli until I peed. The water bottle thingy helped, I can not think of what it's called! I tore a teensy bit on the 'ol labia, so it stung when I went to the bathroom for a few days. But it wasn't bad at all.
*She told me not to be afraid to go numero dos. The thought of pushing something out from those regions within a day or two may not be appealing, but it must be done. I was told to use a disposable cloth and apply pressure up on my perineum as I pushed down. That helped as I had a bowel movement the day after I had Eli. I felt like I deserved a gold star for going number 2.
*For a week or week and a half I was a little sore down there. My memory is fading, but I vividly remember explaining that it felt like I was recovering from being kicked in the crotch.
*With my birth kit came a bottle of Arnica Montana, used for muscle soreness and bruising. I took a few every hour. (My midwife told me that Sprouts sells this)
*STAY DOWN! My midwife told me to stay in bed for one week. Stay on the couch for another week or two. only getting up to use the restroom, shower, etc. Resting speeds up the recovery process. She told me I would bleed less than 6 weeks if I took her advise. Silly me, I didn't listen so well! I am antsy pants, so it was hard, but I stayed put as much as I could. I think I started exercising too soon though. I think Eli was 5 weeks old when I went for my first run. I felt all sorts of crampy. What happens inside is the uterus is trying to get back to it's normal size, so as it is shrinking, there's a scab inside the uterus where the placenta was attached, and as it shrinks it is peeling the scab off- resulting in postpartum bleeding. So as one moves a lot and uses their stomach muscles more than necessary, it's causing the scab to break away more times than if one were not moving so much. So the less one moves, the faster the scab will heal, and ultimately the sooner the bleeding will stop. There may be gobs of blood that come out at a time. My jaw dropped when one the size of a golf ball came out. Luckily I was already on the throne.
*Speaking of PPB, my heck! I don't like pads for a reason, but you've got to do what you've got to do! I didn't buy enough before he was born, so I had to make a trip or two for more. Panty liners were helpful after 4 or 5 weeks-when the bleeding was very, very light.
*I know I shouldn't talk about food next, but oh well! I prepared a lot of freezer meals. I pre made waffles and french toast, froze them and then bagged them up so they could easily be popped into the toaster. It was very helpful to have them easily accessible.
*I posted here about placenta encapsulation. The woman who did mine came over a couple of hours after Eli was born to take my placenta to her house for the encapsulation process. She returned it to me in pill form the next night. She got a total of 166 pills made, which I took as instructed by her. ( I believe it was 2 pills twice a day with a meal for 2 weeks. Then take as needed if feeling fatigued.) I still have some leftover which I keep in the fridge. I can't so for sure if they helped because I don't have another postpartum experience to compare it to, but I wouldn't risk not having this done in the future. I experienced all of the benefits, so I think it did it's job.
*Old Faithful. That's what one breast reminded me of while Eli was nursing on the other side. It's gotten better since, but I still need to apply pressure (to the side he's not on) when the let-down occurs. That's one thing that either everyone assumes everyone knows or they just don't want to talk about it...?
*We were fortunate that we didn't deal with any breastfeeding issues. Nothing cracked or bled and he had excellent latching ability from the start. However, a few days after he was born and for maybe 2 or 3? weeks after, when he first latched on it felt like i was a human pin cushion. It was a very tingly sensation but lasted less than 10 or so seconds. I am glad that I went to all 4 of the LLL classes offered, I learned things I didn't know and I felt like I knew the ladies well enough that if we had a problem I would feel comfortable calling them.

I hope this helps someone! The whole pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience is such a beautiful gift we, as women, have been given. It doesn't have to be this horrible thing that is feared. It can be a spiritual building, empowering experience if we let it. Let knowledge be our key to escaping the fear we might have- in all aspects of our lives!

other great postpartum reads:
here
here
*I want to add my tips:
1) My midwife gave me golden seal root capsules & told me to sprinkle some of the contents on Eli's umbilical cord to speed up the drying & falling off process. I did it each time I changed him and it fell off first thing Wednesday morning- on his 5th day.
2) He has really dry skin- those extra 13 day in utero really pruned him up good, causing lots of peeling. I had leftover castor oil- NO, I did not drink it, it was used on my perineum during L&D- i massaged the castor oil on Eli to help his dry skin.

and one about placenta encapsulation here

custom made milk

First of all: here's a blog I stumbled on today. I am pro breast feeding, and this blog is right up my alley. Although the last post was made 6 months ago :/

Secondly, I've been meaning to do a postpartum post. I can't believe I haven't blogged over here for so long, I've been a little preoccupied :)

birth video

it's taking quite a while to upload the pregnancy/birth video.
feel free to watch it here.

birth story

friday, october 1, 2010 was like any other day. we went to work and had plans for the evening. our nephew had a birthday party later so we headed there as soon as work was over. while we were there, jackson's brother, sam, asked if he wanted to earn some side money by helping him paint later that night. when we got home i decided to take patch for a 1 mile walk and then went back out by myself to do another mile.


there were some groceries i wanted to have on hand for when i did go into labor, so i went to frys to gather the ingredients to make some salsa with. i planned on getting to bed early so i quickly grabbed what i needed and hurried home to see jackson before he left at 8:15.

he left and what do you know, i got sidetracked blogging and photoshopping a silly pumpkin on my belly and didn't get to bed until 11:30 or so, which is late for me, even on the weekend. jackson got home around 11 and later told me he came to bed around 12:30.

i woke up at 12:56 feeling rather wet. there was nothing on the bed, but i knew that since i had not had a bed wetting accident in 20+ years that alas! my water had broken! hallelujiah! i woke jackson up and said; "i either wet the bed or my water broke." then i told him that we just need to try to get some sleep. i got back into bed but 6 minutes later i felt my first contraction and realized i wouldn't be able to sleep through them. i went to the computer desk and grabbed some paper so that i could keep track of them. i laid in bed for an hour doing that then finally decided to get up and get things done before they were too intense. by now it was 2am. i was using the bathroom a lot during this time and had noticed i lost my you-know-what. (nobody likes those words, ya know)

in between contractions, which were coming anywhere from 4-7 minutes apart and lasting 40-90 seconds each, i was up making some salsa and prepping a beef roast to throw in the crock pot. i figured it'd be an all day event and wanted there to be some good food around for us and our birth team.

around 3:00am i ate a slice of bread with almond butter. i knew i needed to eat, but the thought wasn't too appetizing at the time. it was around this same time that i grabbed the heating pad to put on my back. i turned on the tv and began watching ray. the heat was helping and felt good when i had a contraction. i also had my exercise ball out. i couldn't decide if it felt better to lay down or sit down when i was having them, so i went back and forth trying different things. they were intensifying, but i stil felt like i could handle them on my own. however, around 4:30am i was at the point where i needed and wanted jackson to be there with me. they were getting stronger and coming 2-4 minutes apart (although there were a few times where 5 or 6 minutes would go by). they were lasting 30-60 seconds. i went and got jackson and let him know i was ready to txt our midwife and that i wanted him to come be with me. at 4:37 i sent a txt to my midwife.

i wrote: "ready for a birthday party?"

she immediately replied: "yes! what's up?

i gave her a call and let her know what was going on. she asked if i wanted she and her students to come over. i told her not yet. i was still doing okay. (in my mind i didn't think we'd be having a baby before noon, so why should they need to rush over? little did i know!) she told me to call her at 6:30 to let her know how things were going.

things really started picking up after that. jackson applied counter pressure to my back when i got a contraction, which was wonderful. it was probably around 5:30 that they were to the point where i began vocalizing through them, which we later referred to as "moo-ing" :)

around 5:45 he started getting the birthing pool ready. he moved it into position and started filling it up. while he was roaming around getting things ready i was watching tv, and as soon as i started moaning, he rushed over to apply counter pressure. laying down didn't feel good now, and when i was standing during a contraction, my legs started to shake, so i ended up swaying back and forth while squatting and leaning on the ball.

at about 6am jackson took over keeping track of my contractions. i think it was about this time that the smell of the roast was not something i wanted lingering in the air, so he moved it to the garage to finish cooking.


at 6:28 alison sent a txt: "how's it going?"
i replied: "definitely stronger. vocalizing through them. about 3 min apart lasting aprox 1 min for last couple hrs"
she said: "are you sure you don't need us there yet? it's sounding like that's pretty serious."
i responded: "yeah im thinking you can all head over now"
to which she said" :) ok, we'll start heading that way shortly."

by this time walk the line had come on tv. i sat next to the pool and continued to rock back and forth through each contraction. i also asked jackson to give me a blessing.

stacey, one of the students, arrived on scene first. she checked his heart rate and we talked in between my moanings. i let her know that my right side was feeling more pressure and cramping that the other side. i still wasn't sure i was close because i was chipper and excited in between the contractions.

within 15 minutes, my midwife and her other student, kat, arrived. they brought in their supplies and just let me do my thing, occasionally coming to rub my back and offer positive verbal support as needed.

at about 8am i was more than ready to get into the pool. i felt immediate relief! however, soon after that relief, i felt the contractions kick it up a notch in intensity. i asked my midwife to check me. i hadn't been checked at all up until that point, and curiosity got the best of me as i really wanted to know how many cm i was dilated. she said i was at 8.5 almost 9. the way that eli was positioned, his head wasn't exactly over my cervix, therefore i was dilated more on one half of my cervix than the other. to help with that, she told me to rotate from one side to the other with each contraction.

i had my eyes closed most of the time i was in the pool. not for any reason other than it was comfortable to me. alison and stacey were at my feet, as well as jackson who was also holding my hand. kat was at my head holding me up when i wasn't doing so myself.

jackson, alison, kat and stacey took turns rubbing my hands because they fell asleep and went numb. we figured it must have happened from pressure pinching off that nerve. we all laughed, in between contractions of course, because i'd hold up my hand and my fingers would be "stuck" and rather stiff. the hand massages felt nice :)

pretty soon i was feeling the urge to push with each contraction. (time went so fast that i dont remember how long i pushed for. it didn't seem too long, but a few days after eli was born, we watched the video of his birth and calculated it to be close to about 45 minutes that i pushed for.) at this point i was most comfortable with my head resting on the outside of the pool with my arms draped over the sides as well. kat continued to hold me up from the back as i needed it. i went back and forth with my arms being in the water and holding jacksons hand.

alison asked if i wanted to feel eli's head. with my stiff fingers, stacey helped me. he was about an inch away.

after pushing for a about half an hour, his head was out far enough to where i could see it. i remember thinking; "that's my baby's head!" the top of his head was out a few inches for the last 10 minutes or so. that ring of fire is no joke, but at the same time i didn't think it was fiery enough to want to not feel it. at some point during the pushing stage i said, "turn on johnny cash" (alison turned the tv off earlier; which was showing walk the line.) it took a second but soon enough everyone was laughing (and it burns, burns, burns that ring of fire) ;)

i wanted to be able to push him out, but i also didn't want to push unless i had a contraction to help me get him out. they checked his heart at the top of his head during this time as well. soon enough i felt a strong contraction and while holding jacksons hand I pushed with everything i had even letting out a scream or two and eli was here and forever changed our lives. it all happened so fast, with that last push the rest of his head and whole body just came right out. jackson wanted to catch him and i wanted him to, as well. once in the moment i instinctively reached for our baby and together we both brought him to my chest. it was the most incredible moment. he let out a few cries and then just the sweetest whimpers. i was in awe/shock and kept saying "oh baby" and "oh my gosh" and taking it all in. jackson was giggly.

kat immediately wrapped towels around him and put a beanie on him. stacey checked his heart rate and asked how i was doing "down there" i said "good". it's amazing how quickly things felt better. he was out and healthy and that's all that mattered. alison asked if i wanted to stay in the water to deliver the placenta. at first i said yes, that i may as well. however within a few minutes i changed my mind and while i held eli, they helped me out of the pool and we made our way to the bedroom where stacey had covered the bed with pads and old sheets. jackson helped me out of my sports bra and we began to nurse. soon after, the placenta just came out. i said " oh, that's it? i could do that again" for some reason i guess i had thought it would have been more of a process than it just sliding out. jackson was up on the bed next to me and alison asked if he wanted to cut the cord. he said she could. we just sat there and stared at our sweet baby. we sent out txt messages as well. we hadn't told anyone that i had even gone into labor, so i can imagine it was quite the surprise. the ladies left us to bond as a new family and began cleaning up the birth stuff. they occasionally came in to check on us to see how things were going.

***edited to add: once we moved to the bedroom, alison told me that i tore a little bit. she said it wasn't enough to need stitches unless i wanted them. i declined her offer***

i'm not sure what made me look at my hand, but as soon as i did i noticed it had dark goop on it. we unraveled the towels and saw that eli had passed quite a lot of meconium and it was everywhere. all over the towels, the sheet, and the front side of my nakey self. we all had quite a laugh and decided it was time to get cleaned up. stacey helped me into the shower while jackson, alison and kat cleaned eli up and jackson spent some time holding his newborn son. when i finished, stacey helped me out of the shower and into some clothes. next, they began doing all of the newborn checks. eli was weighed in at 8 lbs. 4.7 ounces. i know i was shocked to hear that number. he packed it on quite nicely. he measured 21.5 inches long and he scored a 10 each time they did the apgar test. it was so nice to be able to sit there on my bed and watch all of this happening. they were so gentle with him, too. not rushing at all, which helped create a calm environment.

after they finished they left us alone again and hung out in the kitchen. alison asked if i wanted anything to eat. i ordered eggs, toast and orange juice. she brought it in to me and jackson fed me while i fed eli. the ladies stayed until about 12:30 then left for good. i felt such gratitude for them helping me achieve the birth experience i wanted. i couldn't thank and hug them enough.

we had many visitors. i know i was supposed to get some rest, but how could i? i stayed in bed while some family and friends came to meet eli. some friends brought us over costa vida for dinner. it was exactly what i wanted and did it ever taste good!

later that night alison called to see how things were going. i felt great, sure i felt a little sore, but i didn't feel how i thought i would after having had a baby.

eli slept in the middle of us that night. it was so sweet to look at the miracle that he is. his longest stretch was 4+ hours, not sure that we slept much, though! we couldn't stop looking at him. sunday morning alison came over around 8:30 to see how we were. everything checked out great.

tuesday, the pediatrician came over from 8:45-9:30 or so. eli was down to 7 lbs. 14 oz and checked out great. a few hours later, stacey came over to see how we both were doing.

then, our last home visit was saturday, when eli was one week old. alison and kat came over for the PKU test and to do his foot prints. it was weird to think that i wont be seeing them until the 6 week visit. it's just us and our sweet little eli. i wouldn't have it any other way.

worth the wait

Eli Julian Hallows

Born October 2, 2010
9:33am
8 lbs 4 oz
21.5"
He is a dream come true

LLL

I wanted to do a little post about Le Leche League. Our Bradley Method teacher urged each of us soon-to-be mommies to go to the LLL series. I'm not sure that I would have gone if we weren't asked to, however I am so glad that we were asked to go! I think it's great that there are meetings out there like this to prepare women before we have our babies and to help us after we've started breastfeeding. Like most, right now I am thinking; "how hard can it be?" And like most I have heard a lot of stories about how difficult it can be, and sure, there are stories about how smoothly it went as well. I think that being prepared is the way to go. If it goes great, that's wonderful! If not, I can look back to what I am learning and look to those who have experienced the same thing.

If you're expecting, I'd urge you to look for the LLL series in your area and see how you like them :)