By NICHOLAS BAKALAR from NYT Health http://ift.tt/2eNk4ET
via IFTTT
This pregnancy is flying by so fast! I only have a couple months until we get to meet this little man! I still have a lot I need to do to prepare for his arrival, and I am super excited!
For symptoms this week I have noticed an increase in Braxton hicks contractions and a lot more pain after laying down for a long period of time. I’ve started wearing my belly band for added support because it hurts my back to even walk around or bend over.
At my doctors visit this week, the baby measured at “28 weeks” which the doctor said was normal. She surprised me with a tdap vaccine and the dreaded hour long glucose test! I am super excited because she gave me the hospital paper work as well as some info on recording, picture taking, and what to bring to the hospital! I will be seeing the doctor every 2 weeks from now on. She also wanted me to start doing a kick counter to make sure baby Declan is moving okay in there.
I feel like this pregnancy is going by so quickly! I only have a couple short months left! I hope to have my baby shower soon, get moved, pack our bags and tour the hospital very soon! We decided that we wouldn’t be doing birthing classes this time around but I do want to see a lactation consultant beforehand.
Thanks for reading my update! Hopefully we will have visited the hospital by next weeks update and get the paperwork going on baby’s birth certificate!
Got Milk?
We are at the dawn of a new era in human food production: the products will be healthful, locally sourced, and will lead to employment opportunities for thousands, possibly millions. I refer, naturally, to the wholesome goodness of human dairy.
At this time the problem is not demand, but supply. Human milk banks are too few and far between, there simply isn’t enough to go around for this nascent industry to grow to its full potential. We need more people producing and selling their milk to solve the supply problem, as lactation is not just the domain of women, men can get in on the act too through the stimulation of prolactin secretion by way of mammary pumping and/or suckling.
Although human dairy is not likely to receive subsides à la the animal dairy industry, which has long been in the bosom of big government, a number of experimental creameries are in the process of being setup across the nation. Therefore, those of you eager to taste rich, creamy human produce, such as butter, yogurt, cheese, even ice cream and custard, or keen to sell your own fresh squeezed milk, be sure to keep yourselves abreast.
If you ask anyone that is close to me you would quickly find out I am not the most organized person. In fact I am a procrastinator at heart and quite lazy! ;) Since I started Blogging I have quickly realized this is not the way I want to be anymore, and I want to make a real life change! It’s a work in progress and I am going to really try to stick to this lifestyle change but so far it has been for the better. I want to share with all you hot mess mommies like myself a few things I have done to ease myself into a more motivated and organized lifestyle.
This week I decided to take a step back and focus on getting a schedule in order, from blog scheduling, guest post scheduling, promoting, along with all my household duties, and doing actual things in my actual real life, I have become overwhelmed and quite busy! I’m sure this is the norm for more seasoned bloggers and work at home moms, but incase you are thinking about taking the plunge into adding on extra activities, a job, a blog, etc. These are a few things I have done that actually help me.
I hope this helps you to make a few changes in becoming more organized and motivated. These changes are small and I don’t do all of this every single day but it is becoming more and more consistent and is helping me quite a bit! Share some of your scheduling and organizing tips in the comments! Thanks for reading!
In his book, Tradition and Imagination: Revelation and Change, David Brown spends time exploring the paths and patterns of sacred art and the ways that theologies of Jesus Christ and artistic portrayals of him mutually inform one another. The ideas shape the art, and the artwork shapes the interpretation and ideas. He briefly mentioned that in medieval depictions, the wound in Christ’s side was portrayed as though it were a lactating breast. Science of the time understood breastmilk and other bodily fluids to be none other than transmuted blood, and so the words of institution for the Lord’s Supper, instructing disciples to consume wine as blood, were reasonably associated with food created by the human body, breast milk. This image is largely absent from contemporary Christian imagination, as medical advancement in the Renaissance and concern with the particularity of Jesus’ maleness replaced this image and obscured the tradition’s openness to a non-binary Christ.
What have we missed by losing this image?
I have thought many times over the last year of nourishing my son—first through my placenta and now with breast milk—how much deeper and differently I understand the Eucharist. Jesus said, “Take, eat. This is my body, broken and given for you. Those who eat my flesh abide in me and I in them.”
In the small replication of humanity, I am living these things with S. every few hours, with a depth of exhaustion and joy. I am physically and spiritually draining myself. I nourish him with a self-emptying that is profoundly satisfying.
Baby B. is here, which means another breastfeeding journey has begun. She was born hungry and her appetite hasn’t slowed down since, leaving me struggling to keep up with her. During the first 6 weeks, as much of a literal pain as it is, cluster feeding is quite normal. It’s baby’s way of “putting their order in”, their way of saying “Hey boobies, you work for me now”. That’s not to say that it’s easy (especially with a toddler running around), but it’s to be expected.
I’ve noticed that it’s a million times harder to eat enough calories and keep hydrated, when you have two babes to cater to, which is why it’s so so important for me to have supply boosting snacks handy. Lactation cookies are my go to, and one of my favorite things about breastfeeding. It’s basically, a completely valid excuse to munch on cookies all day…cookies that I’m not required to share (but usually end up doing anyway). I’ve tried a lot of recipes and tweaked them here and there to get the flavor/results I wanted, so I thought I’d share the “formula” for my latest batch.
Preheat oven to 350
I told myself that I needed to get serious about trying to lose the last of the baby weight. I don’t have a set goal in mind; I just want my clothes to fit better and feel more confident in my skin. I decided to look up some healthy meals that would also aid in milk production. (Any time I try to lose weight while breastfeeding, my milk always takes a hit. I knew I needed nutritionally dense food, not just “low calorie” food.)
So, as I searched Pinterest for such meals, I came across this:
It reminded me of no bake cookies (which, in my house growing up, we called “Oatmeal Cookie Stuff” because we ate it straight from the pot!) so I was instantly intrigued. I decided to give it a shot! Here’s what you need:
Before you go to bed, drop all the ingredients (except the peanut butter) into your crockpot and cook on low for 7-8 hours:
Y’all, this smelled AWESOME. It was like I was cooking hot cocoa! The next morning, I awoke to this:
Yeah, it did not look appetizing. I scraped off the top and the under part actually looked okay! I plopped some peanut butter on top and decided to try it.
It was…alright. It was pretty bland, TBH. I ate a serving of it and it was pretty filling, though not very tasty.
Have you ever tried this recipe? Or a recipe close to it? What were your results? Share in the comments below!
It was 4:00am January 24th 2014, exactly one week before my due date (February 1st). I got up for one of my many frequent trips to the bathroom and as I had finished up and went back to bed, I noticed I was still leaking fluid. I thought I might have peed a little, but as I got back up and out of the bed to go check a huge rush of water came pooring out. The only way I can describe it is a sense of warm liquid and pressure, a continuous flow.
I woke Braydon’s dad to tell him it was time, my contractions had not yet started. We first called my aunt to tell her what was going on and then Jake’s (Braydon’s dad) sister. We called the maternity ward at my local hospital and they suggested we come in right away instead of waiting for my contractions to start since it sounded like my water had fully broken.
Jake’s sister picked us up and we headed to the hospital! I started having mild contractions in the car on the way there and they steadily increased from there. When we checked in, it was nice to see that we were the only ones there. Our hospital was super small and I was the only mommy admitted at the time. Since it was Flu season the nurses informed us that who ever was accompanying us in the delivery room would be our only visitors allowed while we were there. I chose to have Jake, my mom, my sister, and Jake’s mom in the delivery room.
My birth plan was set up to be a “lets see how it goes” kind of thing. I didn’t want to commit to a fully natural or medicated birth, I just wanted to see what my body needed. As my contractions progresses I walked around the hospital a couple times, used a yoga ball, and tried the Jacuzzi tub to labor in. The tub I felt made my contractions way worse and I didn’t stay in there very long. At 7cm I asked for the epidural, and it only worked on one side of my body until they came in to fix it.
Around 1:30pm it was time to push! I don’t recall the specific number of pushes it took but he arrived at 1:59pm so about a half hour of pushing and my baby boy was here! They placed him on my chest right away as Jake cut the cord and I had my skin to skin with him. I can’t tell you what I was thinking or feeling other then full attention on him and an overwhelming sense of happiness. My little man weight 6lbs and 14oz and was 19 3/4 inches long. I was able to breast feed him in the hospital which was super awesome and the nurse was aggressive but super helpful.
I had to have stitches as Braydon’s elbow tore me up towards the front. I don’t recall the stitches as I was too busy admiring my baby at the time. I remember being in such a focused state throughout my pregnancy that I honestly didn’t pay attention to anyone or anything. I really couldn’t tell you what the other people in the room were saying or doing. After I had fed baby and had substantial skin to skin with him, Jake gave him his first bath! The hospital staff were so caring and helpful, I will only go to a small hospital for future births!
We stayed two nights in the hospital and then took our sweet baby home. Before we left the hospital provided us with a celebratory breakfast that included mimosas, Belgium waffles, and fruit! It was probably the most significant experience I have ever had and I can’t wait to do it all over again with baby number two this January! (Yes, thats right two January babies!)