Where’s the Milk MUM!: Part 2

For all you yummy mummies out there after the recipe I promised… first things first: Check out Raising Will’s Lactation Cookies! They’re like Anzac Biscuits for your boobs!

Secondly, wanted to update you all on last night’s effort to get Will sleeping again and not feeding non-stop. He had a good day yesterday, finally feeding semi-properly, so I was hoping last night would go off without a hitch.

Will’s Dad was under instruction to feed Will a bottle of water if he woke between 12am-3am, becasue if Will saw Mum, he was going to scream for boobies. At 2.30am, turned out, he screamed anyway. For an hour! Apparently the bottle is Voldemort’s evil twin and Will is Harry Potter… Arch Nemisises! So after deciding a sippy-cup of water would work better (which it did), Will finally got back to bed, whimpered to himself for 20 minutes and went to sleep – UNTIL 7.30AM!!!! Woot Woot **do a little happy dance** Normally I would expect him to wake at 5.00am in the case above.

So I hit today running faster than normal, spending it with my Mum, discovering a very elegant dress for my sister-in-law’s wedding, and topping it off with a fantastic Tupperware party at a friend’s place. Nothing like a bit of control to feel like you’ve got your life back!

Breastfeeding - Back on Track!

Where’s the milk MUM!

I’ve been having a bit of trouble with young Will since we got back from Tassie. Not only did he get sick, he’s decided that he would rather feed through the night than during the day. When the sun was up there was tears and screaming and pulling and biting. Booooo I hear you all say! That’s right folks, three hourly feeds overnight do not a happy mummy make! Went to see our Maternal Child Health Nurse this morning and when I walked in her first comment was “Well Michelle, What’s up with you…? You look EXHAUSTED!”…. thank you Captain Obvious! I was exhausted. The night feeds were really taking it out of me.

We came up with the theory that Will had decided night-time was the best time to feed because he had my undivided attention; no distractions. So our plan is to feed in a ‘night-time-like’ scenario i.e. dark room, no noise, no distractions. So far, since this morning’s visit, it’s worked a treat. Will’s had three semi-fantastic feeds. We also decided this morning that my milk supply was running low; probably from a combination lack of sleep, stress from Will’s virus, and Will’s hap-hazard feeding. So I was sent on a mission to get some Weleda Tea. Now, I love Black Tea, but don’t like most herbal tea, so I wasn’t 100% keen on the idea. I had however read online somewhere about Lactation Cookies, so I vowed I’d make some of them and see how we go…

I found a recipe and went to my local Health Food shop and picked up some Linseed Meal, Brewer’s Yeast & Fenugreek Seed. And after Will went to bed, I started whipping them up!

Adding the Linseed Meal

Mixing it all up

Shaping the biscuit mixture

The finished Cookies

Now it’s getting late so I’ll pop the recipe up tomorrow night for all you ladies out there looking to increase your liquid Gold! Also a fantastic gift to send into hospital for new mummies! I know I would’ve LOVED a box of these when I was in hospital. And just for the record, I’ve taste tested them and well, let’s just say I’ve taste tested them three times…. Yum yum yum…

**Check out the recipe for Raising Will’s Lactation Cookies right here!

Breastfeeding – not for the faint hearted… Part 3

Welcome to Part 3 of the saga that became my 4 month-long entry into breastfeeding. I left you yesterday at the point where a lump had appeared in my left breast.

Any breastfeeding mum will know that your breasts will feel funny and lumpy sometimes, but this was different. This lump was hard, like a golf ball and would not shrink once I had fed. I began to get really concerned and called my GP immediately to book an appointment.

With a quick examination, my doctor believed it to be a cyst as I had no pain or redness but he sent me for an ultrasound that afternoon just to be sure. At the ultrasound, my sonographer was pretty certain she was looking at an abscess, not a cyst. My lymph nodes were swollen hinting at an infection and sure enough, upon my visit to my GP again the next day he declared that an abscess was the culprit. It had most likely resulted from the touch of mastitis I had when I first came home from hospital. We both commented on how odd it was for me to have no tenderness or redness, but he put me on antibiotics and sent me home with instructions to come back in a week to see if the abscess has receded.

The day after my GP appointment (Saturday), my breast started to become uncomfortable to feed from. Then it became very uncomfortable. Then it went red. And by Sunday, I was in tears of agony and the only thing that made it less worse was to grit my teeth and have Will feed from the afflicted breast. My God, I had never been in so much pain. I called the GP immediately on Monday morning and went in to see him right away. The abscess infection had most likely spread to the rest of my breast and it would need to be drained. So, off to hospital I went.

Breastfeeding – not for the faint hearted… Part 2

So, continuing on from yesterday’s post, (and remember boys – you’ve been warned, this post contains secret lady business) I‘d left hospital with a baby drinking expressed breast milk (EBM) from a bottle. I was under strict instruction to try him at the breast as often as possible.  He would catch on soon enough.

We got home and hubby was sent to Kmart at 8.45pm to buy bottles as during the day we had come to realise that two was just not gonna cut it. And so began my sleep deprivation. Not only was I waking to a baby that wanted a feed every three hours (and let it be said that hubby was a great help for the first three weeks whilst he was at home on leave…), Will had to be put to sleep in my arms – he would not go to sleep himself – and then I had to express to keep up enough supply for the little man to drink.

Three days after coming home I felt like I’d been hit by a bus. My boobs were so sore, my nipples were excruciating, my head hurt, my eyes were gritty, and I felt ill. I resented that gorgeous little thing that had done this to me and I hated the world. I was thinking, as hubby SENT me to bed, that I probably now had mastitis. The next day though, after having significant help that night with feeds (thanks hubster), I woke up refreshed, albeit still a little sore and I thought nothing more of the day from hell that had been yesterday.

Breastfeeding – not for the faint hearted… Part 1

Becoming a mother is the most natural thing in the world right? The labour is the hard part right? On their entry into the world, all babys will plug themselves to your chest and away you go right?…… Wrong!

With so many late nights pouring over the internet for advice, answers and stories of women that had experienced anything similar to myself, the least I can do for those mums struggling out there is to add my story to the mix and hope it helps someone in the way some of the stories I read helped me.

The road that leads to motherhood becomes unbelivably rough at the end of your pregnancy. I’m not going to sugar-coat it. I thought I was prepared for what I would experience after I gave birth and to some degree I was, but no one told me that what was to follow would be the hardest four months of my life. I’m sure most mother’s will agree that even if you have it easy, it’s hard! The topic that causes so much angst for mothers, both old and new, is breastfeeding. After pushing through my own extremely difficult slog (which I’ll discuss in a moment), I’ve come out the other side still breastfeeding my little boy, but I can certainly understand why many women choose not to continue or are forced to stop.

**Note for the boys reading this post, consider yourself warned – it’s going to get a little rough….