"Disadvantages" of breastfeeding

So I am the type of person that likes to not only to hear the good but also the bad of certain things. Im not like this with everything but for example I had my friends tell me all the painful, gross, and terrifying stuff of labor, delivery and postpartum. That way I could prepare myself for the worst and if the worst didn't happen then it made things even better! I unfortunately wasn't prepared for breastfeeding. I had heard all the good stuff and read about all the great things about breastfeeding but wasn't really told much about all the struggles I would have. My cousin had told me that the first month would be very painful but once you get past that its smooth sailing. Well I was lucky enough to not have to go through much pain when it came to breastfeeding, but I was definitely thrown many other hurdles. Now almost everything has both positives and negatives. When it comes to breastfeeding I personally thing the positives completely out weigh the negatives! Here are the "negatives" to breastfeeding (I hate calling them negatives because most of the "negatives" are only temporary or really aren't that bad). Also not everyone experiences all of these things. Breastfeeding varies mother to mother. 

*In the beginning there can be some pain- I took a 2 hour breastfeeding class and was told that some pain is normal. But that if it is very painful and continues for more than a few days then the baby is most likely not latching on correctly.

*Although breastfeeding is a natural thing it may not come natural to you and baby- This was something I did not realize. Going in to breastfeeding I figured that since it is your bodies natural way of feeding your baby that it should just come natural and Mommy and baby should just be able to master it from the beginning. Mom has to help baby latch on correctly and baby has to learn how to latch on. I thought that Hailyn would just know how to latch on, I didn't know that I would have to "teach" her.

*Your breast will leak- Now this may sound silly but this was one of the things I was worried about the most. I was worried I would leak through my shirt while out in public, how embarrassing would that be? Now like I said every woman is different but I didn't have any issues with leaking. I definitely leaked but I never leaked through a breast pad or ever had excessive leaking. One thing that is important to know is that you will leak more in the beginning and once your supply starts adjusting you wont leak as much. 

*Feeding in public may be difficult- This is another one of those things that gets easier the longer you have been nursing. It also depends on how you feel about nursing in public. I am completely fine with nursing in public but I have to use a nursing cover, thats just what I feel comfortable with. I wish I was able to nurse without a cover but at this point I personally just don't feel comfortable doing it. I think it is awesome when woman feel comfortable nursinig with out a cover, they have every right to be able to feed their baby in public. Now during the first two months or so nursing in pubic, even with a cover, was hard because my daughter and I were still getting the hang of breastfeeding so having a cover over her made things kind of hard. I am not able to do it no problem!

*If you want someone else to feed the baby you have to pump- During the first month or so you may feel like all you are doing is nursing. It can be very overwhelming when you are exhausted and just want to take a nap but you little one wants to eat. Its not like you can just ask someone else to make a bottle and feed your little one while you get a little nap. The first month or so they really depend on you. On the bright side there are breast pumps! Depending on who you talk to there are different theories on when you should introduce a bottle if you are wanting to pump and bottle feed every once in awhile. Some people believe that if you give a baby a bottle too early that they will have issue with latching or may prefer a bottle (since it is more work for a baby to get milk out of the breast than from a bottle). We introduced Hailyn to a bottle at 3 weeks and she had no issues with latching. I personally think that when you introduce a bottle should depend on your baby. If your baby is latching well, and is having no issues with nursing I think it is fine to introduce a bottle. I think as long as you are only doing a bottle a day for the first few weeks there should be no reason for them to prefer the bottle since most of the time they will be eating from the breast.

*Breastfed babies eat more often- Now this isn't always the case. Hailyn has alway gone 3-4 hours between feedings since she was born, and even longer at night. The reason some breastfed babies eat more often is because breast milk is easier for babies to digest so it is digested faster, which can then cause them to eat more often.

*You can only take certain medicines and pain relieves- Just like when you are pregnant, you can only take certain medicines and pain relievers. For me this isn't really that big of a deal because I am the type of person that doesn't really like taking anything unless I absolutely need it. Now I haven't been sick yet since I had Hailyn so I may feel differently once I get sick and can't take just anything. When I do get sick (I plan on getting sick at least once this winter, it is just a given), I will just call my doctor to find out what I am aloud to take while nursing.

*Dietary restrictions- Similar to when you were pregnant you have to continue to be careful about your own nutrition and continue to avoid certain food and limit your intake of others, e.g. alcohol and caffeine. Some mothers say they notice certain foods can cause gassiness and/or upset stomachs in their babies. I personally haven't noticed any issues with any foods. I did have to eliminate dairy and soy from my diet for a few months. Some babies have issues dairy and/or soy. In order to solve this I had to eliminate all dairy and soy from my diet, babies usually grow out of this by 12-18 months and sometimes even earlier, Hailyn is now 4 months and is doing fine with dairy and soy.

Top 5 Favorite Baby Items

While I was pregnant many people would tell me "Oh you have to have this, it was a life saver!" or "Don't get this it's just a waste of money!"And I totally agree there are things that I probably didn't need and there are things that I couldn't live without. I think it varies person to person and baby to baby but I thought I would share my "must have" items. 

1. The first item I couldn't live without are the SwaddleMe wraps. We were given a few as gifts and I honestly don't know what we would do without them. For the first few weeks after Hailyn was born she didn't fit into the SwaddleMe because she was too tiny. We would just swaddle her with a receiving blanket. But as she got bigger and stronger she would just wiggle her way out of the receiving blanket, so we started putting her in the SwaddleMe. They keep her wrapped up tightly and she sleeps so well in them! She started sleeping through the night at 3 months old and I honestly believe part of the reason is because of the SwaddleMe. This is a great gift for baby showers, they come in many different colors and designs! Your friends will be thanking you.


2. A second "must have" item in my opinion is a Fisher-Price Swing. We have the My Little Snugabunny version. I don't know what we would do without it! It's a great place to be able to lay the baby down when you need to get stuff done around the house or just need a break from holding the baby. It is literally the only place, other than in our arms, that Hailyn will nap for longer than 10 or 20 minutes. It has many great features: it can be plugged in OR battery operated, two different swing motions, six speeds, 16 songs, the seat on the swing is made with a very soft fabric, 5 point safety harness,  mobile with a mirror to keep baby busy and folds well for easy storage. These swings are a little bit on the spendy side, but you will get your moneys worth within just the first month!

3. Now this third item has been a lifesaver for my husband and I many times now, its the ERGObaby carrier. Hailyn isn't a huge fan of her car seat and only last a short time in it if we are out running errands or grocery shopping. About 99% of the time when we are out and about I put her in the ERGObaby carrier and she is happy as can be, she usually ends up falling asleep! Not only is it nice because she enjoys it but it also leaves me hands free so that I can grocery shop, load the groceries in the car, sort through the clothes racks at the store and much more! I don't only use it while out of the house either, I use it when she is being fussy and I have stuff around the house to get done, vacuum, sweeping, etc. It's also useful when we don't want to push the big stroller around. I have used other carriers before, like the Babybjorn, and nothing compares to the ERGObaby. The straps on the ERGObaby are very padded and very comfortable. I was in a car accident it high school that messed up my back a bit and the ERGObaby hasn't bothered my back at all.

4. For Mother's Day this year my husband surprised me with a Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag. I never thought I would be so excited to recieve a diaper bag as a gift! While I was pregnant I spent forever looking for the "perfect" diaper bag. I wanted something that was cute but gender neutral (most of the stuff we got is gender neutral, that way if we have a boy in the future we can use the same stuff). I wanted to be able to carry it over the shoulder and as a backpack. I wanted something that would hold all the babies stuff, but I didn't want a huge bag. I also wanted something that was going to last a long time. My sister-in-law bought $30-$50 diaper bags and ended up going through three of them within a year. I wanted something that would last through all of my kids, or at least more than one. I had many people recommend Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bags to me, I looked them up and fell in love. They were everything I was looking for. But then I saw the price and realized I would have to continue my search for a cheaper "perfect" diaper bag. Long story short my husband surprised me and got me the bag for Mother's day. He said that is seemed like such a good quality diaper bag and the reviews on it were great. He said if we can get it to last through two of our kids that we will definitely get our moneys worth.

5. Last but not least is the Cloud B Sleep Sheep. We were received it as a gift at our baby shower and Hailyn has been using it since she came home from the hospital. Hailyn is a huge fan of white noise and pretty much can't sleep without some sort of white noise. The Cloud B Sleep Sheep is awesome because it is light weight and very portable so that we can take it wherever we go. It also has a velcro strap on it so that you can attach it to the car seat, stroller, etc. It has four different sounds, two different timer options and a volume control.

I can have dairy and soy again!!

I keep saying I am going to get better at posting blogs but I am still getting the hang of blogging, let alone blogging with a 4 month old. It seems like every time I sit down to write a blog Hailyn either wants to eat, wants to be held, needs a diaper change or just she looks up at me and smiles and I just have to go over and play with her. Right now she is napping so I am going to try and hurry and write this blog before she wakes up and distracts me. This blog is a pretty big deal! Well at least to me it is. 

A few posts back I wrote that I think we figured out what was causing all of Hailyn symptoms. We had originally thought it was a dairy/soy intolerance, which part of me still thinks that was part of it but I think there was something else causing some of the symptoms. It all started because after I cut out dairy and soy from my diet we started noticing Hailyn was doing a lot better. She wasn't as fussy, her poop was no longer green and slimy, and she was spitting up a lot less. The weird part was she would ocassionaly have her old symptoms again, but I was still not eating any dairy or soy. I went through all my food I was eating and double checked to make sure there wasn't any hidden ingredients I was missing. But none of the foods contained dairy or soy. I then noticed blood in her poop again. We originally figured out it was a dairy/soy intolerance after the first time I discovered blood in her poop. So it didn't make sense that there was blood again since I had cut out all dairy/soy. So I went online and started doing research. I found that a foremilk imbalance had almost the EXACT say symptoms as a dairy/soy intolerance. A foremilk imbalance is when the baby is getting too much foremilk and not enough hindmilk. Foremilk has a greater amount of lactose in it. When the baby gets too much foremilk that can then result in a oversupply of lactose. Babies stomachs are not yet developed enough to handle a large amount of lactose. Some common symptoms of a foremilk imbalance are...

*Green frothy explosive stools

*Baby spits up a lot

*Colic symptoms

*Gassiness

*Blood in stools

*Slow weight gain

*Diaper rash due to acidic stools

*Baby has bowl movement immediately after feeding

I then started to research what you can do to solve a foremilk imbalance. Thankfully it is pretty simple. To make sure your baby doesn't consume too much foremilk you can block feed. Block feeding is feeding on one breast for multiple feedings. For example feeding off of the right breast for two feedings in a row and then the next two feedings on the left side. I started doing this and noticed Hailyns symptoms were starting to go away. She still will have green poop here and there but I have not seen any more blood. 

After a few weeks of blocking feeding Hailyn and continuing the dairy/soy free diet, I decided to try a little bit of dairy to see how Hailyn reacted to it. I was really excited to finally be able to have a little bit of something dairy but at the same time I was terrified that she would not react well and the last thing I wanted was for her to be in pain again.

That evening I had a thin slice of cheese on my hamburger. It was SOOO good! But then it was the waiting game to see how Hailyn reacted. After it had been a full 24 hours and no reaction, my husband and I decided that I would slowly add dairy back into my diet. For the past two weeks I have been having a little dairy here and there but was really scared to have an actual glass of milk. Well two nights ago I had a glass of milk and all went well!! I still think that she had an issue with dairy and soy but I believe she outgrew it. I am so thankful that the foremilk imbalance was an easy fix because the dairy/soy free diet was not easy. But it was so worth it and I am so glad I continued to nurse her and not give up. Even though I only had to do it for two months or so it felt WAY longer than that! I know that if I would have switched her to formula I would really would have regretted it. 

Breast milk ingredients vs. Formula ingredients

I took an hour long breastfeeding class before I had Hailyn. I didn't really learn a whole lot from it but they showed this to us and I wanted to share it with everyone else. It's a really good visual and shows how different breast milk is from formula. This is why they say that there will never be a formula that is exactly like breast milk.

Even though you cant see the names of each ingredient it really puts it in to perspective when you look at the difference between the two. 

Benefits of Breastfeeding

Before I got pregnant with Hailyn I knew that I wanted to breastfeed. I think a big reason was because my mom breastfed my sister and I.  I also knew there were many benefits for the baby. I didn't know the extent to how many benefits there truly were until I started doing a little research while I was pregnant. I thought I would share some of what I found out. I think it's important for moms to be informed of all the benefits before they make the decision on whether they want to breastfed or formula feed. I do believe that a mother has choice to make what ever decision they want for their baby, but I also think that a mother should be well educated on the matter before their decision is made. So here are only SOME of the great benefits of breastfeeding and some interesting facts!

*Breast milk fights diseases- Babies who are breastfed are less likely to get ear infections, diarrhea, necrotizing enterocolitis ( a disease that affects the gastrointestinal tract in preterm infants.), lower respiratory infections, asthma, obesity, type 1 & 2 diabetes, childhood leikemia, atopic dermatitis (a type of skin rash), SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) and other many others. The hormones, cells, and antibodies in breast milk protect babies from illnesses. At this point NO formula can match the chemical makeup of human breast milk. 

*Breast milk is easier to digest- For most babies breast milk is easier to digest than formula, especially for premature babies.

* As your baby grows your breast milk changes- Colostrum (also known as liquid gold) is a thick yellow milk that you make during pregnancy and just after birth. It is very rich in nutrients and antibodies that protect your baby. Colostrum then changes into what is called mature milk, which typically happens around the third to fifth day after birth. The mature milk has just the right amount of fat, sugar, protein and water to help your baby continue to grow (its crazy how your body can just do this all on its own!).

*You will never have to worry about formula recalls- It happens at least once a year, it is recalled for one reason or another. With breast milk you will never have to worry about giving your baby milk that is "bad." Even when you are sick breast milk is still safe to give your baby, you're baby actually benefits from it (see fact below). Only in VERY rare cases will a mother be told her milk is no okay to feed her baby, i.e. HIV.

*Breastfed babies are less likely to develop allergies- Babies that are breastfed are less likely to allergic reactions, compared to babies who are formula fed.

* When a mother is sick, she passes on antibodies to the baby- When a mother is sick, her body produces antibodies that are present in her breast milk. These antibodies help protect the baby from getting the same illness (I found this SO interesting, it amazed me that our bodies can do this).

* Reduces the mothers risk of breast cancer- Woman who breastfeed have a lower risk of developing breast cancer, it can reduce their chances by as much as 25%. The longer a mother breast feeds, the lower her risk of breast cancer.

*Reduces the risk of uterine and ovarian cancer

*Lessons osteoporosis- Non-breastfeeding woman have a four times greater chance of developing osteoporosis and are more likely to suffer from hip fractures in the post-menopausal years.

*Promotes emotional health- Mothers who breastfeed are less likely to suffer from postpartum anxiety and depression.

*Promotes postpartum weight loss- Mothers who breastfeed show a significantly larger reductions in hip circumference and more fat lass by one month postpartum when compared with formula-feeding moms. Breastfeeding mothers tend to have an earlier return to their pre-pregnancy weight.

* Cost less to breastfeed- The cost for formula feeding for a year is around $1,200- $2,500. Now that only covers the cost of formula. There is still the cost of bottles, sterilizer, bottle drying rack, etc. Although breastfeeding moms have other expenses, i.e. nursing bras, breast pads, breast pump, etc. It is still usually cheaper than formula feeding.

*Convenience- Breastfeeding is very convenient! You can never forget it, you always have it with you. Its always the perfect temperature for baby. No bottles to clean. No need to get up and make bottles at night.

Now these are only SOME of the benefits to breastfeeding. Below are some links I used to find some of this information. You can also google "benefits of breastfeeding" to find more information.

http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/breastfeeding/why-breast-best/7-ways-breastfeeding-benefits-mothers

http://www.womenshealth.gov/breastfeeding/why-breastfeeding-is-important/

1st Pumpkin Patch Trip

Yesterday we took Hailyn on her first trip to the pumpkin patch! It was sunny and 75 degrees, perfect weather for a day at the pumpkin patch. Even though Hailyn wont remember her first time at the pumpkin patch it was so fun to take her and get cute pictures that we can show her when she is older.

 Checking out the goats

Going down the slide with Daddy

Hailyn with her cousin

 She wasn't too happy about getting a picture with the pumpkins

I just love those cheeks!

Hailyn's 3 Month Milestones

So again I am WAY late on posting this! Hailyn will be 4 months on Wednesday and I just realized that I never posted her 3 month milestones. Better late then never right? 

It is so crazy to me how much she had changed in these last 3 months! From month to month, week to week and even day to day she is changing so much! It makes me so happy but at the same time so sad. I look forward to seeing her grow but am sad at how fast time is already going. Daddy and I love her so much and she keeps amazing us as she gets over. We still can't believe she is our little girl! Everything about her is so perfect! We are absolutely loving being parents, it is by far the best thing ever!!

3 Month Milestones

 

Date: 9/3/12  Height:  Weight: 10lbs. 12oz.  

Sleeping patterns: Hailyn is still sleeping really well! She had her first 8 hours stretch of sleep this month, Mommy and Daddy were so happy to get such good rest! Most night she is waking up every 3-5 hours but will occasionally have a night where she will go a longer stretch between feeds.

Eating habits: She eats every 3-4 hours during the day. When mom pumps Hailyn will drink a 4 oz. bottle during the day and a 6 oz. bottle right before bed. Mommy and Daddy couldn't believe it there first time she drank 6 oz. Hailyn is so tiny we aren't sure where she stores all her food, its starting to look like it all goes to her cheeks!

New discoveries she made: Hailyn just started discovering her voice. It is the cutest thing ever and you can tell she works really hard and trying to get those noises out. A lot of the time she will open her mouth and nothing comes out. She tries talking back to you if you talk to her. 

Her accomplishments: Her neck is getting even stronger and she is getting better at holding her head up. Hailyn is also starting to finally enjoy bath time and doesn't scream the whole time. 

Places she went: Hailyn went on her first vacation to Lake Chelan! She had so much fun relaxing pool side and hanging out with Daddy's side of the family.