I feel incredibly blessed to have exclusively breastfed Naomi since she was born. As for any Mum, though, there have been some issues with this along the road. It can be hard in the middle of the night to know that you *have* to deal with the baby, my husband can't do it. Sometimes I feel quite tied to Naomi, like I can't be away for very long, not least of all because I hate expressing with a passion and try and do it as little as possible, while still maintaining some sort of life away from the house.
My biggest issues with breastfeeding have come now though, at about 4 months old (although I am sure there will be more in the future). Naomi is very interested in the world around her and breastfeeding is no way to get to see the world, who wants to look at their Mum's boob or the chair behind her when you could look round the other way and see the people she is talking to, the park you are sitting in or even just the book your Mum thought it would be nice to try and read!! Naomi and I got a good latch going very quickly when she was born and as a result my nipples didn't hurt very much, they do hurt now with all this on-again-off-again feeding she is doing just now.
The other issue is that my boobs are now covered in bruises where she likes to "hold" on, or pinch my skin. I have tried giving her things to hold or play with and they satisfy her for a while and then she goes back to pumping my breast to squeeze out the milk and pinching my skin for reasons that I am yet to fathom!!
The next road I have to negotiate is one that Mums using formula need to walk down too; as we start weaning how do you know how much milk to give versus food, and even more than before, as a breastfeeding Mum, how do I know how much milk she is getting at all, and how do I give her less as time goes on? I know that for now and the next several months milk is the most important part of her diet, and I know that she will take the milk she needs, but I feel a little lost with this particular aspect of breastfeeding!
We have made it through all the other breastfeeding traumas, and so I am sure we will make it through these ones too, but I think I had thought all my breastfeeding woes would be at (and end in) the beginning! Just not true.
Monday, 30 May 2011
Friday, 27 May 2011
If you could only teach one thing?
If you were only able to teach your child one thing, what would it be?
For me it would be to teach Naomi that the world is bigger than she is. I guess that might need a bit of explanation, but it sums up how I feel, I want my daughter to become aware of the needs of others.
In this house we use a lot of fair trade products (bananas, chocolate, sugar, clothes) and want her to grow up understanding why. That nothing we use is so important that it is worth allowing others to be abused or taken advantage of. If we can't buy something fairly traded we try to either go without or buy it from somewhere that sourced it locally.
I want her to understand that the environment is important too, that we have a duty to try and care for it. I want her to know that this is why I am militant about recycling as much as possible and that this is why we buy eco-friendly cleaning products and recycled kitchen roll and notebooks and why we write our shopping lists on the back of old envelopes.
I want her to understand that we try and get as much as we can from charity shops and freecycle, not just because it is good to save money (although it is) but because we need to try and stop this stuff ending up on a landfill site and rotting away.
I want her to grow up to be financially responsible, not just because it will stand her in good stead for life (which it will) but also because I want her to give to charity, I want her to realise that others need her money as much (if not more) than she does.
She will learn all about the child we sponsor through Compassion UK so that she realises not everyone leads the privileged life she does and that when I say she isn't allowed something because we can't afford it (which I will, her Dad and I are not made of money) that at least she has a roof over her head, clothes to wear and food to eat.
That is me though, what would you like to teach your children?
For me it would be to teach Naomi that the world is bigger than she is. I guess that might need a bit of explanation, but it sums up how I feel, I want my daughter to become aware of the needs of others.
In this house we use a lot of fair trade products (bananas, chocolate, sugar, clothes) and want her to grow up understanding why. That nothing we use is so important that it is worth allowing others to be abused or taken advantage of. If we can't buy something fairly traded we try to either go without or buy it from somewhere that sourced it locally.
I want her to understand that the environment is important too, that we have a duty to try and care for it. I want her to know that this is why I am militant about recycling as much as possible and that this is why we buy eco-friendly cleaning products and recycled kitchen roll and notebooks and why we write our shopping lists on the back of old envelopes.
I want her to understand that we try and get as much as we can from charity shops and freecycle, not just because it is good to save money (although it is) but because we need to try and stop this stuff ending up on a landfill site and rotting away.
I want her to grow up to be financially responsible, not just because it will stand her in good stead for life (which it will) but also because I want her to give to charity, I want her to realise that others need her money as much (if not more) than she does.
She will learn all about the child we sponsor through Compassion UK so that she realises not everyone leads the privileged life she does and that when I say she isn't allowed something because we can't afford it (which I will, her Dad and I are not made of money) that at least she has a roof over her head, clothes to wear and food to eat.
That is me though, what would you like to teach your children?
Thursday, 26 May 2011
Relaxing
Now that I am the Mum of a small baby I don't find the time to relax very often, but sometimes I get to a point where I just need to and I have realised that I have very simple preferred relaxation techniques.
Two nights ago I went for my absolute number one favourite way to chill out by running a bath and lying in it for as long as the water is warm and listening to music, in this case David Garret, who is in my opinion a genius at playing amazing music on a violin!
My other favourite is to be able to read a book, but not just to snatch time with a book, to create space to read for as long as I want, and to read to the end of a chapter as my OCDish ways prefer rather than reading to the end of my daughter's nap!
I have realised too that I struggle to relax if there are chores that need done. Having had a hideous evening tonight that involved screaming for 2 hours solid before I sat down I had to fold all the laundry and put it away, for if I had just sat down I would have been stressing and feeling guilty. In order to relax, I now have to give out extra first, not always easy to do!
These have always been ways I have enjoyed spending time, but since Naomi was born these have become harder to do and therefore more precious when I get to. I love, I absolutely love how becoming a parent has changed my priorities, it is very much the case now that the simple things in life give me the most pleasure.
Two nights ago I went for my absolute number one favourite way to chill out by running a bath and lying in it for as long as the water is warm and listening to music, in this case David Garret, who is in my opinion a genius at playing amazing music on a violin!
My other favourite is to be able to read a book, but not just to snatch time with a book, to create space to read for as long as I want, and to read to the end of a chapter as my OCDish ways prefer rather than reading to the end of my daughter's nap!
I have realised too that I struggle to relax if there are chores that need done. Having had a hideous evening tonight that involved screaming for 2 hours solid before I sat down I had to fold all the laundry and put it away, for if I had just sat down I would have been stressing and feeling guilty. In order to relax, I now have to give out extra first, not always easy to do!
These have always been ways I have enjoyed spending time, but since Naomi was born these have become harder to do and therefore more precious when I get to. I love, I absolutely love how becoming a parent has changed my priorities, it is very much the case now that the simple things in life give me the most pleasure.
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Weaning
Yesterday my little girl started on solid food. I had decided that sweet potato would be good, because it is sweet, very smooth (we are weaning young, to find out why, read this post) and it had my breast milk in it, so I thought it would taste more familiar.
She didn't hate it, but neither would I say it was a resounding success! So today, at the advice of some friends I gave her some baby rice made with my milk, and I think she loved it! She still seemed a bit unsure of the new consistency, but she seemed much happier than the day before.
I am glad too, I have had quite a down day today, feeling slightly inadequate as a Mum, and a bit overwhelmed. Naomi had seemed so ready for food, she was certainly interested in what Mummy and Daddy were doing every meal time, and so I was convinced she would take to it really easily and I think the fact that it didn't just work straight off had left me feeling a little dejected. In hindsight, I aimed too high, I wanted to avoid using anything from a packet but as a result, I gave Naomi something she just wasn't ready for.
Tomorrow we will do some more baby rice, we'll just work up to the tasty vegetables currently packing my freezer!
She didn't hate it, but neither would I say it was a resounding success! So today, at the advice of some friends I gave her some baby rice made with my milk, and I think she loved it! She still seemed a bit unsure of the new consistency, but she seemed much happier than the day before.
I am glad too, I have had quite a down day today, feeling slightly inadequate as a Mum, and a bit overwhelmed. Naomi had seemed so ready for food, she was certainly interested in what Mummy and Daddy were doing every meal time, and so I was convinced she would take to it really easily and I think the fact that it didn't just work straight off had left me feeling a little dejected. In hindsight, I aimed too high, I wanted to avoid using anything from a packet but as a result, I gave Naomi something she just wasn't ready for.
Tomorrow we will do some more baby rice, we'll just work up to the tasty vegetables currently packing my freezer!
Monday, 23 May 2011
Expectations and Obligations
First of all, sorry for not updating for a few days, unfortunately real life got in the way!!
One of the things I have been doing this weekend is that my hubby and I took Naomi down to London and we stayed there with my sister-in-law and her family. She had met Naomi a couple of times but this was the first overnight stay.
We had a lovely afternoon and in the evening she settled down really easily and then later we all went to bed. Now, this is where I struggle if we stay with people overnight. If Naomi wakes in the night (as she often does these days, where has my good little sleeper gone?) and we are staying with someone else, I feel an obligation to deal with it quickly, in order to not wake anyone else. Gone are my feelings of letting it go on a few minutes to see if she settles, gone are my thoughts about teaching her to self settle by not jumping the moment she makes any noise at all. Before you know it I have been up so many times in the night that I even lose my ability to tell the time and I tell my hubby it is 3am when in fact it is 5am!
The next morning my sister-in-law and her husband make sympathetic noises about how she woke a few times but in the back of my head I am wondering if they are complaining she woke them up too? They have family but there kids have been sleeping through for a long time now, have they forgotten what it is like?
So, how do you deal with the expectations of others, and more to the point how do you sort through the ones that are perceived in your head and the ones that really exist? Do you try and make life as easy as you can for those you are staying with? Or do you expect them to make allowances for you while you are in their home? What have been you biggest issues where the way you want to parent and the ways that others want you to parent have not matched up?
One of the things I have been doing this weekend is that my hubby and I took Naomi down to London and we stayed there with my sister-in-law and her family. She had met Naomi a couple of times but this was the first overnight stay.
We had a lovely afternoon and in the evening she settled down really easily and then later we all went to bed. Now, this is where I struggle if we stay with people overnight. If Naomi wakes in the night (as she often does these days, where has my good little sleeper gone?) and we are staying with someone else, I feel an obligation to deal with it quickly, in order to not wake anyone else. Gone are my feelings of letting it go on a few minutes to see if she settles, gone are my thoughts about teaching her to self settle by not jumping the moment she makes any noise at all. Before you know it I have been up so many times in the night that I even lose my ability to tell the time and I tell my hubby it is 3am when in fact it is 5am!
The next morning my sister-in-law and her husband make sympathetic noises about how she woke a few times but in the back of my head I am wondering if they are complaining she woke them up too? They have family but there kids have been sleeping through for a long time now, have they forgotten what it is like?
So, how do you deal with the expectations of others, and more to the point how do you sort through the ones that are perceived in your head and the ones that really exist? Do you try and make life as easy as you can for those you are staying with? Or do you expect them to make allowances for you while you are in their home? What have been you biggest issues where the way you want to parent and the ways that others want you to parent have not matched up?
Thursday, 19 May 2011
EAT Study
Naomi and I are to be part of a Study looking at food allergies in babies, how they develop and more importantly how to stop them from developing at all!
The main criteria for the study is that the babies are exclusively breastfed and once there you are randomly placed into one of two groups, the control group who wean at about 6 months as per the current recommendations and then the "early introduction" group who begin weaning at around 4 months and are introduced to potential allergens (peanut, sesame, fish, egg, wheat and cow's milk) over around a month and then keep eating these foods regularly till at least 3 years of age.
Well, today Naomi and I went to London to meet the team and find out which group we would be in, it turns out we are going to be in the early introduction group. I am quite pleased about this, as Naomi has been showing an increasing interest in food and I didn't like the idea of having to keep her on only breast milk for another two months! We won't be doing any solids for at least another 10 days, as they did a blood test today to make sure she doesn't have any allergies already, so we need to wait for the results of that test. (We also had some skin prick tests done today, which all came back negative, no allergies in my little girl!)
Naomi was a complete trooper through the whole day, although I don't think she liked having her height measured and I can say with certainty she didn't like having the skin prick test done, or her blood test (although that all seems fair enough to me!).
I wasn't looking forward to the train home, as last time we went to London she cried incessantly for the whole journey. This time though she was amazing, hardly any crying at all and lots of making friends with anyone she could lay her eyes on! She even charmed the drinks trolley man into giving me a free bottle of diet coke when I said that I didn't have any cash and he didn't have a card machine!
So, we'll let you know how we progress with the weaning!
The main criteria for the study is that the babies are exclusively breastfed and once there you are randomly placed into one of two groups, the control group who wean at about 6 months as per the current recommendations and then the "early introduction" group who begin weaning at around 4 months and are introduced to potential allergens (peanut, sesame, fish, egg, wheat and cow's milk) over around a month and then keep eating these foods regularly till at least 3 years of age.
Well, today Naomi and I went to London to meet the team and find out which group we would be in, it turns out we are going to be in the early introduction group. I am quite pleased about this, as Naomi has been showing an increasing interest in food and I didn't like the idea of having to keep her on only breast milk for another two months! We won't be doing any solids for at least another 10 days, as they did a blood test today to make sure she doesn't have any allergies already, so we need to wait for the results of that test. (We also had some skin prick tests done today, which all came back negative, no allergies in my little girl!)
Naomi was a complete trooper through the whole day, although I don't think she liked having her height measured and I can say with certainty she didn't like having the skin prick test done, or her blood test (although that all seems fair enough to me!).
I wasn't looking forward to the train home, as last time we went to London she cried incessantly for the whole journey. This time though she was amazing, hardly any crying at all and lots of making friends with anyone she could lay her eyes on! She even charmed the drinks trolley man into giving me a free bottle of diet coke when I said that I didn't have any cash and he didn't have a card machine!
So, we'll let you know how we progress with the weaning!
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