Exclusive Pumpers: Never Give Up! Never Surrender!

Breastfeeding can be hard. Exclusively pumping can be hard. I get it. But try...just try. I am sure that you wouldn't be reading the blog if you weren't planning on trying or did and you get high fives!
I pumped for 13 months and I will say that I am extremely proud of myself. I breastfed for the first month but we were just having issues latching on and I was pumping at the same time to get my supply going and pumping just kind of took over. It was also nice so then my husband could feed her, which he loved.
These are some of the tips or advice that seemed to help me get the best out of my pumping. These may not work for you since every boobie is different. 

1. Make sure you have the right size flange. 
This is a huge one that will DESTROY your pumping experience and I am convinced this causes a lot of moms to stop. I used the flanges that came with my pump and they ended up being too small....YEEOOOUCCH! They don't cost a lot of money and I bought mine on Amazon, but try to get another size up. You can google breast pump flanges and see how they are supposed to fit properly.

2. Pump Often.  
Your fun bags are actually extremely smart, which seems a bit oxymoronic. They know that if you breastfeed or pump a lot, that they need to start producing more. If you start breastfeeding first like I did, you should always try to pump afterwards to make sure that all of the milk is out. Your jubblies will only product what they emptied so if you don't empty them, they won't produce as much the next time. The instructions even say in the pump to continue to pump after the last drop for about 5 minutes and I think that is why I ended up producing so much and ultimately allowed me to get away with only having to pump 3-4 times a day. I started out pumping at least 6-7 times a day until about 10 weeks and then slowly started to do fewer pumps but longer sessions to readjust the jugs to my upcoming work environment. 

3. Take supplements if you have to.  
There is no shame in taking herbs or making lactation cookies to help your supply. I got sick at about 9 months and had to take a Z-pack. Even though the doctor said it wouldn't affect my supply, it definitely did. I went down about 6-7 ounces each day, which is a lot if you don't have a huge stash in the freezer. Fenugreek is extremely helpful as well as these supplements that have a little bit of everything. Mother's Love Supplements have lots of different herbs that definitely helped to maintain my current supply and not let it dwindle. I ultimately did add another session to my day. Lactation cookies work great as long as the recipe has the 3 main ingredients: oats, brewers yeast, and flax. Unfortunately the recipe that I originally followed had like a cup of ground flax. My stomach churned the rest of the day anytime I ate those, but they did certainly work. That is the only reason why I am not posting a recipe. Just search Google and you will find a lot. 

4. Replace the white membranes often.  
These are the little white flaps that...well flap...inside the bottle to drop the milk in. If they get washed to hard or generally worn out they don't provide a proper seal and decrease the amount of suction necessary. These little effers are dirt cheap and you can buy a large amount of them to have in your bag for when you need them. 

5. Wash your pieces carefully. 
I'll be honest, I hated washing my breast pump pieces. Breast milk is very oily and sticks to everything and you always need to devote a good amount of attention to give them a deep cleaning. I did find that the little brush that comes with the Dr. Brown bottles is EXTREMELY handy when cleaning the main part. It just fits perfectly and bends around in the little crevices. 
The one piece of advice that I found saves you so much headache....DON'T WASH THE TUBING! For crying out loud....no milk comes in contact with the tubing and when you put water within the tubing, it is near impossible to get all the water out and therefore it can get into the motor and mold. Yes..mold. It even says in the manuals that washing the tubing is not necessary. If you were researching pumps like me, and lots of reviews say they hated the pump, because water got in there and it molded, it is their own damn fault. They are the dumb reviewers that put I hate this product because the person shipping it didn't wrap it nice enough.....what? 

Some perks to pumping?
- Most to all insurances cover really nice pump for free
- You legally get breaks at work to pump. Some mothers complain that their workplace is not very nice about them pumping or they make it difficult. It is your right so stand up for yourself. If they make you feel ashamed, don't. It is their own damn insecurities and they should be ashamed themselves. 
- It's free! Woop Woop!
- For an introvert like myself...it's your "Get out of Jail Free" card to not have to socialize or leave places early. 

What were some tips that got you through pumping or what are some perks of pumping for you?

Starting Solids: Holy S*** Time Flies

Just as the title says...holy s*** time flies. Yeah I suppose when you are having fun or just busy. 
So this weekend we are starting solids...dun dun DUN!! I, for one, am beyond excited. It is something new to do with Inga and it changes up the routine. It also is another step in knowing that she is growing and we haven't ruined her yet. 
We made the decision to wait until she was 6 months old to start with solids. After doing some research I read that delaying solids can help curb allergies, among other things. Allergies run in my family. My dad had them and I have them. However, they are not food related but rather environmental. 
The longer you wait to introduce solids to your baby, the better their digestive system has to properly develop to handle those solid foods. 
A couple signs that your wee-one is ready for solids:
- Develops an interest in what you are eating or reaches for your food. We call that pulling a Big Roger, which is an inside joke, but cute either way. Inga tries to Big Rog us all the time. 
- They can sit up pretty much on their own in a high chair. You don't want them falling forward or wibbly wobbling all over the place. 

I will do another post with an update on how it is all going but here are some of the items that I got to prepare for Inga's venture in the great wide world of real food. 
We plan to do all the food ourselves so she won't have to endure Beef Barley Pea Dinner baby food from a jar...just...ugh. It doesn't seem all that hard and we only plan to do purees for a little while before she can start just eating regular food. 
But remember - FOOD IS FUN UNTIL THE AGE OF ONE :)

1. Mumi Bubi Starter Set - This came with 2 trays with curved bottoms so the cubes slide right out. Haven't used these yet, but plan to when she is eating stuff to freeze. 

2. IKEA baby bowls - For how flipping cheap they are, why the hell not. They are like $2 for 6 bowls. 

3. First Years Flatware - These are great and super cheap. She has been chewing on these for the past couple weeks so she doesn't choke. 

4. Stokke Tripp Trapp set - This was my crazy splurge. The high chair is ungodly expensive along with all the attachments for it. But of course I ended up getting a great deal on it and got the infant set and the tray for free. She has been sitting in this for a while now and just loves it. 

5. The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet - This is a great book, but its a little pointless in some aspects. I mean, do you really have to have an entire recipe for mashing up avocados? I am not kidding...the recipe is 1/2 of a ripe avocado. 

6. Tommee Tippee Easy Roll Bibs - These seem like they are going to be awesome. They are really soft and can roll up easily. Nice silicone for easy clean up to and the tray catches some of the yum yums, much to my puppies sadness I am sure. 

One item that isn't there but I think will be fun and helpful is a printable calendar. I am going to write on the calendar what food she is having each day. We plan to introduce a new food every 3 days just to see if she has a reaction to anything. 

So these are the items that we got for starting solids. Since I am a FTM I am sure some of these are pointless but I got it all cheap so shutup. :)

What are some items that you used or are using for feeding your spawn? Leave a comment. 

 UPDATE: Check out my newest blog post for how our first day went and a video!

Breastfeeding and Colds can Bite me!

I am sure most of you have had a cold before. In fact I have one right now, which is what spurs this post. And I am sure most of you have not been concerned because you knew you could take all those lovelies medicines for congestion etc. 
Well if you plan to breastfeed or are breastfeeding, be prepared for you to feel like your head will explode. 
When you are breastfeeding, there are certain things you can't take that could affect your milk supply. I know that after spending 12 weeks getting my supply established I sure as hell wasn't going to let that go down because my nose is a bit stuffy. 
Like I said before, I am currently sick. My husband was sick for 2 weeks and now it has passed on to me. My daughter has not gotten sick and I would like to think that is because of my breast milk. I have the headaches, sore throat, coughing, and nose so congested that standing in a shower for an hour doesn't loosen it up. All I want to do it take some sudafed. But I can't! And you can't either! Here are some DO's and DON'Ts of breastfeeding while being sick. 

DON'T take Sudafed or anything with pseudoephedrine in it. Basically don't take anything that has a nasal decongestant in it no matter what it is called. The idea behind a decongestant is that it dries up your sinuses, but a decongestant isn't picky and it dries up everything else in your body, including your milk. I have read that you can re-establish your supply afterwards but that is not a risk I am willing to take. 
DO try using a Neti-Pot instead. They have these all over the place now, but I remember the first time I saw

these they looked absolutely ridiculous. This GIF makes me giggle.  Make sure to follow the instructions correctly and when it says to not blow your nose afterwards for quite a while, for god sakes don't blow your nose. It will make you feel ten times worse. Now you can't use one of these if your nose is completely blocked but a dinner of spicy food or hot shower might loosen it up enough to use it. I use it randomly for my allergies and I really do think it helps out. 
DO drink Mother's Milk tea or any tea with Fenugreek in it. Fenugreek can help with colds and congestion and it can also help with your milk supply at the same time. The only down side is that it can give you wee-one some gas. Drinking tea in general is good with honey. The honey soothes the throat. 
DON'T take too much zinc. The Food and Nutrition Board recommends no more than 13mgs of zinc daily for nursing mothers. 
DO research any medicine you are going to take before taking it. Check out Kellymom.com for more information on this. 
DO stick with it. I know you don't feel good and I know you just want to lay in bed. But if you don't pump or nurse your supply might decrease, which would lead to your child possibly needing formula and not getting the antigens that keep your babies immunity up.

What are some ways that you do deal with being sick while breastfeeding?

Lies you are Told About Having a Baby

You get lots of advice. You read lots of books. You scour Pinterest and the internet for information. Yes, I will admit that some information is helpful and some information you read ends up being true but most of the time it is so generalized that truth has fallen to the wayside. Having a baby is an individualized experience and every baby is different. I will be creating new posts as she gets older with the new lies we are told as she grows up. These are more about a newborn or preparing for a baby. 
I am just going to jump into them without spending too much time flooding you with too much sarcasm. 

1. PINTEREST....
How dare I? Yes yes, for the most part the beautiful nurseries and extreme organization ideas are lies. These are lies spread either by photographers who set up the most perfect scenario or by Stay-at-Home-Moms who really have nothing better to do with their time than make Pinterest posts to make us feel bad about our pitiful lives. I have an entire post on just being a Pinterest parent. 
Some of the organizational posts for nurseries can be helpful if you take them with a grain of salt. When I was designing Inga's nursery, I had so many Pinterest inspirational pictures that I ended up using that ended up being completely pointless and actually cumbersome. There really is no need to completely overhaul a closet and make it the children's closet to beat all children's closets. Most clothes are thrown in drawers or in our situation, we pretty much live out of her laundry basket of clean clothes. We really only hang sweaters or jackets and all you really need is this Closet Doubler from Bed Bath and Beyond. Don't waste your time with adorable velvet hangers either...they are the most obnoxious things to use for smaller clothes. They just stretch the clothes and I knew my husband, Matt, would HATE them. Buy the 10 for $1 at Target ones. 
One thing on Pinterest that was a HUGE TRUTH and I am so happy with the decision was instead of getting a changing table, buy a dresser instead. What are you going to use a changing table for after they are out of
diapers...a liquor cart? Hmm...I am sure you could find a pin for that. Otherwise, why not get a dresser and actually have it serve a purpose past potty training. The IKEA Hemnes dresser seems like the go-to dresser and that is what we got and love it. The top fits a changing pad and wipe warmer perfectly. 

2. Diaper Bags
Diaper bags have become quite a fashion statement. Quite an expensive fashion statement. Marc Jacobs has one for $300. Vera Bradley has one for $150. Even Coach has a diaper bag for $180. Why? Why? WHY!? It is a bag! I did a ridiculous amount of research into the "best" diaper bags and I went through the phases of wanting the best and most expensive bag possible down to the most practical.  A lot of the expensive bags are pretty but they are not the most functional or practical. For a budget family a new backpack would actually work awesome but if you don't want to walk around with a backpack I would suggest a shoulder bag or a bag with a messenger strap. The bag I ended up getting and am very happy with

is the JJ Cole Satchel bag in black canvas. It is ginormous inside and it has a messenger strap and an obscene amount of pockets for all your jazz. And it is not obnoxiously girly that my husband will happily carry it around as a messenger bag if he has to go anywhere. You need to think about that. Are you buying a diaper bag for you or are you buying a diaper bag for your family? You are not the only one going places with your baby. 


3. Clothing
Buy footies....buy zippered footies....trying to put onesie bodysuits on your newborn feels like cruel and unusual punishment for both of you. If it is colder outside and you need to put a onesie on under footies, then get the side snaps. This is a lie perpetuated by all the stores selling you those adorable must have onesies for newborns.

4. Needing to have a ton of newborn to 3 month clothes. 
You can really get away with like 5 onesies and 3 pairs of footies. You will be doing lots of laundry and like I said before, we pretty much just live out of a laundry basket. Spend more money on these bibs from Target then the clothes won't get dirty as fast or as stained with breastmilk. This lie is coming from all those newborn checklists telling you that you need 50 of every item. 

5. You have to breastfeed to feel connected with your baby.
 Don't misunderstand me...you should always try to breastfeed your baby first. The idea that you have to breastfeed to be a loving mother is completely untrue and kind of damaging to mother's self esteem if that does not happen with her. I tried breastfeeding for a couple weeks and it was possibly the most painful ordeal emotionally and physically for me personally other than actually giving birth that I had gone through. BUT, I wouldn't give up and decided to pump my milk instead and I can guarantee that I feel just as connected with Inga as if I was actually breastfeeding. That feeling of accomplishment that you get when you know that you are giving your baby the best nutrition they can get no matter what is awesome and deepens the connection just as much with your little peanut. If you and your baby have a hard time breastfeeding, please try to stick with it or else get a pump and start pumping. Your insurance company usually covers a free pump. 



6. You need to have a glider/rocking chair in the nursery.
HA! My mom and I were at IKEA today and I said to my mom that I was glad I didn't pay full price for my POANG rocking chair for feeding because it has barely been used. You know where you are going to be sitting or nursing your baby? The couch or in the living room. So I wouldn't even spend the money on a glider/rocker unless you plan to just have it in the living room. 

Some of the other lies we were told or read about have been covered in other posts I have done.
What are some of the things that you were told or read about that were lies. Comment below! I want to hear them!

Yay Poop!

I will let you know now, there is going to be a lot of poop talk. If that makes you uncomfortable, just make sure to share the post and then move along *wink wink*

If you dread the idea of changing a diaper or having to deal with poop when your baby comes, just you wait. Some weird chemical process happens in your brain and once that baby comes, poop is like the most fascinating thing ever...seriously. Inga is almost 4 months old and every time she poops, my husband and I both yell, "Yay Poop!" and immediately both go change her. He changes her and I examine the diaper. Is that weird? We both have decided that it is partially because we want her to be happy after that hard work, but also it ultimately means she is healthy and eating. 

We have both had family and friends come up after holding her and say sarcastically, "I have some bad news, I think she pooped." That's not bad news. That's GREAT news!

If you have even an ounce of neurotic tendency like I do, you will probably be the same. When you are still in the hospital, the staff suggest keeping a log of pees and poops and eating until they can really get into a routine. We still log 4 months later and we love it. With those logs, you are always able to bring that to the doctor to show them and you are also able to keep a record of when they start changing their poop routine. When the poop routine changes, it is not really a happy day from both parties. We are anxiously waiting an explosion and Inga get's annoyed because she wants to poop. 

Your baby is going to go from having poop in almost every diaper to pooping a couple times a day and then down to once a day. Then you are going to have a day where you have to refer back to your log (see! they are awesome) and check if they even pooped today. Uh oh........not necessarily. Breastfed babies can go up to 3 days without pooping. Inga didn't poop for 5 days right when we brought her home. This is because they are getting so many nutrients from your colostrum and your initial milk, there really isn't much need to have a poop. Her body also has some serious adjusting to do. Your baby can't push their own poop out initially so they have to wait for it basically to come out. How frustrating is that?! Try going to sit on the pot, but you can't push at all. 

I can't really give any advice regarding formula fed poop since she was only on formula for about a week, but I do know that her poop was different during that week. It smells more and is darker in color. This could be because formula takes longer to digest than breastmilk. As a result, you could be feeding your baby more often if you are breastfeeding. 

One great difference between formula fed poop and breastfed poop....constipation. It would be extremely rare for a breastfed baby to get constipated. 

Breastfed poop is fascinating itself. Who knew a baby could poop out mustard yellow poop with seedy looking things in there. What are those seedy looking things? Are they baby seeds? Is that how you grow babies? Are there seeds in my milk? No idea, but at least it doesn't stink. Don't get me wrong. Breastfed poop has an aroma, but it doesn't smell bad at all and it still doesn't. 

If I could give you one bit of advice regarding babies pooping....bicycle kicks. They are the best thing since sliced bread. We do bicycle kicks and knee tucks whenever she is a bit poo fussy. I lay her on my lap and start to do bicycle kicks and then will randomly tuck her knees up into her chest. Those knee tucks will unleash farts from the depths of her bowels and make her feel so much better. Now we can do bicycle kicks/knee tucks if she is fussy and it instantly makes her happy and smiley.