How I Wean

I always look forward to weaning with eager anticipation.  I know many other nursing mothers do not share in this excitement but the method in which I've weaned my babies has been effective and painless.

Step 1: Throughout the duration of breastfeeding, I usually have to pump because of painful engorgement.  I store this milk in the freezer for those "just in case" occasions and as I look forward to weaning.

Step 2: The baby is introduced to and becomes comfortable with drinking water and juice from a sippie cup.  This is usually when baby reaches around 8 or 9 months in age, at the mom's discretion.  Just as baby gets older and becomes more dependent on solid food and less on breast milk, mom nurses less often, maybe 2 or more times daily.  Continue to decrease the number of times you take baby to breast.

Step 3: The day arrives!  Baby does not return to the breast.  You give him or her breast milk in the cup at the same meal/snack time that he or she would be taken to the breast.  Use the milk that you have previously pumped.  Baby will taste the same milk in an easier to suck format and won't mind that it's not coming from your chest, especially if you hold baby while they eat.

Step 4: Cut your calories, increase the intensity of your exercise and pump any breast milk only to alleviate discomfort, giving baby this milk in the cup.  Eventually you will not have to pump any longer because you are not producing milk, maybe 2 or 3 days.

Step 5: When your breast milk stores run out, switch to cow's milk.  This is the most difficult step for baby because the taste and texture of the milk changes.  Warm it for a few seconds in the microwave until it reaches a comfortable temperature, like that of breast milk.  After baby becomes acclimated to the warm cow's milk, you can transition to giving baby/toddler cold milk.  Personally, I hate the taste of regular cow's milk and since childhood I only drink chocolate milk, if any at all.  This is what I give my girls to drink only at breakfast, and I only give them enough to wash down their meal.

Nurture: a Definition

1. Training; upbringing.
2. Something that nourishes: food.
3. The sum of the environmental factors influencing the behavior and traits expressed by an organism.
4. To help the growth or development of.
5. To provide (someone) with moral or spiritual understanding.
6. To supply with nourishment.

Origin: from Late Latin nutritura act of nursing, from Latin nutritus, past participle nutrire to suckle, nourish.

Synonyms:

advance, cultivate, encourage, forward, further, incubate, nourish, nurse, nurture, promote,

edify, educate, illume, illuminate, illumine, inspire, nurture, advocate, back, champion,

endorse (also indorse), support, uphold; endow, finance, fund, patronize, stake, subsidize,

underwrite; abet, aid, assist; advertise, boost, plug, publicize, tout; agitate (for),campaign (for),

work (for), elevate, ennoble, enrich, ensoul, lift, uplift; better, improve, regenerate, renew,

transform; exalt, glorify, transfigure, sate, satiate, satisfy; nurse, suckle; cloy, fill, surfeit; fortify, replenish, strengthen; feed; board, cater, provision, victual

If ever I thought I were a perfectionist, all that ceased when I became a parent.

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord.

Ephesians 6:4 ASV

10 Reasons Why I'm Still Nursing

Yes, Shiphrah is still nursing. Seven out of 8 feedings I still have to fight her to stay on the breast and to eat a complete meal. It has been very frustrating and some days I can't stand it anymore, but we both have persevered.

I continue to nurse because:

1. It's convenient. I don't have to make bottles in the middle of the night.

2. It's convenient while traveling because I don't have to predict how long we'll be out, how much formula I need, where I need to get water (or bring my own), or how to heat it, etc ad nauseum.

3. It helps me lose weight. It is said that nursing moms burn an extra 500 calories a day to support milk production. Oh yeah, super fast, safe and healthy weight loss is possible. Currently I weigh 15 pounds less than when I got pregnant with Shiphrah. :-D

4. It's an excuse to sit down and be quiet. After running around all day getting chores and errands done, I find that sitting can be quite necessary after a while and I probably wouldn't do it unless I had to nurse.

5. It helps provide protection against feminine cancers: breast, ovarian & uterine. Read this Above Rubies "Preservation" article.

6. It helps establish and boost baby's immune system.

7. It can be a natural contraceptive, when done consistently.

8. I don't have to worry about getting my period while nursing.

9. It helps fill out my clothing.

10. It's the best option when providing my baby nourishment.

Nurse at Your Own Risk

WARNING:

While nursing you may experience cramping pain, engorgement, milk fever and/or bleeding or cracked skin, leaking, and other physical conditions. You may be scratched, pinched, kicked, slapped, bitten, have your hair or jewelry accessories pulled.

Proceed with caution, compassion, and long-suffering.

New pictures from April in the right sidebar.

All Things Are Possible . . .

An infant can nurse even in a vice.

Social Nursing

I love how they each decided to nurse their babies at the exact same time! It's so hilarious!

All Things Are Possible . . .

Even nursing infants play with their food.

Moriah Monday: Nursing Her Baby

By the way, totally un-related to breastfeeding, Moriah completed her first pass in the Children's Catechism questions one through four! Yay!

Two More Recipes for Nursing Moms

Shiphrah still has a hard time with flatulence, particularly when I eat dairy. Yesterday my Mom made this wonderful strawberry trifle (Paula Dean Christmas recipe) with cream cheese, whipped cream and sweetened condensed milk. Afterwards, Shiphrah screamed for at least an hour. :-( Bad, Mommy, bad!

Garlic and onions are unavoidable in almost every prepared food, except meat and plain white bread. However her reaction is much less severe, she only spits up (a lot) when I eat these foods. So I'm still finding ways to prepare foods without those gas causing ingredients. Here are two more recipes:

Maple-Glazed Spiced Carrots

3 medium carrots (8 oz. total), peeled, diagonally cut into 1/4" slices

1/4 cup water

2 tbs unsalted butter

2 tsp maple syrup

3/4 tsp fresh lemon juice, plus more to taste

1/4 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of cayenne pepper

Combine the carrots, water, butter, syrup, lemon juice and spices in a small nonstick saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to medium-high and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low and cook until the liquid has reduced to a glaze and the carrots are tender, about 8 minutes. Just before serving, taste and adjust the seasonings by adding more lemon juice and salt, if necessary. Makes 2 servings.

Notes: To save time, you may use 8 oz. packaged peeled baby carrots. After reducing the heat to low, cook for about 10 minutes.

To make it non-dairy, eliminate the butter and use 1 tbs olive oil and 1 tbs sifted flour for the fat and thickener. I tripled the recipe for 2 lbs. of carrots for our Christmas meal and it was great. When cooked using the time guidelines, the carrots will have a more al dente texture, not completely soft in the center. Adjust the cooking time until you reach the texture you desire.

...............

Campbell's Tomato Vegetable Soup

1 can Campbell's condensed tomato soup

2 stalks of celery, diced very thin

2 carrots, diced very thin

2/3 can Leseuer peas

1 and 1/2 to 2 cans of water

1/4 tsp oregano

salt & pepper to taste

In a non-stick pot combine soup, celery, carrots and water on high heat. Allow to boil for 5 minutes stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium-high and simmer for another 10 minutes or until the carrots and celery are the desired texture. Once your texture is reached, add the peas and spices and cook for another 1 or 2 minutes. Allow to cool before serving. Makes a little more than two 8 oz. servings.

This was really good, easy and off-the-cuff.

Notes: If you don't have a non-stick pot, first boil the celery and carrots in about 3 cups of water until you get the texture you want, then add the rest of the ingredients. We still had the maple carrots left over, so I just rinsed them in water and added them to the pot. Super easy.

Horizontal Mobility

Two nights ago, around 2 a.m. I heard Shiphrah making noises and I awoke. As I laid there a few minutes listening to her I realized that she sounded more like she was playing rather than her normal waking up to eat. She was happy. I sat up and looked into the bassinet where she lay and lo, and behold, she had rolled over!! She normally sleeps on her stomach, but here she was on her back! She did it again two hours later.

The bassinet is getting small for her and I figured that she had pushed up against the sides and rolled with some structural assistance. I didn't want to get up in the middle of the night for this reason - because she isn't accustomed to sleeping on her back. So I set up the pack 'n play for her night time sleeping. During the day I've been putting her to sleep in a crib. Well, she knows how to roll over in those too!

She has also discovered her hair. :-) While she's nursing, sometimes she'll use her free hand to rub the side of her head, exploring that textured stuff just beyond the borders of her face. If I gave her a little soap, she could wash her own hair. :-) (Just kidding.) Also, occasionally when I get frustrated with her nursing habits, coming on and off, on and off again, she'll look up and laugh at me. My frustration is funny to her. Well, her laughing does help to disarm most of my frustration and refresh my attitude. It is funny, isn't it?!

Recipes for Breastfeeding Moms

Our little one seems to have quite a bit of gas and it causes her a lot of belly discomfort. Jeramy and I refuse to call it "colic" because we reason that that term is just what doctors use to say, "Yeah she screams and we don't know why."

But since cutting my diet down significantly to eliminate the majority of known gas-causing foods, laying her to sleep on her stomach and keeping her over my shoulder during her wake times has brought about a better disposition and a somewhat more steady sleep routine. (And I'm more pleasant, too.) The list of gassy foods I found Here are:

• Apples
• Artichokes
• Asparagus
• Beans
• Broccoli
• Brussel Sprouts
• Cabbage
• Cheese
• Corn
• Fruit Drinks
• Ice Cream
• Milk and Milk Products
• Onions
• Pasta
• Peaches
• Pears
• Potatoes
• Prunes
• Soft Drinks
• Whole Wheat

Which is pretty much everything I eat! Also I had to eliminate caffeine and chocolate. *NO! Not chocolate!!* And I was very surprised to see some fruit on that list!

So, I've taken to making pumpkin bread for breakfast with grapes, melon, nectarines or oranges and an egg or bacon or french toast with jelly or maple syrup. For lunch and/or dinner I'll have white bread sandwiches with mustard, pretzels, Campbell's tomato soup, cucumber slices, salads with catalina dressing and brown rice. PB and J works too and buffalo wings. Spicy things seem to be okay when done low to moderately. I'm taking a calcium supplement and the white bread is fortified with calcium too.

About two weeks ago I made a chicken soup in the crockpot with 3 bouillon cubes, 2 white meat frozen chicken breasts, 1.5 cups brown rice, carrots, celery, 1 can of Leseuer peas, parsley, salt and pepper, cooked on high for 4 hours. Everything was raw when I put it in the crockpot and filled the remaining room with water. After it cooked I cut the chicken up into smaller, bite sized pieces and it was great. Give it a try. It was really easy and really yummy. It also doesn't cost a lot.

Last week I made another crockpot soup with 1 lb. hot italian sausage (which probably has some garlic and onion in it, I'm sure), maybe 1/4 cup of olive oil, a heaping handful of fresh basil, some oregano and parsley, about 2 cans of diced tomatoes, 1 can of Campbell's tomato soup, carrots, celery and I filled the remaining room in the pot with water and cooked for 4 hours on high. It was good but next time I think that chicken broth or bouillon will add more flavor instead of water and possibly a bay leaf or two. I wanted to add rice to this soup too, but we ran out. Only add one or two carrots if you add any. I really wanted something similar to sausage and lentil soup, but I'm unsure as to whether lentils are considered a bean. It's more like a pea, but aren't beans and peas from the same family?

If you have recipe ideas that don't contain those gassy foods -- PLEASE SHARE!!

Mommy Math

1 husband

+ 2 dramatic, disobedient toddlers

+ 1 nursing infant

/ 3 hours awake at night

x 3 to 4 hours sleep at night (x 4 weeks)

+ 1.5 hours of daytime nap

____________________

1 moody mommy

Another Nursing Proverb

Only through patient, diligent work

will a nursing infant receive her reward:

a full belly.

It is better to live on the corner of a roof

than in a house with a screaming infant

at 4 a.m.

(or any other nightly hour).

A Nursing Proverb

You can bring a baby to breast

but you can't make her eat.

Newborns & Cloth Diapers

Last year Jeramy and I decided to invest in cloth diapers because we had become uncomfortable with how expensive it was having both Moriah and Lily in disposables. Lily was still solely breast feeding while Moriah was on the same diet as we were. I purchased some Osocozy All-in-Ones, Kushies diaper covers and several dozen pre-folds.

We loved using the AIO on Moriah because they work just like a disposable but they are washable/reusable and therefore more economical if you're willing to make the plunge financially for the convenience. (At the time, through a forum, they only cost us about $7 each. Immediate picture below.) In the end it really does pay for itself. The diaper covers and pre-folds are probably the most economical purchase for cloth diapers. It definitely doesn't bite your wallet too much to switch to cloth when you choose this method.

Once or twice I used the AIO on Lily during that time and found that if she did a number two, the soft breast milk stool would come out of the AIO and mostly run up her back. :-P I figured the reason for that being that there was no lip around the back or gussets around the legs to prevent wetter messes from escaping. Primarily for Lily during her breastfeeding I used the pre-folds and the diaper covers.

I loved the diaper covers because I didn't have to use pins or other closures for the pre-folds. The way I created a lip in the back to keep messes from escaping was just folding it down a bit and it worked wonderfully. I plan on doing the same when our new little one arrives. And for the older, solid food babies and toddlers, I definitely plan on purchasing enough AIOs next time to last between washings because they are so convenient and others will not be so averse or fearful to changing the cloth diapers either. :-)

Anyone have other comments or suggestions about cloth diapering newborns?

Free Nursing Cover for Mother's Day

My friend Erin over at A Full Heart just wrote to tell me that Udder Covers is giving away free nursing covers using the promo code, "Mother" in honor of Mother's Day. They're covers are really cute and I've just ordered mine. Each cover is a $32 value and you can give them away as gifts or store them for the future. :-) You will have to pay $9.95 in shipping, but you still end up paying less than 1/3 the cost for one of these great covers.

Just go to the Udder Covers website, click on "Shop Now", select the nursing cover you would like and you will automatically be repositioned to the center of the page where you can enter in the promo code! Type in Mother and it will bring your product total to $0! We are not sure how long this promotion can last. You can use the code more than once - you just have to open a new browser/window to do so. This promotion code is valid once per transaction!

"Free At Last . . . Thank God Almighty!"

Those would probably be Lily's words now that she is no longer nursing. :-)

This morning she woke up and and when I offered to nurse her she said, "No thanks. I think I'll pass." So, with that, weaning is over and she is no longer bound to my hip. "Freedom!" she cried. This will also liberate her from sleeping in Mommy and Daddy's bedroom and room in with Moriah which is soon to come, though no specific date has been set.

Lily will be nine months on October 4th! She has sprouted a new tooth at the top center. It's partner is appearing to take a little bit longer - I suppose as a result of her thumb-sucking.

She has graduated to sitting in the bathtub and is no longer lying down to bathe. She is very mobile, crawling backwards, rotating and rolling over to get to interesting places. She has also started to wave recognizably! Yesterday while Moriah and I were at the dinner table and Lily was occupied on the floor, I waved to her and she waved back several times! It was really cool!

Lily still has the best representative 'gentle and quiet spirit' out of all us Anderson ladies. She's still just as smiley and pleasant although she is more fussy at night before bedtime. She is picking up some defiant tendencies that usually exhibit themselves during meal times. But maybe that's because she prefers breastmilk over formula or any other food. She is getting more acclimated to 'normal' foods and textures. She's had mashed potatoes, eggs, oatmeal, rice and peas. She's not a big fan of peaches, which is ironic. :-)

She has very much made Moriah her best friend. I can tell when they sit and play together how much Lily adores spending time with Moriah. She especially loves to take baths with her older sister. She laughs the loudest when Moriah tickles her.

I'll be taking more pictures over the next week or so and post them in the right sidebar when I've got enough. She is looking more and more like a little girl and not a baby.

The End Is Near

Weaning has begun. Over the past week Lily and I have been transitioning slowly, but now there is a definite goal in view. It has been good to be able to breast feed for this long, 8 and 1/2 months, but the time has come. When the benefits do not outweigh the frustration, it is better to stop.

Lily has not really ever taken a bottle, so that will be the tough part for her. If she doesn't do well with that, maybe she will learn to pace herself with the sippy cup. If anyone has any weaning suggestions, I'm all ears.

There are some new photos in the right sidebar I added today. The pictures are from Grandma Jane and Grandaddy Dennis' visit came on Labor Day weekend and when some Virginia friends, Ray and Teresa Capuria, came down just after they left. We all had a great time together.

A Brief Update

Sunday afternoon, fairly soon after arriving home from church, Jeramy scooped up Moriah again to catch the potty before releasing anything solid. Well . . . success!! After regaining her bearings, Moriah did poo in the potty a very significant amount! Yay Moriah!!! Every time she uses the potty, that's one less diaper we have to change! :-D

I'm debating on whether or not to spend the money on training pants for her, cloth or disposable. Either method will be expensive. Currently as Jeramy and I are attempting to secure a new home, our efforts are concentrated on sacrificing the good for the great and seriously buckling down on our budget. We have been sensibly frugal since we met, but now, even more so. I don't mind. I would rather have a house in a month than a Wendy's frosty today. I guess that's delayed gratification for you.

Lily had her six month check-up and shots today. She will be 7 months tomorrow, the fourth. She weighed in at 14 lbs 11 oz and 26 and 1/2 inches long. She has two teeth very visible on the bottom. She is also sitting up unassisted very nicely on occasion. She still loves her Jumperoo very much. This month she has started to play with her feet - attempting to grasp them whenever lying down or breastfeeding. Lily has also started sleeping on her belly. She rolls from her back onto her belly easily, but still hasn't figured out how to roll, unassisted, from her belly to her back. When she gets tired, she grunts really loudly, like she's moving furniture. She has begun to eat some vegetables: carrots, peas, squash, green beans and today, sweet potatoes. So far, so good.

See the new pictures in the right sidebar.

Since the Switch to Cloth . . .

I would like to share what I love about cloth diapers since I've switched. I do still use disposable diapers when we go to church for the convenience of those in the nursery and because we're out quite a long time. I still use disposables at night with Moriah for the sake of ease. But all the other time, I use cloth. I really like that

• I don't have to run out in a panic to buy more disposables.
• I don't have to spend NEAR the amount of money on diapers per month.
• There is SO much less waste.
• They are reusable.
• They are so easy to clean and care for.
• The cloth diaper laundry actually makes me more efficiently push through our weekly laundry.
• After the initial rinse I don't have to touch them again until they're clean.
• I can reuse the diaper covers and just replace the prefolds.
• They do effectively contain breastfed blow outs.
• They are very absorbent.
• The prefolds have so many other uses too.
• The prefolds are durable.
• The diaper covers effectively contain early morning smells.
• With consistent changes, there is less occurrence of diaper rash.

And Jeramy is more than willing to change them! (Now, don't misunderstand me - he doesn't volunteer to change diapers, but is very willing to change them when asked or required.)

The minuses are much fewer. Unless you have a diaper sprayer, you can count on swishing dirty diapers in the toilet. Occasionally the little bit of cloth on the leg gussets gets urine on it and causes the smell to permeate. The diaper pail smells awful but is easily contained with a lid and when laundry is commenced, disinfected and neutralized.

If anyone has any other thoughts about cloth diapers, I'd love to hear them.