Never in my wildest dreams would I actually think I'd be selling baby clothes of my own. God is good isn't he? Take a look! Everything is $15.00. Yep, EVERYTHING! If I paid $100, you pay $15. If I paid $45, you pay $15. And if I paid <$15 I bundled a bunch of cute/similar items and the whole bundle is $15! Pickup in Jackson, MS preferred but I will ship for $5.00. I mentioned in this post that drying up the boobs after stopping breastfeeding needed it's own post. Here it is. I stopped trying to nurse my non-latching daughter at about 2 weeks and exclusively pumped or EP'd until she was 1 month. By 4 weeks I was producing about 50 oz a day, which apparently is a lot since she was only eating about 18-20 oz a day. During the 4th week I noticed my left breast was red, hard, and hot and I was getting very little milk out of it, while the right one was being a champ. I took it, my growing freezer stash, and my misery in pumping that it was time to throw in the towel. So I called my doctor. I let them know about my symptoms and sure enough, I had mastitis and would have to take antibiotics to cure it. Then we talked about trying to stop milk production since I decided I was done. I read about weaning off the pump, dropping a pump consistently until you could quit but that would take months sometimes. Nurse Lisa said "do it cold turkey. It's the fastest way." So cold turkey it was. Here's what that entailed:
I started all these things on Friday, April 6 and by Friday, April 13th. I was pretty close to being back to normal. But let me tell you, it was painful. My boobs were huge and heavy (had to have been 4 lbs each) and they hurt but the body is amazing and they knew what to do. JAMMING WHILE POSTING Here are my no BS tips from my adventures in pumping. I am by no means a pumping pro but did I looooooot of Googling, Facebooking, YouTubing, friend asking and compiled everything I learned here: THE PUMP & PARTS
THE PROCESS
WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT MILK
STORING & THAWING
Whew! That was a lot but I still feel like I'm missing 30 more bullet points. See anything I missed? JAMMING WHILE POSTING Breastfeeding/pumping, even the tiniest time I did it, was hands down the hardest thing I have done in my life. I knew having a baby was going to be hard, that I would sleep zero, that my body would change, that my life would never be the same. I was NOT prepared for how hard breastfeeding was. Before Rhodes was born I went to breastfeeding class, spoke to consultants, friends, etc and really felt like I was going to kick breastfeeding's ass. But I also was always of the mindset that if it didn't work for me then that was ok too and I set a personal goal of getting her to at least 3 months. The first few days before my milk came in, it was really hard to get Rhodes to nurse. She had a little bitty mouth and a small tongue tie so she didn't have a great latch. We tried everything; nipple shields, popping her on when she was yawning or crying, manually opening her mouth, football hold, cradle hold, she just didn't really want to nurse. Once she did get on there I didn't dare move her and she would stay on for a hour it felt like. The day before we left the hospital, the lactation consultants came in and let us know she was not only jaundice but she had lost too much weight and would need to be supplemented with formula. I lost my shit. Like crocodile tears, I felt like my first real job as a mom and I failed her. But the consultants calmed me down and said this was normal and she'd eventually get the hang of it and it would get easier. Liars. When we got home, the first night was a complete shock to my system. We were 4 days post birth and my milk still wasn't in so I was still trying to get her to latch, still supplementing, not sleeping, and then on the recommendation of the consultants (that I called every day, twice a day), I began pumping to get my milk to come in and boy did it. I was pumping every 3 hours (midnight, 3am, 6am, 9am, noon, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm) for 45-55 min. I would do a power hour pump (10 min on, 10 min off, 10 min on) every day at 6pm. Between pumps I would also work with Rhodes on latching and she finally got it, but only liked it if I was super full which hurt my pump yield. So in the first 2 weeks I was pumping, nursing, & bottle feeding and I. Was. A. Mess. Eventually, Rhodes let me know she was just over nursing and was fine taking milk from a bottle so she got breast milk from a bottle during the day and we still supplemented with formula at night. I never thought I would catch up to start building a stash, I was asking friends, googling how people pumped, joined like 700 Facebook groups. At first what worked for me was to take the day pumps, fill her upcoming bottles, keeping at least 8 feeds in the fridge and the night pumps I would freeze. Then eventually I got ahead so I would pump and dump all the milk from the day in a huge container, that night I would fill 6 bottles for the next day and freeze the left over. I was super proud I was able to feed her and freeze some but don't get me wrong, I was exhausted and in pain. About week 4, my mom was in town, and she looked at me and said "you don't seem like you're enjoying this at all." And she was right. I was mad that my baby wouldn't latch so every time she ate, someone else got to feed her because I was pumping. I was mad that my boobs were huge. I was mad that my body turned on me and I got mastitis in my left breast. At 4 weeks, when I had frozen close to 600 oz., I decided to stop pumping. I'll do another post about drying up my milk...trust me, it needs it's own. I then started working through our frozen stash, portioning out ounces for her next days bottles. We were still supplementing with formula and that was totally ok with me because I knew she was still getting breastmilk too. I ran out of my stash on June 1 and Rhodes turned 3 months 7 days later, so I was really close to my minimum goal. Her daddy normally feeds her in the morning but that day I knew her am bottle was the last breastmilk one so I fed her. I was a little sad knowing she was done but she did me proud and didn't leave a drop. Her first day of all formula, guess what, she loved it. She was still the happy, adorable baby she was when she also had breastmilk. Maybe even more so since it lasted longer in her tummy. Girl loves to eat and I love her for that. In the end, I'm a firm believer in "fed is best." Yes I'm glad Rhodes got breastmilk but I not once, for a second, get down or sad that she didn't get it for longer. JAMMING WHILE POSTING Rhodes is a month old today so I thought I'd share my (super uneventful) birth story.
I mentioned here that we had a scheduled csection and let me tell you something...it. was. glorious. My section was the first of the day on March 8th, planned for 7:00 a.m. Scott and I got up at 4:00 a.m. to get to the hospital at 5:30 where I was taken back and prepped. I was so nervous but our nurses were so great it helped calm me down. Dr. Cook came in to give a little pep talk. I made him confirm he was coffeed up and ready. Then the anesthesiologist came in and I swear he was 15 years old, but as long as he had the drugs and knew what to do, we were going to be friends. He was awesome. He went step by step through what he was going to do and how I would feel. It was just what I needed. 6:50 rolled around and I was rolled back. Scott had on some paper scrubs he was terrified he would slip in but looked the part of a new dad. He waited outside the operating room while they gave me my spinal. Do you know how hard it is to hunch over and not move when you have a watermelon in your stomach? The nurse helped me hunch on over, I felt a small prick of the numbing meds then the doc hit me with the spinal. Within seconds my legs started to go numb and the anesthesiologist started poking me to make sure it was working. Then, I was a numb noodle. Dr. Cook came in, followed by Scott. Scott sat at my head and Dr. Cook started poking me asking if I felt what he was doing. I don't know if it was in my head or nerves but I swore I did so I told him that. He told me that if I really felt it I would be punching him in the face, so we knew he was good to go. I was strapped down and trying to breath slowly when I looked up and saw that my stomach was reflecting off the surgical lights to which I said "ummmm I can see everything you are doing so imma need you to move that light." They did. Scott stayed down by me, talking to me about our trip to Colorado to take my mind off what was happening to me. I think he was secretly doing it for himself too. With a tug tug there and one HUGE push on my stomach. I heard the sweetest cry ever. Dr. Cook said "Dad, do you want to tell everyone what it is?" Scott replied with "if I have to look over the curtain, you can go ahead and do it." Dr. Cook "it's a GIRL!" I was in tears and said "It's a girl, I knew it was a girl." They popped her around the curtain to show her to me then toweled her off so Scott could go show her off to the family while I was being stitched up. The rest is kind of a blur. I know they rolled me into recovery where Scott and new baby, Rhodes, were waiting. I know I got to do skin to skin with her which was the most precious time. I know I then went back to the room we started in where my mom got to come in and hold her, I got some demerol for the pain then we eventually made it to our postpartum room where everyone got to visit. It was hands down the best day of my life. Rhodes Pearl Wilson March 8, 2018 8 pounds 5 oz 21 inches Today (38w 5d) we went in for (what we found out would be) our last ultrasound. Since I am almost considered advanced maternal age and my glucose was high, we've been going every week to check the baby's size, movement etc. We also went in thinking I would be induced next Monday... I hopped on the table and the tech started the test. She always checks the heart first and that looked great then she measured the head...41 weeks. I said "Iiiiii'm sorry, did that say it's head is measuring 41 weeks?" She said "um yeah, I guess I shouldn't have let you see that." After checking all the baby's other vitals (everything looked good) she estimated the weight to be around 9 lbs. So I have a 9 lb baby with a 41 week head?! Scott and I went upstairs to talk to Dr. Cook. He checks me, I'm 0% dilated. ZERO PERCENT at almost 39 weeks. So we talk about delivery options. He said we could continue as planned, being induced on Monday or given the baby's head size and predicted weight, could schedule a csection. My biggest fear is being induced, being in labor for 8 hours then having a csection anyways and given I was 0% dilated Dr. Cook said that was a very high possibility. So, Scott and I deliberated for a pretty long time but ended up deciding to schedule a csection for Thursday. After making the decision Dr. Cook said he thinks we made the right one. As long as we've waited for the baby and as much (emotionally and financially) as we have invested putting as little stress as possible on the baby would put everyone at ease. So here we go. We're having a baby on March 8th! JAMMING WHILE POSTING Admittedly, I've had a pretty uneventful pregnancy and I give 98% of the credit to Big Man above for graciously allowing that. The other 2% I give to a few precious things you'll have to pry from my cold dead fingers if you wanted them over the next 9 weeks (or baby #2. I can see Scott's eyes rolling now, "let us get the first one out and see if we even like it, Dana!"). Without further adieu, my list of items that have kept this big mama sane.
Few more things: sugar free jello (because your glucose test came back high and you still want sweets), fiber pills (just do it), Preparation H (trust me), epsom salt for your bath, Bio Oil (I still have 9 weeks to go but so far we're stretch mark free), and a pair of flat shoes that you can adjust for your monstrous feet. I'll conclude by (cheesily) saying that something that should be on this list but won't, because he's mine, is my husband. Scott has been the number one thing that's made this whole process bearable. I won't bore you with all the things he does but he's my number one, and you can't get that on Amazon. JAMMING WHILE POSTING No, I don't have it. But I definitely didn't pass my glucose test with flying colors. At my last appointment Dr. Cook gave me the glucose drink and instructions for my next appointment and impending glucose test. It sat in my fridge for 4 weeks just staring at me, judging everything I pulled out of the fridge to eat. I could hear it's little "tisks" during every bite. This Wednesday I sat like 30 alarms knowing I had to start drinking the lemon lime, flat sprite tasting concoction at 7:45 a.m. and finish within 5 min. At 7:45 on the dot I poured it over ice in a Tervis, threw in a straw, set an alarm for 5 min and went to town. I've never been more proud to put my beer chugging skills to use. I finished in 1 min, 15 seconds. Appointment followed normal procedure except when I got to proudly exclaim "7:46:15 am" when they asked me when I finished my drink. Dr. Cook came in the room and said "we look for 2 things during a glucose test" (I forgot what the first thing was but I was good there) "and a score of 140. You, we're at 150." <insert glares from Scott across the room.> He said he rarely makes 150s come in to complete the 3 hour test but I could if I wanted OR I could give up sweets for the duration of cooking this buddy. I opted to give up sweets and we'll monitor Beefy to make sure she/he isn't getting too big. In my defense all I have craved is sweet things. I literally told Scott at week 8 "I'm going to fail my glucose test." I was just proving a point. I dumb point. I also mentioned to Dr. Cook that my heart rate has been abnormally high (like resting 120) and I can feel it beating pretty much all day. He said it was definitely normal to see an increase during pregnancy but given my history (I had to have a few EKGs in High School) that he was sending me to a cardiologist juuuuust to be safe. So we have that appointment early January. JAMMING WHILE POSTING We have them all! Today's anatomy scan went really well. Baby is weighing a little under a pound and is actually starting to look like a human instead of a tadpole. First thing Scoots and I simultaneously said (or shouted) when we got in the room "we don't want to know the sex!" The tech laughed and said she would make sure she keeps it a secret. And she did, making us turn our heads when she got to the legs but I'm calling it now....it's a girl. I'm so sure of it. The tech gave us a tiny scare when she had to search a bit for baby's kidneys but she found them. After the ultrasound we regrouped with Dr. Cook. He came in, sat down, and said "well, the head looks good <pause>, heart looks good <pause>, the placenta is good <long pause>." Scott and I just stared at each other like "WHAT'S NOT GOOD THEN!?!" Then Dr. Cook says "yeah, everything looks great." LEAD WITH THAT DOC, always lead with the good news. The baby is lying horizontally, side to side, in my tummy but at 19 weeks he wasn't worried about it not moving. So we're a happy little heathy squirt and moving so much! Last night was the first night I felt the baby move. I yelled at Scott but of course he couldn't feel yet but it was the coolest thing ever. JAMMING WHILE POSTING |
AUTHORBorn in Alabama, raised in Louisiana, grew roots in Mississippi.
TTC 3+yrs | 👫 35 | PCOS warrior| IVF 1 w PGS BFN, no ❄️left | IVF 2 w PGS BFN, no ❄️left | IVF 3 no embryos made it to transfer | IVF 4 w PGS 5 normal ❄️| BFP July '17 |Daughter born March '18. | Second daughter born via IVF April '20
July 2020
|