Archive for the ‘Breastfeeding’ Category
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5
Jun
2011
Newborn baby fug review – iBaby feed
Not me
No, I’m not actually writing a review of my new baby. Although if I was, it would be quite glowing at this point. Apart from her propensity to cause scream-out-loud-pain to my left nipple. (Sorry, that noise you heard? That was the sound of our twenty male readers rushing out the door – yes, you may run, but you can’t hide from the screams you can probably hear from West London).
So I’m pretty much head over nappy in the 10 day old new-born fug. Forgive me please if I cannot wax lyrical this week on the situation in Syria as I might usually do on these hallowed pink pages. And I fear my cutting edge wit has deserted me a little in a haze of washing little white bodysuits, sleeping bolt upright with iPhone in hand, lying on the couch eating reverse double choc chip cookies (how I loathe you so, your sweet sweet reverse white choc chip evilness) oh, and managing aforementioned nipple pain (keep on walkin’ guys).
3
Oct
2010
Mind the Bump – why you MUST avoid overalls in pregnancy and other essential maternity clothes tips
THE STORY OF THE POST
you need some maternity clothes. Seriously, a leaf is not going to cut it.
This is a long post with zero interest to anyone bar the newly pregnant. But I enjoy shopping, and embrace every new opportunity to shop, so my two pregnancies gave me a WHOLE new genre to investigate. The joy. So it’s long. But I figure if you’re first time pregnant you’ll be interested. And if you’re not, you won’t read any of it, so I can whittle on for pages without shame and if you’re really just interested in looking at things for yourself without my helpful hints (rude), skip to the bottom for a list of good maternity clothes stockists.
Top Tip which I give you after several years and a couple of dollars spent – bear this in mind: you won’t need true maternity clothes until at least four or five months in. Possibly later depending on whether you are one of those annoying people who wears their own jeans until about 8 months in. Possibly a bit earlier if you are onto your third child and carrying a 10lb heifer in your stomach. Either way, although I fully appreciate the desire to embrace this whole new category, it is NOT for a whole nine month period, you do NOT need an entire new wardrobe. That being said though, you wouldn’t want to ignore all the lovely possibilities out there…..
20
Jun
2010
Recovering from the ‘other kind’ of birth
It does not take this many openings - I swear.
I am a small-time c-section veteran, having got two babies up and out ‘through the sun roof’. Not on my own you understand – there were a few doctors and nurses, but basically I am tough and brave. As an obsessive planner, the second time round when I knew I was having another one, I did some serious research. I also bought a lot of unnecessary gear and freaked out a lot. Even if you’re planning the most natural of natural births, stuff happens sometimes and it always pays to freak out in advance. Oh wait – is that right? Anyway, based on absolutely no medical experience whatsoever (although I have watched a LOT of Gray’s Anatomy which is pretty much the same thing), here are my personal top tips for recovering from a c-section:
17
May
2010
Gina Ford – the case FOR.
Do not set one of those up in your back garden to burn books. This would be weird.
Oh my god, my pulse is racing, my heart is beating faster and I can hear Jacqui yelling from Madrid. It’s that time. Time for the post I have been thinking about since we started the blog. The Dame Gina Ford post.
If you’ve had a child in the past ten odd years in the UK or Australia, you’d have to be a bit lacking in eyes and/or ears to have missed one of her books on the parenting bookshelves, seen referenece to her methods on the internet or heard mention of her routines from other parents. The most popular book is The Very Contented Baby, but there are various follow-ups including The Contented Baby with Toddler.
At the outset, I need to divulge something that might already be obvious – I love Gina. There, I’ve said it. It’s out there. Let the stabbings commence and the bags full of poo start arriving on our doorstep, but it is true – her methods have worked like an incredible charm for our family and Gina (or The Big G (TBG) as we prefer to call her) rules the child routine roost around at our pad.
3
May
2010
By popular demand – THE BABY LIST. Essentials and almost essentials to buy.
This is like a picture of me at the dentist. I know - bad hair day.
Ages ago I wrote a post about baby things I had bought that I had wasted money on. I made a rash promise to post my spreadsheet of things that you SHOULD buy. Four months later I am coming good with my promise. I know. I’m reliable like that. You should hear my promises to my dentist – they are nothing short of inspiring and involve trips to hygienists, dental floss and 45 degree brushing angles.
Anyway, I digress. I know that interesting dentistry anecdotes is a post in itself but baby stuff I promised and baby stuff you shall have. There are many many things to buy when you are having a baby. And many many shops and online stores from which to buy these essentials. I say essentials. In actual fact, apart from a cot, a pram and some clothes, you’d be hard pressed to say anything was truly essential. But we are what we are. Well, actually, I am what I am. You may well be a far more worthy and green type person who buys the minimum, recycles stuff, freecycles it back into the community and is generally a better, kinder and more annoying person than me. If you are, can I suggest you stop reading? I think you will not enjoy my list of essentials.
22
Jan
2010
Giving up breastfeeding, filling void with guilt and a fruitless search for answers
I gave up breastfeeding this week and, unexpectantly, I have been feeling kind of awful and weird about it. It seemed so counter-intuitive and wrong. Also, I’m not sure whether this is medically correct but I’m pretty sure there were some hormone changes as a result of the end to milk production, and hormone changes generally don’t go well. According to the fabulous Robin Barker (if you haven’t noticed, I’m a fan), feelings of sadness and depression when giving up breastfeeding are normal. She says go ahead and have a good cry. Well thanks Robin. I DID. More than once. Yay for me. And you. High Five.
Breastfeeding, natural and earthy. Does it look the same when the child can walk?
Where was I? Oh yes, GUILT. In my defence, stopping as I have at six and a half months, in Spain I seem to be very much in the minority having breastfed beyond three months. The nurse at my paediatricians office actually scoffed at me (one might even have called it a snort) when I inquired as to the benefits of continuing beyond six months, impatiently advising that the infant would receive all its dietary needs with formula and food once solids were introduced. My paediatrician diplomatically neither recommended nor advised against stopping at six months, instead asking whether I’d like to give up breastfeeding at six months, and when I gave a doubtful yes, then let me know that was absolutely fine and she would do the same. I took this as a recommendation but now that I look back I’m not so sure it was.
18
Jan
2010
The first-time parent newborn experience (with Breastfeeding in starring role)
Well, well, didn’t Kate’s newborn experience sound nice what with all the sleeping through, high fiving and apparently oodles of downtime it’s given her. I’m pretty sure there were butterflies fluttering over the flowers on her windowsill and birds chirping from the water spout as she wrote that post from her writing desk overlooking a Provence garden. Good grief woman. Have you no mercy for the less fortunate?
Lots of down time? Really? Don’t worry readers who were wondering what happened to their daytime TV viewing opportunities. And heads up those who think they’re in for a cruisey time. Because the force may be strong with Yoda (aka Kate) but it’s not easy to use the force from the get go – that is, from the moment your first little bundle of joy enters this world.
Let me talk you through a typical day with a newborn, one made up of a seemingly never ending cycle of feeding, crying and not all that much sleeping.
Newborn sleeping: if you move your finger the baby WILL wake up
photo credit: Jon Ovington
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10
Jan
2010
Things I forgot about having a newborn – part two
This is me.
For those of you who didn’t read my earlier brilliant analysis – here is a link. I almost forgot to write a second part. Yes, I do see the irony in that. (Is that actually irony? In amongst the whole Alanis Morisette irony debacle I think I actually forgot the real meaning). Anyhoo, I’m four months in now and still my brain is remembering things that I had forgotten. Call it baby brain, call it Mother Nature’s insidious way of getting you to have another one, call it my memory was never that good to start with. Whatever, here are some more…
1. If you are a freakish nerd trying to get your beloved child into a routine, they are extremely difficult to keep awake for soooooo long. And then suddenly one day you realise you haven’t had to walk them outside all day and they’ve been playing on their mat happily for half an hour without passing out arms up and legs akimbo. It’s about this stage you can start to really get into day time telly. Just don’t get sprung by your husband watching it with a bag of crisps on the couch and the baby on their playmat in the corner. What? No, didn’t happen to me. I hate TV. And crisps. Mmmmmmcrisps.
15
Oct
2009
iBaby
The Total Baby iphone application
With The Spaniard (my husband) already well known amongst friends as a huge Mac fan and general tech geek, when he bought me an iphone and installed an application for recording everything about the baby, friends and family declared that we were going to have an iBaby, with its life run through one mac tool or another. It’s true that iweb, iphoto, itunes and the iphone feature prominently in his life, but even those who are only mac’ed up as far as an iphone, I think will find this application very useful and practical. It makes life easier, and that, after all, is what technology is supposed to be all about.
The application we’re using is Total Baby by Andesigned. There are other similar applications and probably some are just as good but this is the first we tried and as we liked it, we’ve stuck with it.
1
Jul
2009
Lactation cookies – possibly a crock, but a tasty crock
So it’s really hot here in England at the moment (yes, I know, I am as shocked as everyone else and trying to avoid being a stereotype by whinging about it incessantly but it’s hard not to when someone has their vile armpit up against your sensitive 7 month pregnant nose on a packed tube). ANYWAY, several new mums I know are having milk supply issues. When I was feeding last time someone sent me a recipe for lactation cookies. I think it was an Aussie recipe, but having googled it now, who would know in this big wide web world where it came from – they all look like a similar recipe.
I have no idea whether it has any medical basis, although I do know that drinking beer (and thus yeast) is a longstanding old trick for milk supply. The thought of sculling beer every night is personally far more appealing to me, but alcohol bad for baby except wine or expensive champagne consumed after last feed of day blah blah blah. ANYWAY – I made them and there were surprisingly good, and did seem to help. Could well have been in my mind, but anything that involves chocolate chip and has potential medicinal benefits and is thus justifiable AND tasty is tops in my book. Here is the recipe:
