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"There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world." -Mimi

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Words of Wisdom from my Grandma Mimi who lived to be 100 years young.  Love her and miss her dearly but learned so much from her.  The secret to living a long life....love and happiness!

"If you can learn to laugh- in spite of the circumstances that surround you- you will enrich others, enrich yourself, and more than that you will last."

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MMmmmmm

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Hunger Cues - Crying is not a sign of hunger in newborns

In a world where we live and thrive on schedules, it can be stressful for breastfeeding moms and babies.  Many are used to the notion that babies are only hungry every 2 hours and aren’t sure what hunger cues to look for. So when their baby starts crying and screaming in hunger (maybe even less than 2 hours since their last nursing session) this can easily drive a new mother nuts.  

First, let me say this, CRYING IS NOT A SIGN OF HUNGER!  Crying is a sign of absolute frustration and as my teacher at UCSD put it, a state of disorganization.  Crying is the result of baby’s hunger cues being missed…and to put it blank, they’re pissed.  The signs you want to look out for, before they start crying are:

-Increased alertness

-Licking and Looking

-Putting their hands in they’re mouth

If it gets to the point where you have missed the hunger cues (we’re all human), do NOT try to put them at breast when they are crying and disorganized.  Pick them up, rock them, swaddle them, do what you need to do to calm them down….THEN put them at breast once they’ve calmed.  

A typical newborn schedule will look like this:

-Quiet sleep - eyes closed, face relaxed

-Active sleep - Eyes closed but may flutter from closed to open, makes faces, chewing movements, etc.  This can occure about 30 minutes

-Quiet alert state - Baby is now awake, fun to play with.  Eyes wide open, paying attention.

-Active alert state - Baby’s movements are frequent.  They are very alert and may put their hands in their mouth, start licking their lips, etc. THIS would be the time to start offering the breast.

-Crying/disorganization - This will happen if their hunger cues were missed. Try to calm them down, swaddle them, rock them, sing to them and get them organized and calm before offering the breast.

-Drowsiness period - I like to refer to this as “milk drunk”.  They are calm, might make smiling expressions, and are completely relaxed.  Hey, aren’t you after a good meal!?!

References: My information came from my CLEC course at UCSD taught by Gini Baker.  You can find out more information on her class here: http://extension.ucsd.edu/studyarea/index.cfm?vCourse=RMED-40006

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Dear Eve, Thank you!

I do not consider myself a "religious" person, more so a spiritual person.  However, being raised Catholic I was taught that the pain associated with childbirth was a result of God's punishment towards womankind for Eve's sin of picking from the tree of knowledge.  This information, along with the way our society looks at birth, scared the crap out of me.  I was literally scared to death of having children.  So, with my first, I went with drugs.  There was no way I was going to deal with the horror of birth.  While drugs can be great for some, for me it was a living nightmare.  My body did not react well to the drugs, I struggled with connecting to my newborn, and in turn had a bought of depression that followed.

With my second, I decided to do things differently.  I did my own reading (one of my very favorite reads is Ina May's Guide to Childbirth), found a doctor who was supportive of my decisions, and prepared myself for natural birth.  Long story short, I was successful in my mission for a natural birth and that experience was the most spiritual experience in my life.  I have never felt closer to God than I did in those moments, it was amazing.  

Years later, I still think about this moment all the time.  In those years, I have developed a huge interest in birth and breastfeeding.  I even took a course at UCSD and attained my Certificate as a Certified Lactation Educator Counselor.  One of the ways my teacher explained the anatomy of the breast was with broccoli.  This sounds silly but the inside of our breasts, the alveoli and milk ducts, look like the head of broccoli and the trunk represents the nipple.  While taking this class, I saw the anatomy of breasts everywhere in nature....trees, cruciferous vegetables, my rose bush, etc.  Below I have a visual of the placenta, breast, and a tree. 

You see, as mothers, we represent the "roots" of mankind.  We give life, we nuture, just as a tree does to her fruit.  When pregnant, everything we put into our bodies goes into the placenta and in turn into our unborn child.  When that child is born, everything we put into our bodies goes into our milk ducts and into our child.  Our children (our fruits) contain more seeds of life (eggs, sperm) so that the cycle may continue.  

Bringing this back to religion and spirituality, I now have a whole new respect for Eve.  Thank you for having the fearless courage of picking from the tree of knowledge.  God was testing you, and in my opinion you passed the test.  

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My New Years resolution. More pink, more laughing, more kissing, love love love and savor every moment. ❤❤❤💕💕. It's gonna be a great year!

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Alcohol and Breastfeeding

I wanted to share Dr. Jack Newman's current post on having a few alcoholic beverages on New Years and Breastfeeding:

Since tomorrow is New Year's eve, many of you may want to have a couple of alcoholic drinks. You do not have to "pump and dump" (a terrible expression) afterwards and you don't have to wait a certain time after your more recent drink in order to restart breastfeeding. The amount of alcohol that gets into the milk is tiny and will not hurt the baby.  Think of it this way, in most jurisdictions, you are too impaired to drive if you have 0.05% alcohol in your blood. Alcohol appears in the milk in the same concentration as in the milk. Thus if you have 0.05% alcohol in your blood you will have 0.05% alcohol in your milk and as it decreases in your blood, it will decrease in your milk. Even de-alcoholized beer sold in my local store has 0.6% alcohol, more than 10x more than the breastmilk will contain if it contains 0.05% alcohol.

No need to "pump and dump"....don't put yourself through the torture!  Happy New Years Mama's!

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Madonna Che allatta il bambino. #merrychristmas #breastfeeding #breastfeedingart #babyjesus

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"At its heartwarming core, Christmas is the story of a tender relationship between a new mother and her newborn child. Yet all the familiar images associated with the holy family are missing one obvious element: a breast-feeding infant. "

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

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Love your children and your family, it's that simple.

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Another "Sh*t Crunchy mama's say" video.  Love these!

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Difference of ingredients for breastmilk and formula.  Source found here

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Breastfeeding and Preparing to Go Back to Work

Breastfeeding and working full time is definitely do able.  Here is a handy checklist I've put together to prepare you and your baby for the transition:

-  Call your employer and schedule to go back mid week when it is less hectic

-  Talk to your employer and let them know you are planning to pump at work and figure out where and when you will do this. (Legally in CA they must provide a private place, other than a bathroom, for you to pump)

-  Start looking into childcare ASAP. 

-  Start baby on 1 bottle of EBM per day at 3 – 6 weeks old.  DO NOT wait longer than 6 weeks to start him on a bottle or they may refuse to take it. 

-  Make and freeze some meals for dinners

-  Pump once a day to start your freezer stash, you do not need to pump more than once a day before going back to work, don’t make yourself crazy over it.

-  Prepare a list of emergency contacts for your childcare provider

Please note, it is also important to ensure you have a good breastpump.  The pumps I recommend for going back to work are the Medela Pump in Style, the Ameda Purely Yours (the one I personally used), or the Hygeia Enjoye.

A great online resource for mothers going back to work is www.workandpump.com.  

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Why do mom's lick their babies?

Ever see a cat licking her new kittens?  Or a dog licking her new puppies?  Or a new human mom giving her baby sweet kisses, snuggles and the oh so sweet smell of their baby's head?  Well, there is a biological reason why we do this, and you can read all about it here .  

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Color of the Breastfed baby's poop, does it matter?

According to Dr. Jack Newman, No.  Here is a recent facebook post on the matter:

I was just asked by email to post about green bowel movements (stools, poops). My usual response to mothers is along following the following lines: "Is the baby usually content? Is the baby drinking well from the breast (see the videos at our website that show babies drinking well from the breast or not)? Is the baby gaining weight well? If the answer to all these questions is "yes" then don't worry about the colour of the poops, don't go on any special diets, don't feed the baby on just one breast at a feeding. Feed the baby normally, that is "Finish one side and offer the second side". If the baby doesn't want the second breast, fine. But offer it. Do not do "block feeding"." Note that keeping the baby on just one breast is not the answer. If the baby is not actually drinking at the breast, he is not getting hindmilk. I wish we had never heard of hindmilk. True, milk increases in fat as the baby continues to get milk from the breast (but not if he's sucking without drinking). Usually the notion of hindmilk causes confusion and results in mothers getting advice that doesn't make sense. I am often tempted to say also, "put on sunglasses, so you don't see the colour of the bowel movements", but I don't. If the baby is not usually content, if the baby is not drinking well, if the baby is not gaining weight well, then the problem is not the colour of the bowel movements. What causes the bowel movements to be green? Rapid transit through the baby's gut. That's all!

By the way, if you don't follow Dr. Newman on facebook, do it!  He's like a breastfeeding guru.  Here is a link to his FB "like" page:

https://www.facebook.com/DrJackNewman