My Nursing Story.....

This is my breastfeeding story, it might be tmi for some people so read at your own risk :)
I feel like getting the emotions I am feeling out in writing will help me process everything going on a lot better. I hope this can be of encouragement and or help others who might be having a hard time nursing or weaning their little ones. I will start out at the beginning.
My little guy was born 5 weeks early weighing in at 6lb. 12oz. by the time he came home he weighed 6lb 7oz. We were only allowed per the pediatrician to nurse for 5 minutes once a day for the first couple of weeks....... Which meant a lot more work for me. Once we left the hospital he was on 100% breastmilk. So I had to pump for atleast 15 minutes every 2-3 hours around the clock in order to keep up with the demand. I dealt with A LOT of pain during these weeks, since the pump is not nearly as effective at emptying you as your baby is. We're talking lots clogged ducts and ice packs! finally a few weeks into this I was able to try to nurse him up to 15 minutes twice a day, I think he was over a month old before I got the go ahead to nurse him as much as he wanted. This was our schedule; attempt to nurse for 5-10 minutes (however long it took him to get frustrated) feed him a bottle, and then pump for 15 minutes. By the time this whole process was over an hour had passed. And he would be hungry again in 2 hours, this made for a rought couple of weeks. We also had to deal with the nipple sheild that the nurses had gotten us to use in the hospital....... It was like relearning how to nurse for him without that dumb thing on. By the time we were doing great, nursing pros he was probably 4 months old and then we started on solid foods also.
My supply because of all of this was never really what I would have liked it to be, and therefore I was unable to keep up with demand and we started to supplement a bit of formula.
I was able to quit my job last month and be a stay at home mommy since then I have been able to nurse most of the time and my little guy has had 6oz. or less of formula a day. Which I am quite proud of when I look back at the first couple of weeks and remember thinking we would never get this far!
Oh and we also found out he has a milk allergy around 1 month old so for the last 7 months I have not been able to eat the slightest amount of dairy. We're not just talking milk and cheese here, dairy is in everything, tons of canned soup you would think would be fine, nope contains milk. Just take a look at the ingreient lists of the things you eat daily, it doesn't leave many choices!
In the last few weeks he has been so interested in what is going on around him that it's so hard to stay focused on nursing which was getting frustrating for the both of us.
Also he hadn't been sleeping through the night for about 3 weeks now, waking up a couple of times in the night hungry. Then my hubby said he was giving him a bottle of formula before bed and that was that. He slept 10 hours straight! Finally it clicked why I had been feeling like I was constantly nursing, and he wasn't sleeping enough..... I wasn't producing enough to keep him full.
All of these circumstances have gotten me to the decision made today.
We are going to stop breastfeeding. While I will be happy for many reasons; I can eat dairy again, I can finally put the pump away, I can eat spicy foods, I do not have to deal with the pain anymore, my little man will be fully satisfied and sleeping through the night.
I feel it is one of the toughest decisions I have had to make. I feel as though I am a failure to my son, a lot of people are forced to stop nursing, while I am making this decision on my own. I don't want to be selfish but it's so hard to eat and cook for my husband when I cannot eat anything with dairy in it and he doesn't eat a single fruit or vegetable. I have read sooo many books and magazine articles on the benefits to nursing your child through the first year, and he is only 8 months old. There is this nagging guilt in the back of my mind, and now that I have made this decision there will be no turning back, I do not want to regret my decison!
This has been an emotional rollercoaster for me. I'm sure I'm not the first one to feel all these emotions.
I feel like I am letting him down, but at the same time like I'm making the best decision for the both of us.
I know this is only a short period in our lives and these feelings will pass ( I hope).

The Shark!

My next step in greening up my home was to use alternative methods to clean and sanitize our home since I threw out all the yucky "cleaners".

I have had my Shark Steam Pocket Mop for almost a year now, and I am loving it!
First my dislikes though; You have to pump the handle to get the steam to come out, this is natural while you are mopping but it does make it a little harder on your back.... hmmm I think thats really my only gripe.
I love it because; 1.You clean with plain old water nothing else. The steam santizes and cleans in one step! 2. It takes up no more space than my swiffer wet jet did. 3. While the initial cost is a bit more (about $120) you don't have to continue to buy refills of the cleaning solution as with the wet jet. 4. It comes with an attatchment that allows you to sanitize and deodorize your carpets too!
Helps me feel better about having my little guy crawling around on the floors!!!!


Just the other day I purchased the Shark Steam Portable cleaner. And I have never had more fun cleaning my house!
Actually the reason I bought it was because I have to remove wallpaper and the wallpaper steamer I had access to didn't fit in the tight spaces I needed it to. (seemed like a good enough excuse to go buy the steam cleaner I had been wanting ;)

This will run you about $100. But the possibilities are endless :)
So far I have obviously used it to remove the wallpaper, while it isn't necesarilly intended for this purpose it does a good job. I have also cleaned my stove of caked on food spillage. ( I did not have to use the self clean and stink/warm up my house for hours!)
I have cleaned my bathroom tub and the fronts of the dishwasher, microwave, and stove.
The one I purchased came with a few extra attatchments, I found it at Bed Bath and Beyond and used my 20% off coupon. :)
well my teething babe has woken up so in short both products are worth the money!!!

Follow my path to a greener home! Challenge One

I am reading an awesome book it's called Living Fresh by Sara Snow. It is very motivating and also put into terms you can understand.... It gives you quick and easy ways to make a difference in your family's life and also the enviroment.

(see also earlier posts on my cloth diapering experience!)

The first step I took was to go through all my cleaning supplies and attempt to get rid of anything with harsh chemicals or fragrance.
(fragrance listed under the ingredients in anything is a catch all word for a mixture of chemicals, they do not have to name each one in there!)

This included all air fresheners, air "sanitizers", glade plug-ins etc. The book tells you different ways to freshen your home using essential oils or citrus steaming on the stove.

I found a great company called BabyGanics they make products completely safe for baby and the enviroment. So far I have boughten the toy and highchair cleaner and the multi-purpose cleaner which smells like lavendar!! Love it!

I am having a hard time getting rid of my clorox wipes, they are my security blanket when I am wiping up raw meat juice from the countertop or if someone was in our house and was nice enough to bring germs with them ;) For now they stay and I will use them only if I feel it's needed. We can't change overnight right?

It's amazing all the uses for simple things like vinegar and baking soda that you will find in this book!

Greening up your cleaning and the air in your home is great in so many ways but it also saves you a lot of money, I mean really a box of baking soda and a jug of distilled vinegar?

Look for my next post where I will be reviewing the Shark Steam Mop and the Shark Steam Pocket Cleaner.

Sophie

I bought my little man a toy a couple weeks ago that I had been wanting for quite awhile. It's called Sophie the Giraffe. It's a teether toy, that honestly looks like a dog toy. It even squeaks like a dog toy lol. Anyways it is made with all natural rubber, and food grade paint. so it's perfectly safe for baby to knaw on! I am working hard to surround my baby with all natural products, food ect. Read up on plastics some day and all the harmful things found in most of them! Hopefully you already know that you want to stay with BPA free toys, bottles, cups ect. Plastics labeled #2, #4, and #5 are generally safe to stick with.

So back to sophie, I found her on ebay, and she is perfect for baby to handle and he loves to chew on her ears, and legs.. All in all totally worth the money spent!

just a thought on medela pumps

It took me about a month to figure this out, but maybe it was obvious to others? My Medela pump came with .5 and 2.5 ounce containers, but I was needing bigger containers, so I went to babies r us and bought the 5 ounce containers (which weren't cheap). Then I realized that all bottles are essentially the same size (not wide mouth bottles) the cheap gerber 5 ounce bottles work great with the pump, and the medela lids fit just great on the bottles. It made life a lot easier once I realized this..... Seems obvious now, but at the time everything is such a blur who knows whats going on in new mommy brain! :)