So I haven't posted in a while. This is because last Wednesday, I went back to work. That right, my maternity leave is over. The week before I went back I brought my baby to the babysitter to see that he'd take a bottle. He took it nicely. On Wed., he refused. I didn't know what happened. My schedule is such that I can go to the babysitter in the middle of the day to nurse him if I need to. Thursday, again he refused the bottle. Now, I have a lot of hours and I was also given four hours a week that I have to fit into my schedule to sit with girls one on one to help them out. So, I was trying to work out how I was going to do that and to shuttle back and forth to the babysitter (who lives pretty close to the school). On Sunday, I called her to see if I should come or if he took the bottle. She told me to come because he was hungry and by the time I'd get there she'd see if he took the bottle or not. I got there and she had him in his car seat and he was gobbling up the bottle she was holding. We warmed more up and he ate it very nicely. I was so impressed. So he does know how to take a bottle. This makes my life a lot easier. Now I can stay in school and pump instead of shlepping to her and nurse (which take a lot longer than the electrip double sided pump). Thank goodness that I don't have too many classes. I do have a lot of hours though. It was also nice to start slowly. I taught Wed. and Thurs. which meant that I had two days to recuperate. Then I taught Sun. and Mon. and today is my day off. I come home very tired and needing to nurse but my son is usually happily asleep in his car seat. I try to "rest" or relax as much as possible once I get home but that doesn't really happen. It's nice to be back and to get back into the swing of things. I'm happy as long as my baby is happy and as long as I have time in the afternoon to be with the kids. I do wish I had more time to sleep though.
There is a new girl in school who came from Miami. Being the token English speaking teacher, I was asked to tutor her and help her out with some of the basics. I feel so bad for her. She's so lost. She has no clue what's going on. In Miami she studied in Beis Yaacov which means that she doesn't know Israeli Hebrew. It's going to be like starting from scratch. Luckily she also undertands Spanish and there are two Spanish speaking girls in her class. I hope this makes it a little easier on her. Yesterday she was crying. I think that everything was just overwhelming her and frustrating. I hope that she is able to get olim hours and a teacher to help her out so that she can start to make up lost time. It's not easy making aliya at that age. I always say that either people should come when their kids are really young (like gan age) or when their kids are all older (like college age). Anyway, let's hope this schoolyear is fruitful and that I am successful at teaching the students middot as well as English.
Showing posts with label nursing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nursing. Show all posts
Monday, January 19, 2009
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Nursing experiences
Mother in Israel posted about nursing and formula and I just couldn't keep my mouth shut about the topic. Here is my wonderful experience:
I gave birth to my son in N.Y. I was a new mother and didn't really have any friends who had just had kids. I got married young and way before all of my friends. I come from a family of two kids as does my hubby so our mothers didn't really have any practical and up to date advice to give. I knew that I wanted to nurse but although I read lots of stuff about it, I didn't really know what it entailed. I had a tremendously traumatic birth and recovery. Let's not get into that. My son wasn't even in my room with me. He was in the N.I.C.U. because he was breathing too quickly. I never got to hold him in the delivery room. I had to go to the N.I.C.U. every time I wanted to nurse. Never mind that I couldn't walk, it was far. I had to have someone wheel me in a wheelchair in order to nurse. In the hospital the lactation consultant came and gave me some good advice. She was very experienced and to this day I remember some of the things she told me. After I left the hospital my son stayed in the N.I.C.U. until he was 10 days old. I was pumping at home and every day we'd go to the hospital and place the milk in the fridge. I noticed that many times they weren't even looking for my milk because it was clearly labelled and nobody touched it. They automatically gave him the formula. I got really upset at the nurses every time it happened. I had a really hard time trying to get my son to latch on. I tried very hard but in the end, the only thing that worked was to put a bottle nipple over my own nipple and to nurse that way. He had gotten so used to the bottles in the hospital that he didn't want to nurse from me. I was very upset about this.
When we went home I decided that I couldn't continue like that. It was just too painful. I tried without the bottle nipple. We were really stubborn and both my mother and mother in law helped me and gave me the moral support that I needed. It took two months for us to get a good breastfeeding relationship down. In the end he nursed normally (without the bottle nipple). He loved nursing so much that when I went back to school, he didn't want to take a bottle. He was just 2.5 months at that point. It was funny how he changed so much-from the baby who didn't want anything other than a bottle to the nursing only from my mommy baby. I refused to give him formula. I refused to give him bottles when I didn't need to. That rocky start stayed etched in my mind. I pumped every day so he would have what to drink at the babysitter. We tried bottles and then sippy cups. Eventually he graduated to solids.
The funny thing is that he didn't have a high enough level of iron so we ended up having to give him formula so we could boost his iron. Cow's milk was causing the iron level to be low. I was still nursing but it wasn't doing enough for his iron. We would mix the formula for him in his cereal bowl and he'd have cornflakes with "milk".
With my daughter I set out from the beginning knowing I wouldn't make the same mistakes. I nursed her in the delivery room. I did rooming in -this birth was in Israel. She was with me all the time and there was nobody in the world who would give her a bottle. The lactation consultant at that hospital was even better. She enlightened me about so many things I didn't know before. She gave me the support and knowledge that I needed to nurse my daughter until age two. She never took a bottle. At 5 months I went back to work. She was already eating solids. She also learned how to drink from a cup with a straw. We had a spillproof cup and the babysitter loved that. She would drink the milk I pumped with the straw cup.
My newborn now also was nursed in the delivery room. Here I had a totally different experience. I gave birth erev Yom Kippur and the staff wasn't too lovely at the hospital. The babies were with us from 5 AM to 10 PM. Too bad if we wanted to rest. At night, when I'd go to feed my baby, I would hear tons of crying. It was terrible. Many of us didn't sleep because we refused to leave the babies with the nurses. I wrote that I didn't want any bottles and that I wanted to be woken up. Every time I tried to leave him at the nursery sleeping they'd refuse. They told me he cried too much and I should give him a bottle of formula. They told me he'd sleep longer and be happier and that I didn't have enough milk to give him since he was and is a very big boy. Well I remembered what lactation consultant number 2 told me. She told me that the first two or three days, until the milk comes in, you have culostrum (sp?) and that that's all the baby needs. Hashem provides the baby with exactly what he needs. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. This gave me such strength. I remembered what she had said and instead of arguing, I took my baby away from the nursery and stayed away from those nurses. All they wanted to do was feed everyone with formula and shut them up. It was horrible. I couldn't believe how many mothers were giving formula to their babies (as well as trying to nurse). There was one new mother there and she had no lactation consultant because it was YK. I tried to help her by my goodness. It's not my job. Why did the nurses keep ignoring her when she would ask for help?
I was very unimpressed with my past hospital stay. Thank goodness I know enough to not listen to those evil nurses. I feel very bad for all the new mothers who experienced that YK along with me.
My husband always says that all of the reasons for nursing are selfless (good for the baby) while all the reasons for formula are selfish (so you can go out, etc.) . I think people see how easy it is to shove a bottle in a baby's mouth so why do it the hard way. Why experience the pain of the first week of sore nipples? After doing so much nursing I can't imagine it any other way. I love nursing and wouldn't give it up for the world. That being said, I have a friend whose son wouldn't nurse-I don't know details. It's her sixth kid. He is 6 months old. She still pumps all day, although she also has to supplement. The kid refuses to nurse from her but will take her milk in a bottle. I think it's incredible that she does that. I have a very hard time relating to people who don't nurse or don't nurse for long periods of time. I just don't understand them or their point of view. Maybe one day their eyes will be open and they will see the beauty of nursing.
I gave birth to my son in N.Y. I was a new mother and didn't really have any friends who had just had kids. I got married young and way before all of my friends. I come from a family of two kids as does my hubby so our mothers didn't really have any practical and up to date advice to give. I knew that I wanted to nurse but although I read lots of stuff about it, I didn't really know what it entailed. I had a tremendously traumatic birth and recovery. Let's not get into that. My son wasn't even in my room with me. He was in the N.I.C.U. because he was breathing too quickly. I never got to hold him in the delivery room. I had to go to the N.I.C.U. every time I wanted to nurse. Never mind that I couldn't walk, it was far. I had to have someone wheel me in a wheelchair in order to nurse. In the hospital the lactation consultant came and gave me some good advice. She was very experienced and to this day I remember some of the things she told me. After I left the hospital my son stayed in the N.I.C.U. until he was 10 days old. I was pumping at home and every day we'd go to the hospital and place the milk in the fridge. I noticed that many times they weren't even looking for my milk because it was clearly labelled and nobody touched it. They automatically gave him the formula. I got really upset at the nurses every time it happened. I had a really hard time trying to get my son to latch on. I tried very hard but in the end, the only thing that worked was to put a bottle nipple over my own nipple and to nurse that way. He had gotten so used to the bottles in the hospital that he didn't want to nurse from me. I was very upset about this.
When we went home I decided that I couldn't continue like that. It was just too painful. I tried without the bottle nipple. We were really stubborn and both my mother and mother in law helped me and gave me the moral support that I needed. It took two months for us to get a good breastfeeding relationship down. In the end he nursed normally (without the bottle nipple). He loved nursing so much that when I went back to school, he didn't want to take a bottle. He was just 2.5 months at that point. It was funny how he changed so much-from the baby who didn't want anything other than a bottle to the nursing only from my mommy baby. I refused to give him formula. I refused to give him bottles when I didn't need to. That rocky start stayed etched in my mind. I pumped every day so he would have what to drink at the babysitter. We tried bottles and then sippy cups. Eventually he graduated to solids.
The funny thing is that he didn't have a high enough level of iron so we ended up having to give him formula so we could boost his iron. Cow's milk was causing the iron level to be low. I was still nursing but it wasn't doing enough for his iron. We would mix the formula for him in his cereal bowl and he'd have cornflakes with "milk".
With my daughter I set out from the beginning knowing I wouldn't make the same mistakes. I nursed her in the delivery room. I did rooming in -this birth was in Israel. She was with me all the time and there was nobody in the world who would give her a bottle. The lactation consultant at that hospital was even better. She enlightened me about so many things I didn't know before. She gave me the support and knowledge that I needed to nurse my daughter until age two. She never took a bottle. At 5 months I went back to work. She was already eating solids. She also learned how to drink from a cup with a straw. We had a spillproof cup and the babysitter loved that. She would drink the milk I pumped with the straw cup.
My newborn now also was nursed in the delivery room. Here I had a totally different experience. I gave birth erev Yom Kippur and the staff wasn't too lovely at the hospital. The babies were with us from 5 AM to 10 PM. Too bad if we wanted to rest. At night, when I'd go to feed my baby, I would hear tons of crying. It was terrible. Many of us didn't sleep because we refused to leave the babies with the nurses. I wrote that I didn't want any bottles and that I wanted to be woken up. Every time I tried to leave him at the nursery sleeping they'd refuse. They told me he cried too much and I should give him a bottle of formula. They told me he'd sleep longer and be happier and that I didn't have enough milk to give him since he was and is a very big boy. Well I remembered what lactation consultant number 2 told me. She told me that the first two or three days, until the milk comes in, you have culostrum (sp?) and that that's all the baby needs. Hashem provides the baby with exactly what he needs. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. This gave me such strength. I remembered what she had said and instead of arguing, I took my baby away from the nursery and stayed away from those nurses. All they wanted to do was feed everyone with formula and shut them up. It was horrible. I couldn't believe how many mothers were giving formula to their babies (as well as trying to nurse). There was one new mother there and she had no lactation consultant because it was YK. I tried to help her by my goodness. It's not my job. Why did the nurses keep ignoring her when she would ask for help?
I was very unimpressed with my past hospital stay. Thank goodness I know enough to not listen to those evil nurses. I feel very bad for all the new mothers who experienced that YK along with me.
My husband always says that all of the reasons for nursing are selfless (good for the baby) while all the reasons for formula are selfish (so you can go out, etc.) . I think people see how easy it is to shove a bottle in a baby's mouth so why do it the hard way. Why experience the pain of the first week of sore nipples? After doing so much nursing I can't imagine it any other way. I love nursing and wouldn't give it up for the world. That being said, I have a friend whose son wouldn't nurse-I don't know details. It's her sixth kid. He is 6 months old. She still pumps all day, although she also has to supplement. The kid refuses to nurse from her but will take her milk in a bottle. I think it's incredible that she does that. I have a very hard time relating to people who don't nurse or don't nurse for long periods of time. I just don't understand them or their point of view. Maybe one day their eyes will be open and they will see the beauty of nursing.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Shabbos guests
This week I decided to try to be extra good about keeping the house clean. I tried to tidy up every night after everyone went to sleep. That meant I got less sleep this week. We've had these icky small fly things in our house and they're always flying in the kitchen. That was part of the reason I was trying to be so clean this week. I didn't want their number to increase. They multipy like rabbits.
Anyway, so I was keeping the house so nice and clean. Then a friend asked us if we could host a couple for sleeping and a meal on Shabbos. I thought about it. First I responded that having them sleep here shouldn't be such a big deal. We would just have to clean up the office/guest room a bit. I told my friend to try to find them meals elsewhere but when she was unsuccessful, we decided to have them here for lunch.
So on Wednesday I started cooking for Shabbos. I made cranberry crisp which I had been craving ever since I gave birth and the neighbor made us a very yummy one. On Thursday I got a recipe from a different neighbor for her potato kugel which we got to taste after I gave birth as well. My husband really liked the consistancy of this kugel. I made potato kugel and sweet potato pie as well as chocholate cake and shnitzel on Thursday. That was definately a record for amount of food cooked in one day since I gave birth (and probably even before-like since I was in my 8th month or so). On Friday I made chullent.
The cute young couple arrived Friday afternoon. The wife had a bad cold and slept a lot. The husband it turns out is the brother in law of a girl I know from seminary. They were very nice. They ate out Friday night at a different family. Shabbos day they ate here. My son kept asking me why the wife was always sleeping. We played some Jewish geography, which is always lots of fun. For shalosh seudos they ate at our neighbors next door. I think they had a nice time and got to see the yishuv. Since they have no kids I don't understand why they would move out of Jlm but they are from Chicago and don't like the city so much. Although they said that they think they'll be seeing us around the yishuv again I wouldn't be surprised if they wouldn't. Usually young couples prefer to live in the city where there are many more conveniences. You don't move to a yishuv only for the grass and the wide open spaces.
So I was impressed with my ability to pull that off. I remember after my first son was born. I stayed with my mom for the first month. I didn't feel like I had recuperated from the birth until 6 weeks afterwards. I didn't get the nursing going well until 2 months. This time, I didn't tear which meant no stiches and less pain and being able to sit. I already had tons of practice nursing. I already mastered nursing while being covered up. I was worried about the baby wanting to nurse during the meal but that wasn't a problem because he ate right before and slept the whole time. When my son was an infant I used to go into the bedroom and close the door while I nursed and my hubby entertained the guests. I guess things have gotten a lot easier. So, all in all, having guests wasn't so bad after all.
Anyway, so I was keeping the house so nice and clean. Then a friend asked us if we could host a couple for sleeping and a meal on Shabbos. I thought about it. First I responded that having them sleep here shouldn't be such a big deal. We would just have to clean up the office/guest room a bit. I told my friend to try to find them meals elsewhere but when she was unsuccessful, we decided to have them here for lunch.
So on Wednesday I started cooking for Shabbos. I made cranberry crisp which I had been craving ever since I gave birth and the neighbor made us a very yummy one. On Thursday I got a recipe from a different neighbor for her potato kugel which we got to taste after I gave birth as well. My husband really liked the consistancy of this kugel. I made potato kugel and sweet potato pie as well as chocholate cake and shnitzel on Thursday. That was definately a record for amount of food cooked in one day since I gave birth (and probably even before-like since I was in my 8th month or so). On Friday I made chullent.
The cute young couple arrived Friday afternoon. The wife had a bad cold and slept a lot. The husband it turns out is the brother in law of a girl I know from seminary. They were very nice. They ate out Friday night at a different family. Shabbos day they ate here. My son kept asking me why the wife was always sleeping. We played some Jewish geography, which is always lots of fun. For shalosh seudos they ate at our neighbors next door. I think they had a nice time and got to see the yishuv. Since they have no kids I don't understand why they would move out of Jlm but they are from Chicago and don't like the city so much. Although they said that they think they'll be seeing us around the yishuv again I wouldn't be surprised if they wouldn't. Usually young couples prefer to live in the city where there are many more conveniences. You don't move to a yishuv only for the grass and the wide open spaces.
So I was impressed with my ability to pull that off. I remember after my first son was born. I stayed with my mom for the first month. I didn't feel like I had recuperated from the birth until 6 weeks afterwards. I didn't get the nursing going well until 2 months. This time, I didn't tear which meant no stiches and less pain and being able to sit. I already had tons of practice nursing. I already mastered nursing while being covered up. I was worried about the baby wanting to nurse during the meal but that wasn't a problem because he ate right before and slept the whole time. When my son was an infant I used to go into the bedroom and close the door while I nursed and my hubby entertained the guests. I guess things have gotten a lot easier. So, all in all, having guests wasn't so bad after all.
Dieting
First of all I hate that word. So I'll just call it trying to eat healthier. Last Shabbos I decided to start to try to eat healthier. This is very hard for me because I am a chocoholic. I LOVE chocolate. I could eat tons of it every day. But I decided that this isn't healthy and I'll like to lose some of that excess weight. So, I decided that if I would not eat any chocolate all week, I would reward my self on Shabbat by making or buying a cake. This is my first week on this trial run and I was successful. At one point I found some chocolate bear cookies in the cabinet. I put two in my mouth and then almost immediately spit them out. I couldn't believe how successful I was in staying away from my yummy delicious chocolate.
Of course eating better is hard for me because I'm nursing. When I nurse I gain tons of weight because I'm always hungry. This is as opposed to when I'm pregnant and lose between 10 and 20 pounds becaue I can't stand the sight, smell, or taste of many foods-including sometimes chocholate (gasp!). So I've been limiting my breakfast portions, limiting my number of meals, limiting number and types of snacks. I've also been eating a lot more salad. We shall see if I can keep this up and for how long. I really hope it works.
Of course eating better is hard for me because I'm nursing. When I nurse I gain tons of weight because I'm always hungry. This is as opposed to when I'm pregnant and lose between 10 and 20 pounds becaue I can't stand the sight, smell, or taste of many foods-including sometimes chocholate (gasp!). So I've been limiting my breakfast portions, limiting my number of meals, limiting number and types of snacks. I've also been eating a lot more salad. We shall see if I can keep this up and for how long. I really hope it works.
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