Yeah, so this whole Breastfeeding business...
I was so fortunate to have a pleasant pregnancy... My stay at the hospital (6 days) wasn't so bad... I have nothing to complain about my C-section... My recovery has been great... Birthed a beautiful baby...
Now that I've been home for 3+ weeks, I've battled with my breasts. Yes. My breasts. They've given me grief.
Since the first week of being home, I have had Mastitis (Breast Infection). Had it on my left side, then the right side. I was on antibiotics for a week... didn't cure it. Then came back on the left side. Went on new antibiotics. Took it for a week. Cured.
Since Day 1 of being a mom, I have breastfed. And because of breastfeeding, I have had cracked/chapped/sore nipples. Took about 2 weeks to heal...
On top of all this, I haven't been able to produce enough milk for Sawyer. An 1/2 an ounce on the left and an ounce or two on the right. I have tried it all... Fenugreek (herbal capsule), Marshmallow Root (herbal capsule), Fennel Oil (oil capsule), drinking plenty of water, eating right, not being stressed so much, pumping with my expensive electric pump, hot compress directly on the breast...
How are my breasts doing now? No Mastitis. Still no milk.
But I am just tired of taking so many pills. Yeah they're herbal and it's not like I'm popping 10 capsules of Tylenol or something, but still...
I was taking my 1 Prenatal vitamin, 1 antibiotic for a while, 1 probiotic for a while, 2 Ibuprofen, 2 stool softener (another story all on its own), 2 Fenugreek, 2 Marshmallow Root, 1 Fennel Oil.
I sound like a drug addict.
Blah. Done.
My feeding ritual was just ridiculous too... I would feed him on the left, then on the right. That took about 20 - 30 min. Then I would make a bottle (because he probably only drank an ounce or two at most and he is eating well over 4 oz now). He takes about 10 - 15 min to drink a bottle. So really, feeding him some times took up to an hour. THEN had to burp him (and he does NOT burp... shouldn't all babies have this automatic burping reflex?! Sawyer doesn't. He struggles so much.......). Burping him seriously could take anywhere from 5 seconds to 30 minutes. And sometimes he doesn't burp until hours after. sigh. THEN we change his diaper.
So by the time I feed him, burp him, change him... it's back to square one. Tiring I know...
So I've decided to cut down on the feeding time by doing away with breastfeeding.
I've been PRO breastfeeding up until this very moment. Breast milk is WAY healthier... cheaper... and I would've lost WEIGHT feeding him that way. Everything about Breastfeeding is great. "yeah... if only I could produce milk". Aren't all mothers built the same to produce the same? Isn't milk suppose to be squirting out like an automatic fountain? Aren't I suppose to produce enough milk to feed a third-world country?!
and I admit... I was excited to have my breasts bigger. sigh.
Enough said. So that's that.
P.S. So the expensive electric pump, 3 expensive nursing bras, 6 nursing garment top, nursing pads, nipple cream, nipple shield... all going in a box for the next kid.

Saturday, September 24, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
To-do List
There is so much to be done...
Switch Pediatricians...
Tongue-tie surgery done for Sawyer...
Add Sawyer to our insurance...
Decorate for FALL...
Finish making those burp-cloths...
Contact ASU about Student Teaching next semester...
Update vaccinations (apparently Pertussis)...
Increase my milk supply with Fenugreek and Marshmallow Root!...
Deep clean the bathroom and... the whole house...
Be a mother and a wife...
ps. next post will feature the photo shoot pics of Sawyer
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Do I still get my POINT?
Points... yes, read the last post.
I was not [still not] feeling well yesterday... Mastitis is back on my left breast... sigh... I've got the worst of luck when it comes to breast feeding... :( So didn't have time at all to "write in my journal" yesterday. Please excuse me.
I finally got 3 hour nap yesterday when Greg came home in the afternoon, then another 4 hours from 10pm to 2am. yesssss... then I fed Sawyer, changed his diaper then HE fell asleep... for another 4 hours! I definitely got my rest, but I've definitely needed the rest after battling Mastitis for over a week now, WHICH is a whole nother different story.
So here's the whole nother story:
I've had Mastitis since last Tuesday... started on my left breast, and couple days later transferred over to my right breast while the left was still in pain. I've been taking antibiotics, but gosh... doesn't feel like it's doing anything. A week later (today) I go in to see my doctor for the 2 week check-up. I explain to her the Mastitis came back on the left breast on a different spot... "why would it come back if I'm taking antibiotics!?" Yeah, so much for THOSE antibiotics. into the trash. The doc gave me new antibiotics, and told me to take probiotics too. With that, she had a "home remedy" suggestion that worked for her: take a small enough piece of flannel (soft cloth) just big enough to cover the affected area, soak the cloth in caster oil, put it on the affected area, then put saran wrap over the cloth, then a heating pad over that. I guess we'll see if it works.
Hopefully my 102 degree fevers and body aches will simmer down...
I was not [still not] feeling well yesterday... Mastitis is back on my left breast... sigh... I've got the worst of luck when it comes to breast feeding... :( So didn't have time at all to "write in my journal" yesterday. Please excuse me.
I finally got 3 hour nap yesterday when Greg came home in the afternoon, then another 4 hours from 10pm to 2am. yesssss... then I fed Sawyer, changed his diaper then HE fell asleep... for another 4 hours! I definitely got my rest, but I've definitely needed the rest after battling Mastitis for over a week now, WHICH is a whole nother different story.
So here's the whole nother story:
I've had Mastitis since last Tuesday... started on my left breast, and couple days later transferred over to my right breast while the left was still in pain. I've been taking antibiotics, but gosh... doesn't feel like it's doing anything. A week later (today) I go in to see my doctor for the 2 week check-up. I explain to her the Mastitis came back on the left breast on a different spot... "why would it come back if I'm taking antibiotics!?" Yeah, so much for THOSE antibiotics. into the trash. The doc gave me new antibiotics, and told me to take probiotics too. With that, she had a "home remedy" suggestion that worked for her: take a small enough piece of flannel (soft cloth) just big enough to cover the affected area, soak the cloth in caster oil, put it on the affected area, then put saran wrap over the cloth, then a heating pad over that. I guess we'll see if it works.
Hopefully my 102 degree fevers and body aches will simmer down...
Monday, September 12, 2011
More Fit for the Kingdom
So The Billings Family started this challenge a month or so ago, "More Fit for the Kingdom", which encompasses physical and spiritual challenges, including eating healthy, exercising, reading scriptures, saying prayers, attending temple, etc. Everything we do, we get points for. Every week, there's a special challenge, and this week is to "write in your journal everyday". I'm counting my blog as my journal. :)
How have I survived the first two weeks of being a mommy? With much patience and pain meds.
It's been a challenge in figuring out Sawyer's sleep schedule... he mostly sleeps during the afternoons... grrr... and mommy is up with him folding laundry @ 4am.
Other than that, let's see... Mastitis has plagued me... Sawyer got circumcised... and daddy is still getting his sleep. And really, I don't mind. I've woken Greg up a couple of times when I'm at my wit's end, but I try to let him sleep. Greg has full-time school and is out by 7am. He comes home from school and rescues me so I can get a little shut-eye. So it's working out just fine. I'm just glad that he has 12 weeks paternity leave [paid!]...
So there's a little update for you~
p.s. Sawyer is now 2 weeks old!
How have I survived the first two weeks of being a mommy? With much patience and pain meds.
It's been a challenge in figuring out Sawyer's sleep schedule... he mostly sleeps during the afternoons... grrr... and mommy is up with him folding laundry @ 4am.
Other than that, let's see... Mastitis has plagued me... Sawyer got circumcised... and daddy is still getting his sleep. And really, I don't mind. I've woken Greg up a couple of times when I'm at my wit's end, but I try to let him sleep. Greg has full-time school and is out by 7am. He comes home from school and rescues me so I can get a little shut-eye. So it's working out just fine. I'm just glad that he has 12 weeks paternity leave [paid!]...
So there's a little update for you~
p.s. Sawyer is now 2 weeks old!
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
The Stork Flew-in Earlier Than We Expected
It was a regular Thursday afternoon, on my way to the OB for a 38-week ultrasound check-up.
The ultrasound indicated that I had no amniotic fluid...ZERO. The Amniotic fluid is what Sawyer was suppose to be floating around in...
The doctor then told me to go straight to the hospital and that they were going to induce me that night...
WHAT?! I'M GOING TO HAVE MY BABY TONIGHT!?!?!?!?! [good thing I already had my hospital bag packed]
This... was only the beginning of my adventure.
So I get to the hospital [exactly 2 weeks prior to the due date] and they start hooking me up the the IV fluids to get some fluid in me (painful!). Then over to the so-called "Japanese Soaking Tub"... for TWO hours. I don't know if it was relaxation or torture sitting in that tub. I was still hooked up to the IV and your bum just starts to get soar after a while... Nonetheless, it needed to be done. By Thursday late LATE night, they had me getting a different kind of ultrasound [one that took a video recoding to examine how much fluid I had in me now after the earlier treatments].
The test result came back... I went from a ZERO to a THREE. Happy news right?... RIGHT? Well apparently it wasn't good enough. A normal pregnant woman should be between 7 and 15. So I STILL didn't have enough fluid...
They then started me on Cervidil to ripen my cervix... that was a 12 hour process. 1:00am til 1:00pm the next day.
So now it's Friday and cervix hadn't changed a bit. I was still at a 1.
They then start me on Pitocin to induce labor. They had me on 2 ml then upped it 2ml each half hour for 4 hours. Results? Still nothing changed. I was still at a 1.
I was on Pitocin throughout the night... by 7 pm I was now at a 2! ["maybe" the nurse said. They were all hopeful...]
They now put me on a cervix gel to ripen the cervix again... 12 hour process.
Saturday at noon... Japanese Soaking Tub... again.
I think by this time, I had gone through 5-6 bags of IV fluids...
2pm back on Pitocin... 10pm off of Pitocin... [and Pitocin meant NO FOOOOOOD. only clear liquids... yeay for jello and cranapple juice!]
11:30 pm BACK on the gel for another 12 hours... 2:30pm and finally at a FOUR! Back on the gel at 3:30pm.
you see the pattern here? My body did NOT want to give up Sawyer! or Sawyer was just shy...
Now it's Sunday: off the gel at 6:30am... Doctor came in and "broke" my water. [Did she really break it? I don't know... nothing came out.] Went back on the Pitocin. gah.
11:00am... REAL cramps start...
11:30am Breathing.......
12:00pm Called for Epidural
12:30pm EPIDURAL IN! [lots of pressure is right... gah.]
5:30pm I am now at a 5!!! [again with the "maybe"]
6:30pm - HOUR 74 - The doctor comes into the room and says "After all that we have done, the baby has not moved down one bit... the only option now is for a C-Section".
I cried. I was scared of the pain... I never imagined myself having one... it was as if C-Section was never an option for me. I read baby magazines and books, and whenever C-Section was mentioned, I skipped it. "That's never going to be me"... and now I was at a point where this WAS the only option to get Sawyer out.
8:00pm I go in to be prepped for surgery.
But you know, there's a reason for everything. I truly believe in that. My body had to under-go all of that SO the doctor can come to a conclusion of performing C-section on me.
It's all about the attitude. From then on, I tried to have a positive out-look on the rest of my stay at the hospital.
Did it work? Well of course it did. The day after the surgery, I could walk around in the hallway, get myself out of bed [with a bit of help of course], I wasn't bleeding as much [ahem... down there], pain meds every several hours instead of the usual ... I was in high-spirits and the nurses could see that in me. "You are doing so much better than most C-Section patients!"
They said I had high tolerance for pain... HA... I don't think so. But I made it through it all.
Sawyer is healthy... I'm healthy... and Greg is healthy :)
Couldn't have asked for a better experience~
[I did not feel ANYTHING during the surgery, and even after for about 24 hours]
Shall I say lucky? Or that Heavenly Father is really looking after for me... :)
I am so grateful for all the nurses who helped me: Jenn, Tara, Dorthy, Renee, Sarah, Heather, Christa and Amber, Julia, Anna, Julia, Shauna, Anna... and of course for Dr. Brass in stepping in for my Dr. Bullaro-Anderer. She did a marvelous job on the surgery. The surgical team was awesome too! I was awake the whole time and they kept the mood of the room quite enjoyable with joking around... I am recovery well.
Dr. Brass said if we would've waited until Sawyer's actual due date, he would've easily been a 10 lb. baby... so C-Section anyways.
Greg was grinning from ear to ear as he was able to watch the surgery... yes, the whole thing. Once Sawyer came out, he had to leave though.
So that's that... I've said enough. Hope it wasn't too blah!
More updates of Sawyer is soon to come...
The ultrasound indicated that I had no amniotic fluid...ZERO. The Amniotic fluid is what Sawyer was suppose to be floating around in...
The doctor then told me to go straight to the hospital and that they were going to induce me that night...
WHAT?! I'M GOING TO HAVE MY BABY TONIGHT!?!?!?!?! [good thing I already had my hospital bag packed]
This... was only the beginning of my adventure.
So I get to the hospital [exactly 2 weeks prior to the due date] and they start hooking me up the the IV fluids to get some fluid in me (painful!). Then over to the so-called "Japanese Soaking Tub"... for TWO hours. I don't know if it was relaxation or torture sitting in that tub. I was still hooked up to the IV and your bum just starts to get soar after a while... Nonetheless, it needed to be done. By Thursday late LATE night, they had me getting a different kind of ultrasound [one that took a video recoding to examine how much fluid I had in me now after the earlier treatments].
The test result came back... I went from a ZERO to a THREE. Happy news right?... RIGHT? Well apparently it wasn't good enough. A normal pregnant woman should be between 7 and 15. So I STILL didn't have enough fluid...
They then started me on Cervidil to ripen my cervix... that was a 12 hour process. 1:00am til 1:00pm the next day.
So now it's Friday and cervix hadn't changed a bit. I was still at a 1.
They then start me on Pitocin to induce labor. They had me on 2 ml then upped it 2ml each half hour for 4 hours. Results? Still nothing changed. I was still at a 1.
I was on Pitocin throughout the night... by 7 pm I was now at a 2! ["maybe" the nurse said. They were all hopeful...]
They now put me on a cervix gel to ripen the cervix again... 12 hour process.
Saturday at noon... Japanese Soaking Tub... again.
I think by this time, I had gone through 5-6 bags of IV fluids...
2pm back on Pitocin... 10pm off of Pitocin... [and Pitocin meant NO FOOOOOOD. only clear liquids... yeay for jello and cranapple juice!]
11:30 pm BACK on the gel for another 12 hours... 2:30pm and finally at a FOUR! Back on the gel at 3:30pm.
you see the pattern here? My body did NOT want to give up Sawyer! or Sawyer was just shy...
Now it's Sunday: off the gel at 6:30am... Doctor came in and "broke" my water. [Did she really break it? I don't know... nothing came out.] Went back on the Pitocin. gah.
11:00am... REAL cramps start...
11:30am Breathing.......
12:00pm Called for Epidural
12:30pm EPIDURAL IN! [lots of pressure is right... gah.]
5:30pm I am now at a 5!!! [again with the "maybe"]
6:30pm - HOUR 74 - The doctor comes into the room and says "After all that we have done, the baby has not moved down one bit... the only option now is for a C-Section".
I cried. I was scared of the pain... I never imagined myself having one... it was as if C-Section was never an option for me. I read baby magazines and books, and whenever C-Section was mentioned, I skipped it. "That's never going to be me"... and now I was at a point where this WAS the only option to get Sawyer out.
8:00pm I go in to be prepped for surgery.
8:17 pm - Sawyer was born!
9:00pm I come out of surgery and was taken to the Recovery Room for 2 hours, along with Sawyer [he needed to be cleaned up!]. We were both monitored for those 2 hours [waiting for Epidural to wear-off to ensure no adverse reactions to drugs].
Night 1 of being parents = stressful, clueless, painful... yet overjoyed, relaxed, and plenty of sweet tender moments.
At first, I was only looking at the negative side to my whole week experience at the hospital: tired of the bed, tired of the wait, tired of the food, tired of the nurses coming in wee hours of the morning, tired of everything.
"Why did I have to go through all of that, and I still end of having a C-section?!"But you know, there's a reason for everything. I truly believe in that. My body had to under-go all of that SO the doctor can come to a conclusion of performing C-section on me.
It's all about the attitude. From then on, I tried to have a positive out-look on the rest of my stay at the hospital.
Did it work? Well of course it did. The day after the surgery, I could walk around in the hallway, get myself out of bed [with a bit of help of course], I wasn't bleeding as much [ahem... down there], pain meds every several hours instead of the usual ... I was in high-spirits and the nurses could see that in me. "You are doing so much better than most C-Section patients!"
They said I had high tolerance for pain... HA... I don't think so. But I made it through it all.
Sawyer is healthy... I'm healthy... and Greg is healthy :)
Couldn't have asked for a better experience~
[I did not feel ANYTHING during the surgery, and even after for about 24 hours]
Shall I say lucky? Or that Heavenly Father is really looking after for me... :)
I am so grateful for all the nurses who helped me: Jenn, Tara, Dorthy, Renee, Sarah, Heather, Christa and Amber, Julia, Anna, Julia, Shauna, Anna... and of course for Dr. Brass in stepping in for my Dr. Bullaro-Anderer. She did a marvelous job on the surgery. The surgical team was awesome too! I was awake the whole time and they kept the mood of the room quite enjoyable with joking around... I am recovery well.
Dr. Brass said if we would've waited until Sawyer's actual due date, he would've easily been a 10 lb. baby... so C-Section anyways.
Greg was grinning from ear to ear as he was able to watch the surgery... yes, the whole thing. Once Sawyer came out, he had to leave though.
So that's that... I've said enough. Hope it wasn't too blah!
More updates of Sawyer is soon to come...
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