Shooters

I want this blog to be real. I want other new moms to read it and go 'oh good that's not just me.' Because there is so much you're not warned/told about. Like how the soundsleeper app is God for babies who like white noise. How your baby may start drooling like a St Bernard an indefinite amount of time before that first tooth (we've been drool-ridden for about 3 weeks now- no tooth) and how it's okay to be okay with the drooling and totally not be wishing for that first tooth. I'm okay with my baby/St Bernard. Not sure how I feel about teeth in the mouth that gets food from my boobs. 

On that note, I will say it: my boob sprayed my baby in the face the other day. The things no one tells you can/probably will happen while you're pregnant...

I had climbed into the back of the car to

do a feeding before we ran into Wal-Mart because she was a bit fussy and my boob was a bit full. These things together resulted in Saoirse having that area between your nose and lip covered in milk as she fussed, not quite latching on and triggered let down with her crying and slight sucking when she had latched on for .025 seconds. As a result a small geyser erupted onto her face. It was both funny and a little mortifying. I did my best to target it into her mouth, and she finally latched on and settled down. She ate, then I snuggled her up in the baby k'tan and we went shopping. She slept through the whole experience until the check out line. 

Welcome to motherhood. Where boobs spontaneously erupt. 

Her toes painted with piggy paint. They happen to match her diaper. 

I was not compensated to name drop SoundSleeper, Baby K'Tan, or Piggy Paint. 

Saoirse is 11 weeks, 6 days old. 

High Lipase

Completely irrelevant to the post baby-cuteness. 

Looks like I got another awesome part of breastfeeding (you know, after thrush): high lipase activity.

I've been pumping since my milk came in (because, ow, my boobs, and she totally wasn't taking that much in at that point). I pump once every few days when a boob is full and she is completely content having finished the other one or if I have a moment free, I'll pump a bit. So it's not a huge stash (20-30 oz over 2.5 months), but it's something. Well, I've been reading about high lipase and decided to try my frozen milk.

Holy yuck.

Tasted gross to me. I managed to get her to take an ounce from a dropper with some acidophilus and Vitamin D last week but she looked none too thrilled about it and never latched on and sucked it down like she does with Gripe Water (which is mana from heaven, btw). I tried again today with a different bit of frozen milk. The faces she made were ones of disgust and roughly akin to that one makes when they get a mouth full of rank milk or durian (well, for most people). There was no enthusiam and the only reason any of it was going down was because I was lightly squeezing the dropper and all of it wouldn't roll out of her mouth. The milk I pumped yesterday that was still in the fridge tasted pretty gross too. I'm not throwing the milk I have out, I'm going to keep it for now for "emergencies", seeing as we can manage to get it down her throat, so if worse came to worst...

But for the newer milk, I'm going to need to start scalding. Given the small amounts of milk I tend to pump out (2 oz, roughly), scalding in a pot...well, I don't have a pot that tiny. Microwaving is not an option because it does even more damage to the milk than scalding alone. I'm going with the bottle warmer method. Which means I need to buy a bottle warmer. So I'm going to get one without an automatic shut off (so it can get to the requisite almost 180*) and invest in a stainless steel baby bottle at some point. The stainless steel bottle will allow me to heat the milk and quickly cool it in ice water without having to switch bottles. Until I get one of those, there may be some switching around, as I don't really want to heat plastic like that and glass going from 180* to ice water tends to not work out so well. Or it works out really well if you're going for wedding centerpiece decorations (like we did for my wedding- shattering off the bottoms of wine bottles to use for centerpieces, but that's a diy for another time). But I would like the glass to stay intact given the liquid gold it's holding.

But yeah, the milk was gross. And I have tickets to a 30 Seconds to Mars concert in Tulsa December 21, so Saoirse will be staying with Papa and Cheerio while her Daddy and I go to that, so I need to have a small valid stash for her to eat while we're gone for that. The pump will be accompanying me to the concert and hopefully my milk will stay valid from pumping until I get home and can scald it.



Saoirse is 11 weeks and 2 days old.

Thrush Part 2

A week ago, Saoirse and I visited a lactation consultant. I was tired of gritting my teeth through feedings, and I wanted someone to tell me it wasn't my latch. 

Well, it wasn't. Latch is fine. But the LC did confirm thrush. She gave me the name of a stronger "azole" drug, ketaconazole, to ask my OB for. Which I did as soon as I left the building. She also said Saoirse appeared to have a small amount of thrush build up on her tongue. She told me what I already knew from the World Wide Web- that Saoirse needed to be treated as well or we'd most likely keep passing this back as forth. 

Yay. Not. Nursing a baby shark is totally an experience I want to keep replicating. At least that's what it felt like I was doing. Or cutting my nipple off with a razor blade or a hot laser. But I digress. 

Called her pediatrician per the LC's suggestion. I am once again told that they won't give her nystatin unless she's showing symptoms. Well, she is. Well, apparently thrush on the tongue only doesn't count as symptoms and the risks of tummy troubles outweighs any benefit. 

Obviously, this nurse has never had thrush. 

I was told to call back if she developed white spots on her gums or cheeks. Another sign she had thrush would be refusing to nurse as her mouth would "hurt like the dickens". Okay, so you want to wait until my baby is miserable to treat her? Love you too. 

It's a good thing I like her pediatrician, even if I'm not digging their stance on nystatin. 

Fortunately, Saoirse has yet to show any symptoms aside possibly from her incredible gassiness. Lots of burps and terribly uncomfortable farts. She'll cry hard for a moment, fart, then settle back down. I feel bad for her during those episodes. 

I, for one, am grateful the ketaconazole seems to be doing what the miconazole wasn't. Getting rid of this. Nursing on my right side is now only mildly uncomfortable some of the time. So we're heading in the right direction. Thank god. 

I leave you with photographic evidence of my baby. 

This is her "determined" face. This was taken about 1 minute before she got pissed at her inability to crawl at 10 weeks old. 

Thrush

I'm pretty sure I have it. Nursing on my right side hurts like heck. Burning and stinging horribly while she nurses. Pain and discomfort even when she's not latched on. She's been wonderfully gassy lately which apparently can sometimes be caused by yeast in her system. I tried removing dairy from my diet and it really did nothing to change that aspect. Her extreme fussiness she had a couple of nights seems to have just been a phase I would just rather never experience again. I'm sure I won't get that lucky. 

Fact is, my boob hurts. Nursing hurts. But we do it anyway. But as a result of all of this, I present these pictures. 

The purpleishness of her face is surprisingly unnoticeable in that last shot. But you can see the wonders of gentian violet in the first 2 (the first being last night after she ate for the first time after I applied the gentian violet. The second is this morning.)

I applied the gentian violet last night. I need to get some fresh as what we have lying around expired 2 years ago. Oops. I'm also applying monistat cream after pretty much every feeding. Hoping it helps. And sooner rather than later.