Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Yay poopie! You are an inspiration!

We had the biggest baby fail last night. I went out to a bi-weekly craft night a friend of mine runs that I pretty much never get to go to. As I'm about to take the kids out of state by myself for 3 weeks, I thought it would be nice to go to this grown up thing by myself and left both children with my partner. I busted my asparagus to pump 3 bottles worth of milk for the Magician, who has previously taken bottles with no problem.

Everything was fine til it wasn't, and he pretty much refused the bottle and had a total screaming freak out to the point where they came and picked me up. Less than 2 hours after I left.

Obviously I wasn't super thrilled by this outcome. But more than annoyed, I'm perplexed. Up until about a month ago, I would be gone for 4+ hours every Monday night. He never seemed to care and always took the bottle no problem. So this is just like, what?

I guess the thing to do is have him practice taking a bottle from my husband more? This is complicated though because like I said, in a week I'm taking them away for several weeks, and pretty much right after we get back, my grad classes start and I'm going to need M to be taking a bottle regularly.

Congratulations poopie and happy birthday poopiekid! Two years is my goal, too, and let me tell you, I am counting the days...

Same old thing for us, Walter nurses some days before his nap (unless he falls asleep in the car or stroller, which I am trying to encourage), and that's it during the day unless he's sick. He nurses before bed, and the past month has gotten into a pattern of waking around 1:30 and again around 4:30. I want not to nurse him overnight, but he freaks out. Mainly I am just bored with breastfeeding, and I think if he weaned he might sleep for longer stretches. And his latch has gotten lousy, or he has too many teeth. He's not biting, but his teeth leave indentations. I am trying to be patient until November. So poopie, I salute you (and your boobs).

That is so awesome! Seriously, celebrate and treat yourself to something nice, because you deserve it! Breastfeeding is hard work! I breastfed my first son until not long before his third birthday. Between two and when he weaned was so nice, because he didn't feed too often, but still enough for that sweet cuddly, bonding time. Congratulations on making it so far!

c&s, will M take a sippy cup? Grey stopped taking a bottle at four months and that was it, so we transitioned him to sippy cups.

Congratulations poopie! That's so awesome. And happy birthday to poopiebaby!

So awesome, poopie! Congrats!!

poopie, like everyone else said - congrats! and also, you are a hero because I'm over here at 2 months and wondering if I will make it to 6!

Very cool, poopie! When I was pregnant, I had a goal of 6 months. By the time I left the hospital my goal was 12 months. Now at 5 months old my goal is 18 months. It makes me sad to think there will be a day when we're all done!

Congratulations! That's a wonderful accomplishment. :)

Wow, poopie. I really think we should have a better way of acknowledging the effort of bf'ing. It can really be some hard shiitake!

PS...Happy Birthday poopiebaby!

Yay, Poopiebitch!

Beetroot (4) hasn't asked to breastfeed in a month, but he asked to yesterday, randomly, during the day. Raygold (who never nurses during the day) was right there, so I whipped out both my boobs (we used to have boobie threesomes regularly until Beet was maybe 3). Beety latched on the left and Raygold latched on the right. Except Raygold was blowing on my boob and being silly and Beetroot popped off after about 40 seconds. I think I'm still going to consider Beetroot fully weaned. ;p I think he just wanted to nurse for the security of knowing I'd let him. (I didn't phrase that very well, but you get my drift.)

That's awesome poopiebitch!

I thought I was finally making some progress with my nipples, but apparently I nursed her too much yesterday and now they're back to being cracked and raw. My parents are visiting and are being completely unhelpful, so I have just been nursing her even though it's so painful because I didn't feel like sitting in my bedroom by myself pumping while other people held my baby. I bought a couple nursing shirts that I was so excited to use, but I guess they're still going to be pumping shirts. In other news, I'm pretty sure all the pumping and little nursing since Scarlett was 6 days old has led to me getting my period at exactly 4 weeks postpartum. WHAT THE fork.

moo, so sorry about your poor cracked nipples! Have any of the various nipple creams been of any help?

No Sierra here at the office with me today! Decided to do a trial run of her staying home, especially since one of my sisters is visiting from California and dying for some baby time. So I feel really weird and lonely sorta haha. But my big gripe is I've just bought 2 different practically-brand-new electric pumps (one the Medela Pump-in-Style and one Ameda) from other moms because we returned the hospital grade rental this morning, but I brought the Ameda to work and uhhhh obviously my body is conditioned to the hospital-grade beast because I got literally 0 milk out. Gonna be a long day of trying and trying again.

I've tried Earth Mama nipple butter and a prescription antibiotic ointment that the breastfeeding specialist gave me and neither of those helped. I'm currently trying just letting milk dry on them to see how that works.

Audrey, have you tried really working your boobs with your hands before pumping? The first few days I was pumping I would hardly get anything out even though I felt really full. I got help getting a bunch of plugs out of the way, and since then I've been using my hands a lot before and during pumping and have been getting so much more! All the mental stuff is helpful to me too, like thinking about holding your baby, or you could look at pictures or videos of her while you're at work.

@cc, that's pretty sweet about Beetroot actually. :)

Ooh, moo that sounds brutal. Are you able to let your boobs get some air-time, or at least no-bra time? Sometimes that helps speed up the healing process I think.

Audrey, one of our local LLL leaders is continually reminding people about the emotional/psychological aspects of pumping. Maybe the stress/excitement about the different arrangement and pumps hindered you some? That said, I can still whip out milk a lot more easily with the hospital grade pump than my hand one.

I NIPed yesterday... at lunch... with the in-laws. I felt so brave! I'm usually not shy about it, but I'm much more comfortable around friends and strangers.

With the Emperor, I nursed anywhere and in front of anyone. I nursed him on: the bus, a plane, a train, during my friend's wedding ceremony which we were IN, at dinner with my male BFF who I hadn't seen in person since pre-baby, in front of my dad, in front of my in-laws, at the grocery store, and on and on. He would eat anywhere and if he wanted to eat it was in everyone's interest that I just freaking feed him.

The Magician doesn't like to nurse in public. It's like he's too distracted to eat. He hates having his head covered, so that's not an option. He'll go 4-5 hours without eating if we're out and about but I pay for it later. It is bumming me out, it complicates everything. What is the solution? Just keep trying? Give up and only nurse him at home? Never leave the house again?!

Does M just refuse altogether? Freya's a look-around baby, but if I can get a relatively calm place, she'll do at least a few minutes.

^5 kdub. It's great to be able to feed your kid whenever needed!

Nice blog shared on our local LLL's page today: http://www.the-mule.com/2012/03/while-i ... sleep.html

I have a look-around distracted baby too. It is trying on my nerves because nursing a few minutes here and there is more annoying that one or two good sessions. I feel like we are nursing all the time!

Ditto that! Lots of moms assure me though, that it gets better about 10 months or so (usually). Babies get really efficient at milk drinking, so they might do just 5 or 10 minutes, but that's enough to last them for a good while.

Grey is super distracted still. A minute in a minute off, all the freaking time. It's pretty annoying and now everyone in California has seen my nipples.

haha was just coming here to post that this past weekend I nursed in front of my 80yr old dad AND my 7yr old nephew, both of whom I'm fairly certain have never seen a woman bf. My dad already knew that I'm exclusively nursing Sierra and I have a feeling my sister may have had a little talk with my nephew before they arrived, but I still attempted some cover-up like a little blanket over the top of my boob etc. However, my dad spent a long day and night with us in our livingroom and eventually I sorta gave up and just whipped em out sometimes. Pretty sure I'm the only person in our entire extended family who nurses, but I'm also the only vegan punk rocker so at this point its all just me being "different" I guess.

Leela doesn't really NIP any more. Apparently everything else is more interesting than my boobs.

I usually have Zephyr in the Cuddly Wrap when I take him out, and it's SO easy to NIP when he's nestled in there. I just have to make sure my shirt opens easily or wear a tank top under the wrap. It's been awesome.

Not awesome: my boobs are so incredibly excited to produce milk for my little guy, and the letdown is really forceful, so I have to remember to let some milk out in advance so it doesn't blow him away like it's a fire hose. Also, he just vomited his last feeding. I'm not sure if it's because he got too much milk in one go, or if I didn't give him enough upright time before letting him rock a bit. Bah! At least he is comfortable and napping now.