Baby Bling

I've never really been a big fan of jewellery for babies. It just seems a little bit silly to me. I've see some oh so cute tiny bracelet that I'm sure make great photo props or a lovely addition to something like a christening outfit, but for everyday, I'll  pass. My husband and I even briefly considered getting our now 2 year old's ears pierced as a baby (my mother would have killed me) since people kept calling her a boy, but then I realized that if people were unable to tell gender based on all the pink dresses and outfits with flowers and hearts all over, they probably would not notice tiny little ear rings and I really didn't want to have to do all that new earring ear care anyways.

Having said that I have to confess that my 8 month old wears a necklace. It's a Baltic Amber teething necklace. Never heard of it them before? Here's what they're supposed to do. Amber has something called succince acid in it which, when heated by the body's warmth is released by the amber and absorbed into the body. It is supposed to reduce inflammation and work as a natural analgesic. Some information claims that it can also reduce drooling. Sounds really good for a teething baby, no?

So I guess you're all wondering if it really works? Well, I don't know. Annika has been wearing it for about a month now and I'm just not sure. She has been a super drooly baby and since wearing it she is drooling less, actually it noticeable, but I a bit of a skeptic and wonder if that's because she's hit some developmental stage where she drools less or is it the necklace? She is also getting teeth. I can see her gums are getting all lumpy, but is the necklace helping with her teething discomfort? Maybe she's just an easy teether or maybe the necklace is working. I just don't know and she can't tell me. But I really don't want to take it off and discover that she's really an evil, drooling crabby teething monster that has been soothed by her Baltic Amber necklace.

Goodbye Disposable, Hello Cloth

With all my kids I have used cloth part-time, off and on. I have always liked the idea of cloth, but I just never really found that I wanted to use them full time . . . until now. I have been using cloth very regularly during the day with Annika, but was still using one disposable at night. This had been working out okay and the package I have right now I think I bought way back in early May, so I haven't spent much on them. There are even about 20 diapers left, but they are size 3 and she is really too big for them. I've noticed that every time she pooped in a disposable there was a big explosion up her back. But when she poops in a any of the cloth diapers that I have it can still be a bit messy, but is contained. So I decided to take the big leap and put her in cloth at night too. And low and behold she is leak free in the morning.

So why hadn't I made this change sooner? Actually I think that I may have done more with Kiersten, but she outgrew the size that I had and I was too cheap to spend all the money at once for a bigger size. Thinking back, that was really stupid logic because if I had just bit the bullet and bought them I would have been saving money after using them for about a month and a half. I also went back to work and found that sending the cloth diapers with Kiersten wasn't working that well, (but I think I've figure out why and will have it fixed when I go back to work in November).

The diapers I had with the boys were not the greatest cloth diapers. On the surface they seemed to be better than the ones my mom used on me, but really didn't prove to be an improvement. I had two different brands of fitted diapers and neither was particularly absorbent, which is kind of important for a diaper. They needed a waterproof cover and I ended up with Bummis covers. These were the one thing that was an upgrade from the icky plastic or rubber pant that were around when I was a baby and I'm actually using Bummis covers now.

When I was pregnant with Kiersten I did some looking around for cloth diapers and was pleasantly surprised to find that there were many more choices than when the boys were babies. And cloth diapering is far more mainstream, people aren't surprised when you tell them that you use cloth diapers. I bought some prefolds and covers, which are cheap and easy to use. I'm still using these with Annika, but I recently came across some inexpensive pocket diapers that are what I've started using at night (and during the day too). Anyways, why are they working this time? I LOVE the diapers that I have because they work and are simple. Now the benefits totally out weigh any tiny bit of convenience that disposables might have had for me.

The pocket diapers are a one size diaper (well not for my larger than average kids) but going from about 10 lbs to 35lbs or so is pretty darn good, no need to keep buying bigger sizes all the time. The inside is fleece so little bums don't feel too wet and poop comes of it really easily. they also have a pocket, (hence their name) that you stuff with absorbent inserts. You can put in one or more, which is helpful at night and why I dared to try them. And they have a built in waterproof layer and don't require a cover. So once you've stuffed it, it goes on pretty much like a disposable with one exception, it has snaps. Annika had started to pick at the tabs on disposables and the velcro on the covers I have, but she can't undo the snaps!

I think I'm becoming a bit addicted to cloth diapering I want MORE. More colours, cute prints and I want to try wool covers. So goodbye disposables, hello cloth!

Annika in a Hipkiddo pocket diaper, chewing on a prefold.

I know It's not a great photo, but the models are sometimes difficult to work with. ;)

Wondering about Weaning: Part two

So here it is, part two. I wanted to explain why I have chosen to wait until now (Annika had banana on Friday and I will post about that later) to start Annika on solids. First off a number of organizations all recommend waiting until the middle of the first year to start, they include but are not limited to the World Health Organization, Health Canada, the Canadian Pediatric Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics and UNICEF. My choice to wait was not just based on the fact that these organizations said to wait, because when Markus was a baby 13 years ago they said it was okay to give solids at 4 months, I went and did my homework and found that based on the information I found I felt that it was best to wait until at least until 6 months.

The four month mark had been used because we thought that babies stores of iron would be depleted at that point and that babies would need some kind of supplement. Baby cereals are easy to add iron to and the grains like rice, oatmeal and barley are pretty bland and non-allergenic so that's what we went with. We now know that iron stores in full term babies don't begin to dwindle until around the 6 month mark.

There is also an interesting difference when it comes to iron found in breast milk versus formula, while this may not sound like a reason to wait with solids, it does support exclusive breast feeding until the 6 months. Breast milk has 0.3 milligrams of iron per liter compared to formula which contains between 10 and 12 milligrams of iron per liter. Here's the reason for this huge difference, the iron in breast milk is so much better absorbed by a babies gut that 0.3 milligrams per litre is all that needs to be there. With formula only 4% of the iron is able to be absorbed by a baby's gut with the rest being excreted. Now here's where I think it gets really interesting to me, when you give a breast fed baby formula or for that matter baby cereal with iron in interferes with their guts iron absorbing abilities, they actually become less able to get the very specific amount of iron found in breast milk.

Another reason that I found compelling was that a baby's gut needs time to mature, to help prevent allergies and to be ready properly digest food. When it comes to preventing allergies, between 4 to 6/7 months the intestines change from an "open" gut that allows many molecules including allergens and pathogens through to a "closed" gut that is better able to defend the body. Many of the digestive enzymes needed for proper digestion are not fully present until between 6-9 month. Starting solids early means the body is unable to get much nutrition from the food and it takes up space in the baby's stomach making the baby feel full, but is does not meet baby's nutritional needs.

All of the readiness signs from the last post are also there for a reason. If you think about it, a baby who cannot sit, cannot make chewing motions and pushes everything out of their mouth really has no business "eating". When they are ready to put things in their own mouths, chew them, swallow and go for more, then they are ready. Other reasons to wait include helping to prevent obesity, helping maintain mom's milk supply, helping ensure the gut has well established "good" bacteria and that it is easier to start solids with a baby who is developmentally ready.

So now you know why I have chosen to wait. I really feel that babies aren't not ready to start solids early and that there truly is benefit to allowing your baby to mature. When I get some more time I'll post some of the photos of Annika eating some banana and explain how I'm skipping using pureed food and going straight to the real stuff.

Wondering about weaning

Annika is approaching the middle of her first year which means we are getting very close to being able to offer her solids and start weaning her. With my first three children I found this to be exciting and fun. Letting them taste all the interesting, yummy, and sometimes not so yummy things. Watching them try picking up little bits of things and then rub their fist all over their face until something ended up in their open mouth. Laughing at all the funny expressions that result after something tart. But this time I don't feel the same.

Up to this point the only thing that has gone into her little stomach has been breast milk. She is to be my last baby and I am finding that I want to keep her a little baby, I don't want to begin weaning her, a process which will ultimately end our nursing relationship. It's kind of funny that I would be worried about the end of breastfeeding because if things go the way nature intends I will still be breast feeding her for years.

Regardless of my feelings, she is starting to show signs that she will soon be ready to start solids and I will of course follow her cues. So what are theses signs that a baby is ready to start making the switch for a liquid diet to a solid one?

• Baby can sit without support. Annika is getting there, she can sit for about half a minute before flopping over.
• Baby has lost the tongue thrust reflex, that they no longer push solids out of their mouth with their tongue. We can put a check her for Annika.
• Baby had developed the pincer grasp, they can pick up small things with their thumb and pointer finger. Big no on this one, Annika still can only rake things up with her whole hand.
• Baby makes chewing motions, often while watching you eat. Annika sure likes to watch me eat and follows my fork and will even open her mouth too sometimes, but no chewing motions yet.
• Baby seems to be more hungry and nurse more often. This need to nurse shouldn't be confused with the need to nurse because baby being sick or getting comfort for teething pain and should be more of a long term need. This one is hard to judge and really you need to consider this one in with all the other signs of readiness. I think that she might be, but I also think she is teething so really I feel more comfortable using the other signs. Please note that it is typical  for a 4 month old to go through a growth spurt and will temporarily need to nurse more and that should not be confused with readiness to start solids.

So based on the above signs, Annika is not quite ready, but soon will be.

I'm sure some people will have noticed that I have not given a specific age as a sign of readiness to start solids. That is because there really isn't an age on which all babies will be read to start eating solids. Typically babies who have all the signs are about six months, with some of course being ready a little earlier and some being ready later. Annika right now will be 6 months old in 5 days, and will not quite be ready on her six month birthday so we will wait a little bit. I know that some people still are introducing solids at the 4 month mark, but any number of health agencies (WHO, Health Canada, Unicef, American Academy of Pediatrics, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners to name a few) recommend waiting until 6 months.

So why wait? I'll save that for next time. I'm typing with one hand and this is taking too darn long.

One + One = Too Hard

Before I had kids, I always figured that I would breastfed and that I wanted to do it with each baby for more than a few months, but the I never gave any thought to how that would work if a baby came quickly after his or her older sibling. Although I have spent tonnes of time with other breast feeding moms, I really haven't come across other moms who have two nurslings of different ages and I definitely haven't seen any moms out in public nursing an infant and a older child. So the whole idea really didn't even register a blip on my radar. Not until I became pregnant with Annika a year ago.

Kiersten had just turned one and I started to find that it hurt to feed her. I have been really blessed to have had pretty much no breastfeeding problems, I think I almost had mastitis with Jacob once, so this was really strange. I thought it might be because she was teething so I tried different positions to see if that worked. Nope. I didn't think it was thrush, her mouth looked okay and I didn't have any other symptoms. Then it dawned on me, I was late. The next time I was in the grocery store I bought a Home Pregnancy Test. Of course, there was the problem, two blue lines. Now I knew what was causing the pain, but it wasn't something I could fix. So now what?!?

Off to do some research on two of my favorite breast feeding websites, kellymom.com and llli.org. They are my go to places for most breast feeding questions and I have always found that my question are well answered. But this time I wasn't completely satisfied with what I found. They gave some suggestions, but basically it came down the fact that I might just have to deal with the pain.

In my research I also found out that getting pregnant often ends breast feeding for a number of reasons. Some are initiated by the mom and some are by the nursling. Obviously the pain issue can make mothers who don't have nipples of steel to think twice about letting that little mouth anywhere near them. Some pregnant moms feel agitated when nursing. At the beginning of your pregnancy the hormones change the flavour of your milk and some babies don't like the change. Pretty much all moms find that their milk dries up somewhere in the middle of their pregnancy and some babies take that as a sign to stop. Some babies who have made it to the third trimester find that the colostrum mom is now making is gross and give up now.

The pain was causing me to no longer look forward to feeding Kiersten and even try to delay feeding her. Though she was 12 months and eating a wide range of solids and was using a sippy cup and could handle less breast milk, breast feeding was so much more to us than just nutrition. It was also my way to comfort her as she never had had a soother and didn't have a special stuffy or blanket, and it was the easiest/fastest way to get her to go to sleep. As I entered the second trimester the pain lessened, but I still wasn't comfortable, I found I was felt irritated when Kiersten nursed. I found myself just wishing that she would decide to wean, so we could stop.

This agitation continued until the end on my pregnancy and made me feel really bad about our breast feeding relationship. On one hand I wanted to just quit, but on the other I felt strongely that Kiertsen should decide when she wanted to wean and that under normal circumstances most children don't naturally wean themselves before age two. On top of the conflicting feelings I also had to deal with the grief I felt when I noticed that my milk had dried up. Early in my pregnancy I had "decided" that my body would somehow go against nature and continue to do what I have always been able to do, which is make an ample amount of milk.

By the end of my pregnancy Kiersten was not nursing every day, but continued to ask. By this point I figured she was so persistent in continuing the breast feeding relationship, that she could go a day or so without it. And I knew that her persistence would be rewarded after Annika was born when there would be plenty milk for both. I figured things end up they way they would have been had I not been pregnant for most of her second year.

I had read a book about tandem nursing, one of the only ones out there, and although it left me with questions it had provided some ideas and positions. I felt like I would be able to manage the needs of two children. I figured I would give myself a couple days to get things going with Annika and would proceed to add Kiersten and voila breast feeding bliss. Alas, four months into tandem nursing and I still am struggling. I have only been able to feed both at the same time on a handful of occasions. Kiersten gets mama milk but less often than I figured she would at this point and  is mostly content with what she gets.

This whole situation has been a real learning experience for me. And also a bit humbling. Maybe I'm not quite the breast feeding guru I thought I was. It's made me think different about moms who say they don't enjoy breast feeding. I also feel for moms who's milk dries up. And to moms who are breast feeding twins, you are my hero.

Gone Too Long

Wow, it's been a long time since I wrote my first post. At the time I didn't know if this was something that I wanted to do on a regular basis or if it would end up another one of those things that I start and never get back to. I think that I do want to keep this up though, as over the past year and a few months I have been thinking about what I could say and even composing in my head while falling asleep.

A lot has changed in the past 16 months, the biggest would be the addition of baby number 4, making life very busy indeed. Also some of my opinions have changed. Some are more relaxed, but others have pushed me even further toward being one of those crazy, natural mamas. I think that I want to change the name of this blog, as I would to comment on more than just breastfeeding. I'll have to let things bounce around in my head a little more before I settle on a new name, but hopefully it won't take to long, certainly less than another 16 months.