Wordless Wednesday......(a little late)

3 Times the Charm? When it comes to Breastfeeding....Not Always....

I thought I was a breastfeeding professional.  Between 3 kids I have logged 52 months of breastfeeding which is roughly about 4 years and 3 months.  Breastfeeding my first was hard.  We dealt with the pain and the uncertainty for about 6 weeks and then things were great till I sadly had to wean him at 15 months due to my cancer diagnosis and needing to start chemotherapy.   My second baby was a breeze to nurse until his food sensitivities started.  Once I eliminated EVERYTHING from my diet things got better and I nursed him for 2.5 years, till I was roughly 5 months pregnant with my 3rd child.  Baby #3 was born and everything just seemed easy.  He was a great nurser and sleeper.  He was the picture perfect baby until his teeth started coming in and didn't stop.  From the time he was about 3 month old he has gotten a tooth or 2 a month.  That is a lot of teeth.  He now sits at 8 teeth at barely 8 months old.  As the teeth came in, his latch got worse and worse, my supply dropped, and he started wailing all night long for food.  I started to think I was loosing my mind.  I called a friend who happens to be an IBCLC (Certified Lactation Consultant) and she literally came running to my house the day that I had found out that Brady had lost a pound.  I was scared.  The truth was that he was not getting enough milk.  She figured out quickly that Brady's upper lip tie and tongue tie was probably causing all the issues.  He had had them from birth, but once the teeth started plowing out of his gums at the ridiculous rate he couldn't compensate his latch anymore.  It was a chain reaction of him not being able to nurse properly and my supply dropping.  I was scared.  Taking her advice I took a trip out to see a Pediatric Dentist that does laser ULT and TT revisions.  From my research and talking to people the laser seemed like a better option that the traditional method of snipping.  After meeting with the dentist a week ago, we had to make the decision to do the revision or wait and see if things would get better on their own.  But after another week of misery we decided to go through with the revision. 

Yesterday was the big day and let me tell you, I was freaking out.  We got to the dentist around 12:45 pm and it went quickly from there.  They took him to the back while we waited in the waiting room.  He was weighed, given a dose of Tylenol, swaddled down, had before pictures taken, the numbed his mouth with drops, used the laser (which was about 20 seconds total), and then did after pictures.  He cried.  A LOT.  It was hard to hear him scream, but before long the dentist came out holding him.  He was upset, but he got over it quickly and the first time he nursed in the office was like night and day!  It really already is making a difference in his latch.

For the next 2 weeks we need to do stretches a few times a day.  That means some screaming, but he doesn't seem like he is in pain less than 24 hours after having it done.  His sleep was about the same as when he is getting a tooth.  Mostly he hates me putting my fingers in his mouth (but who really likes it?).  So that is where we are now.  Hopefully this makes a difference and I can rebuild my supply quickly and he can get back to his old chubby baby self.   

2014 Flats and Hand Washing Challenge!

Kim over at Dirty Diaper Laundry  just announced the dates for this years Flats and Hand Washing Challenge!  I am so excited  to be able to participate again this year.  I did it when Matthew was a baby back in 2012 and it was a lot of fun.  I realize that washing diapers by hand does not seem like it would be fun, but it was.  It was also fun to link up with other Bloggers and read how they did with the Challenge.  I have not yet decided what supplies I am going to go with this time around.  But it is time to start thinking!

Here is more information on why we do this.  For me living in an apartment with no personal laundry area (unless I want to drag diapers to my mom's house, which I do!) this is a week for me to ditch the washer and wash at home.


The 2014 Flats and Hand Washing Challenge is running May 11-17.

My New Adventure!

If having 3 kids isn't enough.....

Recently I became a Cloth Diaper Advocate with Imagine Baby Products.  Since I have been using cloth diapers since Daniel was a baby, I figured I have some knowledge that I might be able to share and why not do it in a way I can help out my family by bringing in some income.  Since this is a new thing I am doing, I have no idea on how it is going to go, but I can't wait to get started.  I am currently looking into starting to throw Cloth Diaper Parties (think Tupperware parties but with cloth diapers, lol) as well as Twitter Parties and giveaways.  But for now.......

If anyone would like more information on cloth diapers please don't hesitate to ask, I can send you tons of information.  If you already are cloth diapering your kids and would like to or need to buy more fluff please check out Imagine Baby Products at the link below.  They have wonderfully affordable products that work!

So I Blinked......

And this......

Turned to this....

Where does the time go?

Wordless Wednesday

Eating Disorder Awareness Week - What you might not know about me.

Today kicks off the start of Eating Disorder Awareness Week.  More people die from eating disorders than from any other psychiatric illness.  Eating disorders destroy lives and families.  I know more than I would like to know about eating disorders because at age 16 I was diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa.  The funny thing about eating disorders are that they start small.  They are sneaky.  I remember with me it was the end of my sophomore year of high school.  During that summer I decided that my thighs were too fat and I was going to diet.  The diet became skipped meals, became hours of exercise, became a 20lb and then a 30lb weight loss over a year.  By the time I was 17 years old, my mom had exhausted all the outpatient therapies and nutritionists she could trying to help me and with my health failing (I was 89lbs at almost 5'8) she put me inpatient.  First it was at a psychiatric hospital in Pennsylvania that had an eating disorder program, but when that proved to be too dangerous (since we were mixed with violent children with other psychiatric illnesses) she moved me to a eating disorder program at Princeton Medical Center.  It was her last option.  Surely without some sort of intervention I would have died.  I spent the entire summer of 1999 inpatient doing group therapy, solo therapy, nutritional therapy, and was heavily medicated.  Slowly but surely I gained weight, followed the rules and was discharged a week before I was to start my senior year of high school.

The funny thing about eating disorders is they are never really "cured".  I like to say that like Cancer (which I have had too!), eating disorders go into "remission" and when they flare the person with the eating disorder needs to decide if they want to fight to keep themselves together and healthy, or let the eating disorder win.  I started my senior year of school, but that wasn't the end of the story.  Just 2 weeks after starting school I managed to loose 20lbs.  Back inpatient I went and this time it was longer.  Much longer. I rebelled, I fought tooth and nail AGAINST the program.  I was determined to "NOT GET FAT!" no matter what the cost.  I ended up even more medicated, just barely missed getting a feeding tube, and earned myself a one-on-one and bedrest because I liked doing jumping jacks in my bathroom.  It wasn't all bad though.  While I was there I met a lot of wonderful people.  I met someone there that still to this day remains one of my very best friends.  Eating disorders are very isolating.  No one really understands what it is like to live with the voice in your head telling you that you are fat when you are 70lbs.  People don't understand why you can't "just eat".  Friendships were formed out of a common foe.  I spent most of September, all of October, and almost all of November in those walls.  Finally around Thanksgiving my doctor decided that I would be better off going home, because staying there wasn't doing any good for me anymore.  My mom was scared and so was I.  She brought me home the day after Thanksgiving and I have never been inpatient since. Almost 15 years.  I am an almost 15 year eating disorder survivor.  That is a huge deal.  I am one of the lucky ones.  I know many people that weren't as lucky as I am.  They didn't make it.  I am happy to say that my friend that I met inpatient all those years ago has finally found her road to recovery.  She is 2 years hospital free.  Some people have harder roads to recovery than I have had.  My journey hasn't been easy and there are still days now all these years later when I have to make the decision to keep myself healthy and I do.  Not just for me, but for my sons and my husband.