The Big Burp

Why do babies need to be burped? Why don't they just burp naturally like the rest of us? I suppose they would burp eventually on their own, but we need them to burp sooner than later so that they get the air out of their tummies and make room for more food so that they're not hungry again in 10 minutes. That's my reason-- not the official one.

I am just learning the importance of burping with this second child. I never burped DS (though in hindsight maybe I should have.) This child seems to need it more.

Public Nursing: Covering Up

I recently discovered that the best way for me to cover up while I'm nursing is to drape one of these cheesecloth diapers over my shoulder and wrap another one around my middle. This is when I'm just wearing a t-shirt over my bra. There are lots of different techniques. I used to have a fancy schmancy nursing apron but it never really solved the issue of my stomach being exposed. Some people like to wear a tube top under their shirt so that you pull one layer down and pull the other layer up, exposing pretty much nothing but whatever baby needs to suck on. This is a great technique but it's waaay too hot for me to be wearing anything but one layer right now. Another idea I saw in some online video was to wrap a pashmina shawl all around you. I haven't tried this yet, but it sounds like a great idea. I even have a very wide, long scarf that is also a very light material that maybe won't make me and baby break out in a sweat every time it's time for her to eat. I'll let my readers know how that goes.

Pain In My Nipple

When I was breastfeeding DS starting nearly two years ago, I remember there being a lot of pain involved. It would hurt when he nursed for the first couple of minutes and then it would be okay. But it really hurt. I remember cringing and trying to explain the sensation to DH. I think it was because DS was such an efficient nurser. I mean, the kid was a sucking machine. When he was done, there was not a spot of milk left in a ten kilometer vicinity. With this new baby, she's a lot more lazy about eating, as far as I can tell. She also doesn't seem to care about it quite as much, though lately she is starting to ask for the nipple as a soother and not just for food. What she'll do is prime the pump and then hang out and catch the resulting spray and swallow that. I can tell when my supply is running low because then she actually has to suck. And back to the title of this post, it never hurt me when she was nursing until recently. And what started the pain was not her but the breast pump. Until I first used it, I had no sensation whatsoever. Now I've got a pain on one side but the other side is OK. It's not the same pain I experienced in the last round of breastfeeding like it was with DS. This is much more mild and tolerable. What's consistent is the feeling that the pain would go away if I would simply give it time to heal. Of course, that's impossible. I need to keep using it. I can handle it, though.

Blogging Is Hard To Do

Blogging Is Hard To Do.... when you're breastfeeding. I realize now why this blog did not go so well last time I was breastfeeding: You can't nurse and type at the same time. Even when I'm not nursing, I'm often holding her because that's what you do with newborns. So progress has been slow on this blog, as my readers will tell you.

The Boob Is Back: Breastfeeding My Second Child

The first few days and maybe the first few weeks of breastfeeding are probably the most interesting in terms of development. I guess that's an obvious thing to say but I'm realizing now how much things have changed in terms of breastfeeding since the day my daughter was born-- and that was just three weeks ago!

Dry Nipples and Cream

I am very bad at doing all these girly things like putting lotion on after a shower -- or ever. When I'm pregnant I make a bigger effort with my cocoa butter lotion in order to prevent stretch marks. I know, I know, there's no guarantee-- but I didn't get stretch marks last time. Of course, last time I didn't get nearly as big as I am this time. To give you an idea of how little I use ceram, I've had the same bottle of Palmers since we got married and now we're on our second kid. Do the math yourself. I bought another bottle when I was pregnant last time but it's still sitting new in my cupboard. And I don't only use it during pregnancy. I used it on my face in the winter when the heaters and the breastfeeding were making me so dry that I felt like my face was cracking off.
Back to my nipples. The point is, they're dry and cracked. I don't think it's thrush but I don't want to take the chance. But I also don't feel like putting lotion on. Truth is, I just plain forget all about it. Who thinks about dry nipples until they take their shirt off. And if I'm taking my shirt off, I'm probably on my way to bed and I don't have the energy for nipple rubbing, or else it's morning and I have better things to do, like chase after my DS to get him dressed for kindergarten. I guess we'll just have to wait and see if this clears itself up like it did last time. Actually, maybe I was a little more diligent about it last time. I recall using baby oil or something. Or was that on my itchy scalp?

Nursing Bras

When I was nursing (and I plan on doing it again soon) bras were imperative for keeping the nursing pads in. Otherwise I would have huge wet marks across the fronts of my shirts. http://breastfeedingchronicles.blogspot.com . The problem was that I couldn't actually find a nursing bra that was small enough for me. They don't make them for virtually flat-chested women. Fortunately, the nursing pad helped fill it up.

I bring this up because I just read an articles about going bra-free: http://hubpages.com/hub/Why-I-Go-Bra-Free . The truth is, it took me until age 15 to start wearing bras at all and then it was only because my nipples were poking through my shirts. Some people don't mind that, but it didn't go over well at a religious school-- and anyway I don't like it.