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Sunday, May 20, 2012

Why is it always a miscarriage??

Why is it that any'time a woman has a heavy period, or something that looks a little weird, or abnormal pain, or a late menstration they assume its a miscarrige. I know women who honestly beleive they have been pregnant multiple times because of a heavy periods. Or women who take a pregnancy test thats negative and assume that its too late and they must have been pregnant. This makes me crazy.

"Oh I know I was pregnant."

No you didn't. No positive pregnancy test. No confirmation. You weren't

Women have chemical pregnancies/ miscarriages and their tests are positive.

If this crazy logic is true then I was pregnant over 40 times throughout highschool.  Its normal to think "I might be pregnant." its not normal to assume when your period comes you are pregnant.

"But I saw a white clump." This could be discharge that has gotten dense, it could be calcium in the blood that has clumped together. If you did not get a positive pregnancy test these things are what you are seeing.

"I bled so much!" No you didn't. You haven't seen bleeding a lot. Litterally soaking a pad every 30 minutes is a lot and you are supposed togo to the er. But what they don't say is when you get to the er unless you are dehydrated, anemic, or have signs of massive bloodloss its not a concern. I have known women who soak tampons and super pads simultaniously multiple times an hour. Its just their heavy period. FYI Women have heavy periods. Its true. it doesn't matter if you never had a heavy period before. So many things effect hormone. Hell if you eat too much soy it can mess with you cycle.

"My cramping is sooo bad." Cramping happens. It doesn't mean you are havign a miscarriage. It could mean you have a little too much hormone in your system and your body is having a heard time shedding the lining. You might need to drink water. Theres so many thing that happen that are not pregnancy that cause this. My sisters cramping was so bad she couldn't walk. I had to carry her naked once from the bathroom floor where she colapsed to her bed while she cried and moaned. She was not having a miscarriage.

"I know I was pregnant." STFU. When I was 16 I "Knew" I was pregnant. Then I took an effing pregnamcy test and I wasn't. You brain did not mature enough to process the negative test. You have some other issues you need to deal with.

Also know pregnancies timeline. Implantation is what gives you a positive test. It takes 6 to 12 days after ovulation for this to happen. Those days prior the egg is floating and not giving you hormones.  So if you had sex you cannot have a miscarriage 3 days later.

Also it is terribly offensive for you to compare your heavy period, food poisoning, cyst, and so on to someone who has lost a child!!!!

If you did not get a positive pregnancy test, or did not see actual products of conception you were not pregnant. If you think you are  having a miscarriage go to the er!!! DON'T HANG OUT AND SPECULATE! If you are ok enough to hang out then you are not having a micarriage.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Breasfeeding is hard.

I now understand what everyone was talking about. And to all you super natural moms out there that had an easy time stop rubbing it in out faces! To all you lacatation consultants out there screw you acting like it should be so easy. Don't get me wrong it is easy now. But those first three weeks were terrible. Things i learned.

Baibies are picky. What position worked one minute didn't the next. I would try 6 different positions before i would find one.

What do you mean I will cry as much as him?? Its not hormones (well it might be) its so frustrating I cried a bunch of times. You have a hungry baby and you can't feed him because you can't figure out something that is supposed to be natural??????? Um its hard, sure we figure it out but man it was intense.

What do you mean they might have more than one burp or none at all??? No one taught me this. Q can have three or more.  He would nurse for a second and cry. Then he would burp and still do it. Finaly I reallized he had mulitple burps. Also crying makes them swallow air. So check.

What do you mean if i turn on the white noise on the tv it will calm him down and make it easier. Why don't they tell you this in the hospital??? White noise is a fussy nursers best friend.

Don't suppliment! A bottle no matter how boob like is easier than a boob. Why would a baby want to nurse a boob when he can get the same out of a bottle much easier....lazy babies.

No pacifiers! They give him one in the hospital.

Nonstop nursing....just let it happen. Your baby is not starving they are just trying to get your supply up.  Smart babies.

Count diapers... even if your baby is fussy 6 to 8 wet diapers a day is good.

Weight gain! Is important but some loss is ok.

Hand express the colostrum. So your baby is not nursing much in the begining try this. Even a few drops of your colostrum is better than nothing.  Even a teaspoon is considered a feeding. It will minimize weighloss. just drip into the side of the mouth.

Get your bf, dh, so, to help you.  There were many times where I would feel like giving up and DH would swoop in hold the boob and the baby. Help me move manuver and so on to get the baby latched. He was a life saver.

Don't buy backup formula just in case. You will use it if you do and start on the downward spiral.

Use the lactation consultants in the hospital!!!

At 2 months or so your baby will get efficient. Q went from 30 minuted feedingd to 9 minutes and never looked back.

When i was in the hospital a neonatologist came in and complained that only 30% of women breastfeed and how terrible that number is. Even if its just a few months weeks or years. It is really whats best for baby.

Oh Baby

I cant beleive I never posted about Quintins birth. He was born November 30th. I was induced due to murky amniotic fluid at 37. He was perfect 7lbs 11oz. He was very very red. I wish they had told us at the time that he would probably be jaundice because of it. We got home the day after he was born. The induction was very smooth. He was born 4 hours after they started pitocin. But at day 3 he was so lethargic and we had to take him to the nicu to be under the lights for jaundice. He was there for 5 days. He had a  hard time nursing at first but is such a  champ now. He weighs 18lbs at 3 months!!! Big boy. He is so sweet and smart. He rolled over at 7 weeks and has been learning and doing adorbale things non stop.

Preterm Labor...

Listen, to all of the women on all of the forums out there. I understand your doctors. Cramping is normal, discharge is normal and so on. Let me tell you as someone who has suffered preterm labor and lost babies and someone who has suffered preterm labor and had a sucessful pregnancy. 1 in 8 babies are born premature. Yes 1 in 8. So I want you to think about your doctor who dismisses your concerns, Then same healthcare professional pushes all sorts of tests. Tests that check for things with probabilities that are one in thousands.

Preterm labor symptoms and pregnancy discomforts are similar. But to brush it off when the ods are so high is ridiculous.By the time its so bad they will listen its usually too late even for steroids to help little babies lungs. So you need to speak up. If your doctor wont listen then go to the er. demand testing, monitoring. Beleive me, your insurance would rather pay for your hospital bedrest then a baby in the nicu. So some test they can do.

Placenta Monitoring: Measure the effectiveness and health of the placenta
Fetalfibronectin: Test discharge to see if there is a chemical presents that can be an indicator of preterm labor.
Cervical ultrasound: check the length and integrity of the cervix.

If all else fails and you still feel that something is not right ask for a bedrest order. Bedrest saved my sons life.

gdiaper Review

gDiapers are a cloth diaper with cloth insert options or disposable insert options. Now I am not in any way much of a hippie but my Husbands skin is so very sensitive that I did not even want to mess with disposable. Not to mention we live up three flights of stairs the idea of walking diapers down all those stairs seemed to be worse than one extra load of laundry a day. I purchased gdiapers because it seemed to be the most reasonable with the most options.  I purchased first their newborn diapers. They are supposed to fit a baby from 6 to 10 lbs. I got 12 of them with some bundle. But they did not fit Quintin when he was born at 7lb 11oz. They were too small and cut off circulation from his legs so much that they would turn purple.  So we went to the smalls. They fit great for 4 weeks before he grew out of them. They were supposed to last from 8lbs to 14lbs. They only lasted us until 11lbs. Which worried me. I consulted my doctor. Maybe my son was not proportioned correctly. He said he was a big baby but just as long as he was chubby and normal. So we went to mediums again fit great for 2 more months. Again they fit babies 14lbs to 28lbs, but my son is only 18lbs and they no longer fit him. This time I contacted the company. I had purchased 12 newborns which never fit, 10 smalls which lasted less than a month and 10 mediums that lasted less than two months.  $480 in diapers that only lasted three months was ridiculous to me and so far out of their range that I felt they should at least give me a discount on the next size up.  I contacted them and got no help. They just kept saying my baby was a big baby and the sizes are just guidelines. Which I understand but when a size spans 14lbs and stops fitting after 4lbs or never fits at all I think that even a different shaped baby would get farther than that and the company should address it. In the end they did not help me at all and just kept relaying their return policy to me. Which ment they could not help me. Such a bummer they work great when they fit but only fit for a few weeks. So in the end if I could go back I would not chose Gdiapers. I would spent the extra cash to get on that has mor adjustment options, better customer service and more realistic size spans.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Things I want to Eat. Creamed Fingerling Potatoes With Parsley

What You Need:
1lb of fingerling potatoes (Yukon gold will work too if they are cheaper)
2 tbs Fresh Parsley (You can use dill in addition to parsley if you want) chopped very fine
4 Garlic Cloves Minced or Crushed
1/2 Stick of Butter
3/4 Cup Sour Cream
Salt and Pepper

Boil the potatoes until soft (Soft enough to where if you wanted mashed potatoes it could go that way)

Strain the potatoes

While they are straining melt butter and garlic together in the same pot you used to boil the potatoes
Once they are good and melted and the garlic has cooked a little and the potatoes back into the pot and stir around, then remove from heat.

Add the sour cream and herbs and then stir, stir a lot ans smash some of the potatoes as you go to make a semi mashed but still whole potato mixture.

Add salt and pepper to taste

This dish goes amazing with pork tenderloin.

Things I Want To Eat! Vegetable Eggs Benedict!

Vegetable Eggs Benedict.

Lets start with Holondaise (I have realized I have no idea how to spell this word) sauce.

Grab (For 2 people)
 4 eggs
1 stick of butter
the juice of two lemons (or one i cannot remember don't dump it in when its time add gradually and taste)

Separate the egg yolks set aside, then cut the butter into pieces for easy handling

Now this is important get a big glass of hot water.

Start a double boiler system preferably metal. So one pot boiling water and some sort of smaller metal thing to dip in the water for heat.

Now this is weird and I'm not sure if my method is how its supposed to be done, if you melt too much butter first your sauce will separate, of you don't put enough butter in the yolks will cook too fast and clump. So start with like a table spoon of butter into your double boiler let it melt. Then get ready with a whisk. Add the egg yolk and whisk till smooth should be pretty fast like 15 seconds , if it looks like they are cooking to fast remove bowl from hot water and stir away from heat, then add the rest of the butter one piece at a time until all gone. Now stir that for about 2 minutes so its mixed before adding the lemon. If at any time the mixture starts to get lumpy or too thick add a few table spoons of hot water. Its ok if you add too much water eventually it will cook out.

Add the lemon a tablespoon at a time so you get a good taste, of it gets too lemony add another yolk if its too yolky and more butter if its too buttery and one of the other two until you get a good taste. Last add salt ad pepper to taste. People like to use white pepper to keep the color. I feel like white pepper tastes weird so I just use black pepper.

If it turned out too lumpy you can use a hand blender to smooth out, also if you like a more frothy sauce this will do that also.

Honestly buying a loaf of french bread and having a friend over and practicing a couple times is not  a bad idea and so delicious.

Now the sauce can sit, just stir it really good for a couple minutes and then add a tbs or two of really hot water every so often to keep it together and warm. It will continue to thicken as you go. (You can use the water from your double boiler)

Now for the rest. Vegetable Eggs Benedict is easy. I don't put it on English muffins because I like it to be a little different.

Eggs

Poached eggs (again this is a practice thing, good luck)

Veggies You Will Need

Tomatoes
Alfalfa Sprouts
Avocado
Spinach

Bread You Will Need

French Bread
Garlic
Fresh Parsley
Butter

Now here is the tricky part, the vegetables are best cold, but it will make your breakfast cold. So in my experience you need to slice the tomatoes thick, (Like a good thick sandwich slice) and fry them in a super hot pan for just a second or two each side to get them warm. 

Cook the spinach until wilted (But not mush) in garlic butter

Drop eggs into big pot of boiling water. (Wash this pot as soon as possible as poaching eggs can kind of destroy a pot)

While this is happening, put butter garlic and a little fresh parsley and melt together, then brush onto bread slices and toast. Toast just enough to be brown but not super hard, you can also toast them in a pan if you want.

Layer the bread then the avocado, then spinach, then the poached egg, tomato and sprouts. Then pour sauce on top and eat.

If you want to make it gluten free

 instead of bread take mashed potatoes and fry in a pan in little cakes in the garlic butter (Honestly this tastes better than bread anyway)

To make it super amazing use salmon fillet (Also changes it to a dinner if you want)

How to cook the salmon fillet.

Same as everything else, take some parsley, dill, salt, pepper and a little rosemary and spread over the the top of the Salmon fillet. Then get a lemon and slice half of it and place slices all  over fillet. Then use the other half and squeeze juice all over the fillet. The take 1 tbs of butter per serving and place on top of the fillets. The set oven to broil, and broil until fish is tender and flaky. Place fish on bread first then add all of the other stuff.

Goes great with asparagus, and a pilaf rice.