Monthly Archives: December 2009

Already dreading the breastpump

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I was happily surprised to see that one of my blog posts of the last year was included in the list of Best Breastfeeding Blogs and Blog Posts of 2009 by the blog PhD in Parenting.

And that got me to thinking about the fact that I will once again be breastfeeding a baby in 2010, almost TWENTY YEARS after I became a mama for the first time, to my sweet baby H, who is now 18 years old and a high school grad. I only nursed H for a few weeks, because I had no idea what I was doing and I got superbad medical advice on HOW to nurse my baby. But I did breastfeed him. I then nursed J between 1995 and 1999 (Yes, that’s four years. What can I say? The kid liked to nurse!), and E between 1998 and 2001. Then I breastfed C for 13 months between 2007 and 2008. And now I’ll be a breastfeeding mother again, for the last time.

That’s a whole lot of breastfeeding! It’s definitely been one of the most gratifying, enjoyable parts of motherhood for me. The only parts I did not enjoy were the few bouts with mastitis that I had over the years, nursing J while pregnant with E (HATED nursing while pregnant and probably wouldn’t do it again unless I were pregnant but also still had a nursling under 12 months of age), and the godawful experience of pumping as a full-time working mother, which I dealt with for the first time with C.

I have to admit that I am already truly dreading the pumping part of breastfeeding this time around. As I’ve blogged before, my extreme hatred of everything about pumping gave me a deeper understanding of how strongly felt some women’s dislike is for breastfeeding itself. I assume that the women who tell me that they just hated nursing sort of feel the way I feel about pumping. Pumping was a very humbling experience for me. I used a Medela Pump in Style last time, which many women find to work great, but I think that this time I will either cough up the $$$ for another brand of high-end consumer-grade pump, like the Avent Isis (have any of you tried this one?), or I may even rent a hospital grade pump like the Medela Lactina (have any of you used one of these as a working mom pump?). Maybe with a breastpump that I like better, it won’t be so bad. Maybe. I hope. I also now have a job with a more predictable schedule and an office of my own with a door that locks, which wil be a lot easier than trying to find time to leave a busy newsroom and go hide in some out of the way, freezing spot in the building to try to pump. So that will certainly be an improvement.

But even so, I am not looking forward to that part of working while mothering a baby. Maybe some of you can relate.

“Knocked-up Housewives of Appalachia”

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I’m trying to figure out how I can manage to score a reality TV show out of this pregnancy. Unfortunately, Mr. Darcy is only my fifth baby, so I would need to pop out quite a few more before that metric will get me anywhere. And while I am classified on the paperwork at my OB’s office as being of “Advanced Maternal Age” (also noted as “Elderly Multigravida”), I am not sufficiently aged to use that angle to get Ryan Seacrest or Mark Burnett to take a meeting with me.

So I think I need some sort of twist on somebody else’s hit show. I’m totally thinking “Knocked Up Housewives of Appalachia: Barefoot, Pregnant and Livin’ Large.” I think it has real promise, as I really do live in Appalachia; I really am knocked-up, and I really do go barefoot as often as possible. Plus, I am definitely getting larger at a rapid pace, having discovered at my OB appointment yesterday that I somehow managed to gain NINE POUNDS in the past THREE WEEKS…all before I’ve even finished the first trimester.

How does someone even manage to do this? Doesn’t that sort of weight gain kind of defy the laws of physics? Or God and nature? Or something? At this rate I will weigh 600 POUNDS by week 40 of my pregnancy. Hey! That could be my reality show ticket!

Let us now give thanks and praise for CRYSTALLIZED GINGER

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Forget Zofran. Totally useless for me, as it turns out. Did nothing.

My new, new BFF is crystallized ginger. Several previously pregnant friends who also suffered from the constant, debilitating nausea I am living with at the moment recommended that I try it, and last night, in a fit of total desperation I had Jon drive me over to the food coop just before 9pm closing time, where I picked up some of the sugary ginger. I started nibbling it, and felt better almost immediately.

PRAISE JESUS!

ginger

This morning I’ve been noshing on the stuff every hour or two and in combination with carbonated water, it’s definitely, definitely making a difference. I feel almost normal today, if still a bit sleepier than usual. But I can live with that.

I also plan to pick up some of the accupressure sea-bands that other friends have recommended, so I’m hoping those help as well. One important thing I’ve discovered is that I have to be super picky about what I eat in order to avoid total and complete nausea hell. For example, I learned the hard way after attending a movie on Saturday night that no matter how tasty it might look at the time, consuming half of a giant tub of buttered movie popcorn is NOT a good idea for the sensitive pregnant tummy. I paid for that indiscretion for the next 24 hours – literally.

No, the best thing is to eat smallish meals of things like saltines and cream cheese or orange slices and small bites of turkey. All of which will now be topped off by a generous helping of crystallized ginger.