5 Favorites: Vol. 3

 

1.  16 mm Medela nipple shield.  (TMI, sorry).  I always have issues breastfeeding.  Every single child has presented with a set of never-ending issues--some mine, some theirs, all frustrating.  The unifying thread for all of them has been the need for a nipple shield the.entire.time.  I actually don't mind it at this point--I wouldn't know what to do without one anymore anyway.  Having said that, a standard 20 mm size has been just fine for all the other babies, but they were all born closer to term than our little Ponchik, so she needed a 16 mm size.  Before that, nursing was an angry, frustrating latch-on-latch-off crying for 30 minutes affair.  Now, bliss.  (Or at least as close to bliss as someone with oversupply, painful letdown, and general unhappiness with breastfeeding can get).

2.  Related to #1, Amazon Prime.  The hospital didn't have anything but 20 mm size, and by the time we figured out Ponchik needed the smaller size, it was the weekend, and no local stores were open that had them.  Enter Amazon Prime Shipping.  We've had it for several years and I use it all the time and love it--worth every penny.  We ordered late on Saturday night, it arrived by Monday midday.  No need to take my c-section recovering self all over creation with a preemie looking for a smaller shield!  I love that!  

3.  Our little Ponchik.  'Nuff said.

4.  Even though I'm not nursing 18 hours a day with this baby (at least not yet!), I still find I need a fair amount of sitting down time to recuperate from the c-section (exciting birth story to come, hopefully early next week).  My mom is here to help, and she told me about Sarah's House, an HGTV series available to stream online (since we don't have a tv, if it isn't online, I won't be seeing it).  I'm most of the way through the Farmhouse season, and it is just perfect for right now.  Doesn't require mental energy, is completely light and airy, and the episodes are 20 minutes or so, so perfect for lots of interruptions. 

5.  My appetite has been pretty whacked out this pregnancy, and hasn't really returned postpartum.  I keep forgetting to eat, and get to the end of the day and realize I'm short a lot of calories.  (Believe me this is a weird state of affairs for me, as I'm usually crazy hungry post partum, and tend to even put on a bit of weight after--insult to injury, if you ask me).  Right now, I'm just not that hungry, but I know I need to eat enough to keep up my milk supply (and I was a bit malnourished/anemic at the end of my pregnancy), so I've been drinking more of the Naked Protein Zone Berry Blast smoothies.  I was keeping one or two around before, because I find the texture of the protein smoothies to be a little bit grainy, but I'm liking them more post-partum as I feel they give more bang for my caloric buck than the Bolthouse Berry Boost smoothies I usually drink.  I'm still drinking the Bolthouse, but I feel that I can count the Naked smoothies as a meal replacement, whereas the Bolthouse ones are more liquid refreshment and gastroparesis-friendly fruit content for the day  Just wish the Naked ones didn't cost so much! 

 

Right, so that's me for today; go see Hallie for more Faves!