nursing musings

I'm officially done nursing Asher.

I expected to be more upset over the end of this special part of our relationship, but I'm really not.  I think that's sign #1 that is was the right time.  I also expected that Asher would be more upset, but honestly he never batted an eye.  That was sign #2.

I was ready.  He was ready.  It was time.

For the past few weeks I have been getting less and less milk at each pumping session.  I think my body knew it was time to shut down production as well.  When Asher was born my goal was to nurse him through the first year - and I did.  I'm really proud and grateful that that was possible.

We had a little hiccup when Asher's milk protein allergy showed its ugly face around the 5 month mark.  Fortunately we were able to work through that and move on without having to stop nursing altogether.  Breastfeeding was the best choice for us and I'm really happy that it worked so seamlessly for 12 whole months.    

For those of you who are soon-to-be wean-ers {that one was for you, Ashlie - I'm still laughing about Brandon's comment...} let me give you some of the nitty gritty.

I was really concerned about reliving the engorgement discomfort that I had in the first few days after Asher was born.  That was awful and avoiding it was priority #1.  It turns out that the easiest way to steer clear of getting that oh-so-full feeling is to go s-l-o-w-l-y.  I dropped one nursing or pumping session a week until I was down to just nursing Asher first thing in the morning.  Once that week was up, I simply offered him milk in a cup that morning and didn't nurse or pump.  Later that day I pumped to relieve the build up, but that was it.  I haven't pumped since and feel great.

Like the epidural, I had a lot of fear leading up to it and nothing but smooth sailing during and afterward.

I'm a little sad that this special time with Asher is over, but mostly I'm thrilled to have my body back!  Woo hoo!

Good bye pump - don't let the door hit you on the way to the back of my closet.  :o)

dairy-tacular

I'm back!

I'm back!

I'm back on dairy!!

Asher's pediatric GI said that we should start incorporating dairy back into my diet when Asher turned 9 months old and see how he does.  I didn't waste any time and started {slowly} having dairy again last week.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration at all to say that it's made my year to be back amongst the dairy.

{Asher was born in 2009, so I can say that and not lose my mother of the year award}

I think Ben & Jerry's Phish Food frozen yogurt is the BEST food ever invented.  I could eat it all day long.  In fact, yesterday I did.

And Emily looked upon the empty pint and saw that it was good.  Oh, so good.

So far, Asher's doing great with the addition of dairy.  I know it might take awhile for his system to become irritated enough to start showing blood in his poo again, so I'll be, um, monitoring his diapers for the next few weeks.  If all remains well then we're on track to give A an oral dairy challenge once he turns a year old.

Wish us luck!

In other big news - Asher ate Puffs today!  All on his own!  He chewed them up and everything!  Yay, go Ash!

pineapple pork tacos

It's dairy-free recipe time again!

Based on my recent recipes it probably seems like I eat an extraordinary amount of pork.  That's just a coincidence.  Actually we tend to eat quite a bit of chicken and beef, so when I find good pork recipes I get super excited to try them out!

This recipe came from an issue of Real Simple magazine.  Do you get Real Simple?  You need to!  I love this magazine!!  It has tons of great recipes, organizing, cleaning, fashion, and parenting tips.  Wait, this wasn't suppose to be an ad for Real Simple.  Back to dinner...

Pineapple Pork Tacos


1 chipotle chile + 2T adobo sauce
3T honey
2 cloves garlic, crushed with press
1/2 small pineapple, cut into 1/2" slices (or 1 can pineapple slices)

1 pound boneless pork chops
1/2 small red onion, sliced
1/4C cilantro, chopped

8 corn tortillas

• In blender, puree: chile, adobo sauce, honey, garlic, 1/2 of the pineapple slices, 1/4tsp salt + pepper
• Put pork chops in gallon zip bag, pour 1/3C sauce over chops
• Seal bag and marinade chops in refrigerator for a few hours
• Save remaining sauce in sealed container
• When ready to cook: grill pork chops, onion, + remaining pineapple until cooked through
• Chop onion + pineapple, place in bowl + add cilantro
• Cut pork into chunks
• Make tacos using pork, pineapple salsa, + extra sauce

This sauce has a pretty intense kick to it, but the pineapple cools it down remarkably.  If you like less spice, just use half a chile, instead of a whole one.

Enjoy!

dairy free's the life for me

Back by popular demand, dairy free recipes!  Here's what Drew and I had for dinner over the weekend....

Pork BBQ and Cole Slaw

Yum!!

This is a great weekend meal because the pork BBQ is best when cooked low and slow.  Drew is mostly in charge of making the pork, so I'm working from his, um, loose directions.  He tends to be a little of this, a little of that kind of chef. 

Day 1:

• Dry rub the pork roast and refrigerate overnight

1T paprika
1/2 T brown sugar
1/2 T chili powder
1/2T ground cumin
3/4 tsp pepper
1tsp salt
1tsp cinnamon (this makes a HUGE difference, use it!)
1tsp garlic powder

Mix together and rub over trimmed 3+lbs pork roast

• Make the cole slaw and refrigerate overnight

1 bag Cole Slaw mix {salad section of grocery store}
1/2 C mayo
1/2 T apple cider vinegar
3T sugar

Pour Cole Slaw mix (cabbage + carrots) into large bowl
Sprinkle with generous salt and pepper
Mix remaining 3 ingredients to make the dressing
Pour dressing over cole slaw mix
{note: it won't seem like there is enough dressing, but the salt causes a lot of water to come out of the cabbage overnight.  Give it a stir the next morning and make sure it's wet enough for your taste}

Day 2:

Cook pork roast in the Crock-Pot on low for 6ish hours
Once cooked through, remove from the Crock-Pot and shred with forks/fingers
Put pork back in Crock-Pot and cover with bottled BBQ sauce
Stir up and cook on low for another couple hours

The pork is already fully cooked, so whenever you want to eat go ahead and dig in!

We like to eat our sandwiches 'Southern Style' by putting a big dollop of Cole Slaw right on top of the BBQ.

{I also like to have some on the side}

Drew also really likes to put raw onions on top of his BBQ.  Seeing as how raw onion is my kryptonite, I skip this step.

That's it!  I love that this recipe is completely dairy-free with no modifications.  It feels like I'm missing out on less when I can eat the whole recipe as it was intended.

Enjoy!

it's what's for dinner

I was really inspired by the recipes that B has been posting over on her blog, so I decided to put up some of my own!  B and I are both going dairy-free for our milk allergic babies, so finding good stuff to eat is especially challenging.

On Sunday, I made Bruschetta and Penne with Broccoli and Lemon.

Bruschetta:

6-7 plum tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1T extra-virgin olive oil
1tsp balsamic vinegar
6-8 fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 baguette + 1/4C extra-virgin olive oil

Parboil the tomatoes for 1 minute in boiling water that was just removed from the burner
Skin the tomatoes, cut into quarters and remove seeds (this keeps it from getting too watery)

Preheat oven to 450F
Chop tomatoes finely
Add tomatoes to garlic, 1T olive oil + vinegar, mix well
Slice bread, coat 1 side with olive oil, place oil side down on cookie sheet
Toast on top rack 5-6 minutes
Place tomato mixture on bread just before serving

This tasted sooo good!  It was fresh and delicious -- perfect for summer!

This main dish recipe is one that I tweaked a little to make it dairy-free, but I think it's just as good with or without cheese.  In fact, I usually just serve it with a side of freshly grated Parmesan and Drew is happy.

Penne with Broccoli and Lemon:

1 box penne
2-3 chicken breasts, chopped
6T extra-virgin olive oil
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound frozen broccoli florets, thawed
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 + 1/2 lemons, juiced and zest finely grated

Cook pasta + drain
Heat 1T extra-virgin olive oil PER chicken breast in skillet
Add chopped chicken breast pieces and saute until cooked through
Add remaining 3-4T extra-virgin olive oil to pan
Add garlic + cook until golden (1-2 minutes)
Add broccoli, red pepper flakes, + 1tsp salt
Cook until heated through (1-2 minutes)
Add broccoli mix + lemon juice to pasta
Heat through, sprinkle with lemon zest

The original recipe also called for 1C of Parmesan to be mixed into the pasta.  I thought this was overkill even before I went off dairy.  However, since I omitted the cheese I had to bump up the red pepper flakes to keep the flavor alive.  If that's too spicy for you {I like spicy} you can definitely cut it back to 1/2 tsp.

I also threw in some grape tomatoes that were in the fridge -- why not.

Think we liked it?

Good wine helps too.

sitting high and feeling fine

Asher is now using his highchair!

I had been feeding him in the Bumbo chair, but noticed he seemed to have a hard time holding his head up well.  It also looked like he was really folded over which didn't seem conducive to comfortable eating.  I thought the Bumbo was a good support for early sitters, but Asher just never seemed to love it for longer than a couple minutes.

We decided to try out the highchair that's been sitting in our basement for the past 6 months and little A loves it!  He looks like such a big boy sitting up like this!  Small tear from mommy, but mostly big smiles.  :o)

Yesterday I made him some carrots for the first time.  He wasn't sure what to think at first.  They look like sweet potatoes, but certainly don't smell or taste the same.  After the first bite, he just closed his mouth and looked away.  No big fits, but a very definitive, thanks, but no.

To ease the transition I gave him a bite of bananas next.  This boy LOVES bananas.  What's not to love...sweet and delicious.  That worked like a charm.  He took the bite of bananas, then opened up and took the carrots without complaint.  I think that's how we'll do it until he's used to the new flavor.

So far, Mr. A has had sweet potatoes, bananas, carrots, and 1 round of oatmeal.  After the oatmeal he had some blood in his poo, so I decided to skip all grains for awhile.  I'm just not convinced that his digestive system is up to the challenge of grains yet.

Next will be another fruit --- maybe pears? 

Asher has quickly come around to eating baby food.  He's now eating 2 ice-cube sized portions in the morning and 2 in the afternoon.  Besides that he drinks 4, 8.5 oz bottles a day.

Hungry, growing boy!

{By the way, thanks for all of your advice yesterday!  I made an appointment with my OB/Gyn to ask her advice on Monday.  I really don't want to stop breastfeeding yet, so hopefully we'll be able to come up with a game plan to make this work!}

lady stuff ahead -- grandfathers be warned

I usually try to keep this blog light-hearted, but real, and above all family friendly.  I know that many of my relatives use it as a way to check in on the three of us Asher and I want them to feel comfortable and have fun seeing what the little bugger is up to.

Every now and then, however, I need to abandon those goals and use this blog solely for its other main purpose -- delving into the experience and knowledge of other moms for personal gain growth!

Most of the time all of these goals flow seamlessly together.  Unfortunately, this time I need to venture into an uncomfortable realm that smacks smartly of TMI.

Sorry everyone.  Particularly those with a Y chromosome.

For the brave of heart, read on!  And please help, if you can!

As everyone and their sister knows by now, I've been breastfeeding Asher since he was born.  We had a great start, then hit some rocky ground when his milk protein allergy manifested itself a few months back.  After I cleaned all of the dairy out of my diet his symptoms disappeared and we seemed to be right back on track!

{Mom, I can't believe you're sharing this with the whole world.  I'll never be able to show my face in Bugs class again.  How humiliating.}

Then, just a week or so ago, I started getting some really serious cracks in my nipples.  The kind that cause bleeding and lots of *ouches* from the mama bear.  It certainly wasn't fun, but I could endure it and started using copious amounts of lanolin ointment after each pumping or nursing session.

Until this morning.

This morning I started pumping, yelped slightly in pain, and looked down to see gushing blood.  I mean Old Faithful type gushing that filled the pumping cup and attached bottled.  I've never seen such red milk.  Yuck and double yuck.

{Still with me?  Thanks.}

Obviously, I can't feed that to Asher and dumped it down the sink.  I was left with about 2 ounces of usable milk from the other side and had to supplement the rest of his bottle with formula.

So, here are my questions:

1) Is there anything I can do to help heal these cracks?  I'll take medical advice or old wives tales at this point.  No remedy is too far out there.

2) Will blood in the milk hurt a baby?  I'm afraid to even let him nurse at this point -- what if it bleeds like that again?

3) Should I just give up breastfeeding entirely?  I mean, let's be reasonable.  He got a great 6 months in, but as far as I can tell my milk {under normal dietary circumstances} hurts his body and, apparently, kills mine as well.  I've worked hard at this, but am about to throw in the towel.  I don't want to give up, but it's all starting to become too much.

Encouragment or reality checks are both welcome.

By the way, little mister got a tooth in and is working on a second one.  I haven't felt any bites, though, so I don't think any of this is his fault.  It's extremely hard to get a photo of baby teeth.  See the little white on the bottom right?...

Now for a cute photo to purge our systems of my TMI.  

Grandpas welcome back tomorrow.

2 doctors, 1 week

Asher is finally done with all of his doctor appointments for the week!

This has been an especially busy week for us, especially in the doctor department.

On Wednesday Mr A had his 6 month check-up and flew through with flying colors!  The doctor was very impressed by his growth, considering all of the food trouble we had over the past few months.

The new stats:

weight - 17 pounds (50%)
length - 26.5 inches (50%)

Our baby is perfectly average.  I'm going to put emphasis on the perfectly part of that.  :o)

Asher's pediatrician said that he should keep getting new foods every 3-4 days, but to go through all of the yellow/orange fruits and veggies first.  Apparently these are a little easier to digest and since Ash has some digestive issues that would be best for him.  We're going to skip rice cereal completely for that reason, but she did recommend that he try some oatmeal. 

So, what should be next??  I'm leaning towards the oatmeal, then maybe some butternut squash.  We'll save green beans and peas for a little later.

He needed 2 shots {boo} but handled them really well.  There was some crying, of course, but he was a pretty good trooper overall.  He needs some credit for his battle wounds. 

All in all he's a super healthy baby -- yay!

Then this morning Asher had his long awaited appointment with the pediatric gastroenterologist.  We made this appointment way back in May when his bloody stools were happening every day.  Since I changed my diet the blood has stopped entirely and Ash is back on straight breastmilk. 

The GI looked him over and said that it sounds like we're on the right track.  As long as the blood has stopped then we're good to go.  There's no reason to think there will be any long term effects from this bout with ulcerative colitis.

Around 9 months we're going to try slowly introducing milk back in my diet to see what happens.  The GI felt confident that Asher will outgrow this allergy, perhaps by 12 months, maybe longer.  There's always a chance that he won't outgrow it, but for now we're being optimistic.

Personally, I'm really looking forward having a little dairy again someday soon.  What should I have?...ice cream, cheese, buttery garlic bread?  Oh my, the possibilities!  My system is probably going to rebel big time.  Better take it slow.

Happy Friday everyone!

baby food!

After Asher spent a day in this shirt

he decided it was time to go full monkey and eat some banana!

I was originally planning to hold off on any solid foods for him until we visited with the Pediatric GI in a few weeks, but Saturday afternoon Drew and I both noticed how hungry Asher seemed.  In addition to his apparent hunger, he was also chewing, sucking, and exploring everything he touched with his tongue.  He did so well avoiding the tongue-thrust reflex, that I thought he might be ready for something more solid than milk.  I'm only feeding him after he's had a bottle, so he still gets all the calories he needs from breast milk/formula.

I am planning to make most of Asher's baby food myself and placed an order for a food steamer than was recommended to me {thanks, B!} but it hasn't come in yet, so I decided to start with something that requires no cooking.  Hello, banana!

Most people start their kiddos off with rice cereal, but I had read that sometimes babies with milk protein intolerance {like Asher has} have a harder time digesting cereal.  Because of this I knew that we'd start with either a fruit or veggie.  I've also heard that you should avoid fruit first because the sweet taste spoils them from eating veggies, but that won't be the case for me since Asher has been getting breastmilk since birth.  He has been tasting bananas {and veggies} for months now!

I must say that banana was an extremely easy food to prep!  I cut a 2 inch chunk of fruit and smooshed it up with a fork.  It still seemed a little chunky to me, so I poured in some breastmilk to help thin it out a little more.

Asher loved it!

Honestly, he ate like he's been eating off a spoon for weeks.

The first few bites were predictably messy with nanners dribbling back out, then being pushed back in with his little hands.  Once he got the hang of sucking the bananas off the spoon, then swallowing it he gobble the whole bowlful down.

I have a feeling we have a champion eater on our hands!

It went so well that we decided to repeat the event on Sunday.  Success again!  This time Asher tried to grab the bowl and eat straight from the source, but I cut him off at the pass.  I think he likes bananas!

We're going to stick with bananas for the recommended 4 days to make sure he doesn't have any kind of allergic reaction.  Once my steamer gets here later this week we're going to try some sweet potatoes!

My little guy is growing up so fast.  It's wonderful!

that's ironic

**Last week I was complaining about how I had to eat an entire ice cream cake by myself.  Now my son has a milk allergy and I'm off dairy.

**For the past few weeks I've been trying to teach Asher how to roll over so he'd stay on track with his motor skills.  Now he rolls over so easily I can't keep him on his belly to work on neck, back, and arm strength.

**Oreo cookies contain no dairy, despite the fact that there's a picture of milk right on the front of the package.

**When I had to leave Asher with Drew for a whole day to attend an out-of-town wedding last week, I pumped furiously in the week preceeding to make sure I had enough breast milk to leave for him.  Now since I'm feeding Asher 1/2 breast milk and 1/2 formula, but still pumping 4x/day to maintain my supply, I have a freezer full of 100+ ounces of milk...and no baby to feed it to.

Anybody know anything about breast milk donation?

MA meeting at my house

Hi everyone.  My name is Emily...and I'm a milk-aholic.

My reign as the dairy queen has come to an end.  I am officially off all dairy, both obvious and hidden.

On Friday I called Asher's pediatrician to have a more in depth conversation about his milk protein allergy and how we could deal with it.  I expressed my fervent desire to keep breastfeeding, if at all possible, and asked if we had some time for me to change my diet and see if that helped.  My fear was that this allergy could be causing serious internal damage to him {since I saw blood in his poo} and didn't want to exacerbate that by prolonging his exposure.

His pedi assured me that he would be ok for a little while longer so I could try cutting all dairy out of my diet to see if that would do the trick.  It can take up to 2 weeks to get all the milk protein out of my system, then another 2 weeks before it's completely out of Asher's system, so it might be up to a month before we see major changes.

Until my 2 weeks are up I'm going to be giving Asher half and half {breastmilk and Alimentum formula} so he is getting less of the offensive milk proteins, but still some breastmilk.  In the meantime I'm still pumping every few hours to mantain my supply for the day when he can go back to fully breastfeeding.  There's nothing like pumping and mixing up formula bottles!

Because of Asher's newly discovered sensitive system I decided to hold off on giving him any solids until he is 6 months old {unless he starts showing some really clear signs that he needs/wants more food}.  Even when he is ready for solids, I think we'll start with something that's easier to digest, like avocado, rather than a grain which is often tougher for kids with these protein intolerances to handle.

I am just starting to discover how much I loved dairy.  It's really no wonder Asher had a problem!  Once I started reading food labels it looks like dairy is in nearly everything that I eat often.  Granola bars, breakfast cereal, English muffins...and of course, the obvious stuff like ice cream, yogurt, butter, and cheese.  I really don't mind making sacrifices for my little guy -- it will just take some planning and good observation skills on my part!  If anyone has ideas or suggestions for yummy dairy-free items I would love to hear them!

Thanks to everyone who left a comment and gave me advice!  I feel much more confident now that if this new diet doesn't help Asher, he will not only be fine, but can thrive on the hypoallergenic formula.  I'm so grateful to have options!  This community really is the biggest reason why I love blogging!! 

got milk {allergies}?

We do.

Well, Asher does.

I took him to the Pediatrician yesterday because over the past 3 weeks I've noticed an increasing amount of blood-streaked, mucousy stuff in his poo.  It doesn't happen in every dirty diaper, but at least 3x a week I've seen this very unsettling sight.  With the move and new job {read: new insurance} it took me this long to get him in. 

Our new Pediatrician was super nice and listened to my lengthy description of his symptoms and even took a peak at a dirty diaper I hauled in with me {hands down, grossest things I've had to do as a Mom so far}.  After our discussion and a physical exam of Asher she believes that he has a milk protein allergy. 

The weird thing is that this just manifested itself a few weeks ago {most kids who are allergic show the allergy from birth} and he hasn't been vomiting or experiencing intestinal pain.  I was hoping it would be something that we could control through my diet, since I've been exclusively breastfeeding since his birth, but the Pedi thinks that won't be enough to clear it up entirely since my milk will contain the protein as well.

She recommended giving him hypoallergenic formula over the weekend to see if that stops the bloody poos.  In the office I was so shocked to hear all of this that I agreed to the plan, took the formula samples, and headed home.  It wasn't until I was getting ready to give him the bottle at bedtime that I started getting upset.  I just cried and cried over this bottle of formula.  Have you ever smelled Alimentum?  It stinks like a wet dog.  I felt like a terrible mother feeding that to my little guy.  You should have seen the disgusted look on his face.  But, bless his heart, he drank it down like a champ. 

Meanwhile, I'm crying and ended up giving him to Drew halfway though the feeding.  Not only does it smell like the worst food imaginable, we've worked so hard to keep up with breastfeeding that I can't fathom just stopping cold turkey.

If I have milk to give him, isn't that the best?!  Shouldn't we at least try to alter my diet and see if that helps his symptoms?

I mean, he's a thriving {mostly healthy} boy who loves mama's milk!  I'd be willing to do whatever it takes to make my milk tolerable for his little body.  I am really hoping that cutting all dairy out of my diet might be enough to help him.  His symptoms are so minor it doesn't seem like it should take much to curb them...right??

I plan to call the Pedi office again today and ask the list of questions that I came up with overnight, including re-pitching the idea of cutting dairy from my diet.  Asher's doctor said that most kids outgrow this type of allergy by the time they are 1 year old, so if we can just make it for another 7 months we should be ok.

My first priority is doing what's best for Asher, so if that means hypoallergenic formula, then that's what we'll do.  I just don't want to give up instantly and assume that this solution is the only one.  I really want to keep breastfeeding him.  Anyone else have to deal with this kind of situation?  Any suggestions??

How do you feel about all of this, Asher?

Yeah, me too.