Let’s talk breastfeeding

Okay, last night we got Verity to stay more or less wakeful through a late dinner and Lost night. I went on instinct and decided to take a warm shower with her, breastfeed in the shower, and then side-lie nurse at night (my saving grace with Ethan, to get some darn sleep!). She nursed to sleep at 11:30 and didn’t wake up to nurse again until 3! Then not again until 6am and 9am! Each time she only nursed for about 10 minutes on one side. If it weren’t for my incessant coughing, I would have slept almost a full 8 hours. Instead, I got in about 6 hours, but it was nice! And Chris got to sleep through the feedings since I wasn’t waking her up much and doing diaper changes and what not (unless it was particularly needed).

So I’m grateful to have found something that could work from now on. The latching of a newborn in side-lie position is a little trickier than with an older baby, but so long as I can manage to do it without hurting my nipples I’m happy to keep doing this so we all get some sleep! (BTW- all chapped scabs are gone! If I had known to just nurse through it with Ethan, we would have been able to skip all that pumping and nipple shield crap. With Verity I feel like months ahead in my recovery compared to Ethan. God bless second children- already SO much easier!)

Speaking of breastfeeding, I am also grateful that today I finally discovered what the h*ll is wrong with my nipples. I have what is called Raynaud’s disease! Based on what I have read, I can self-diagnose this without hesitation. With Ethan, my nipples were white on the tip and painful yet every one told me the latch was good. I thought for sure, after nursing for 1.5 years with him, that I would have NO problems this time around. Yet here I am, throbbing with pain. I took a hot shower two nights ago and again noticed the white tips when I got out and was cold again, and I thought maybe it was a clogged duct or milk still in the tips, so I tried to circulate the milk a bit and sure enough I was able to get them to turn to a normal color and the pain completely went away! I was puzzled and finally today I looked it up and quickly found that 20% of women have this. Now maybe my husband will believe me when I tell him my toes go numb in the cold weather!!! He always says I’m not wearing warm enough shoes and socks but I swear, the pinky toes go completely numb in just 40 degree weather inside snow boots! I never knew! (Forgive all the exclamation marks, its just exciting to know I have a TREATABLE nursing problem!)

So, I’m going out for B6 and Ginkgo Biloba, and will be taking my cal/mag too, the few herbal things that are suppose to help with blood circulation in the extremities. If that doesn’t help, I’m going to get a prescription for the drug that most women find relief with and for many the white nipples (called “vasospasm”) never return! Woo hoo!

Ok, heading out into the cold today doesn’t sound fun- my boobs are already hurting just thinking about it. But I gotta get to the bank and to the store so Ibuprofen will have to tied me over.

I have some pics to upload so I’ll be back later.

OH- update on the laptop- I borrowed a new cord and it still didn’t work. So the problem lies in the “jack” if you will, and that means I have to take it in to be replaced or whatever. But of course I can’t right now so for now I’m trying to find a good position each day that the cord keeps it charging and then don’t let anyone touch it! lol I should be able to get a few hours of work done this way, and I’ll be praying that this lasts a few months until we have my paychecks rollin’ in again and get back on our feet.

Ok, leaving now…