This Is Not Easy

OK, I have about two more thoughts on breastfeeding and then I will be moving on. So here is thought one.

Breastfeeding is NOT easier than using formula. If it were, every woman would breast feed. Convenience is actually the one benefit I can see to using formula, and based on statistics, that's a doozy. Aside from medical reasons, which would account for a small portion of users, why else would so many people use a product that, one, has to say on the label it isn't as good as the real thing; and two, is 100% more likely to face recalls for exciting things like bug parts? So, folks at the hospital and in health care, I'd stop using the convenience argument and face reality.

Unless you are a stay-at-home mom with no life for the next six months to a year, it does take more than just your body and a baby. Every time we want to go out, I have to plan how much milk to have saved. Every time I want a couple of cocktails, I have to plan how much milk to have saved. Abigail has slept through the night since week eight. Me? Not so much. I'm up every morning at 3 AM to pump. I am inordinately excited that I now have over 100 ounces of milk in the freezer for returning to work or if I am sick. I am inordinately despondent that that is about three days' supply and if something serious happens, we will run out.

If I eat something that disagrees with her, I will hear about it for many hours to come. Onions and peppers on the cheese steak? BAD idea. Indian or Thai curry? Just fine, thank you. Buffalo chicken wings? Hell on earth. But we pretty much have the menu down now. I refuse to give up dairy, so she farts quite a bit, but thankfully, we all find farts amusing around here.

Until a month ago, it was so hard to get her latched on and stay covered, that I would try to take bottled milk with us when we went out. On the plus side, I really can feed her anywhere now. We were at the street fair last night and it was cake to pop her under her blanket and keep walking. No muss, and very little fuss.

And really, everything else is a plus. The benefits for her and me far outweigh the inconvenience that lasts a few months. Oh, and it's cheap too! (But more on that next post)

Thanksgiving

We just can't seem to help ourselves. Once again, we've said we're going to stay home and relax on Thanksgiving, enjoy some time with Abigail, and try to recuperate from a tough couple of weeks. Instead, he's at the store buying the finishing ingredients for brining a 15 pound turkey and picking me up what I need for mashed potatoes and a bread pudding made from leftover coffee cake. Oh well, at least it's what we want to do and not what we have to do. And I know I'm thankful that we're in a position to do it, and have a nice dinner on the table, even if it is just for us. Really, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Yes, It Is a Big Deal

My husband laughs at my sometimes overzealous defense of breastfeeding. I think this site, while not comprehensive, does a nice job of summing up why it is so important. Make sure to check out page two and the decrease in breast cancer for both women who breast feed and those who were themselves breast fed. It makes a bigger difference than buying a bucket of fried chicken with a pink ribbon on it.

And yes, I'm sure your formula fed kid is just fine. Of course, I'm just fine and my parents didn't know about car seats. It doesn't mean I wouldn't use one now, when we know better.

Big Changes

Oh August, how long ago you were! I didn't post the last few weeks of my pregnancy because I kept thinking "she's going to be here soon; I'll just wait until I have news." But she wasn't here soon. She kept baking and baking. Finally, at week 41, I was induced. It wasn't something I wanted to do, but my body wasn't cooperating and it didn't look like that was going to change by waiting another week.
So Abigail Lynn joined us on September 21st at 12:41 in the afternoon. She was 7 pounds, 12.5 ounces and has all her working bits, which is nice. She has the Russell nose and the Butler toes and we'll see where the rest pans out. She doesn't play any instruments--yet, but she loves music and does most of her talking when the tunes are on.

Stay Up Late!

I don't know if I'm going to make it, but I'm going to try. This year's Perseids are going to be great. Get out there and stay up late. The moon should set around 10 and the shower peaks after midnight. Look to the northeast.

Why Pandas Don't Mate

It's been a while so here's the shot from week 33. We're in the home stretch. And no, we still don't have a name picked out. Thanks for asking.

RIP Hazel Russell

My aunt (great-aunt) died yesterday. She was 96 years and 1 day old. People who hadn't seen her in awhile were always surprised that she was still so sharp. Remember that folks. My family doesn't lose acuity, we just get meaner.

Here we all are at her birthday party on Saturday afternoon with her chapter of the Daughters of the British Empire.

Home At Last

Arrived home from Kansas City last night. The flight was uneventful until landing...when they couldn't get the cabin door open! The flight attendant told us not to worry, that mechanics were coming right over to open it from the outside and they were even based in Tucson. What? If they weren't would we have had to wait until someone showed up from out of town?

Anyway, I pictured a giant church-key peeling back the door, but no such luck. I think they just used a hammer.

No, No. You Don't Want Any of This Cake

When we got back from Denver I had two zucchini in the garden which had grown to the approximate size and shape of eggplants, so today seemed like a good day to bake. Four loaves of zucchini bread, a pistachio cake and cream cheese frosting later, I have to say...you won't like it. Trust me. Terrible, horrible, sweet stuff. It'd probably just rot your teeth and give you a tummy-ache. The bread and cake are especially bad with that homemade frosting. Nothing to see here. Move along. I'll take care of the evidence shortly.

Evidence-Based Medicine and Being Knocked Up

I love it when two of my current interests collide! I've found a great blog by a Doula (I'm not using her and I'm not using one, so I have no interest in forwarding an agenda here). Her entries are, of course, crunchy granola, but she backs up everything with studies! Woo.

And she talks about the lack of evidence-based medicine in obstetrics, which I guess intuitively is obvious, but I hadn't thought about before. Whether you are interested in medicine or just need good information about pregnancy, her entries are a lot to mull over and I'm sure I'll be spending some quality time here, avoiding applying for jobs.

Mosquitos Do Love Me. They Really, Really Love Me!

I get chewed on way more than many people I know and now there's research that tells me why! Thanks NYU for explaining why this summer is likely to be worse than usual.

First Squash of the Season

For dinner last night, along with burgers and homemade mac n' cheese, we had the first crookneck squash from the garden cooked in butter and thyme (also from the garden). They're mild and nutty and soon there will be bushel-fulls! Look at all the blossoms and baby vegis!

Get That Baby in Mah Belly!

You've asked for it. Here it is: The 25 week 4 day bump. The only good thing I can say: no stretch marks.

What I'm Going to Look for In a Blog

My friend Nichol is, shall we say, "technology challenged." She hates the computer and the Internet, so I usually end up trying to explain how sites work and what she should expect. A few weeks ago she discovered blogs and thus began my defense of the sometimes indefensible. She had been trying to find fast crockpot recipes for her family, and many of her search results were blogs. Her argument was that if you title your blog "fast crockpot recipes" or something similar, that's what you should expect to find. Instead, she found pages and pages of diary-like, personal stories, with nary a recipe to be found. I was speechless. She was right.

Too many times blogs are unfocused or downright unhelpful. As more libraries use blogs to reach patrons, it is important for them to use blogs effectively, or risk effectively alienating a tech-savvy part of their audience.

A good example of a nicely focused blog is "The Buzz" from the Madison-Jefferson County Public Library, in Madison, Indiana. One of the problems that I have, and that most librarians and libraries have, is they are interested in so many things! I want to tell you about my latest recipe, and what's going on in librarianship and how the baby is doing. The library wants to tell you about important new books, events, history, art--everything really. What the MJCPL "Buzz" blog does, though, is keep its focus. It's OK to have more than one blog. This one is only events sponsored by the library. Besides focus and clarity, "The Buzz" is also updated regularly and we know who posted the update and when. On the other hand, I'm trying to learn more about blogs so that my personal blog is better, and I see that "The Buzz" is making some of the same mistakes I do. I hope they fix it sooner than I probably will! Realtors go for location. Librarians go for metadata. These posts are simply listed most recently first. How do I find something older? What if I need information on all the lectures over the past year? Tagging these entries and then providing a search option, or a tag cloud would be a great way to make this blog more user-friendly. And Bill, who are you man? I want to know more about you! Link me to your bio, or info on your role at the library. (You'll notice I've added a little something-something about myself and also a nice old photo from when I was young and good lookin').

Then again, I do like some chaos. Probably my favorite library blog is this one from the Free Library of Philadelphia. These poor folks have been hit with budget problems to boggle the mind, but they keep trudging on. Sure, they cover pretty much everything, but hey! they tag, so it's easy to search by date or by tag, which makes it all good in my book. Besides all the stuff of "The Buzz" they've also got a nice little link to "About the Blog" which tells you why they blog, and who gets to blog. I've never even been to Philly but this is a regular read for me.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'm off to start adding tags to my own entries!