I reviewed every pump I could find. While I was pregnant, I had lengthy debates about the merits of renting vs buying. I asked around from those who had been there. My sister rented- there wasn't a need to purchase because her milk had gone away quickly- it was a good choice on her part. Others told me a hand pump would relieve discomfort & that's all you would need- huh? Discomfort?
Oh how little I knew..
We waited until after my little bundle of joy arrived to make the decision- what if I hated breastfeeding? What if it was too painful or I didn't produce? We would have been out the cost of a pump.
Although it was not enough, I took to breastfeeding eventually. It was the best way to bond with my baby.
I talked to my best friend who had had a baby the year before- she told me what kind she had gotten but had wished for a different kind.
Portability was another factor. Whatever pump I chose would have to be compact and lightweight.
I went with the Medela Freestyle. It is battery powered, charges quickly, has hands free dual pump action (when you need to pump fast). It only weighs about a pound so it actually fits my lunch bag pretty well.
When you are traveling for 4 days & you are not allowed to check your bags, every inch of space counts.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Out of sorts
I'm feeling out of sorts trying to do this blog & get the hang of being back at work. Slight bit of panic at the moment since I have 30 minutes til check in & I'm still on the crew bus.
So back in January I started saving my pumped milk. Except I wasn't sure how to find some extra & how much would I need.
To figure it out, I turned to the Internet. From that it suggested 2 to 2.5 oz per pound. I estimated Lucia would be about 15 lbs when I went back so that meant 30 to 37.5 oz daily. Ok, and an average trip keeps me away for 4 days. That's 120 to 150 oz daily. Yikes! I suddenly hoped she would never get bigger.
With that, the milk machine commenced.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
So back in January I started saving my pumped milk. Except I wasn't sure how to find some extra & how much would I need.
To figure it out, I turned to the Internet. From that it suggested 2 to 2.5 oz per pound. I estimated Lucia would be about 15 lbs when I went back so that meant 30 to 37.5 oz daily. Ok, and an average trip keeps me away for 4 days. That's 120 to 150 oz daily. Yikes! I suddenly hoped she would never get bigger.
With that, the milk machine commenced.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Home airport
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Why I choose to breastfeed
At first it didn't seem like I made a choice to be honest. Someone said, "Well, you'll be breastfeeding of course" and I abstractly said "Of course". What did I know? This, being my first pregnancy, was like learning a new language. I mean, I can't even begin to tell you what I thought babywearing meant- not for polite conversation, that's for sure. So I agreed to it. Ok, sure.
The further I got in my pregnancy, the more concrete some of these concepts became. Here were the 2 deciding factors:
•Cost- hello? Are you kidding me? It would cost more to feed her than me and my husband combined. Yeah, I'm all about saving money since my salary wouldn't really help.
•this video they showed us in the birthing class. It was bizarre! I had to see it happen live- it was a video of a baby just minutes old crawling up his mother to her nipple. It didn't even seem human- it was on automatic and it was amazing! Freaky, like a broken bone- I was obsessed with seeing if my daughter would do it!
Sometime I will tell my war tale of 21 hours in labor, only to end up in an emergency c-section, but suffice to say I attempted to fight off the c-section partially because of my obsession with seeing her crawl. I didn't get to see that crawl, but I can tell you as soon as I could I was able to breastfeed her without issue on the first try. She knew exactly what she was doing. Her mom, on the other hand, was clueless.
This is a condensed version of this story- I'll go into detail on this in a later post...
Lucia, or as I dubbed her, Lohan (she's our little party girl), was having a hard time gaining weight though. Likely I was not producing enough milk. So the decision was made to give a little bit of formula- supplementally. So Lohan does get some formula, but most of what she gets is from Mooo- ther! Ha! I do feel like a dairy cow from time to time.
At this point, you may be wondering, well big deal, lots of women breast feed and supplement and eventually go back to work.
But! Do they do it at 35,000 ft and for how long?
This is my story....
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
The further I got in my pregnancy, the more concrete some of these concepts became. Here were the 2 deciding factors:
•Cost- hello? Are you kidding me? It would cost more to feed her than me and my husband combined. Yeah, I'm all about saving money since my salary wouldn't really help.
•this video they showed us in the birthing class. It was bizarre! I had to see it happen live- it was a video of a baby just minutes old crawling up his mother to her nipple. It didn't even seem human- it was on automatic and it was amazing! Freaky, like a broken bone- I was obsessed with seeing if my daughter would do it!
Sometime I will tell my war tale of 21 hours in labor, only to end up in an emergency c-section, but suffice to say I attempted to fight off the c-section partially because of my obsession with seeing her crawl. I didn't get to see that crawl, but I can tell you as soon as I could I was able to breastfeed her without issue on the first try. She knew exactly what she was doing. Her mom, on the other hand, was clueless.
This is a condensed version of this story- I'll go into detail on this in a later post...
Lucia, or as I dubbed her, Lohan (she's our little party girl), was having a hard time gaining weight though. Likely I was not producing enough milk. So the decision was made to give a little bit of formula- supplementally. So Lohan does get some formula, but most of what she gets is from Mooo- ther! Ha! I do feel like a dairy cow from time to time.
At this point, you may be wondering, well big deal, lots of women breast feed and supplement and eventually go back to work.
But! Do they do it at 35,000 ft and for how long?
This is my story....
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:The Desert Southwest
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