Long time, no see

Well now it really has been a while since I updated this. I just haven't had the time!! Seth went from sleeping like the proverbial angel to driving me insane! 45 minute naps all day, every day. Settling him to sleep was hell too. I was always rocking the cot, patting his tummy, turning him on his side and patting his back, stroking his head, letting him fall asleep feeding or on me. Hell I tell you!

My mum was my saviour, even with all her faults and everything about her that irritates me so much, she has been invaluable to me over the past few months. She called for help, Plunket help, and they were actually very helpful. Shh but the area coordinator gave us a little booklet of advice which has changed our live now, for the better! It's not Plunket endorsed so really they can't hand it out but mum and I were SERIOUSLY desperate.

So now after putting the advice in the booklet into practice, Seth is now going down to sleeps a LOT easier, I put him down, tuck him in and walk away. He's still only sleeping for 45 minutes at a time but I can deal with it a lot better now. It's even better that in the past few weeks he's been sleeping for longer and longer during the night. He's now sleeping from between 7 and 8 pm until between 5 and 8 am. It's so cool, I actually get to sleep. Now what is sleep again?

Seth is now fully formula fed due to my supply reaching a maximum of 80mls at a feed while Seth was taking more than twice that amount, medication for my PND when I was diagnosed (yeah I have PND, will talk about that later), and Seth not gaining weight as he should have been. Things have been going pretty well here since I decided to wean, yes wean not just go cold turkey. I managed to do it with nearly no engorgement. I still have a small supply if I try to hand express, it'll still shoot across the room, but that will eventually fade, probably. Seth has taken the transition pretty well though he still turns to my breast at times and will try to feed even though there is clothing in the way. Makes for lovely slobber patches. I still give him breast occasionally if he's really frantic for a feed, though he pops on and off so he barely gets anything.

PND. Ah yes, postnatal depression/distress. I think it started slowly with just little things, having to settle Seth to sleep every. single. sleep. His screaming in my ears as I did so. The frustration at not being able to fully breastfeed like I wanted and expected to. Little things that built up until I was screaming at him to shut up and go to sleep. Slamming my fist into a wall so I wouldn't do something I would later regret. Banging my head against a wall for similar reasons. I would get SO angry that he wasn't sleeping, that he was crying, that he wouldn't cooperate. That he wasn't doing what I wanted him to and what I thought he "Should" do.
Looking up the signs and symptoms was hard, talking to my husband about it even harder. I was put onto the Edinburgh scale by a few people I would talk to online and I scored an 18. Not as bad as it could have been but bad enough. I went to the doctor and he prescribed me some medication and I'm going to a PND support group which is really helping.
Since being on the meds things have improved hugely. I don't start screaming/crying/raging over little things anymore. If I miss a dose then the next day is bad though. I can now handle things a lot better and I feel a lot more relaxed. Most of the time anyway.

Well that's a bit of a novel so I shall leave you with that and I will certainly try to update more often.
Ciao for now.

Breast vs. Formula

So I think the whole breastfeeding vs. Formula feeding debate is absolutely ridiculous but something that I see in my cyber-travels is how the possible benefits of breastfeeding have been over hyped and oversold. I found this article written by a woman, a retired OB/GYN who I love to cyber-stalk (lol) and while I quite often disagree with her views, she has made me think about things from a different perspective even though she patently refuses to see any perspective but her own.

What I enjoy the most about this article however, are the comments. The actual conversation about the article that the Doctor presented. One of the comments that I found extremely apt;

"Breastfeeding is the biological norm for humans. Why should breastfeeding have to prove its self as being healthier/better?"

I have to say, to me this has hit the nail right on the head.

Why SHOULD breastfeeding have to prove itself better than formula?

Another quote from the same commenter;

"We do not need to over sell the benefits of breastfeeding at all. Breastfeeding is normal for our species however we are doing mothers a disservice by letting them believe that artificial feeding is safe (there are NO studies to show formula is safe), that there are no health risks associated. Why do we have no qualms about telling mothers that drinking alcohol in pregnancy can cause birth defects and damage their babies but we cannot tell these same mothers that formula feeding has health risks for fear of “making them feel guilty”?????"

Now this isn't me trying to attack any formula feeding parents out there who happen to read this blog, this is merely me agreeing with this commenter asking why should breastfeeding have to prove itself BETTER than formula.

As a friend of mine has said, you cant tell who was breastfed or formula fed just by looking at a child/teen/adult. In the long term it is not obvious.

One thing that puzzles me about the whole debate, more from an American perspective than anything else, is how formula seems to be the standard and how breastfeeding has to prove itself "better". This is why I like the commentary of this article, there is true discussion about it and it's from a scientifically based standpoint.

Setting the bar at formula, in my eyes, is silly. Formula hasn't been around for anywhere near as long as breast milk, it's (generally) based on cows milk, something designed to feed baby cows and it's definitely not infallible, the recent melamine issues with it in China has proved that. Things may not have been proved one way or the other as to whether formula has definite risks associated with it but breastfeeding most certainly has benefits, however small they may seem individually they can add up to a fair amount.

Ok, I'm getting a bit repetitive now lol, time for me to take a breather.

As I've said before, to me it only matters that the child is adequately fed and is loved, not the method of feeding.