Away To Me

More Sesame Street Breast Feeding goodness.

This is not as good as the original staring Buffy nursing Cody for Big Bird. But I still love it. Why can't we have these type of 1 minute positive breast feeding clips for our children to watch?
 

Awe, this is classic Sesame Street!

I saw this link in the comments section of a blog I read. I had to share it with you.

Breast feeding Humor

Screaming Baby Trumps Mom's Nerves!

Well, I finally breastfed in public. I had to get my truck serviced today and despite nursing both babies prior to leaving the house and having pumped milk ready to feed, the babies had their own plans. They wiped out my small supply of pumped milk right off the bat, and then my Wesley decided that he was going to scream until he was nursed. I was very nervous about feeding in public, because both boys are hard to latch, but screaming baby trumps nervous mom! Figures, the only place to nurse was the service department waiting area. But I put a baby blanket over us, found a corner seat and nursed my boy! What joy to have it work!!!! I felt so proud that I did it. I'm really starting to get the hang of breastfeeding in unique areas and positions. With twins, you are forced to make some funky moves. I've been able to nurse both boys at the same time a lot more often too. I did it once last night and twice today. And I've got another 3 day straight stretch of no formula. The good news is that this time I've got a healthy stash of EBM in the fridge so I don't see any formula in the near future! I feel like I'm really successfully nursing twins. I really didn't believe it until today. Today I feel like a real nursing mom. Not that I didn't feel like that before, but it just feels more real now. I'm grinning like the Cheshire cat!

One of my greatest accomplishments

I've tried so hard to breastfeed our twins. It is important to me. All my efforts are paying off. Each day it gets easier. Each day I get rewarded with some little accomplishment or moment. 

Last night I successfully breastfed both babies at the same time, without having to hold my breast and it was pain free. I actually fed babies while I chatted on Skype. It was amazing! 

One of my more favorite blogs to frequent has a weekly post called Magic milk Pic o' the week.  It has in part, inspired me to post my own picture. I debated about this. I may not keep it up very long. And if you are offended by public nursing than don't scroll down. I wouldn't expose myself this much in public because it is offensive to some people. But my blog is my space and people come here by choice, and are viewing me in my area, not a public space like the mall or airport. What could be more natural than breastfeeding babies? Why should we be embarrassed to see mothers nursing their children? Why shouldn't I be proud and show off one of my greatest achievements?

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I have named this pic "Double Whammy Mammy" (by the way, Nathan on my left, Wesley on my right)

6 Weeks

My babies are six weeks old today and in just 21 days, my big boy will be 3. Having 3 under the age of 3 is tough. I don't have time to take many pictures, or blog, or talk on the phone, or even use the restroom, eat and shower. But it is rewarding and I feel so lucky to have three wonderful boys to mother. 

I've got  great news! The boys have received only breastmilk, no formula supplements at all for 3 days. THREE DAYS! I am nursing both boys but I found that Wesley is such a tough baby to nurse that he actually makes me so sore that I can't nurse Nathan. So now I'm pumping for Wesley and nursing Nathan and hopefully when Wesley's mouth gets bigger he'll latch better. I do nurse him a few times a day but not nearly as much as Nathan. It seems to be working for now.

These boys are really opposites. It's so funny to see their personalities and then think about how they were in the womb. Very similar to how they are now that they are on the outside. Wesley is very empathetic. If Nathan cries, Wesley gets upset and cries. Where as Nathan just gets annoyed when Wesley cries. This picture demonstrates what I'm talking about. Wesley is upset and worried because Nathan is crying.

Nathan gets mad fast and doesn't cool off very easily. He wants what he wants when he wants it. And to calm him you have to really hold and talk and stroke and cuddle and move and dance and sing and whisper and love, etc. etc. And then he rewards you with his content happy look. 

We can no longer call him Nocturnal Nathan, he is now Nursing Nathan!

Wesley is easily calmed and he doesn't get upset very often to start with. He is quite and calm unless he is hungry. He's just starting to smile and to be honest, the smiles for both boys are few and far between. Jake was a very smiley boy at this age so it's very different for us. When Wesley does reward us with a smile, it melts our hearts!

Big brother Jake is awesome. He is so good with the babies. He even asks to feed "Wessy" now. 

He is very calm around the babies. He loves to give hugs and kisses, but he's not hyper when doing it. He hates it when Nathan, "Ne Ne" cries. The amazing thing is that Jake knows which baby is which. Very rarely does he mix them up. That really impresses me. He's such an observant boy.

He's not jealous when I have the boys, but he is a tad jealous when daddy has the babies. But that's getting better. He wants to take part in everything. I had to laugh, he wanted me to take his picture as I was taking the pictures of the babies. He had just woken up from a nap with bed head! 

This morning I was photographing the boys and Jake feeding Wesley and when he was finished "eating Wessy" he jumped off the bed and ran to his room to grab his camera and he proceeded to take some pictures of the babies. 

I'll have to down load his pictures and see what he was able to capture. Right now however, I'm going to try and capture some zzzzz's.

Happiness is ...

.... Having 2 hours of sleep, two full breastfed babies, and 9 ounces of pumped breastmilk all before midnight. 

This bodes well for a good night. 

Feeling like a Rock Star!

I was really going to post this yesterday, but I didn't want to jinx myself. So I'm posting at 2:45 am. LOL!

My mastitis episode was brief. I was lucky, I caught it early and did a few key things to help it pass quickly. For one, I used a hot shower often, and a hot compress and I pumped like you couldn't believe. Those three things really helped. Oh and I also took Tylenol, drank lots of water and tried to rest as much as I can with newborn twins and a soon-to-be-3-year-old. 

On Monday I went to visit my midwife to try again to get breastfeeding going better. The latch wasn't right, it was hurting every time I nursed. We figured out the problem and I've learned to just keep relatching until we get it right. Luckily for me I have extremely cooperative babies who put up with the relatching attempts. Nathan who was such a tough baby to get to latch in the first place, is not only my best nurser, he much rather nurse than take a bottle. Makes me so happy that he converted to the boob so well. Wesley is still "Shredder" but getting better. 

As of yesterday afternoon, both boys have been nearly 100% breastfed. I can't believe it! All my hard work and dedication is paying off and yes, I feel like a Rock Star. I have nursed both babies so much in the past 24 or so hours and yet my nips are feeling pretty good! I've also been able to pump here and there so that I can give a bottle of expressed breast milk to one of them if they both should wake up and want to eat at the same time. I'm still not able to tandem feed them when I'm by myself. It's to hard to position one while the other is nursing. I'm sure when they get bigger and their latches are stronger/better it will happen. For now, I'm just happy being able to nurse them one at a time.

Monday was my birthday and hubby took excellent care of me. He cooked us a fantastic dinner (with the help of a ready made Costco dinner). LOL! And he bought me earrings. He got me just what I wanted, simple, plain, white gold hoops, medium size. Love them! My every day time earrings. 

He also took the 9:30pm till 1am shift for the babies. I got 3 1/2 hours of sleep. That was the longest stretch of sleep I had gotten in 34 days. Boy did it feel good. 

So that's the latest on breastfeeding. I hope to update on the babies and Jake some more. All three are getting cuter by the minute! My Jakey is such a good big brother, I can't get over how cool he is with the babies (as long as they aren't crying loudly) LOL! 

Three steps forward two steps back.

Crap. CRAP! Crapity crap crap.

I've got mastitis. 

I hurt. 

This sucks. 

Why does the universe not want me to be a breastfeeding mom?

Random Woohoos

Yesterday I wore my pre-pregnancy jeans. I could not believe it. yes, they were tight, but who cares! If someone had told me that one month after having the boys I'd be in my old jeans I would have laughed! I'm down about 30 pounds. 

Just about 40 minutes ago I breast fed both babies (not at the same time - consecutively). There is no high (for me) better than the high I receive when I see both babies milk drunk and content after nursing. 

One of the coolest things ever happened this week. Jake rode his bike like a champ (2-wheeler with training wheels on) ! I worked with him on Tuesday and all of a sudden it clicked and he started peddling away. Prior to Tuesday he would peddle one rotation forward and one rotation back.  I hope to get him on video tomorrow. 

Yesterday morning we went to breakfast at the small local airport in the next town over. Jake loves planes and we thought it would be cool to take him to the airport cafe so he could watch planes take off. He liked it a lot. Later we went did some shopping. While at Costco, people would come up and congratulate us on the twins and ask questions. On two different occasions ladies asked Jaked if those were his little brothers and he would say "yes". To which both ladies said, "you are so lucky". That made me feel good that Jake was hearing positive feedback about having baby brothers. Then someone asked him, "what do you think of having two new brothers?" Jake replied, "it's cool". LOL! I love my Jakey boy so much. 

Okay, natural breastfeeding high is fading. Time for more sleep!