*tap*tap* Is this thing on?

Just wanted to send out yet another big Thank You to all of my new followers! I'm still plugging away at blogger, figuring things out. I'm in the process of updating and reorganizing In the Kitchen, In the Nursery, Cloth Diapers, etc. There is information on those 3 currently. Hoping this will make my green tips a little easier to find. Also will be making my Blog Roll a scrolling thing(thanks, Lisa!) and figuring out how I can email people back when they leave me some comment love.

Also new is my twitter button! Twitter is also new to me but link on up!

In the Kitchen- Basil Parmesan Pasta

Basil Parmesan Pasta

Today I made a really easy pasta dish that the kids devoured. I'm talking, they wanted 2nds of this over applesauce(unheard of!). Here are the simple steps:

Breast Cancer Awareness- Breast Pumps Direct

Take 2 seconds to go to http://www.breastpumpsdirect.com/promotions and click 'like'. Read about the wonderful promotion they are doing for the month of October. Pass it on to your friends! Breast Cancer has touched everyone's lives in one way or another. Both of my grandmas had it and fought it successfully. I'm probably predisposed to it but it's my daughter I worry most about.

So that someday, our children and their children won't have to go through it, click it.

What fun things have we been up to?

It was a busy weekend, as are all weekends in the Crazy Green Mommy house. Friday evening we mobilized and picked apples at my dad's house. My dad has 3 Jonathan apples in the back and hadn't sprayed at all this year. Yay for free organic apples!

I think I signed up for too many emails... and 'Help! I've fallen and can't get up!'

So I'm pretty sure I have gotten over 150 emails today. Whoops. Guess I signed up for a few too many newsletters/emails! But I can't stand to just delete them! So what's a girl to do? It's a good thing we moms are born with the innate ability to multi-task... which I shall be doing shortly while going through emails, watching a Leverage show with my husband and making a freezer meal for my friend that just had a baby.

Wheew!

Bless your hearts!

I'm so excited to have 17 followers! I know this is a minuscule number compared to a lot of the ladies(and men) that I visit in bloggy land, but this is really exciting for me. Thank you so much. We're still working some kinks out and figuring this out so stick with me and if you have any pointers, feel free to give me some advice/opinions/constructive criticism, etc.

Being that my life is not my life without a million things going on at once, I'm also gearing up for Des Moines' first Bebepaluzza this weekend! From what I've heard, it sounds like a really fun event for everyone. They have some activities like a Daddyathon, Diaper Derby, Princess Tea Party and Pirate Party. They also apparently have a Mommy Lounge for pampering and a Daddy Cave with Wii's... which of course, only works if you have *babysitters* available... and they do! I'm very curious as to what this will look like, who will be there and what new things are out there that I haven't seen, yet. Of course there's also the 500$ swagbag that I'm insanely considering trying to nab. What time should I get there if they open at 10am? And my luck I'd choose the wrong doors. Or 50 other insane mama's will be there at 4am and I should have just stayed in bed. Hmm... I need a buddy. I wonder if I can find a buddy on such short notice?

Guess we'll see! Wish me luck if I can will myself out of bed early enough!

Are you seeing fancy things?

Yes! Or at least, they are fancy to me. I've spent some time today learning more about blogspot and how it works. Notice the nicely organized buttons on the sides? The new tabs up top? My hope is that this will lend to a cleaner, more organized experience for everyone. I have more organizing to do of the archived posts and will look to do some sort of, 'Hi! I'm new! Would you be my friend for 25$?' type giveaway.

I have no shame.

9/13 Giveaways for the week

We're going to try something new; I'm going to post the best giveaways I find each week on one post. One post for each week, make sense? This will make them easier to find for anyone interested in also throwing their hat in the ring!(my mom, for example, HA). Keep checking back here throughout the week to find more I've added.

The Small Town Mom! Stash Stories Saturday

Check us out! We wrote a small piece for Tara over at thesmalltownmom.com. The Boom Man (aka TBM) is wearing a green acres designs pocket diaper and the Opinionated Little Lady (aka OLL) is well, now a little older than maybe my avatar suggests. Sigh. In the bottom picture, TBM is wearing a Zany Zebra fitted in newborn or XS size I believe. Side snap is so the way to go for a newborn. Which leads me to a whole new idea on sharing what it was like cloth diapering a newbie for the first time. I should get on that. But not now!

Thanks, Tara, for letting us share our story on thesmalltownmom.com!  Stay tuned as we hope to start popping up more around the interwebz!

Cotton Babies poem

Cotton Babies is having a creative contest! They left it open, which is a little difficult for me sometimes. I operate best with clear guidelines(don't we all?). So here is my creative attempt/entry:


Calling
Out
To
The
Open
New world!

BABIES: unlimited potential to save the Earth.

Cotton Babies really is a great place to start cloth diapering. Whether you need simple prefolds or fancy all in ones, they have some of the most user friendly cloth diapers out there.

What Your Mother Never Told You About Breastfeeding pt 2 - Remedies

And we're back! Part 2- All the remedies I used

Cracked nipples, Engorgement, plugged ducts, blebs and thrush.

Cracked nips due to an improper latch:
Good ol' lanolin helped that.(And fixing the latch issues). I bought a big tube in the stores and honestly, probably didn't need to if I'd used the sample and travel stuff first.

Engorgement:
1. Good bra or comfortable nursing tank. I dig the less than 20$ long nursing tanks that Target carries.
2. Cabbage leaves. Yes, I said cabbage leaves. Skip the 15$ cooling pads that come 2 to a box in the stores. Get a head of cheap cabbage. Put it in the fridge so it is cool, then cup your breast with a leaf. *WARNING* You don't want to do this too long or often. They can actually dry up your milk if you repeatedly use them. I used them 2 or 3 times max for 30min once(because I fell asleep or would have been shorter!) and 10-15min the other 2 times. It works. And now I tell everyone because it drives me bonkers to pay 15$ for a box of those cooling pads. Before I read about the cabbage trick, I drove around to all the stores looking at and buying every sore boob remedy I could find. And it added up!
3. Lily Padz. I *big puffy sparkly heart* love them. For a while there I couldn't take a shower or wear a shirt comfortably, I was in so much discomfort. Now I can't remember where I heard about or first saw the Lily Padz, but they are available in Target, BRU and my local cloth diaper store. These are one of the few things I felt were worth the 20$. They fit best when I was bigger than usual, so my guess is best fit for a large B+. They are actually a reusable sticky breast pad you wash in the sink, dry and reapply. You do have to be careful in their care as certain oils and such will reduce their tacky stuff. They do make special soap for them and I felt it was worth it. These suckers helped hold back the Flood That Is Stacy's Milk. It took a little finesse to pull them off to nurse when the air pocket was full of milk but I just kept a burp cloth near and sort of patted that into it as I pulled it off. I hope these guys are around for all future babies of ours!

Plugged ducts:

I did end up with a plugged duct in my Super Producer breast. Truly no special products were needed, just myself and my babe. I massaged it and put some compresses on it first. Then we nursed like crazy. The best thing I read was to position the babie's chin towards the plugged duct. This worked immediately for us. Unfotunately, it involved using the football position(which I dislike immensely) BUT you'll do anything to clear that duct, including getting over said dislike. To prevent future plugged ducts, make sure your clothing/bras are not too tight and that you do try to switch nursing positions as often as possible.

Blebs:

A bleb is a milk blister. It hurts like H E double hockey sticks. I'm surprised I didn't bite holes into my comforter, clothing, whatever was closest to me when trying to nurse the Boob Man. Our latch issue, my oversupply and thrush may have tipped the scale in favor of us getting this bleb. And just why is it called a bleb? I don't know, but saying the word makes me feel like I'm spitting something disgusting out of my mouth. Try it! See what I mean? To clear the bleb, I used a hot/warm compress prior to nursing and tried to gently scrape a bit of it up with the washcloth and my (clean) fingernail. Then nurse. And you won't want to. You'll cry. You might yell at your significant other. You might cry some more. But you have to nurse. Or, use a hospital grade pump. Which I didn't have, so we nursed and I cried. Moving on!

Thrush:

My baby never showed the classic signs for it but I could tell I had it in the Super Producer breast. I'll admit, we hit it with just about everything. I tried acidophilus, genetian violet, nystatin and diflucan. We also talked to our pediatrician and got medicine for my son to treat the thrush we assumed he probably had, as well. I'm not positive which one worked, or if it was a combo of two, three, or them all. I like to try to avoid drugs and heal things using natural methods, but at this point in our nursing career I was done. In fact, I do believe I stated if I got mastitis I was done nursing. Thankfully, that did not happen! (And not to say you SHOULD stop nursing if you do!)

***I'm not a doctor, I'm just a mom sharing her personal experience with the above mentioned. If you are having nursing difficulties, please contact your local La Leche League and your doctor.

Bottomline- After everything, we have had and are having a wonderful breastfeeding relationship. I'm so glad I stuck with it and had the support of some wonderful people in my life. And I'm thankful for the internet. Or I'd never have known what was going on and probably would have given up(because there's so much my mother never told me!). Mamas, go out of your way to talk to a new mom that's trying to nurse. Ask her how they are doing, if she is having any struggles. So many of the things I experienced I had no idea of because no one talked about them. The more open and supportive we are of each other, the more women will choose to do what is best for their babies: Breastfeed.

Mother-Ease giveaway at The Mommy Times! ends 9/21

Have you ever tried the Mother-Ease cloth diapering system? I have not, but have heard wonderful things about it. If you are interested in trying one out for free prior to investing a lot of money, head over to The Mommy Times and enter their current giveaway ending 9/21!

http://themommytimes-scmomof2boys.blogspot.com/2010/08/mother-ease-review-and-giveaway.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+theMommyTimes+("The+Mommy+Times")


Disclosure: By posting this, I have been entered for a chance to win.

Sweet Riverside Wagons Inc -Kids Wagon Giveaway Ends Sept 27, 2010 at Organic Girl

Wouldn't a new wooden wagon be a great Christmas gift for your kids? Head on over to http://www.mommybloggers.ca/ and enter their giveaway sponsored by Riverside Wagons, Inc. Check out their awesome products at http://kidsredwagons.com/

Good luck! And thanks to Organic Girl and Riverside Wagons, Inc. for the awesome giveaway!


Disclosure: By posting this, I have been entered for a chance to win.

Just a quickie- BumbleWee Nursing Wear Contest!

A must for breastfeeding is comfortable and easy to use nursing wear. BumbleWee has a lot of cute tops, dresses, pajamas, etc that they offer to help mama's out. At home it's not a big deal to bum around in a tank and yoga pants but when out it's always makes me feel better to wear 'normal' clothing. Even better if I get makeup on! And that's of course assuming I showered. (HAHA) Anyways, they are having a nursing top giveaway every day until the 15th of Sept. It's easy to enter, go put your name in the hat! (And if you would put me down for referring you, that'd be stupendous! hancoci_s at msn dot com)

http://www.bumbleweenursing.ca/index.php?main_page=contest_entry




Disclosure: By posting this, I have been entered for a chance to win.

Where did she go? And, What Your Mother Never Told You About Breastfeeding pt 1

Just where did the Crazy Green Mommy go, you ask?

Hmmm... let's recap the year plus in one word. 

Baby.

Yep.

Baby.

We had baby #2! And baby#2 is now 8 months old. I know. It was just a couple weeks after my last post I think we found out. Being as we had an unsuccessful pregnancy 6mos prior to that, I kind of went into 'safe' mode. But all was well, had a great pregnancy, great delivery, healthy baby hereto referred to as the Boob Man. And a great nurser he is! Can't get much greener than breastfeeding I suppose. The Boob Man popped out and promptly latched on for an hour before I realized maybe dad should get to hold him... The first 6 weeks were pretty rough getting acclimated to the process and dealing with engorgement, thrush, blebs, etc. But it was so worth it. 

And now for... What Your Mother Never Told You About Breastfeeding.

My mom breastfed all 4 of us. I don't remember my brothers but I do remember her nursing my sister. In turn I remember nursing my dolls and stuffed animals! That's how we learn, right? By example. I try to remember that daily. So Boob Man came out and latched on no problem right away. An hour the first go then another half hour after dad held him for a few minutes. I believe the fact that we got him right to breast helped immensely. We were unable to do that with my first baby and I attribute our struggles in part to that immediate glitch.

Given our stellar start, I thought we were home free. I was wrong.

In those blissful first few days I didn't realize he was latched on improperly. Yep. I realized that on about the 3rd day. As my milk came in. And when I say came in, I mean barely a B to DDs. (Jaw-Drop) Due to the improper latching I had some royal owie nips. Add engorgement and painful letdown to it and taking a shower, wearing a shirt and nursing every 2hrs or less was pure torture. For 6 weeks. Every hour and a half. 24/7.

But I did it! And we are still successfully nursing today at 8mos.

Let me tell you what helped me through the worst of it and hopefully I will help some poor tired Mom just trying to do her best, as well.

Improper latch: This one is hard. They first come out and their mouths are so little! I remember looking at my breast thinking, 'It's as big as his little head! He can't breathe!' And it is a little tricky. The best place to start is a comfortable nursing position. It might take a few tries to figure out what works best for you. The lactation hospital ladies always tried to get me to do the football hold. That just isn't comfortable for me. We are a standard cradle hold, sometimes cross cradle, with the football reserved for plugged ducts. So, get your position mastered.   

Then, the latch.

Taken from Just the facts Baby.com: 'As you bring the baby toward your breast, her chin should touch the breast first. (A baby's nose shouldn't touch the breast except in extreme cases when the breast is unusually large.)

Keep your baby's lower lip as far away from the base of your nipple as possible so her tongue draws lots of your breast into her mouth. Your baby's bottom lip should cover more of the areola than her top lip.'

http://www.justthefactsbaby.com/mom/article/breastfeeding-solutions-how-to-perfect-your-babys-latch/9

I think that's when I got it. It seemed the lac nurses in the hospital were just getting him to open his mouth wide and then jamming my breast in his mouth.(Terrible!) Summed up: Open wide, touch chin to breast first. And another thing- eventually you want their lips to flare out but it might take them a bit to do that or you might have to try and gently move their lips out as they are learning. It took my son a few weeks but he did get it eventually. 

Kellymom.com is an excellent resource for all things breastfeeding and I recommend spending some time on their site. I would have been so lost without their guidance those first months!

Coming up: What Your Mother Never Told You About Breastfeeding pt 2

Engorgement, plugged ducts, blebs and thrush. 

And I promise it won't be another year! 

Check out this store for supplies that help breastfeeding moms!

[http://thebabystoreplus.blogspot.com/search/label/Breastfeeding]