Saturday, January 8, 2011

My career's as a mother...

I am sitting here thinking of my to do list and i realize that i have a PHD in more than one area i mean think about it as mommy i am  a maid, professor, chef, nurse, cheerleader, clown, event planner, calendar and cab driver. 
And lets not get started as what i am as a girlfriend haha!
Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Quick Picture!

Today we had some extra time before picking up Hailey at school so we used it to snap some pictures. Leannah doesn't look into the camera so from about 80 pictures taken these are the only ones that made the cut. haha!

Leannah saying.... Cheeeesee she think's thats a camera.



Nick names?!


What are your thoughts on nick names? To be honest i have never been a fan of them but i guess it depends on the childs name and who is calling them. For instance I call Hailey: Hailz, Hai hai or Adrianna. I dont mind anyone calling her that but when she was a baby i used to call her Ni ni and i noticed people would start calling her that as well so i immediately stopped.

Now with Leannah i call her Leanne, Leah, LC,Christalia and Nana the only one i don't like people calling her is Nana i feel like that's my special name for her. For someone who is not a fan of nick names i sure call my kid's a ton of stuff lol.. So what's your Little one's nickname or ''special name''?


* I forgot to add what does your little one call dad? Leannah calls her dad Daddy or Babe. I think it's adorable to hear this little person saying '' Babe''. Alot of people say when she get's older it's going be weird. What are your thoughts??

Monday, January 3, 2011

Justin Bieber Concert!

December of 2010 I took Hailey to the Justin Bieber concert. I am ashamed to say i didn't bring my camera instead i took my old Canon which is really crappy. What a huge mistake because i didn't capture any cool pictures. So here are the few that we have.

 I apologize for the horrible quality but hey! we had a blast so that's what counts. I think i am now more in love with the Bieber than what Hailey is or maybe we are equal? who knows. This kid is extremely talented!




Bedtime? anyone?

I had these pictures in my camera and decided to share them. This is what my children are up to every night before bedtime.


Puppy love ( wow! wow!)
Gymnastics anyone?
 
                 Video chatting and clothes designing with cousins Jada and Amyah.
This is why my children never want to go to bed they just have so much more exciting things to do then give mommy some peace and quiet. After all this comes the BEDTIME yell! lol
Sunday, January 2, 2011

By far one of the GREATEST articles i have read.

Normal Newborn Behavior and Why Breastmilk Isn't Just Food


What is a normal, term human infant supposed to do?

First of all, a human baby is supposed to be born vaginally. Yes, I know that doesn't always happen, but we're just going to talk ideal, normal for now. We are supposed to be born vaginally because we need good bacteria. Human babies are sterile, without bacteria, at birth. It's no accident that we are born near the anus, an area that has lots of bacteria, most of which are good and necessary for normal gut health and development of the immune system. And the bacteria that are there are mom's bacteria, bacteria that she can provide antibodies against if the bacteria there aren't nice.

Then the baby is born and is supposed to go to mom. Right to her chest. The chest, right in between the breasts is the natural habitat of the newborn baby. (Fun fact: our cardiac output, how much blood we circulate in a given minute, is distributed to places that are important. Lots goes to the kidney every minute, like 10% or so, and 20% goes to your brain. In a new mom, 23% goes to her chest- more than her brain. The body thinks that place is important!)

That chest area gives heat. The baby has been using mom's body for temperature regulation for ages. Why would they stop? With all that blood flow, it's going to be warm. The baby can use mom to get warm. When I was in my residency, we would put a cold baby "under the warmer" which meant a heater thingy next to mom. Now, as I have matured, if a baby is "under the warmer," the kid is under mom. I wouldn't like that. I like the kids on top of mom, snuggled.

Now we have a brand new baby on the warmer. That child is not hungry. Bringing a hungry baby into the world is a bad plan. And really, if they were hungry, can you please explain to me why my kids sucked the life force out of me in those last few weeks of pregnancy? They better have been getting food, or well, that would have been annoying and painful for nothing.

Every species has instinctual behaviors that allow the little ones to grow up to be big ones and keep the species going. Our kids are born into the world needing protection. Protection from disease and from predators. Yes, predators. Our kids don't know they've been born into a loving family in the 21st century- for all they know it's the 2nd century and they are in a cave surrounded by tigers. Our instinctive behaviors as baby humans need to help us stay protected. Babies get both disease protection and tiger protection from being on mom's chest. Presumably, we gave the baby some good bacteria when they arrived through the birth canal. That's the first step in disease protection. The next step is getting colostrum.

A newborn baby on mom's chest will pick their head up, lick their hands, maybe nuzzle mom, lick their hands and start to slide towards the breast. The kids have a preference for contrasts between light and dark, and for circles over other shapes. Think about that...there's a dark circle not too far away.

Mom's sweat smells like amniotic fluid, and that smell is on the child's hands (because there's been no bath yet!) and the baby uses that taste on their hand to follow mom's smell. The secretions coming from the glands on the areola (that dark circle) smell familiar too and help the baby get to the breast to get the colostrum which is going to feed the good bacteria and keep them protected from infection. The kids can attach by themselves. Watch for yourself! And if you just need colostrum to feed bacteria and not yourself, well, there doesn't have to be much. And there isn't because the kids aren't hungry and because Breastmilk is not food!

We're talking normal babies. Breastfeeding is normal. It's what babies are hardwired to do. 2009 or 209, the kids would all do the same thing: try to find the breast. Breastfeeding isn't special sauce, a leg up or a magic potion. It's not "best." It's normal. Just normal. Designed for the needs of a vulnerable human infant. And nothing else designed to replace it is normal.

Colostrum also activates things in the baby's gut that then goes on to make the thymus grow. The thymus is part of the immune system. Growing your thymus is important. Breastmilk= big thymus, good immune system. Colostrum also has a bunch of something called Secretory Immunoglobulin A (SIgA). SIgA is made in the first few days of life and is infection protection specifically from mom. Cells in mom's gut watch what's coming through and if there's an infectious cell, a special cell in mom's gut called a plasma cell heads to the breast and helps the breast make SIgA in the milk to protect the baby. If mom and baby are together, like on mom's chest, then the baby is protected from what the two of them may be exposed to. Babies should be with mom.

And the tigers. What about them? Define "tiger" however you want. But if you are baby with no skills in self-protection, staying with mom, having a grasp reflex, and a startle reflex that helps you grab onto your mom, especially if she's hairy, makes sense. Babies know the difference between a bassinette and a human chest. When infants are separated from their mothers, they have a "despair- withdrawal" response. The despair part comes when they alone, separated. The kids are vocally expressing their desire not to be tiger food. When they are picked up, they stop crying. They are protected, warm and safe. If that despair cry is not answered, they withdraw. They get cold, have massive amounts of stress hormones released, drop their heart rate and get quiet. That's not a good baby. That's one who, well, is beyond despair. Normal babies want to be held, all the time.

And when do tigers hunt? At night. It makes no sense at all for our kids to sleep at night. They may be eaten. There's nothing really all that great about kids sleeping through the night. They should wake up and find their body guard. Daytime, well, not so many threats. They sleep better during the day. (Think about our response to our tigers-- sleep problems are a huge part of stress, depression, anxiety.)

And sleep... My guess is everybody sleeps with their kids- whether they choose to or not and whether they admit to it or not. It's silly of us as healthcare providers to say "don't sleep with your baby" because we all do it. Sometimes accidentally. Sometimes intentionally. The kids are snuggly, it feels right and you are tired. So, normal babies breastfeed, stay at the breast, want to be held and sleep better when they are with their parents. Seems normal to me. But there is a difference between a normal baby and one that isn't. Safe sleep means that we are sober, in bed and not a couch or a recliner, breastfeeding, not smoking...being normal. If the circumstances are not normal, then sleeping with the baby is not safe.

That chest -to -chest contact is also brain development. Our kids had as many brain cells as they were ever going to have at 28 weeks of gestation. It's a jungle of waiting -to-be- connected cells. What we do as humans is create too much and then get rid of what we aren't using. We have like 8 nipples, a tail and webbed hands in the womb. If all goes well, we don't have those at birth. Create too much- get rid of what you aren't using. So, as you are snuggling, your child is hooking up happy brain cells and hopefully getting rid of the "eeeek" brain cells. Breastfeeding, skin-to-skin, is brain wiring. Not food.

Why go on and on about this? Because more and more mothers are choosing to breastfeed. But most women don't believe that the body that created that beautiful baby is capable of feeding that same child and we are supplementing more and more with infant formulas designed to be food. Why don't we trust our bodies post-partum? I don't know. But I hear over and over that the formula is because "I am just not satisfying him." Of course you are. Babies don't need to "eat" all the time- they need to be with you all the time- that's the ultimate satisfaction.

A baby at the breast is getting their immune system developed, activating their thymus, staying warm, feeling safe from predators, having normal sleep patterns and wiring their brain, and (oh by the way) getting some food in the process. They are not "hungry" --they are obeying instinct. The instinct that allows us to survive and make more of us.


Jenny Thomas, MD, IBCLC, FAAP, FABM
Lake Shore Medical Center

If my Children can have it all then that's what makes me Happy :)

Today i woke up with a million things on that brain of mine. Way more than what i can share with you. One thing i did realize is how much my social life has shut down. Feels like i had so much to do and now as Leannah and Hailey are getting older and i'm going to school there's not much to do except Clean, bathe, feed, School work, clean, clean and clean some more. We do the dinner and movie or series night just about every Saturday, Sunday and Monday so that's the time mommy and daddy get to spend together.

If i knew kids were so messy i probably would have thought about it twice (I'm Kidding). Having a child changes you but having two turns your life completely around. I mean i remember going to the mall and splurging on Hailey one paycheck and the other paycheck splurging for myself now i'd be lucky if i buy myself something. I know it's terrible. I go to the mall i go straight to the kids stores. I'm a young mother why can't i find a reason to shop for myself? I refuse to, everything must go to my Fashionistas, if their looking good then that's all that matters to me.

Is this wrong? Is this right? I also tend to be very selective of my friends. I normally only want to hang out with the ladies who are moms. My ideal day out is a play date with a mom who socializes i like to talk not just about child related stuff about everything in general that we can relate to. Enough rambling i can go on forever.

So there you have it some thoughts on my life as a mother. I am 100% on team Hailey and Leannah, wouldn't change it for the world and if the Fashionista's are happy then guess who's happy! Me :)
Saturday, January 1, 2011

Ringing in 2011

Every year we go to my a family friends annual New year party. She and her family are wonderful hosts and they go all out from Tents, DJ's, drinks everything you can imagine it actually didn't even feel like we were in a home. In all we had a wonderful time our friends Natalie and Marco joined us along with their beautiful little lady Andrea and we spend the new year with family and friends! Enjoy the pictures... ( more on Facebook)