Thrush is Terrible, Nasty Nystatin

About two weeks after baby was born and two weeks of an unbelievably awesome breast-feeding journey, thrush reared its ugly head.

Could it have been because of the antibiotics I was put on for Strep B while in labor?

The skin on my nipples burned. Into week four I developed sharp shooting pains deep in my breasts. Meili on the other hand didn't seem too bothered by the white coating on her tongue. She just fussed a little more at the boob which I attributed to gas and her immature digestive system. 

We started treatment at the same time. Miconazole Cream for me and nystatin drops her. The nystatin drops have to be squirted in her mouth every six hours and it was very difficult to comply. You're supposed to swish it around your mouth then spit it out. Try telling baby that. She'd cry inconsolably after each application and end up on my boob thus swallowing that nasty stuff instead of leaving it to coat the inside of her mouth. And I'm not kidding when I say it's nasty. It is bitter. It is also 50% sugar. Which totally does not make sense to me as a supposed treatment for thrush because thrush is a yeast and guess what yeast feeds on? Sugar. Ahuh. 

Poor baby became so gassy she stay awake all night crying and fussing. Neither of us got much sleep!

After six days of this my boob pain worsened and she wasn't any better. She was worse off than before in fact. She was a gas bomber and wailing fart machine. 

Enter gentian violet. 

(To be continued)

The K'tan Carrier Me Like

I stumbled across the K'tan When looking at Moby wraps. The gushing reviews on Amazon for the K'tan and the same reviewers complaining about the having to drag the ends Of the Moby through the dirt in parking lots around the country kind of swayed me. 

I had trouble getting Meili in it at first and it seemed really snug, but now it seems just right. It's a learning curve using this carrier. I'm 5'6"and 115 pounds and the size extra small fits me very well. I also got the size medium for my husband. His organic cotton one is thinner and cooler while my black one gets hot and sticky especially now in the summer. 

Here's Meili at six weeks in the K'tan 

Got Milk (Still)

When I started relapsing two weeks ago my milk supply seemed to plunge. It was hard to tell at that time how much I was producing because I was direct latching Meili, but my boobs weren't filling up nice and firm as before. They looked kinda sad.

So I worried that my milk was drying up. And I would lose the ability to breastfeed peanut. 

Now I know that milk ducts don't actually dry up until months after breastfeeding or pumping has stopped. And even then, it's possible to relactate. 

And I'm still making some :D

A little breast milk pumped with my Medela In Style Double Electric Breast Pump

Dr Brown's Preemie Nipples Support Going Back to Breast

I had to learn how to bottle feed baby and baby had to learn to get used to these imposter nipples but after a day and a half of drama and stress she is doing great with them.

I love that she takes about 20 minutes to finish her feed on these nips. It mimics the pace at the boob. 

Also, the nipple doesn't leak or drip into her mouth in between her frequent breaks (which she does at the boob). So she doesn't gag or choke. 

The nipples fit on my Evenflo glass bottles too!

Funny how little things like this just make my day. 

Love you baby girl.

Baby doesn't like Similac Alimentum

And who can blame her? That stuff tastes nasty and smells pretty bad too. It didn't even come from a human mama. Instead it came from a cow. Probably a couple thousand cows. 

So I came up with this bright idea to get her to drink it. She'll take it if she's really hungry. I offer her 2 ounces of that stuff and then when she's finished with that which takes about 20 minutes I burp her and offer her another ounce of delicious breast milk from a donor friend. Just like dessert. She loves breastmilk. 

You  gotta do what you gotta do. 

Drank my own breast milk

As I sat down in a semi conscious dream state pumping my breast milk with my Lansinoh manual (now that's a good pump), it suddenly came to me that I needed to be drinking it instead of dumping it!

I'm currently doing the pump and dump because supposedly 10% of the hydrocortisone that I'm taking for my kidney relapse, is being excreted into my breast milk, and we didn't want baby getting that much corticosteroid into her wee system. 

Now, that seems like a waste of perfectly good medication if you ask me. Not to mention breast milk aka the 'liquid golf'. 

Ok fine you didn't ask me. :)

In my belly right now is a good 8 oz. it tastes like watered down Lactaid or diluted sweetened condensed milk, if you ask me. 

Ok you didn't ask me that either. :)

Burppp.

Awesomeness Review Medela Supplemental Nursing System

So, I was thrown a curveball last week. After over a month of wonderful breastfeeding of baby Meili, a relapse brought on by lack of sleep battling thrush caused my milk production to plummet. I was abruptly cast into the scary new world of bottle feeding, nipple confusion, supplemental nursing, milk-sharing and formula. I'm not forgetting this anytime soon, and have much in mind that needs written down at a later stage. How much later I can't say now, but don't hold your breath ha!

I logged on specifically to rave about the Medela Starter SNS that I ordered off Amazon for $18. It's a teeny tiny feeding tube taped to the boob on one end and connected to a tube filled with formula or breastmilk at the other end.

By sneaking the tube into baby's mouth as she opens wide to take in my nipple, she got 2 oz of my previously frozen milk while her suck-suck action continues to stimulate my breast to make milk. Meili's nursing is a whole lot more efficient at telling my breast to make milk, than any pump in the world, methinks.

This disposable SNS is supposed to be used for only 24 hours then thrown away, but I'm planning to rinse it out and reuse it for a week or two until I'm recovered and my milk (hopefully) comes back.

It came with a little instruction booklet that was very well put together. However, as always, I didn't read it first. Instead I referred to the nice illustrations alone. I managed to waste about 1/8 ounce doing that before wisely settling down to read the instructions that accompanied the illustrations. After snapping the white membrane into the disc, the whole thing worked perfectly. It took 5 minutes and a little bit of cussing (I don't cry over spilt milk ha).

I didn't bother with taping the tube onto my nipple. Nah that's for amateurs ;). I clipped the container to my sleeve at nipple level and put Meili on my chest in preparation for her feed. Somehow baby didn't even notice the tube placed surreptitiously at the end of the nipple, and latched on without much ado. Whoa. Sweet.

I experimented with raising and lowering the container above and below the level of my nipple to see how she would react. Raising it increased the flow and she was sucking it down way too fast. So I kept it below my nipple and let her work harder for the milk. She nursed like a champ - always has. I brag but I can't help it. I felt SO good knowing that she could still be at my breast while ensuring she got supplemental milk during my period of drought.

Now I'm down to my last 3 oz of frozen milk stash. What will I do when this runs out?

Stay tuned if you like, but no bated breath :)

My birthing experience

After being told at my first obstetrician's appointment that mine was a high-risk pregnancy due to 'advanced maternal age' and my previous history of kidney problems, and that I would have to be carefully and regularly monitored for pre-eclampsia and IUGR, I went on to have a wonderfully uneventful pregnancy. My blood pressure was a constant 100/60 throughout, and kidney function was 'too good' (according to my nephrologist). Peanut consistently measured above the 90th percentile in her growth ultrasounds and passed her biophysical profile tests with flying colors.

The expected due date was 21 May, but the baby had other ideas. She came two weeks early! Here's my birthing story.

May 7, Tuesday (38 weeks pregnant)
I woke up 9 am to find my panty unusually wet, but didn't give much thought to that. The rest of the day was normal (no more wetness).

May 8, Wednesday (38 weeks 1 day)
I woke up at 3 am and found that my panties were wet again. It didn't smell of pee. I couldn't get back to sleep, because I started thinking it might be amniotic fluid coming from a slow leak of my water bag. I sent a message to my doctor about this and then went to work tidying up the bathroom and medicine cabinet until daybreak.

10 am: Midwife calls about the message and we agree I should come in to get checked. I pack my hospital bag just in case. Already packed were a set of going home clothes for baby and I, comfy clothes for hubs, book, sanitary napkins. I hastily threw in a water bottle, my phone charger, wallet, some banana muffins, oranges, bananas, dried fruit snacks and toiletry bag.

12 pm: Meredith uses a speculum to see if any fluid has pooled near my cervix, and also swabs a sample of the fluid to look under the microscope. I'm 2 cm dilated?! The fluid sample is inconclusive. I'm scheduled for an ultrasound after lunch to check amniotic fluid levels. We discuss possible scenarios - if indeed the leak occurred May 7, it would be over 24 hours since that happened, and the risk of infection to baby much increased. They would suggest methods to get labor going, including the use of pitocin. I wasn't very happy about the pitocin part, and decided then that I would do whatever I could to  labor naturally. Thus begins Project Walk. I walk a mile to the Five Guys and have a burger and fries for lunch. I walk back to the hospital and am joined there by hubs, who (conveniently) works down the road. He goes back to work when it becomes apparent that my turn for the ultrasound would be a while yet, and I do laps around the small outdoor courtyard.

2.30 pm: The ultrasound looks normal, and amniotic fluid levels are high. While this is good, it doesn't mean there is no slow leak.

3.10 pm: Tracey finds a lot of fluid pooled near my cervix. I'm 4 cm dilated!!!!???? The microscopic examination is again inconclusive, but she decides to get me admitted because she feels in her gut that baby is coming. We have a discussion about possible scenarios. Pitocin figures quite prominently. I am to check in at Triage in about an hour.

4.20 pm: I brisk walk to Schenley Park carrying my backpack, determined to get labor started. I begin timing my barely there contractions: 2 minutes between contractions that last about 30 seconds. Spencer finds me as I loop past Mad Mex and we head back to hospital to check in. The poor hubs is quite stressed out and shell-shocked. He thought we had another two weeks.

6.00 pm: We are brought to Room 7, our labor and delivery room, where we will remain until baby is born. I feel restricted as various monitors are strapped onto my belly (to monitor baby's heart rate and my contractions), my arm and finger (blood pressure and pulse), and a hep-lock put in (at my request, instead of an IV). The monitors show baby's heart rate to be normal, and lots and lots of contractions, which feel like mild period cramps. The nurses assure me that the monitors are temporary, and the midwife on duty - who so happily happens to be Tanya (who has seen me throughout my pregnancy) - will have them off when she comes in. Cara is my nurse for the night. I like her. She looks all of 14 years old (she's 24), and is cheerful and kind. Tanya carefully reads through my birth plan, and for most part it will be doable. No promises about pitocin-free, but she is willing to have me try other methods first. Every hour, I am confined to the bed for 15 minutes while the intermittent fetal monitor etc is strapped on to record. Penicillin is administered in two doses via the hep-lock and I wheel it with me while doing laps around the courtyard.

8.00 pm: Cervix check reveals I'm 3 cm (according to Tanya), and she suggests breaking my water bag, to which I agree. After that's done, I'm measuring 4 cm. She also suggests nipple stimulation and a shower, so I give that a go too. I keep Walking. The courtyard is now dark, and it's chilly. The contractions are stronger now - like one of my more severe period cramps - but I walk and breathe through them.

10.00 pm: Tanya is leaning toward starting the pitocin, but sees my reluctance. She suggests a membrane sweep, to which I readily agree. It is a little uncomfortable. I'm still only at 4.5 cm. I resume my Walking.

12.00 am: I'm at 5 cm and 75% effaced, which isn't the 95-100% effacement that Tanya was hoping for. Pitocin at low dose (2) is started shortly after. Knowing that I wish to be free to move during labor, Cara swaps out the fetal monitors for the portable ones but I have to remain on the pitocin drip. I do hip swivels on the birthing ball. I'm getting tired and sleepy as it's past my bedtime and I've been walking/moving for 12 hours now. But the pitocin kicks in and I won't be getting any sleep. Spencer lays down on the daybed and falls asleep.

I try to find a comfortable position, on my left side feels better than on my back. I focus on breathing oxygen to my uterus as it contracts. I remember the take-home message from Judy Jones' two Lamaze classes I managed to attend,

"The uterus is a HUGE muscle and therefore needs a lot of oxygen when working. Tensing other muscles in the body will take away from oxygen that should go to the uterus. Lack of oxygen will cause the uterus to cramp. These cramps are what hurts. So, completely relax your body, and breathe oxygen to your uterus, to avoid cramps and pain".

I also remember the positive messages from the Hypnobabies CDs that I have been listening to, "pressure waves that bring you closer to meeting your beloved baby".

The contractions become more intense as the hours pass, and I'm feeling it quite a bit in my back, but also on the front of my belly. I rest completely between contractions. I look over at Spencer, slumbering peacefully on the daybed. I don't know how much longer this will take, or how much more intense it will get. This uncertainty, and my tiredness, have me thinking of 'Epidural' once or twice.

2.30 am: Tanya checks and finds that I am 7 cm dilated, and appears pleased at my progress. She looks at my face during one of the contractions and comments that my ability to relax will go far to ease my birthing. Spencer wakes up and I get him to apply pressure on my back. It feels good to have his big hands press on my back. I feel most comfortable birthing on my hands and knees, on the bed. It's just him and I, for what seems a while. I notice that the contractions are getting much longer. Was that 90 seconds? And the breaks in between are getting shorter. I feel pressure building up against my vaginal wall. Is that her head descending? I feel a strong urge to push, and fight it by breathing hard. I don't know if I should push - what if I'm not completely dilated yet?

3.30 am: Cara checks in on me, and I tell her I feel like pushing. Tanya returns and finds I am 10 cm dilated! She tells me I can push! Spencer sets up the bars at the head of the bed, and I kneel upright, grabbing on to the bars and pushing with the aid of gravity. It feels so good to push. As baby gets closer, I switch to lying on my back at 45 deg, so that Tanya can do the perineal massage that will prevent tearing. Spencer adjusts the ceiling mirror, and I can see all that is going on. It feels surreal. Tanya coaches me, giving just the right words at the right time, "Now, I want you to bear down, hold it there, take a deep breath and keep pushing", I hear her say. "Work with your contractions, push when  you are contracting". I rest in between the contractions that are aiding my pushing efforts. Spencer tells me later that I smile at these times. Baby's head is having a little trouble getting past my pubic bone. Spencer and Cara each grab hold of either knee and help draw them back as far and as wide as they will go. This seems to do the trick - all of a sudden, I can see baby's hair! I can't take my eyes off her hair. I can't wait to meet her. With every push, she is closer to me. I see her head crown, and seconds later, she is in my arms, skin-on-skin, bawling really loudly. I turn to look at Spencer. I think he is teary eyed. I'm not crying though. I'm saying 'Oh.... oh... oh...." over and over again as I gaze at our baby. 7 lbs 3 oz, 20.75 inches.

She is perfect.

Time of birth 4.29 am.

I love you Meili Abigail Clark.

Prenatal Yoga Class at Magee Women's Hospital

$10 per class for six classes is pretty cheap. I just wish it didn't involve an hour's drive each way!

I signed up for it because I have a yearning to flock with other expectant moms, and this momma-herd instinct isn't being satisfied in Natrona Heights where I live.

There are eight in our class, and at 8 months, I'm the most pregnant! Two others are due in June, two in September, one much later, and I believe there rest fall somewhere in between.

The class itself was good. Patty, the instructor is friendly and super nice. Turns out she teaches there every night of the week. This first lesson focused on pelvic floor awareness. We practised breathing in and out in an upright spread-legged position, and feeling how our pelvic floor descended on inhaling and came up when exhaling. I don't have any pelvic floor awareness. I couldn't feel anything really :)

We also did circles while seated cross-legged, to stretch the pelvis; rocked back and forth while inhaling and exhaling; reaching left and right while spread-legged; cat-n-cow poses; one downward dog; a couple swan dives; one warrior pose; tree pose; and some hip wiggles.

Everyone seemed in a hurry to leave right after the class ended, but I stayed to chat with Patty.

I'll be early next week to hopefully do some mingling!

Pregnancy and Running, Cross Country Skiing, Cycling, Snow Shoeing, Swimming, P90X

Following a previous post on 'Exercise while Pregnant', here are my adventures (and misadventures) while pregnant so far (32 weeks and counting).

Running

I've continued to run and hope to be running up till when Peanut is born. I am careful not to fall when running in the snow on trails, and even more so on the road where it can get icy. I play it by ear - if I feel any pain when running, I switch to walking. What kind of pains?

• I have experienced sharp pains on the left or right side of my belly. I think this is round ligament pain. The round ligament extends from the front of the womb to the groin. It supports the uterus and stretches as the baby grows. This stretching causes pain sometimes, and it's normal. Exercise can also cause this pain. Heck, even laughing can cause round ligament pain. It hurts bad. Probably not as bad as giving birth, but hey what do I know (yet...). 
• I've had some pain as my uterus contracts and becomes hard. This usually happens as I transition from the warm up walk to the run. Usually if I keep running (but at a slower pace), the contraction and the pain eases after a few minutes. If it gets too intense, I switch to walking. 

Cross Country Skiing

Since hubs got me a pair of cross country skis for Christmas, I figured I would try it. Unlike downhill skiing, the risk of falling at high speed is low. We broke in my skis on the Rails to Trails starting at Freeport towards Butler. My balance wasn't great - has never been - but I managed to do a slow shuffle. As I was afraid to fall backward onto my bum, I leaned forward more. I fell forward a few times because of that. Ending up in a crouch/squat put pressure on my belly and it hurt. So after a mile, I turned around to go back. No more skiing for now!

Cycling

I've spent many hours in the saddle, but not ridden through most of the pregnancy. I went out for a short winter-slush Rails-to-Trails ride in my 5th month, and boy was it uncomfortable. Having to lean forward to hold the handle bars put pressure on my baby bulge. Also, although my balance felt OK at that time, the slippery conditions had the bike sliding around and that was not good. Pass!

Snow Shoeing

Now this I enjoy and can foresee doing all the way up to D-day. (Except D-day is going to be at the end of May, and thus, snowless). It's just like walking, except the additional weight of the snowshoes gives a wee bit more of a workout.


P90X
I did 60 days of the P90X program while in Malaysia (and got into really ab-ripping awesome shape), got sidetracked by my move to the US, and had been backslidden for close to six months when I got pregnant. Some time in Month 3, I attempted to ease back into P90X very gently, but failed. Couldn't do the pull-ups, nor most of Ab Ripper - it actually hurt my abs! I know I know, I shouldn't have even tried. I was just bored of the Pregnancy Yoga DVD and P90X is a lot more fun! Oh well. :)

Swimming
I had lofty plans to swim throughout the pregnancy but these plans were derailed by Winter. The YMCA near my home has a 'heated' pool but the temperature is still too cold for my liking. I tried my best to make it work for about a month - after an hour of swimming (about 1.5 - 2 km) I would no longer be able to stay warm despite continuous movement. Worse, I would get chilled upon exiting the water all through the shower and dressing. I went home every time, shivering and chilled to the bone. It was too physically stressful and did me more harm than good, so I stopped.

However, during my visit to the tropical paradise that is Malaysia, I enjoyed the bath-water-warm sea swims tremendously. I guess I'm just a wimp when it comes to cold. :)

80 degree bath-water-temperature seas are just my cup of tea. At 7 months, Avillion
Admiral Cove, Port Dickson, Malaysia, for a Tadonamo Trieathlon 

What physical activities did you partake of while pregnant, if any? Or did you stop exercising completely the entire duration? :)