Breastfeeding is the most natural thing in the world, so do we really need a piece of technology to do it better? And if you breastfeed on demand, which is the method of feeding I recommend, so long as your baby is gaining weight and producing enough wet diapers, then you shouldn’t have to worry about whether your baby is getting enough milk.
However, someone has created an application to help you breastfeed at regular timed intervals. You know, to help you. Because everyone knows how unreliable us humans are when it comes to remembering to do things like feed our babies. But I suppose in this high tech world of ours I shouldn’t be surprised that this technology is being offered or that moms are snapping it up as another “must have” in their lives. Right up there with the baby monitors and emails set to alert mode.
Nursing Master is a free online tool (that also has a Blackberry application) that enables moms to log their baby’s feedings. However, you need to be sitting in front of your computer or using your hand held device the entire time you are nursing to make sure you log your information correctly. You know, press the start button when you start nursing and the stop button when you stop and press buttons for when you switch sides. At the end of the day you can see how much and for how long your baby nursed. You can even view, review and compare your baby’s feedings from week to week or month to month. Nothing like a little extra something to make us new moms anxious and wondering how our baby compares to other babies. Oh, but there’s a button for that too. You can compare your baby’s feedings with the other mothers who use Nursing Master!
Maybe it’s because I don’t have a blackberry or internet on my cel phone (call me old fashioned!) or because I don’t sit in front of my computer all day, but tracking your baby’s feedings sounds like too much work to me. I also think it’s important to, at least some of the time (because no one is perfect!), spend nursing sessions paying attention to our children. Breastfeeding is a time for bonding, for making eye contact, playing with, talking to and tuning into your child. You can’t do these things very well when you’re busy doing something else. Some babies get pretty annoyed when they aren’t being given enough attention too. Some babies will even start biting to get your attention. But even if they don’t, they aren’t going to feel like you’re very interested in them when every time you nurse you have to sit in front of your computer or whip out your blackberry.
If a mom needs to track her baby’s feedings, because her baby is very sleepy and not getting enough or because her baby doesn’t cry wheen hungry and mom is forgetful of the last time she breastfed, then there are low-tech ways to do this. Nursing bracelets like Milk Bands and The Nursing Bracelet have been around for a few years now. They allow you to keep track of which side you last nursed on and the time you last nursed (or how long you nursed for). Plus, you don’t have to expose your baby to harmful radiation from electromagnetic fields (EMF). Yay – bonus! I still think that most moms won’t need one of these. It’s just one more thing to have to remember to do! But perhaps it’s more about the novelty?
Anyway, I think it’s okay to breastfeed in front of eletronic devices sometimes, but not all the time. And really, do we need another high tech application to ensure breastfeeding success?
What do you think? Do you have this app? Would you get it? Do you have a nursing bracelet or use anything else to track your baby’s feedings? What is your story behind needing or wanting to use a tracking device for your baby’s feedings? Please educate this breastfeeding mom!
Tags: biting, Blackberry application, breastfeeding on demand, nursing apparel, nursing bracelet
I love Mexican food. Burritos, nachos, quesadillas and all their toppings. I make a mean guacamole and salsa but I had never made my own Pico De Gallo. Then I won Ree Drummond’s The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes From an Accidental Country Girl by entering a giveaway at One Starry Night. Ree’s Pico De Gallo was the first thing I made. And oh my goodness it is goooood! And who knew it could be so easy?
credit: The Pioneer Woman
So all the credit here goes to The Pioneer Woman. In fact I encourage you to click the link for her very detailed recipe and instructions which is chock full of gorgeous photos. Much better than anything I could ever produce. But if you would prefer less than beautiful directions then I can do that.
The trick to awesome pico de gallo lies within the symmetry of the ingredients. You want to have equal amounts of cilantro, tomato and onion. I do it by sight. Then add a little jalapeño pepper (to taste) and a squeeze and lime and salt (again to taste). The beauty of providing these kinds of directions is that you can choose how much or little to make. The photo below was just enough for two people. I used approximately 1/3 of a medium yellow onion, 3/4 of a large tomato and a small handful of cilantro and 1/3 of a jalapeño pepper.
Then mix it all up and you’ve got the picture at the top. Easy peasy. Simple Simon. And sooooo good!
This post is taking part in Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade, Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum, Food on Friday by Ann Kroeker, Ultimate Recipe Swap at Life as Mom, Finer Things Friday at Kitchen Stewardship and Friday Feasts at Momtrends
Tags: Foodie Fridays, Mexican, recipe
I’ve recently started working towards not nursing my youngest daughter to sleep. She’s two and a half and I’m at the point where I’d like to be able to go out of the house once in awhile past 8:00 without worrying about how my daughter is going to fall asleep without me. Because she never has. Once when I worked an on-call mental health shift in the city (an hour away) I didn’t get home until after midnight. I arrived to find her still awake, watching tv with my husband. “She absolutely refused to go to sleep without you,” he told me.
But then suddenly a couple weeks ago something shifted. I went out one night and returned to find out that she had actually let her dad put her to bed and she had fallen asleep without me. The next day we gave her tons of praise and remarked at what a big girl she was. Accordingly, she was very proud of herself. So every few nights since then, after a bit of protest and a million hugs and reassurance from me that I will climb into bed next to her later, we’ve purposely had daddy put her to bed. She’s fallen into her own little routine of saying goodnight, having us leave the door open and then looking at a book by herself with the lamp on, then falling asleep. I get to have some quiet time to myself for a couple hours and then arrive to find her sleeping soundly, her angelic lips parted slightly, her sweet little hands actually folded under her cheeks. I pause. The image tugs at my heartstrings. The gentle transition towards night weaning has begun.
But now that she’s beginning not to need me, I’m starting to miss it. Last night for instance, even though I really needed some physical space and time to unwind after a particularly stressful day, a part of me wanted to nurse her to sleep. I probably should have, but I was in a bit of a bad mood, tired of being pawed at, and just wanted everyone to go to bed. But that rush of serenity-inducing hormones would have been good for me. She protested more than usual too. I guess she could tell I was stressed and needed me to reassure her that everything was okay. Poor thing. In retrospect I wish I’d done things differently.
But of course once I crawled into bed she woke up and wanted to nurse almost every hour. Suddenly my heart wasn’t breaking anymore. I wished she was in her own bed, in her own room, and that I was sleeping a dream-filled sleep like all the childless people of the world.
It’s a process, night weaning. An emotional teeter-totter for both of us it seems. I’m glad we’re on the slow track because it looks like both mom and nursling need it.
Tags: bed-sharing, nighttime parenting, weaning
Does your nursling prefer one of your breasts over the other? Do you have a preferred side? Does it cause your breasts to be lopsided? Before I had kids I could say: “I have one foot that is just slightly longer than the other, and way thicker hair on the right side of my head, but my breasts are nice and symmetrical.” In fact, my pre-kid boobs exuded the perky, stacked confidence I wish the rest of my body had back then.
Since I started nursing, however, and favouring the right side over the left, my right boob is noticeably larger than the left one. No one says anything, of course. My husband is oblivious to it unless I’m standing in front of him with my shirt up, grilling him on his opinion of my lopsidedness, pointing my nipples accusingly at him as if it’s really all his fault that this happened in the first place. Because I certainly didn’t mean for this to happen. But it did. Because five years ago I didn’t know the things I know now -
Like breasts make milk based on supply and demand. The more you nurse your baby, the more milk your breasts make. This is why moms of twins and triplets can successfully nurse their babies. If the demand is high, the milk production is high. As long as they don’t mind the sometimes embarrassing moments of leaking breasts and the constant demand of hungry babies, they will have enough milk. Even if a baby only wants to nurse on one breast moms can nurse successfully. Because some babies, as some of you may know from experience, for whatever reason, just reject certain ones of our breasts. What, you don’t like my mole? The milk isn’t good enough for you?
This isn’t my problem. My daughters liked both sides, but because I tend to prefer the right, there’s more milk in there and as a result my right breast is slightly bigger than the left. I know I should always offer the opposite breast at the next feeding. Usually I can tell which one it is too. But sometimes I just don’t, thinking I can make it up later. (Not such a good idea new moms. Try not to do this if you want to keep your girls perpendicular.) When it is offered, this leads to the left emptying sooner than the right, resulting in my nursling nursing longer on the bigger, fuller side.
I wish I could weigh them. I’m thinking there’s a 1/2 pound to 1 pound difference, but I would really like to find out for sure. I’m not sure how I could do that though. I don’t own a bathroom scale. But even if I did, placing it on the counter and lifting one boob onto it and then the other? Probably not going to work so well. Plus, if I can’t trust two scales to be within ten ponds of my entire body weight I don’t think I can rely on an accurate reading of two smaller devices still attached to my body. Hm, one says 7 pounds and the other says 13!
What I need is one of those large kitchen scales! They do have one at our local health food store. They keep it in this closet-like space with the spices, right behind the bulk grains, and next to the produce section. Maybe I could wiggle my way into there, balance my basket of carefully chosen large boxes of sugar-free organic cornflakes and phosphate free dishwasher detergent on the counter and then stealthily scoot behind them. Then I could whip out boob number one – kerplunk! – then number two – kerplunk! and take my reading. If someone saw and asked me what the hell I was doing I could wittily reply “Sorry! Just weighing my melons! Wrong section I guess.” Ha ha! But then I could never show my face in there again and that would be no good because the next closest worthwhile health food store is an hour drive away. Plus this one houses my favorite organic bakery. Damn!
I guess I’ll have to live with the burden of my lopsided breasts under the reassuring fact that many, many other breastfeeding moms also have this problem…
You do right? Come on. Anyone?
Tags: leaky breasts, supply and demand
I’ve recently been inspired by a few blogs in terms of creating some fun indoor activities for my kids. I’m not terribly crafty but I’ve even been inspired to try my hand at sewing some simple toys! I spent the week experimenting with the ideas, and then ended the week by reading 9 ways to encourage your kids to live simply by Simple Mom, which completely validated my efforts. So I thought I’d share my successes with you. Because happy kids make for happy moms, right? And they are all so super easy, really, little effort is required.
First, Code Name Mama shared an idea on her blog about room weaving. You take a roll of yarn or string, tie one end onto a piece of furniture or door knob and then walk around the room looping the yarn around other pieces of furniture until you have a crazy criss-crossed web of string. This is fantastic for imagination play and my 5 year old daughter gained some confidence doing it on her own too. The yarn was a spider web, laser beams, and a roof for an indoor fort. We set up and took this down three times this week. The daycare kids had a blast with it too! Just make sure you supervise carefully if young ones are playing as it can be easy to get tangled up in the string.
Next, No Time For Flash Cards encouraged me to make a simple Valentine’s Day-themed sensory play tub. First, I poured a bag of dried red kidney beans and a bag of white navy beans into a small rubbermaid box. Then, I added cut up foam hearts and some measuring cups, spoons, bowls and a muffin tin. Not only does it feel great to sift these through your hands, but add some measuring cups and spoons and suddenly you’re doing math! Funny how it takes more scoops to fill a bowl with a 1/4 cup than a full 1 cup. I don’t usually like to incorporate food into craft time. Wasting food is hard for me to do. But since I have to wash and rinse these beans before I cook them anyway, I feel like this is one food activity I make an exception for.
**IMPORTANT** – Just noted that NTFFC has posted a safety update: It appears dried kidney beans are toxic and as few as 4-5 ingested beans can cause stomach upset. It might be a good idea to replace the red beans with red lentils. However, always watch your children during activities like these. Older children like to put things in their mouths sometimes too, and even if something isn’t toxic, very small objects like these can be a choking risk.
No Time For Flash Cards inspired me again with this recycling center activity: Take a large piece of blank newsprint. (For cheap, you can buy a small roll from your local newspaper that will last forever.) Tape it onto your kitchen table or other play surface. Draw a conveyor belt (or road) and different coloured boxes for sorting your “recyclables.” Then find yourself a truck and a bucket of duplos or wooden blocks and set out to sorting them by colour in your recycling center. This activity lasted two days until the paper on our kitchen table finally wore out. If you made the paper area bigger you could also try sorting REAL recyclables, by material instead of colour, or you could play laundromat and sort clothes, by writing the names or drawing pictures of where socks, shirts, pants, etc. go. The sorting ideas are endless.
I’m not much of a seamstress, but I can hand-stitch, so I’m really excited to give this craft from Pink and Green Mama a try. Homemade felt cookies! She makes it look so easy and my girls adore playing with pretend sweets. Perhaps I’ll give these a go for Valentines Day.
Do you like reading about what other moms are doing with their kids? Do you ever incorporate their ideas into your child’s play activities? What simple activities for kids have you tried? Please share! I’m on a roll here!
Tags: crafts, indoor activities
Welcome to Foodie Fridays!
From the book My Bombay Kitchen by Niloufer Ichaporia King:
“Italian eggs are as Italian as the French dressing you buy in supermarkets in France.”
So basically, these don’t actually capture the taste of what you might expect an Italian egg to taste like. That is, if you even had an expectation in the first place. Either way I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with this unique recipe.
Last weekend, my best birthday present, other than my new camera, was spending the day with my best friend, Diana, whom I hadn’t seen in two years. We sat at the table in her mother’s dining room, deviling these eggs, filling sandwiches and cutting off crusts for her mom’s 83rd birthday celebration. Even though it was work to some extent, it felt like an appropriate way for two foodies to spend their time together, chatting, eating, me sampling her homemade fudge, chocolate-dipped nougat rolled in toasted pecans and pretty sugar cookies. Mm. It was a delightful afternoon.
No one had made this recipe before this occasion, but our hopes were high. What a delicious relief to experiment with such success. They were ravishing. Scrumptious. After making 18 and eating about 4 of them between us (just tasting!) we decided that more must be made. The guests would be gobbling these up in no time.
These would be perfect for a potluck or luncheon. I made the egg-salad version of these a couple days ago for my daycare kids and had 50% success. One child didn’t like “the green things” and the other two didn’t like eggs in general. I didn’t necessarily have the perfect sample cohort but you might want to ensure that most of the people eating these are grown-ups. But then stand back and watch them disappear – fast!
Mother’s “Italian” Eggs
6 large eggs
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
2 Tbsp butter, room temperature
2 (or more) green chilies, finely chopped (we used only 1 because we didn’t want to make them too spicy and it was fine)
1 Tbsp (or more) lime juice
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (you’ll think it’s a lot but it’s not)
1 Tbsp (or more) honey
salt and pepper to taste
Whole small cilantro leaves or diagonally cut slivers of fresh red or green chilies, for garnish.
Directions:
Place eggs in a saucepan of cold water and heat to boil. Turn the heat to a simmer and cook for 12 minutes. The yolks need to be firm. Plunge the eggs into cold water until cool enough to handle, and peel. Halve them lengthwise. If you see any thin spots in the white, cut the egg so the thin spot is on the bottom. You can reinforce it with a shaved patch from the thicker half.
Scoop out the yolks and set aside the whites. Mash and cream the yolks with the mayonnaise, butter, chilies, lime juice, chopped cilantro and the surprise ingredient, honey – at least 1 Tbsp but possibly more. Add salt to taste. You want the mixture to be assertive, so don’t be timid with the sweet, the sour, or the salt.
Mound the yolk mixture into the whites halves. Leave the surface rough, gently cross-hatched with the tines of a fork. Chill until the filling firms up, about 1-2 hours. Remove from the refrigerator about a half an hour before serving. At serving time, garnish each half with a single perfect cilantro leaflet or diagonally cut a sliver of fresh green or red chile.
“Italian” Egg Salad: Chop the hard-boiled eggs. Toss with all the ingredients except the butter; compensate with a little extra mayonnaise. Serve on a bed of lettuce and cucumber or as a first rate egg-salad sandwich with lots of lettuce and cucumber on whole wheat or sourdough bread. To make sturdy filling for crust-less sandwiches, leave in the butter and refrigerate the mixture until it is firm.
Notes: The quantities are a starting point. Please use your judgement when it comes to heat. If you don’t want the filling hot, start with half a chile and take the seeds out before you chop it. Do suspend any belief about the oney. Its presence is magical. You don’t want to use a dark, medicinal honey. Stick with one in the light-to-medium floral range.
Thanks again to one of my favorite bloggers, Tabatha of Tabulous, for photo shopping my Foodie Friday photo. I love it – yay!
This post is taking part in linkys and carnivals at Food Renegade, Designs by Gollum, Ann Kroeker, Momtrends, and The Nourishing Gourmet.
Tags: deviled eggs, Foodie Fridays, recipe
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