Weaning Hell: Cabbage Anyone? **UPDATED**

Today marks 18 days that I have not breastfed Liam and 11 days since pumping. It hurts. Still. When I first talked to the nurse, she told me to bind my breasts real tight and that things will calm down in a couple of days. I was so afraid of getting mastitis that I just pumped a little till I thought I didn't need to pump anymore. Then I didn't pump for days and days. Three days ago, my breasts were still hard as rocks, and so again I called the nurse. Again, she told me to bind my breasts, put on ice packs and wait 48 hours. Fast forward to today and I am still in pain. I just keep asking myself when will I get my body back! All day yesterday I sported a cabbage bra to reduce the engorgement and today I am doing a little better without it. I am not sure why the cabbage works, but it made things bearable yesterday (although I didn't smell very nice).

Liam is doing well on the sippy cup and we have completely moved away from a bottle. He still drinks quite a bit (4oz, 4 times a day and 5 oz over night). We are doing a 50/50 mix during the day and 100% cows milk at night. Starting Monday, we will drop down to 25/75 and eventually to 100%. When he is hungry, he still lunges at my breasts. This time, however, he doesn't have a crying fit when I hand him a sippy. We will eventually wean him off of the night feeds but for now, it works for us (with everything else going on). 

A funny side story: My cousin works in the neonatal unit in England and had a mom suffering from engorgement. Her and her staff advised her about the wonders of cabbage and engorgement. Somehow there was a miss communication and the woman came back a week later, still very engorged and complained the cabbage was not working. "I have been eating it three times a day for a week now and all it has done has been giving me really bad gas". Needless to say, you are going to see results wearing the cabbage as apposed to eating it.

Update: Today (7/20/13) marks 25 days post weaning, and 18 post pumping. My poor breasts have healed, if you call it that. They are no longer engorged however, they will never be the same. C'est la Vie. The price you pay for being a mom. I am just happy to be able to wear a regular bra again.

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Part Three: Liam's First Birthday, Walking, 7 teeth, Weaning, Poor Sleep, Lead

Liam and Grandma V

This is a much needed update and I am sorry to all my readers for it being SO late. A LOT has happened in the past couple of weeks, with both myself and my little toddler.

First Birthday: At the end of this post I will have more birthday photos. He had a great first birthday at his Grandma Vs, considering the circumstances. We were going to throw another at my moms but I was just too sick and wiped out. His first taste of cake was Strawberry Short Cake (my favorite!) and he LOVED it. He didn't want to let go of the spoon the entire time (we kept the spoon). He did get his hands dirty in cake but it wasn't an all-out mess. Next year will be different.

He received some great presents, including a singing toucan flashlight, bedroom glowing sea-horse, Legos, clothes, and stacking cups (to name a few). He got to spend time with his Great Aunt and Great Grandma and had a really great day. Later, during our trip to see family, my mom (Grandma S) got him his first pair of shoes (Nike sandals), his first chair (see pic below) and tons of clothes. All in all, I think he had a great first birthday.


Milestones: We have a walker! Liam took his first steps for Daddy on July 3rd and more on July 4th. He still prefers to crawl but will walk from one stationary object to the next. He becomes very proud of himself when he does walk and very upset when he falls but he's doing such a great job.

He is "talking" up a storm, mostly saying "yaya", "dada", "momma", "baba" and baby gibberish. He points, sings, and just is such an animated little boy. His personality really is starting to shine through. We taught him to share but he is still getting used to the idea of giving something up. He will hand an object to me but will still want it and take it back. It's pretty cute. He is also understanding more phrases. He knows the word no (and will yell "YA" back), he know "Give it to me" or "Let me see" and he will pass something to me. He is also getting into shows a bit more. His favorite are Veggie Tales and the Despicable Me 2 Trailer Banana Song. He could watch them over and over and over.

I noticed last night (a bit late) that he has his 7th tooth (probably about 1 week old) and the doctor says that his back right molar is coming in as well.

Weaning: I am going to right a separate post on weaning but here is a breakdown of how it is going. As of June 25th, Liam was weaned cold turkey off the breast. I would NOT recommend this to anyone unless you have a great support team AND it was medically necessary.  I am still very emotional over it and so is he. There are days where he will take the sippy cup with no problem, and there are days where he will throw it at me and pull up my shirt. Things are slowly getting better but those first few days were rough. He doesn't like the taste of cows milk and so I am mixing in my frozen stash. I currently have about 130 oz that I am going to try and space out. I haven't pumped in about 1 week and its still pretty uncomfortable (I will spare you all details).

Naps and Bedtime: Naps are a daily battle. Some days are great and he will sleep for 2 hours in the morning, an hour in the afternoon. Other days, he won't nap. Bedtime, however, has become a bear. He goes down relatively well but his night wakings are wearing me thin. The next couple of weeks, we are going to have to come up with something new. I am still in the process of figuring that one out.

Doctor's Visit: Well he had a great visit minus a couple of issues. Good news first: he is just under 25lbs (90 percentile), 32" long (98 percentile) and on cue for all his milestones. Bad news: He is anemic and has elevated lead levels. His finger prick test came back at 9.9 for hemoglobin and 5.5 for lead levels. We have searched the house and have discovered door nobs that are positive for lead, as well as hinges and a lamp. We are planing on hiring an expert to walk through our home to access our options and look to see if there was anything else that we may have missed. We are pretty sure that the water is lead free but we are testing that next. 

So that is the update thus far. I am sure I have missed something here or there but I will be trying to make more frequent updates as things calm down.

 

 

Liam's First Steps for Daddy!

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Part One: Liam's First Birthday, ER stay

To all my readers, friends and family: These last couple of weeks have been an emotional time. Two weeks before Liam's first birthday, I started experiencing extreme swelling in my legs. I went to the doctor on Sunday and got blood work on Monday. By Thursday, June 20th, the swelling was so bad that it hurt to walk and I insisted on the doctor calling me back regarding my results. I was also concerned because I had gained close to 20lbs in two weeks. My husband and I were sitting down discussing dinner when I got a call back from the nurse. She told me that the doctor had looked over my blood work and that I was to go to head to the ER that very night. I was in total shock.

I went back and forth with my husband, giving pros and cons of going. Besides the swelling, I felt FINE. We instead decided to head over to the doctors office to get more details. We packed up Liam and headed out the door. I really didn't think I would be spending the next 18 hours in the ER. Five minutes down the road, we got to the doctors office and I immediately saw the nurse who had called. She told me that my kidney numbers were abnormal and that my doctor was pretty adamant about me going to the hospital. So off to the hospital we went. I checked into the ER (poor Liam didn't have a diaper bag) and we spent the next 18 hours waiting for answers. That was the first night away from my baby in almost 1 whole year. It sucked. Steve had gone home with Liam to get him diapers, food and my breast pump. Due to the sanitary conditions of the ER, I had decided to pump and dump.  We decided that the ER was no place for Liam that night and so Steve went back home. He was in for a very long night of bottle feeding (my little nursling still nursed 2-3 during the night).

More blood was taken and at 1:30am I was visited by a doctor who was explained to me what was happening to my kidneys (he even drew me pictures). Basically, they were sick and dumping out insane amounts of protein into my urine. My osmotic balance was all out of whack, hence the swelling. I finally got admitted to a room later the next day and was able to see a kidney specialist. I was told that I was not allowed to see an actual specialist until I was in a proper room.

Thankfully the hospital has free wifi and so I was able to facetime with my baby, tell him a story and talk to all my family during the wait. When the doctor finally came in, Steve (husband) was there and so we all sat down to chat. He started asking me questions about the swelling and then he looked at my face. He asked, "How long have you had that rash on your nose?" I told him about a month and that I thought it was either sunburn or healing poison ivy. He assured me that if it was either, it would have healed by now and then adds "See, you ask the right questions, you get the right answers". Then he asked if I had any joint pain. I told him, yes all the time. Sometimes it hurts so bad, I can't walk or even hold my son, but then it just goes away. I told him I thought it was due to my son being so heavy. The doctor just starts nodding.  I couldn't believe this was all connected. The doctor told me that my blood count was low and that I was anemic. He then drops the bomb.... we are about 90% sure you have Lupus.

LUPUS!? I can't have Lupus. Even my husband blurts out, "It's never Lupus" from a tell tale "House" quote. This was Friday, June 22nd. The kidney doctor wanted me to stay in the hospital till Tuesday for a kidney biopsy (which ended up getting moved to Wednesday) to make sure it was Lupus but I wanted out that very day. He "compromised" and gave me a giant private room so I could pump in peace. He wanted to monitor my kidneys and make sure I wasn't getting worse by the minute. More blood was taken (every 6 hours) and  I was also sent for an ultrasound of my kidneys. By Saturday afternoon, I was allowed to leave... for now. My mother and mother-in-law were on their way up from NJ and I was scheduled for a doctors visit Monday, June 24th.

The next couple of days flew by. After my Monday doctor visit, I was told I will have to wean my son. Not in a month, not when I was ready and not even when he was ready. I was to wean him that very next day (Tuesday, June 25th)... cold turkey. They wanted me on steroids and this would go directly into the breast milk. Not only was the nephologist telling me this, but so was my pediatrician, and my OB. That was my breaking point. This was really happening. And I cried. I didn't care that I could possibly have Lupus. I wasn't ready to break that bond with my son. One week later and I am still not ok (but I will write an entire post on my weaning experience).

I went in on Wednesday for my kidney biopsy. It was exactly one year that I was back in that hospital, in the same wing and same hospital gown. I got the biopsy done at 3pm and was discharged the next day, on Liam's birthday at 11am. The biopsy wasn't too bad but I got pretty sick on the pain medication after. I was placed on 24 hour bedrest (the worst EVER) and was monitored every 30 minutes for a couple of hours, then every hour and then every 2 hours. The kidney doctor told me that they were sending my slides down to Columbia University and that we would have results by Friday... more waiting.

I am tired and my little one will probably wake up for his bottle soon. This ends Part One.

Part two will be written shortly and will  include my final diagnosis. I plan to also write a separate post on Liam's first Birthday Party at his grandmas.

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