Buckle Up For Safety!

  Baby Death Trap
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I go to a breastfeeding mom group once a week. It's nice to hang out for a few hours and see how every one's babies/toddlers are growing. It's like a weekly glimpse into the future.

This week a young lady, probably around my age, came in with her 8 day old baby (so tiny!). I noticed right away that the baby was wrapped in a blanket then buckled into the car seat and the straps were so loose they may as well have been unbuckled.

She was having trouble getting a proper latch so the LC that runs the group took her to a different room to help her out.

When she came back in I was going to tell her that her straps were too loose and that she has to buckle the baby in first, then she can tuck the blanket around. I don't know why, but I almost felt like I was being rude, but I know that I wasn't. I would want to be told if I was using my car seat wrong (and at one point I was, I left the handle up with a toy hanging off of it and that is a no-no).

She popped her head back in later to say she was taking off and I jumped up super fast to help her fix her car seat. She honestly didn't know that anything was wrong. So I told her the blanket is fine after the baby is buckled in, and that the straps need to be tight enough that you can't pinch them down at the shoulder. I also told her she could make an appointment with the CHP to inspect the car seat to make sure it was installed properly.

She was very nice and accepting of my advice/help. I pulled, no joke, at least 9 inches of strap through the back. Those straps hadn't been doing a darn thing to keep that baby in which scared the crap out of me. I know she isn't the only person who uses a car seat wrong. I think it all comes down to thoroughly reading the instruction booklet that comes with your equipment. Even a seemingly tiny thing, like leaving the handle up when it is supposed to be down, could be disastrous in an accident.

Moral of my story, 3 out of 4 car seats are improperly installed/used. If you haven't already done so, go get your car seat checked out. It doesn't cost anything, but it will give you peace of mind.

Child Safety Seat Inspection Station Locator
Car-Safety.org Ten Basic Rules

There is also a really good picture guide by Daily Momtra

Libid-no

I'd have to go to a hotel for this kind of romance.
Romance now means Baby Bear and my parents are asleep.

On my first blog I asked if anything like the incident (where Baby Bear was asleep but his legs were bouncing up and down on the bed while the Papa Bear and I were having sex) had happened to you. I even got a response which was unexpected but awesome!

Lisa, The Milk Maven asked:
Do you feel like your sex drive isn't what it used to be? I do. Not sure if it's the stress or the mothering hormones. Any thoughts on that?

YES. Many. My short answer on the comment was, "I do feel like my sex drive is not at all what it used to be. I attribute most of that to the fact that my body just had a small person pushed out of it and doesn't want to do that again until it has recovered."

I think it partially has to do with breastfeeding. My body knows I'm feeding a baby already, and I don't need another mouth to feed. I believe in countries where breastfeeding is "the norm" babies are spaced 4 years apart on average.

I think another part of the equation is that 5 months ago I pushed a baby out of my body, and my body remembers how rough being pregnant was. My hips are still sore most mornings.

Hormones are certainly a large part of pretty much everything.

The last piece of the puzzle, for me, is that when BB has fallen asleep, sex just seems like a lot of work.

My solution? Do it anyway. Pretend you're not allowed to. Make out like you're in high school. Leave your underwear on until you can't take it anymore. Then, have a gooood time! I got super riled up the other night when I couldn't have sex because I was on night 2 of Monistat 3 (antibiotics for mastitis), but I made sure PB had a good time. He always returns the favor in a timely manner.

What do babies dream about?

Typed up 6/30/11 @ 1:58 PM

Baby Bear sleeps just like this.

Have you ever watched a dreaming baby? They make super weird faces. Sometimes they smile, sometimes they frown. I'm pretty sure mine dreams about a horrible world devoid of breasts. Sometimes baby makes pitiful whimpering noises while sleeping and it is the saddest thing to hear! Its like there was a festival of boobs and then they all disappeared. I remember when I was still in the hospital after having baby, baby was having what appeared to be a nightmare. I wondered what could be so bad to have nightmares about already? And then my mom reminded me that being born was probably traumatic. Getting pushed out of your nice warm and dark home into a cold and bright place. And then people start shoving tubes down your windpipe to suction out poopy amniotic fluid. Traumatic indeed.

I love when baby smiles when dreaming because I think that 90% of the time those happy dreams are about me, or my boobs, and to me that counts.

What do you think babies dream about?

Someone feed that baby!

Typed up 7/1/11 @ 11:58 PM

FEED ME SEYMOUR!

A friend invited me to a Mommy and Me group today. I was skeptical and not sure that I wanted to go because I thought it might be a group of 10 or so holier than thou bitches. Luckily I was wrong and it was around 30 moms, bitches probably included, but I could not pick them out from this first meeting.

I did have a weird experience. The friend that invited me was across the room and she nursed her baby for maybe 5 minutes. She's been having trouble breastfeeding, so she popped a pacifier in his mouth and hoped for the best. He kept crying and it was a hungry cry and I was just thinking "I have to feed that baby. Baby is hungry! FEED THE BABY!" I felt like I needed to go grab her baby and feed him. It was so weird.

I know it's normal to have a letdown when you hear other babies crying, but I wanted to take her baby from her and feed him. Has that ever happened to you?

Hot blooded, check out this jive

I had a fever of 105! 

Uuuuurgent, Emergency! 

So after the boot camp my right boob started hurting and I thought I had a plugged duct.
I got a slight fever that night 99.2. Yesterday (Sunday) I felt like I was dying. I ached everywhere and my head was killing me. Fever got higher and higher, and at 10 last night I had to go to the ER because my temp was 105. No Bueno. I managed to pee on my shorts when I was giving my sample, because I'm a superstar, and I swear they took a cup of blood out of me. I got blood drawn from both elbows AND my wrist. I gather that the wrist draw was from an artery. That hurt a bunch. They gave me a ton of fever reducers and an antibiotic shot in the buttock and proclaimed Mastitis. Baby Bear did okay for 5 hours without me, my mom said BB is the best baby ever because no hissy fit was thrown. I'm glad I got to go home. I would much rather feed BB myself then have to pump, and I didn't want to bring BB to the hospital because of the wonderful germs.


The last time I had a fever that high I was 5 and they put me in an ice bath and it was awful. I remember them giving me a rubber bear with ABC blocks like it would make me feel better. Really nurse? You're trying to kill me and you think this toy will make me okay with it?


Ugh. So now I've got to take antibiotics for 10 days and cross my fingers that I don't get thrush. 

A little rough and tumble

Typed up on 7/2/11 at 10:44 AM
Playing catch-up with previously typed but not published posts.

This is a terrible blindfold.

Emphasis on the rough. I have suffered a boobie casualty. PB squeezed a little too hard on Liberty* last night. Didn't bother me when it happened but today it feels mastitis-ish, and it may very well develop that way. So, I'll use my trusty Nuk hot and cool pads and I will nurse, nurse, nurse.

I do not regret that it happened, only that it is very sore. Besides that little mishap, last night was quite lovely on the "getting some" front. Got baby to go to sleep, set baby in baby's area of the bed, and then got down to business.

Sleep was eventually achieved.

Do you have any "naughty business" related injuries? Do tell!

*My breasts are named Liberty and Justice.

I will not survive a zombie apocalypse

This is what I would have rather
 done in the nice park.

Not in the condition I am in now. And that is sad and funny at the same time. I am genuinely upset that if there was in fact a zombie apocalypse today I would be a failure to Baby Bear. We would be zombie chow for sure.

I went to a Mommy and Me Boot Camp this morning and got my ass kicked. I did alright overall, but I was embarrassed. It started at 10 and I got up at 9. Suffice it to say that I did not give myself time to get me and Baby Bear ready quick enough for me to eat something appropriate. So, about halfway through I had to stop because I was ready to pass out and/or vomit. I was able to do the ab workout at the end, but I felt really silly. I actually wanted to cry, but I think that had a lot to do with the wanting to puke.

Baby Bear appeared to have had a good time.There was a small amount of fussing that was cured by removing BB from the stroller and attempting to nurse. BB was much more interested in the trees and sky then nursing. BB was also able to be involved in the ab workout which was cool.

Next weekend I will be getting up at 8 and eating something good and drinking a whole bottle of water before I get there. I am a super duper lazy ass and I'd like to change that.

California [King] Dreaming

This is not my actual bed. My bed never looks this nice.

So I recently sold my car. I had planned on saving the money for a newer car later on. Then one morning I woke up with horribly aching hips (again!) and I decided the money should go towards a new awesome bed. So that is what we did, and I am so happy with the decision. Papa Bear is tall, so his feet would hang off the end of our queen bed. With the California King, this does not happen and he is a happy bear. There is also an extra foot of width on the bed which is nice when you have a squirmy kid in between you. As an added bonus, we got a Tempur-pedic bed, so now when I am feeding the Baby Bear, and Papa Bear jumps into bed, I don't get my nipple ripped out of BB's mouth. That was always highly unpleasant.

And extra extra bonus is that this bed is so heavy and doesn't transfer movement, so when we have sex, the bed doesn't hit the wall or make awful awkward squeaking noises. WINNING! This is very important because PB and myself currently reside with my parents.

Breastfeeding Celebration

When babies attack!

I'm so glad I didn't get my blog going sooner, because if I had I probably wouldn't have discovered Blog Hopping.

When I was pregnant, I knew I was going to breastfeed and that was it. There was no try, only do. It was difficult at first. Baby latched great we just needed to practice. We were doing well, but I was having a few comfort issues so I finally went to a breastfeeding group at my local hospital at 3 weeks. The LC gave me some pointers and they helped pretty much immediately and I now wish I had gone as soon as I could right after baby was born.

My friend had a baby and I told her she should go ASAP, and she did. It was really hard for her because baby was 3 days old and she was emotional and didn't have a good breastfeeding support at home. She later told me that she would have given up if I hadn't told her about it. Her baby is 8 weeks old now, and they are still having a rough time, but she is not going to give up and I am very proud of her. Especially since her family keeps pressuring her to supplement with formula.

I celebrate breastfeeding my doing it everywhere. I hope by doing this I encourage other breastfeeding moms to breastfeed wherever they are and not go hide somewhere. Breastfeeding is normal, not weird or gross, and I want to take it back. I plan to keep pumping after my baby self weans so I can donate. I find that I really love being a milk maker! Doesn't hurt that it makes my boobs HUGE.

I will have breastfed for 5 months this upcoming Saturday. My goal/milestone will be 1 year EBF, so far so good!

This is my first Blog Hop, please let me know if I need to fix anything! I'm still trying to figure out how to add people with the GFC thing. Today I am technologically challenged.

Finally Up and Running

Kind of. I'm stressing out about it. I've been looking for a good picture to use as my blog and twitter profile picture and was coming up empty. I finally found the perfect picture for now (which I am using) and I tried to e-mail the owner and the message came back undelivered. Disappointment. So I decided to use it anyway, and if they see it and want me to stop that is no problem. So, Laura Vida, if you don't want me using the awesome picture you used on your t-shirts that you don't sell anymore I will stop using it no problem. I just think it is super awesome. (Already removed from profile picture. Still an amazing image.)

Awesome BF image by Laura Vida

Eventually I will make my own picture. I have an awesome idea in mind, but it will have to wait.

Oh yeah. Introductions. I'm the Mama Bear, Evelyn. My Boyfriend is the Papa Bear and baby is Baby Bear (5 months old).

And Away We Go!

Hot air balloons seem pretty cool. I'd like to have a ride in

one someday.

I wrote this two months ago and I am finally posting it 8/18/2011. I've had issues, it happens :-) I have several posts saved up, so over the next week, I should have new[ish] posts every few days. I have hopes that this will be an awesome blog. I want to tell you about myself, and I want to hear about you! I'm Evelyn, nice you meet you!

Howdy! Before we get started I feel that I should warn you; this blog will be Not Safe For Work (NSFW). I've decided that this blog will be about me and my new family unit and that it will be a no holds barred account of our daily lives. We are new parents of a three month old human baby, live with my parents, and we still manage to have sex!

In fact, having sex is how I got the idea to start this blog. The idea came to me when we were having sex and I looked back and could see the baby's legs bouncing up and down (we practice safe co-sleeping, although when I re-read this sentence it really makes me laugh) and he was still asleep. I thought it was hysterical and that other people might also think so because the same thing may have happened with them. If it has, I'd like to hear about it! Tell me about it in the comments or e-mail hautemilkmomma@gmail.com .

Then I thought that I could add to this blog as I go. Projects I'm attempting and whatnot.

I'm a breastfeeding momma which is simultaneously the best and worst thing about being a mom, depending on your mood. When you're tired and cranky and the only one who can feed the baby it can be frustrating, but then your baby looks up at you and smiles and melts your heart and that it the best thing ever.