The one where I have 3 jobs

Jodi Picoult once wrote, "24/7. Once you sign on to be a mother, that's the only shift they offer." And it's true. Motherhood is a full time job.

I am the proud mother of two little boys. Colin just turned two in January, and Reid is three months old. As if that wasn't crazy enough, my husband and I both work full time. Oh, and I'm breastfeeding. Feeding a baby is a full time job in itself, so at the moment I kind of feel like I'm working three jobs. There's my actual job, the one where I parent two kids, and the one where I'm dairy cow in human form. So how do I do it all? Uh, I have no idea. This isn't a post about how to be supermom, because I'm not. Today I want to talk about what it means to be a nursing mother who works outside the home. It's not easy, but it's doable. And it's worth it!

Reid is a baby who loves to nurse. He would spend his entire life latched onto my boob if I let him. When I went back to work after a far too short 8 week maternity leave, I worried about how he would do at daycare without me. I started pumping ahead of time to get a feel for the process, and we practiced bottle feeding at home. Still, no amount of preparation put my mind at ease for the transition.

Before returning to work, I contacted HR to let them know I would need a place to pump. I was told to use a small conference room that was no longer in use. The only down side is that it's in the building next door. Not a huge deal, but it meant I would have to walk between buildings, rain or shine, every three hours to pump.

I chose a Friday for my first day back, and I'm really glad I did. It gave us the opportunity to "practice" the new work day routine which, as I expected, was not very smooth the first time. Then, we had the whole weekend to prepare for that first full week back. Getting everyone out the door on time has been the biggest challenge by far. Starting at 5:45 am (or earlier, if Reid wakes up before that), we are on a tight schedule until we're pulling out of the driveway around 6:50. 

Lately, Reid nurses well in the morning, so I have been able to eliminate the early morning pumping session I was doing for a while. I'm thankful for that, because it means I can load up the pump the night before, which saves a lot of time.

During the work day, I take three pump breaks. One around 9:00 am, one on my lunch break at noon, and one around 3:30 pm. I've got it down to about a 20 minute process start to finish. There are days that I find myself worrying about how many ounces I'm getting, which is silly because there has always been enough. To give my supply a boost, I nurse Reid as often as he wants when we are together. I have also been working hard to drink enough water, since breast milk is a bodily fluid and it's important to stay hydrated. In addition to that, I have started taking Fenugreek supplements, which really do seem to help with milk production. At this point, I am typically able to pump a little bit more than Reid needs for daycare the next day, so I am sending fresh milk for him each day.

I am still so thankful that I've been able to breastfeed Reid this long - 3 months and counting! I had some concerns about being a nursing mom and working full time, but so far it has not been a big deal at all. It's a little more work on my part, yes, but I truly believe it has been worth it for both of us. Not only is my little turkey growing and thriving on my milk, but I have been losing weight without really trying, which is a pretty sweet deal! I also feel that we have a special bond. Every three hours when I pump, I think about my baby and how I'm providing nutritious food for him. I think about the snuggles he is getting from the ladies at daycare, and the fact that he's being fed the milk I made for him the day before. I love my little munchkins so much, and I am so proud to be their momma.  

Survival Mode

We all begin our journey as new parents wide-eyed and oblivious, not that any of us can help it. It's human nature. Something wonderful and exciting has happened, and we can't help but stand in awe of the tiny miracle that we have just become responsible for. And then reality sets in. Fast. And we go into survival mode.

It's one of those things you can hear about from someone else, but you will never fully understand it or grasp its weight until you are there, in the middle of it. Before I was a mother, I didn't think it could really be that hard to raise children and still manage to keep it all together. I would always plan meals and cook for my family, I said. My house would never become cluttered and messy. People with messy houses who eat too much fast food are just plain lazy. HAHAHA!! (That was me laughing at my former self, because I just could never have known what my life would be like today.)

The truth is that there is just no way we moms can do it all. I simply do not have the energy to work a full time job, keep a clean house, put food on the table, maintain a healthy marriage and raise two small children, one of whom depends on my body for his nourishment. I can't do it. And you know what? That's okay. Survival mode means having to prioritize and triage each situation as it comes. Just picked up the kids from daycare and they're both starving? Screw a home cooked meal, we're going through the Mickey D's drive thru and shoving hamburgers in our faces on the way home.

I have come to the realization that it's okay to wear the same pair of pants to work two days in a row if I haven't had time to do laundry. It's okay that I've worn my hair up in a bun every day since I returned from maternity leave. Blow drying and styling my hair just takes too much time and energy right now. It's okay if I need the help of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to entertain my kids for a few minutes so I can get something done or simply take a breather. You see, right now I have very young children and I am often running on little sleep, so I'm doing what I need to do to keep myself from going crazy.

The good news is, I know this won't last forever. Sure, I may not see my house spotless again for years to come, but I'd rather have a lived-in, happy household than a clean one without silly, playful children. I may not look my very best for a while, but I value the time I spend with my family above the time it would take to primp. Date nights with my husband may be few and far between right now, but they mean so much more to us than they ever did before. We understand that this time in our lives may be hectic, but it is also precious and fleeting. It seems like just yesterday we were cooing over our little tiny firstborn son, and now we've got a two year old and an almost three month old. Time flies, you guys. So enjoy it.

 
 

Blog Makeover

Well, hello there! Notice anything different? Huge, ginormous thanks to Tiffany Kuehl Designs for the new look! Tiffany was an absolute pleasure to work with and I am so pleased with the result! More to come soon, but for now, enjoy this photo of my sweet little men. ♥

Have you taken your probiotics today? {Giveaway!}

We moms want the absolute best for our kids. I don't know about you, but this has been a rough cold and flu season for us. It seems like we've been sick more than we've been healthy this winter. What can you do, though, right? Well, we have recently added gummy vitamins to Colin's daily routine, and thanks to Culturelle, he is also about to start taking a daily probiotic! Culturelle Kids! probiotics promote good digestive health and give your little one's immune system a boost. And great news, moms! They even make probiotic packets and chewables for easy dosing.

Because Culturelle cares so much about our kids and their health, they are running a sweepstakes to let Moms everywhere show off their little All-Stars. They’re encouraging parents to share a photo, video, or story about their kid’s great moments. Your kids could be featured in they're gallery of All-Stars. What a great way to show off your kids! Plus, there are prizes to be won! Culturelle is giving away weekly prizes like $100 Visa gift cards, $100 Shutterfly gift cards and free supplies of Culturelle Kids products!

Enter

To enter your little All Star, click here and "Like" the Culturelle Facebook page to get started!

Save

Click here for a $5 off coupon for Culturelle Kids probiotics!

Win!

Culturelle wants to give one of my readers a box of freebies including:

2 Boxes of Culturelle Kids! Probiotic Packets

2 Boxes of Culturelle Kids! Probiotic Chewables

1 Box of Culturelle Adult Digestive Health

1 Culturelle Tote Bag

Pretty sweet deal, right? Enter now using the handy dandy Rafflecopter widget below. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway     Disclosure: Culturelle contacted me and asked for my participation in promoting the Culturelle Kids! All Stars Sweepstakes. I was provided with free product including Culturelle Kids! and adult probiotics. The winner of this giveaway will receive the aforementioned products directly from Culturelle. 

  

He wants to draw a cat for you!

Do any of my readers watch Shark Tank? Well, I do. It's my Friday night must-watch show. I'm not paid to say so, I genuinely just love the show. :) It's an interesting concept. Entrepreneurs and businesspeople pitch their products, companies and ideas to the "sharks" who can choose to invest if they're interested. Anyway, a while back I saw a pretty hilarious pitch in which Steve Gadlin talked about... well... drawing little cartoon cats. Oh, just see for yourself.

Kind of catchy, right? I didn't know what to think at the beginning of Steve's pitch, but by the end, I wanted a dang cat drawing! Well, I forgot about it for about a year, and then one day... bam! Steve started following me on Twitter. I e-mailed him and heard back right away! Turns out Steve is the father of young children, saw a tweet of mine about parenting, and became a follower. After chatting with him about cat drawings, Shark Tank and babies, I feel like I've made a new friend! Here's the cat drawing he made just for me. That's Justin, me, and the boys in cat form. Cute, no?

So now that you're dying for a cat drawing of your very own, go check out www.iwanttodrawacatforyou.com. Steve will draw a customized cat drawing for you, post it on his website for all to admire, and blast it around the web using social media. Pretty sweet! You can also tweet @catdrawingguy and like him on Facebook. Tell him Katie sent you!

   

Breastfeeding: Take 2

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you might remember the struggles I had breastfeeding Colin. Looking back, and with the new experiences I've had, I think I gave up too quickly on it the first time. I have absolutely nothing against moms who feed their babies formula, but I really wanted to nurse Colin, and I felt a lot of personal guilt when I decided to stop after just a few weeks.

When I found out we were expecting another baby, I was determined to give breastfeeding another chance. I tried not to invest too much of myself in it emotionally, but it was really important to me to at least give it my best effort. While I was in labor, I told my nurse about the desire to breastfeed and asked to hold my baby as soon as possible after the c-section so I could put him to the breast.

Best laid plans... am I right? When Reid was born, he aspirated fluid and was whisked away to the NICU. I don't think I've ever felt so hopeless. That sounds extreme, but so are the emotions a mother experiences after giving birth. A counselor even visited me during Reid's NICU stay to talk about the signs of postpartum depression. It was that bad.

But, the show must go on, right? Just because I was bedridden until I could get myself into a wheelchair and visit my baby, that didn't mean I had to give up on breastfeeding. It was one more bump in the road, but I wasn't ready to give up.

photo by Callie Cothern, my dear sister :)

I waited patiently for my milk to come in, and pumped every couple hours, as instructed by the lactation consultants who visited me. My breasts were painfully swollen and engorged, but it's like they refused to let down for the pump. Every time I would get a little colostrum, I'd do a little happy dance, and I'd send it to the NICU to be given to Reid through a feeding tube. He was also supplemented with formula until finally, on day six, I was able to provide enough breast milk for a full feeding. That was the day we were discharged, and shortly before we left to go home, I got him to latch on for the first time. It was a great moment.

Once we were home, I had no idea what to expect. He had been fed through a tube and then a bottle. Would he have trouble latching? Would I continue to make enough milk? What would happen when I went back to work and he went to daycare? I tried to put my fears aside and just roll with it. And suddenly, everything just clicked. Despite our struggles in the beginning, Reid has always latched on beautifully, and pumping has gone well for me, too. He hasn't had formula since coming home from the hospital, and he's still gaining weight like a champ. He drinks his bottles at daycare and nurses in the evenings when we're together. The last couple nights, he has "cluster fed" leading up to bedtime and then slept a nice, long stretch, only waking once to eat around 3 am. He is my angel baby, and I am so very thankful things are working out so far! Being a nursing mother who works full time outside the home has presented its share of challenges, but it has been worth it.

a pretty typical evening at our house

 

If you have any questions for me on this subject, or would like to hear more about any particular aspect; pumping at work, nursing in public, Colin's reaction to a breastfed sibling, or anything else you can think of, please let me know and I'd be happy to address it in the next post. Thank you all for the encouragement and support I've received throughout this journey!

More to come.

 

Self Portrait & 11 Things

The lovely Sarah at Nurse Loves Farmer started up the "11 Things" game, and I thought, "why not?" Here are the rules:

1. Post a photo of yourself
2. Answer the questions set for you in the original post.
3. Create 11 new questions and ask people to answer them.

Sarah's questions for me:

1. How did you choose your first child's name?

Believe it or not, Colin was a name my husband has thought about for a very long time. There's no particular reason, but it doesn't hurt that Colin Cowherd is at the top of his list of people he'd like to hang out with. When he brought up the name, I loved it too and it stuck.

2. If money wasn't an option, where would you love to live?

I actually think our location is pretty great right now (small town South Carolina), although it might be nice to live somewhere with more defined seasons. This former Michigander misses the snow. Yes, I am crazy. If I didn't have to worry about money, I might consider moving to the mountains of North Carolina.

3. What is the most embarrassing thing you have ever done?

The first thing that comes to mind is when I was in middle school. My family went to a public pool to swim, and I stupidly did a cannonball off the diving board while wearing a two piece swimsuit. The top was a tube top style, and it slipped right off and into the pool. Oops.

4. What catch-phrases annoy you?

I hate it when people say "at this point in time." Why can't you just say "at this time?" It just sounds so redundant.

5. Do you have any phobias?

I'm kind of phobic of vomiting. It is just the worst feeling in the world, and I get totally nervous and freaked out when someone close to me comes down with a stomach bug. If someone gets sick in public, I flee the scene. Toddler vomit is slightly less horrible, since it's my own kid, but it's still scary because you never know when it's going to strike and you have such little warning.

6. What's the best concert you've ever been to?

NEEDTOBREATHE. Favorite band. Boom.

7. Do you believe in love at first sight?

I don't. Love, by definition, is much more than an immediate attraction to someone. Love is something that must stand the test of time, and that takes work to maintain. Infatuation is not the same thing as love.

8. High school - loved it? Or hated it?

I had a love/hate relationship with high school. Looking back, though, it was more love than hate. I didn't belong in any cliques, other than maybe the fact that I was in band (drumline, to be more specific). I had a ton of acquaintances, but only a few close friends, and I liked it that way. I also had a job at a local coffee shop which taught me a lot.

9. Do you have a funny auto correct story to share?

It's not my own story, but my brother and his ex used to text, and auto correct turned "snuggle" into "smuggle." People in my family still sometimes say that they want to smuggle each other. :)

10. If you could witness any event past, present or future, what would it be?

Being a Christian, I would love to witness Christ's resurrection. I can't even imagine.

11.  What is the hardest thing you've ever done?

Being a mother has been the hardest and the best thing I've ever done. 


My 11 questions for YOU:

1. What was your first job?

2. What food could you eat every day for a month and not get tired of it?

3. If you won the lottery today, what is the first material thing you'd purchase?

4. Are your toenails currently painted? What do they look like?

5. How do you feel about pets? Do you have any?

6. When was the last time you went out to a movie? What did you see?

7. Do you have any vacations coming up? If not, where would you love to go?

8. What would you do with a kid free night? If you're not a parent, what would you do with an evening all to yourself?

9. What's your guilty pleasure movie or TV show?

10. Which website do you waste the most time on?

11. What's for dinner tonight? Give me some ideas!


Please let me know if you decide to play along. I'd love to hear your answers!