You Asked; I Answered: Baby Edition

by Brittany on November 3, 2011 · 23 comments

Thank you so much for all the wonderful questions you sent my way. I ended up getting so many that I’m having to split it into separate posts, but I promise I’ll get to all of them.

Like I mentioned before, I’m no expert, but am happy to share what has been working for Hailey and me

I’ve been wondering what you do if your out with Hailey and she gets hungry…do you nurse in public? Also, when you pump at night, is that instead of nursing her, so you save the pumped milk for later? Or do you give it to her by bottle instead of her nursing from the breast?

I have not gotten comfortable enough yet to nurse in public, and I’m not sure if I ever will. However, there have been many times when running errands takes longer than I imagined and I nurse her in the backseat of the car. I’ll just park in the back of an obscure parking lot, to minimize the number of people that walk by.

When I pump at night, I give her that milk from a bottle, just so she stays comfortable with getting a bottle (since she doesn’t very often). Usually there is leftovers (she only eats about 3.5oz and I pump close to 8oz, so I save that). If I nurse her before bed, sometimes I will still pump just to empty out the girls before bed, so I have a better chance of sleeping longer.

Have you tried using a white noise machine or downloading a white noise app to your phone instead of using a hairdryer? Might be safer?

Oddly enough, the hairdryer seems to have lost it’s touch. It still will calm her down, but won’t put her to sleep. So we just use the sleep sheep now at night. However, when we did use the hairdryer, we set it on low and cool and only had it running for about 10 minutes… on a small piece of plywood, so it wasn’t resting on the carpet.

As an about to be first time time mom, just curious as to when you started pumping / using a bottle?

Everything I read said to start a bottle between 3-4 weeks, once breastfeeding was well established. Supposedly waiting much longer than that increases the odds that they won’t take the bottle? Anyways, at about 3.5 weeks I pumped for the first time and Hubbs fed her from a bottle. She did great with it! …though even the ‘slow flow’ nipples seem to flow more quickly than they should.

I’m curious about Koda. How is she taking not being the center of attention anymore?

First of all, Koda is jumping around like crazy knowing that someone remembered her, so thanks! Koda is actually doing great. She is very curious about her new little sis, but since Koda is a giant wuss gentle sweetheart, I never worried about any aggression issues. I do think she is happy we are exercising again, though. Especially after someone mentioned the other day that Koda was packing on the lbs. Poor pup.

Did you work before you had Hailey? Are you going back to work or will you be a stay-at- home mom?

I own a nutrition company, N.E.W. Lifestyles, that I manage from home, so I guess I would be considered a work at home mom? I feel so fortunate that I am able to be home to take care of Hailey, and am trying to learn as quickly as possible how to juggle my baby girl, the blog, the company and the housework… I’ll let you know when I figure it out

Neck cheese…?!? Eewww! What is that?

Possibly my favorite question- haha! Neck cheese is as gross as it sounds. When milk runs out from the side of the baby’s mouth, do your best to wipe it all up before it hits their neck rolls, because that’s how you end up with neck cheese. Since babies don’t have a neck, (instead they have a lot of little rolls that connect their head to their body) and when milk gets in the creases and stays there, it only takes a couple of hours before it’s congealed into a smelly cheesy substance. It’s amazing how such a stink can come from something so darned cute!