Archives for April 2012

Okay, friends, I officially need help. Despite the fact that I’ve been very obedient to the midwife, sitting and doing next to nothing, I am just 3 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight (please don’t hate me, in all seriousness. This fact is a necessary part of the problem).  If I wasn’t breastfeeding a baby, this would be AWESOME news, but I remember what happened last time with Gregory and I’m really worried. I even just had a bad dream during my nap about it!

This is happening faster than last time, which means that in just a few months I will, once again, be struggling with my milk supply. I love love love how chubby Anthony is looking, and I would hate for him to struggle with weight-gain issues like Gregory did. It breaks my heart and makes me tear up to think about going through that volatile emotional roller coaster again.

My mom and I just had a conversation about “hyper-thyroidism”, and, in her professional nursing opinion, she doesn’t think that’s the problem. I don’t really have any of the other symptoms (insomnia, personality change, jittery behavior). I can ask for them to draw my blood and test for it at my 6 week postpartum appt. (end of May), however, so I’m considering it (although it will be hundreds of $ out-of-pocket).

I’ve googled, “What to Eat While Breastfeeding”, with limited results. Mostly, this turns up articles on what NOT to eat while breastfeeding. My list of those is already long enough, thanks to the two lactation consultants I met with in the hospital.

No, I need to know what the foods with good fat and high calories are. I’m great at pigging out on junk food: icecream, shakes (A+W has this new one now!! YUM!), cookies (ate a pack of Golden Double Stuffed Oreos in 2 days), mac and cheese, and In-N-Out double doubles, but  the healthy stuff we eat is not very calorie or fat dense. The closest thing I have right now are the Odwalla and Naked Juice protein shakes that they sell at the grocery store– 400-700 calories per bottle, along with around 30g of protein! But they are around $2-3/each, so I need to find a cheaper alternative. Making shakes just takes so much clean up!

Also, the list of things I cannot eat, according to the lactation consultant, is kinda lengthy. No chocolate (I was actually eating a Twix bar when she told me this). No citrus or acidic fruits (hard to make/buy shakes that don’t have these). No beans or spicy food. No soda (I miss you, Diet Coke!). It’s not a bunch of hype, because ever since I stopped eating these things, Anthony’s tummy troubles have gotten much better. I had half a soda one night, and he was wriggling around with bad tummy gas for hours!

Also, I don’t feel particularly starving, which means that I need to set a timer and remind myself to eat. This probably has to do with all the bleeding (sigh, yes, still), which makes me nauseous and tired. But I am making sure to eat something iron-rich every day! And my mom is good at making me stuff (eggs, tuna or turkey melts) to eat when she’s home.

So, please, throw them at me— every good meal or snack recipe you’ve got (within the dietary restrictions, preferably!)! Any suggestions for middle-of-the-night-nursing snacks? Do I need to resort to eating liver/onions (the only helpful thing I found on the internet)? I think I’m going to go to the grocery store in the next day or two and just wander the aisles, buying anything that looks appetizing so that I have plenty of food on hand at all hours of the day.

Basically, I refuse to believe that this is “just how my body works”. I want to fight it, and I want to have a healthy milk supply for my baby. I just have no idea how to beat this!