Well, it was a good run.

Joseph turned 17 months yesterday. We've been cutting back on nursing, and we're (usually) down to 3-4 times/day now. I knew it was the beginning of the end, and yesterday I finally got my period back.

I know you wanted to know that. But it's my blog, I can do what I want! Haha!

As a side note, I wonder if my weird no-appetite weekend had something to do with PMS... how cool would it be if I didn't want food a few days per month, versus what usually happens during that time?

One can dream.

Are you shredding yet?

Today is my last day at level 2 of 30 Day Shred. I'm so impressed with this workout! I am not one to get too bored with videos, and for 20 minutes a day, I can stand a little boredom. The workout is challenging, but by day 7-8 (out of 10) of each workout I'm really seeing improvement. And I am noticeably stronger - yey! I haven't lost any weight, but that's fine. I had no muscle tone so that's part of it. The other part is all the cake and ice cream and homemade bread I've been eating. Hehe.

So if you are on the fence about starting to exercise, I'd really give this a go! For 20 minutes a day, it's got serious bang for your time. You can get level one for free on Comcast On Demand, too!

Get Shredded

Auntie Debbie convinced me to do 30 day shred with her long distance. I convinced a few of my mom group friends, and now I'm letting you know, dear reader, in case you want in on the action.

I started yesterday, weighed myself today and I'm going to have T.J. help me take my measurements tonight for comparison in 30 days. In an ironic twist of fate, my weight is less than it's been in several years. That's usually not the time that I start exercising!

On that note, I may breastfeed forever, because I eat like a horse but I'm still losing weight. I thought that was a bunch of hooey for a long time, but it turns out that it just takes a while! It took me about 9-10 months to get to my pre-pregnancy weight, and I'm pretty much at my "goal" weight now, though I'm sure that's because all my muscle turned to fat over the last few years of slacking off. Yet another reason to nurse one year and beyond!

Post Partum Depression

I'd been debating whether to post about this, as it is obviously very personal in nature. However, I think it's more important to talk about it as something that is relatively "normal" (1 in 10 moms, I think). So here is my story about it.

I was fine at the beginning - and for several months. However, as time went on, T.J. started traveling more, and I slept less and less, I started to get down. In August when friends asked me how it was to be a mom and I replied "Eh.... it's ok I guess" I started to wonder if my reaction was normal. I chalked it up to a baby who cried in the car and lack of sleep. By October, I was really concerned at my lack of motivation around the house, and my inability to muster the energy to play with Joseph. I felt that by the time his needs were met, I was too tired to really give him my all. This was when I was wearing him for 3 to 4 hours a day for naps in addition to when we were out. And of course he's never been a great sleeper and nurses a LOT at night. I was all touched out.

As December rolled around, I'd pretty much reached the end of my rope. Not in an "I'm going to hurt myself or my baby" way, but in an "I'm a crappy mom who doesn't even like to hang out with her kid" way. So I decided to go see a psychiatrist. I called them and they got me in about 2 days later - on Christmas eve.

I saw a nurse and we talked for about an hour. I cried lots, but it felt good to talk to someone about all the stress I've been under (real or in my head). I started taking Zoloft and started to feel better almost immediately (can we say placebo effect? It takes 3-6 weeks to kick in). Now that I'm 6 weeks into the meds, I can say that I'm feeling a REAL difference. I get down to play with Joseph lots, tell him I love him all the time, and just get moments where I'm overwhelmed by how GREAT he is. Funnily enough, I even think he's cuter now!

So, if you are feeling down, and even if you think it's "just" lack of sleep or temporary stress, get checked out. Both of those things can mess with the chemicals in your brain, causing PPD. Also, it's not unusual for it to take many months to onset. I really don't think I had PPD any earlier than about when Joseph was 7 or 8 months old.

Joseph is 8 months old!

We can't believe that he's already 3/4 of a year [EDIT: by 3/4 I meant 2/3]. Insane! He's really an amazing little boy. Slowly but surely, he's starting to turn into a "child" rather than a baby, though luckily we have at least a few months of babyhood left!

Today he is starting to push himself backwards in his attempts to get up in the air and crawl. Pretty exciting! He is also enjoying learning how zippers work, getting turned upside down by daddy, and trying lots of new foods!

On a more personal front, I am now back down to my pre-pregnancy weight! Yey! I still need to do some serious exercising, but things are definitely "shifting" back a little bit. Now if I can get rid of my "raisin" tummy... hehe!

I've uploaded some photos and video to smugmug, so go check them out!

Sore Joints are Mostly Gone!

Another post-partum update of sorts, though I'm not even sure I ever blogged about this condition. I had the WORST joint pain after Joseph was born. From my ankles, to my wrists, to my hips and pubic symphosis. It hurt to lay on my side too long, hurt to walk after sitting, and it KILLED my wrists to pick Joseph up at night - it felt like they were sprained. I don't know if it was some sort of pregnancy induced arthritis or what - but it's mostly gone! Yey!

So pregnant ladies and new moms, if you experience this, it may "only" take 5-6 months to clear up. I'm sure that makes you feel better. Riiiight.

Post Partum Update

Just "keeping it real" as fellow blogger Ree likes to say.

Body: I'm 5lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight. That means I have like 12 lbs to go to my "ideal" weight for myself. I can fit into a couple pairs of jeans again, though I have a fantastic muffin top. Woo! Spanx rock my world. I have like 3 tops that aren't old navy tanks that fit me, which is a bummer, but it's not like we have much to dress up for, and it's still hotter than hades in Atlanta. Tanks work well. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the progress, but totally jealous of my mom friends who seem to have a normal looking belly. Mine still looks like a deflated balloon. Ew. Yey for the tankini.

Emotions: Change from week to week. The couple weeks before we went to Michigan I think I was feeling pretty drained. Seeing all of my best friends really did something great for me though! I feel like I have a whole new outlook on life. I also feel a little guilty about how I may have portrayed motherhood as a lifetime of drudgery. Really, it probably is only a few (or 18) years. :) It really does have its positive side, which I've been experiencing more this past week. It's always good to recharge the batteries. And we get another chance to recharge in a week when we head to Minnesota!

Work Life (or lack thereof): Nope, I don't miss work. Not even a little. I have more than enough to do here, and I think that T.J. enjoys having me home as well. Sometimes it can get monotonous, but if that isn't true of any job, I don't know what is. And we have a few great activities that we do every week to break things up. It's also nice to plan travel schedules based on only T.J.'s schedule, instead of both. We were always busy at different times, which made things tough.

Goals: I'd love to start exercising soon - all we need is for T.J. to get home at a semi-decent hour! Nobody wants to go to the gym at 10pm after eating dinner and putting a baby down to sleep. Hopefully as September and October hit and things cool off, Joseph and I can go for long walks at least.

PSA: The placenta is cool

Most people don't give much thought to the placenta. To our society, it's nothing but medical waste, to be disposed of quickly and quietly along with the other messy parts of birth. It's really a pretty amazing organ though!

The placenta is the only "disposable" organ made (take that boys! women make organs at will!) The name placenta comes from the Latin for "cake", and in some languages they are called "mother cake". The placenta really is the first "mother" of the fetus - it provides for the baby while in the womb - filtering nutrients and oxygen from you to the baby, and sending waste back through to you from the baby.

After birth, people do all sorts of things with the placenta. Typically, hospitals dispose of them the same way they do other medical waste - by incineration (though some sell them to companies - see below). Sometimes families keep them to bury and plant a tree over - the tree grows with the child. Others make "placenta prints" by cleaning and using paints to "stamp" paper or some other medium - sort of like a belly cast from the inside. A few even prefer to keep the baby attached to the placenta until the umbilical cord detaches completely on its own (after a few days) - called a lotus birth. Once the the cord detaches the baby has a normal belly button - no stump! Pretty neat.

Almost every mammal species (except humans) eat their placenta after birth. Even herbivores! This is most likely to provide nutrition, though the hormones in the placenta (prostaglandins and oxytocin) can help the uterus to contract down and aid in the production of milk. A small minority of human cultures ingest their own placenta, but it's pretty rare. Among westerners who do it, often they do it for perceived medicinal benefits, such as the belief that it can prevent post partum depression and prevent hemmorage. In China it is used for medicinal purposes as well.

People will prepare the the placenta in many ways for ingestion, from drying and encapsulating it, to adding a few raw bits to a smoothie, to simply placing a small piece under the tongue after birth to absorb the hormones. Less often it's prepared in typical food fashion, but since it's an organ, unless you are a fan of liver (I'm not) it probably wouldn't be too palatable. It is not typically done for the nutritional value amongst those who do ingest it, so much as for the medicinal/hormonal benefits, as the modern western diet obviously contains a very balanced diet. It does provide a lot of nutrients though, at a time when women are being completely depleted.

Obviously, ingesting their own placenta is not something most people consider doing. I wonder though, if any of those people have looked at the ingredients of their face cream lately! Check this out, from "Birth: The Surprising History of How We are Born":

"Although many western hospitals today incinerate the organ as medical waste, some maternity facilities send them to researchers or cosmetic makers. Between 1975 and 1992, for example, placentas from 282 British hospitals, weighin 360 tons, were collected by Merieux UK Ltd., a subsidiary of a French pharmaceutical company.

"We use placentas from normal, healthy births only. Placenta is an extremely valuable and rare resource which, instead of being wasted, is used to make pharmaceutical products," Michael O'Gorman, a Merieux manager, told he London Times in 1992 when Harrods was selling a 20 GBP vial of RoC face cream - a major brnad - with human placenta that supposedly moisturized and regenerated the skin...

..."In 2001, dozens of cosmetic companies informed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of their use of human placenta. Even Frederic Fekkai on Rodeo Drive has offered Oscar week European Plasma facials. A key ingredient: afterbirth."

Perhaps that doesn't phase people considering some of the other ingredients in skin products. I guess if given the choice I'd rather ingest my own placenta than smear someone elses all over my face!

So what will we do with the placenta? I'm not really sure, to be honest. In addition to immediate breastfeeding (which helps the uterus clamp down) and Charlotte's bag of tricks - which includes the drug pitocin - I am keeping the placenta in the back of my mind as another emergency medical treatment for post-partum hemmorage. No one participating in my birth is familiar with any type of placenta preparation/encapsulation, and I doubt I'm going to want to be doing any preparation, so more than likely we'll dispose of it after inspecting DomerBaby's first "mother".

Cord blood

The other day Grandma Curran mentioned cord blood banking, and it reminded me to get back on my high horse about birthing. Hehe. So if you are sick of hearing about my opinion on birth, blame my Mother-In-Law. (just kidding!)

The answer to the original question is that we will not be doing cord blood banking, for a couple of reasons. One is that it is not an option for us, as we'll be birthing at home. This is only available to people who birth at hospitals.

Second, and more importantly to me (and I'm sure T.J., if I made him read up on it), is the benefits of delayed cord clamping until the umbilical cord stops pulsing. In hospitals (unless you direct otherwise and they actually listen to you), the cord is clamped immediately, but this effectively reduces the amount of blood that the baby gets, and can cause low iron in babies (see this article, for example) and oxygen deficiency, especially if the baby is slow to breathe on its own.

Iron deficiency is something that "they" are often worried about anyway, and can even lead to pressure for a woman to supplement with formula - some proclaim that breastmilk is "deficient" because it is low in iron. It is true that there is less iron in breast milk, but it is better absorbed than from formula, so beware of people who tell you this!

Here are some reasons to delay cord cutting, from a Midwife in California:

• Leaving the cord to pulse does "no harm" and therefore should be encouraged. If you can think about what Nature intended, our ancestors way back before scissors and clamps were invented must have had to wait to deal with the cord/placenta until the placenta was birthed.
  
• Leaving the cord to pulse slows down the "fire drill" energy that many birth attendants get into after the baby is born. Leaving off the busyness of midwifery for a half hour allows the mother and baby undisturbed bonding time without a "project " going on i.e. the cord cutting instructions, explanations, jokes, etc. The father, too , is undisturbed and able to enjoy this "high" time without focusing on a job at hand.
• Educator Joseph Chilton Pierce in his book "Magical Child" makes ref to studies that were done on primates who gave birth in captivity and had early cord clamping. Autopsies of the primates showed that early cord clamping produced unusual lesions in the brains of the animals. These same lesions were also found in the brains of human infants when autopsied.
  

I swear I've seen some reasons *for* early cord cutting, but I can't find any on google today from a pro-cutting source! I did find a list of reasons, but it's probably a bit biased (it's from someone against early clamping). Here it is though:

• Belief that the oxygen deficit is what causes the baby to start breathing. In truth, nature designed a system for insuring a smooth transition from womb life to breathing. The blood passing between the baby and the placenta carries oxygen to the newborn (possibly even after the placenta has detached and delivered!) This system is especially useful to the distressed newborn.
• Belief that delayed clamping will cause placental over-transfusion.
  
• Delayed clamping results in higher incidence of jaundice. Many midwives who delay clamping have found this is simply not true, and in fact see a dramatically lower incidence of jaundice when cord clamping is delayed. Medical people think that this goes against the physiology of jaundice.... but other experts believe that delayed clamping is precisely why the incidence is lower.
• Convenience. Whisking a baby away to be cleaned, weighed and 'checked' following most hospital practices is easier done when the baby is no longer attached to the mother. A baby can be put on the mother's belly immediately following the birth or wrapped in a blanket and held by the mother providing the cord is long enough, until the placenta is delivered and the cord stops pulsating. The reality of this happening in a hospital birth is questionable.
• If a baby is having complications, a doctor can work on the baby easier by cutting the cord and resuscitating the child. It is precisely in the most dire emergencies that cutting the cord is the worst of all possible things you can do.

If for some reason you cannot delay cord cutting, I would urge you to see if your hospital has a cord blood donation bank. Banking it privately is very $$$, but donating it is a pretty cool idea, and could lead to medical advancement. But if you can delay, I would do that - if the cord blood is valuable in the future, just think how valuable it is to your baby at birth!

Born in the USA

Teresa and I were chatting tonight, and got off on a tangent that made me mad and sad at the same time. It's the problem with U.S. maternity leave. Our system sucks, to put it mildly. If you work, your benefits depend entirely upon your job. What about FMLA, you ask? It doesn't apply to women who work in a place with less than 50 (I think) employees, like me. They can't even be guaranteed the 12 weeks off, much less with any sort of compensation, which FMLA doesn't provide. Many women go back to work before 12 weeks - I saw today that you can send your kid to daycare at 6 weeks!

So instead of new mom's staying with their babies, getting to know them and letting them set the pace, there is an immediate push to get the baby on a schedule, get your milk flowing at top speed so you can start freezing breast milk, and certainly no time to let other things in your life go - you have to make the most of those few weeks at home!

Inevitably, you end up with an even-more-exhausted-than-normal mom who feels like she's failing at everything she tries. The baby won't stick to the schedule - it just wants to be fed and held all the time (shocker!). All the stress and lack of sleep contribute to making breast feeding harder, not easier, the woman starts to doubt her ability to care for her child, just when our corporate system tells her TIMES UP - Back to work! So she goes, cries for a day, then realizes that it's not so bad to go back that early. She gets time to "be herself" again, everyone around her admires her for her strength and dedication, and heck, the baby is doing fine! It must have just been that being home just wasn't for her. She is meant to work, not nurture. Rinse and repeat a million times, and you've got our system.

Don't get me wrong, I do NOT think that women should stay home permanently after they have a baby if they don't want to. My point is that they should be able to stay home for much longer than our system currently allows - emotionally and financially - so they can heal themselves and nurture their child. Instead they are forced by corporate greed and government complacence to head directly back to work, lest they be deemed a "slacker" or "unmotivated".

All this, and women still get paid less for the same work. Something just doesn't add up.

Incidentally, there are better ways of doing it. Canada gives 12 months of leave at something like 66% of your pay - you can split it any way you want between the two parents. Some European countries are even more liberal. In France, the government sends you a mother's helper for a few months. I like the French.