There are big changes coming down the road for our homestead this Spring. We've got babies of all shapes and sizes due to arrive and so many preparations to be made!
---This week our Seed Savers Exchange order will arrive. Getting to work on our greenhouse and sprouting room this week is a must!
--- Due to kit around the 28th-3rd our doe Belle is beginning to show (what seems to ME to be) obvious signs of nesting.......... As I've said and will say again, I am a beginner at this whole rabbitry bit, so I'm really hoping my second attempt at a successful breeding has been just that.
---Next month, 25 or so Rainbow Rangers will be delivered to the farm and begin their life cycle. I say or so since we haven't committed to how many birds we want to raise. This being a first for us as well, raising BROILERS that is. For them, we must get the brooder set up, buy shavings, new heat bulbs, and stock up on chick feed. I also need to do an inventory of all our brooder supplies i.e., water bottles, feeders, heat lamps in order to assess our need to replace or repair any.
--- Two barn kittens will be coming our way in 6 weeks as well, our last mouser disappeared and his presence has been sadly missed.
I DIGRESS!!!
--- Last but CERTAINLY not least our second little girl is due to arrive in May, the reason behind this scattered pregnant brain of a post...
In order to begin my own form of nesting I decided to conduct a little DIY project and make my own nipple cream! Breastfeeding is hard work and does a number on the ole nipples. Sorry, its true. I used SOOOO much lanolin ointment the first baby around, but it is just to expensive and I was always left feeling dryer, needing more, or wondering if this was really a good product for me or baby.
Never had I entertained the possibility of making my own homemade organic nipple cream. Enter Shaye Elliott at The Elliott Homestead, a professional blogger and my go to gal for all things homestead. She's my mentor though she may not even know it! And she is right, those few days post baby are the hardest on your nipples and a girl needs relief!
I had a very rough first few weeks breastfeeding Ireland. I mean I went through it all; cracked nipples, nipple shields to protect my sensitive skin (which I will NEVER EVER EVER recommend, the nipple guard may have helped with the pain but I was worse off for wear after using that worthless crap! Plus they inhibit skin to skin contact between you and baby which is highly important for latch and bonding. Granted many have loved them, but I will never recommend something to you readers which I don't love and trust 100%), and every nipple ointment you could think of to no avail.
A word of advice to you moms to be out there.... I was instructed by a close family friend, who so happens to also be a retired lactation consultant, to start stimulating my nipples a couple months before baby to prepare the skin and nerves for imminent stimulation and discomfort. Sorry guys, let the mamas read this part....
She instructed me to chose a nipple cream I liked or simply with soap in the shower to massage the nipple and try to simulate the pressure of breast feeding. This technique is a sort of conditioning for your nipples, let me tell you breastfeeding is a whole different work out for the ladies. Look at it this way, I am not a runner, so I wouldn't just go run a marathon without training right? Take it from me, I did not condition last baby, and that was one humbling, painful marathon. I attribute my short stretch of breastfeeding Ireland to a lack of preparedness and one nipple mishap after another. We finally began supplementing formula and she quickly became a much more efficient eater much to my dismay... Not that she was eating better just that I felt inadequate that I was having such a hard time providing her with what my body was built produce.
Nipples need love. They need help. Nipples need moisture and lots of it! You can bet your tush I'm conditioning those babies every day after my shower this go around.... too much??? What? I only have 12 until baby arrives! You get the picture.
You know who also needs love and help? You do, yes you new or veteran mama out there. I was so hard on myself about my breastfeeding issues those first weeks that I took it out on myself... never a good idea post baby, stress and anxiety only made it worse. Thank god for my farm stud for always pulling me out of those slumps and reassuring me I'm doing the best I can.
Be patient with yourself and baby, take pride in every time your baby latches perfectly or empties a breast with no interruptions. These are the precious moments you will soon miss. And lather your nipples up with this:
Breastfeeding Nipple Cream
http://theelliotthomestead.com/2014/05/breastfeeding-nipple-cream-recipe/#comment-246379
Day dreaming of tiny baby toes
Q
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