Just quickly...

Hello!

This will, again, be brief - no uploading of photos, this will have to wait until I am back in Melbourne.

I just wanted to share a little tale from today...  Please, the below ramblings are probably only relevant  to those interested in breastfeeding, and will likely be boring otherwise.

I had to take some medication, unexpectedly, today.  Don't be alarmed, everyone is A-OK.  I told the pharmacist that I was breastfeeding as I handed over my script.  He smiled and said, casually, "oh that's fine.  You just can't breastfeed for the next three days."

Um.  WTF?!  Mr Chemist Man, breastfeeding isn't a hobby, it's not something I do for fun, when I feel like it, dude.  It's how my baby eats, drinks, and generally stays alive.  She is not a Sea Monkey, I can't just put her aside for a few days.

He looked at me strangely when I said "that isn't going to happen" or some shocked mumblings to that effect.  He replied, "you'll just need to give her formula for a few days."

Cue slightly hysterical blinking and stammering from The Mummy.  "I'm not giving my baby artificial milk!  It should only be used as the final resort!  I'm going to call the ABA, I'll be back soon."  NOTE:  The World Health Organisation (see previous link) states that breastmilk is best for babies, followed by expressed milk from the mother, followed by breastfeeding or expressed milk from another woman, followed by artificial milk as a last resort.

So off I went to call the Australian Breastfeeding Association (1800 MUM 2 MUM).  Ordinarily, I would call the breastfeeding drug information line at the Royal Women's Hospital, however they are closed over the weekend.  The ABA cannot give medical advice, however I hoped that they would guide me in the right direction.  The lovely woman told me to call the Poisons Information line - 13 11 26. 

The Poisons Information line (goodness this feels like that song, The Old Woman Who Swallowed The Fly) snorted with laughter when I told her about not breastfeeding for 3 days, saying that the drug companies issue 'CYA or Cover Your Ass' advice, and that in most cases (including this drug), feeding lightly contaminated breastmilk is still much better than formula.  She advised feeding, then waiting 8 hours before the next feed.  Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, as I have frozen milk at home.  What to do, what to do?

I decided to feed her, then hand-express as much as possible (my excellent, efficient Medela Swing electric pump was, of course, in Melbourne).  I bought a bottle, and managed to hand-express just over 100ml, after she fed, which I am quite proud of!  This was at 2pm.  I wasn't supposed to breastfeed again until 10pm.  I knew I would need milk for bedtime, at 7pm.  The problem was, how to get from 2pm until 7pm with no milk feeds?!

This brings us back to baby-led weaning.  Tabitha is going really well, enjoying chewing up (and spitting out, mostly) bits of toast, veggies, meat etc.  The problem is, she is still not really swallowing much, so expecting her to go 5 hours without milk (particularly in the evening, when she normally cluster feeds) is a big ask.  So I grudgingly decided to attempt to spoon-feed her a little puree.  I bought some organic broccoli/pea/pear/whatever mush, and she ate it happily enough - though The Daddy had to gently hold down her arms, since she wanted to grab the spoon and try to feed herself, as she normally does, which results in food going everywhere except her mouth, and today we really needed her to eat.  She obligingly opened her mouth and swallowed about 8 half teaspoons of mush.  In fairness, the BLW book explains that it is okay to combine true BLW with a little spoon feeding, as long as you carefully watch the baby's cues, and stop as soon as they seem to have 'had enough', as indicated by no longer opening their mouth, or turning their head away etc.

A few hours later, however, Tabitha started to become quite upset and was clearly hungry for milk, despite her puree meal.  She kept looking miserable and lunging from The Daddy's arms towards me, pulling at my top.  Honestly, I found this quite upsetting, and was surprised at how distressed I became - I'm used to being able to feed my baby whenever and wherever she needs it, and it was confronting, emotionally, not to be able to comfort her immediately.  We heated up her bottle of expressed milk.  She wouldn't take it from The Daddy - she kept looking around for me and pushing it away, squealing.  I gave her the bottle, cradling her as I would for breastfeeding, and allowing her to stroke my bare chest - even so, she kept pulling off the bottle and pulling towards my chest.  It made me so sad to watch.

Sigh.  A difficult day.  But we got through it, and I can feed her again, normally, in just one more hour.  No formula needed, medication taken, no harm done.