Posts by bier

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I have a photo of my kids right by my computer monitor in my office. Sometimes I'll look at it and have such a longing for them that I want to grab it and squeeze it.

Totally in love.

Well, I personally used a nursing cover because I'm extremely self-conscious and modest. I'm working on it but I'm not very comfortable in my own body and have issues with my breasts in particular because they're rather large and now, after nursing two kids, saggy. I never had issues nursing in public and could care less if people thought poorly of it but I had to cover up for my own comfort.

I do have a girlfriend who is currently nursing her second child at 8 months and she has no problem whipping out the boob in public. She does have much smaller breasts and is surprisingly discreet considering she uses no cover. Sometimes, even I have no idea she's nursing.

Original Post by peaches0405:

*looks around for Bier*

Went to the doctor on Monday.  Last month, the heart rate was 163.  This month, it moved between 155-158.  Any predictions????  I get to find out in 3 weeks, but I'm curious on the wives tales.

 Boy!

Frigidaire doesn't recommend any cleaning tablets to clean their machines. They do recommend using bleach in an empty wash cycle, though. And cleaning the drum with non-abrasive cleaner that doesn't leave a residue.

Most appliance companies have partial warranties on their products past the 1-year mark. It won't cover everything but will most likely cover parts. You can even call the place you purchased it from and ask them for your date of purchase. You'd be surprised at how some places don't keep good records and will tell you a date later than the actual purchase took place. Of course, this only works if you don't mail in the registration card. If the place of purchase has a date less than 1 year old, that's the only way Frigidaire can tell when you purchased it and the machine will still be under a full warranty.

Have you tried rubbing the discolored spots on your clothes with a bar of soap? If it's detergent residue, that should get it right out.

I used to work in a high-end appliance store doing office admin but I trained to go into sales at one point.

Do you use fabric softner? It's more likely to discolor and spot clothes than detergent. Maybe there's some caked in the machine.

Have you run an empty load using distilled white vinegar? The vinegar should break down any residue in your machine.

Original Post by kristicro:

Calorie counting is key! If you don't count, you will gain weight...trust me! Drink lots of water, because foods are sure to have more sodium.

We're talking about one day here. Unless someone were to eat at least 3500 calories over their maintenance, the weight gained from overeating is most likely going to be water weight and whatever's in the intestines. If something like this occurs on a daily basis, of course someone would gain weight. But, again, this is only one day.

We have Thanksgiving "dinner" around 1pm so I have a chance to be active the later half of the day. I usually don't eat much, if anything, for dinner on Thanksgiving so the calories I do eat are put to good use throughout the rest of the day.

Thank you, veterans and active duty military!

From KellyMom.com (they discuss foods for babies that are high in iron--hence breastmilk):

Foods that are high in iron include:

• breastmilk
• winter squash
• sweet potatoes
• prune juice
• meat & poultry (beef, beef & chicken liver, turkey, chicken)
• mushrooms
• sea vegetables (arame, dulse), algaes (spirulina), kelp
• greens (spinach, chard, dandelion, beet, nettle, parsley, watercress)
• yellow dock root
• grains (millet, brown rice, amaranth, quinoa, breads with these grains)
• blackstrap molasses (try adding a little to cereal or rice)
• brewer's yeast

High-iron foods to save until the end of the first year or later:

• dried beans (lima, lentils, kidney)
• chili con carne with beans
• tofu
• egg yolks
• grains (cooked cracked wheat, cornmeal, grits, farina, bran, breads with these grains)
• tomato
• dried fruit (figs, apricots, prunes, raisins)
• meat (pork)
• shellfish (clams, oysters, shrimp)
• tuna, sardines

And here is a link for you, too:

Iron in the Vegan Diet by Dr. Reed Mangels

I was anemic during my most recent pregnancy. I didn't eat much red meat so I had to take a supplement. I did drink a lot of milk, soy milk and ate a lot of yogurt so that may have played a role in it, too. My doctor never said that was a factor, though.

Heh. At least! I have a 34 ounce cup at my desk that I empty every 30 minutes for the duration of my work day (8 hours). It's a good thing I have a big bladder!

Poor buddy! Sounds like you have some good advice already.

My daughter's ear infections always knock her down for different amounts of time. It just depends on how soon we catch it before getting her on antibiotics. My son just had his first ear infection at 12 months and we had no idea. We took him to the doctor because we thought he had a sinus infection. It got pretty bad for about 3-4 days afterward before getting better, probably because we caught it late.

Since your son is over 6 months old, he can have ibuprofen which I think works much better than acetaminophen and lasts longer (6-8 hours versus 4-6 hours). We also have some sort of ear oil that was given to us by a friend. She said it can be found in health food stores. Growing up, my mom used sweet oil in my ears for my constant ear infections. Sticking the bottle under some warm water before putting the drops in really helps.

I hope he feels better soon!

Hi Jennifer and welcome! Congratulations on your little one!

I just finished nursing my son at the beginning of October when he turned 1. I also have an almost 5-year-old daughter who I nursed for 6 months. When my son was born, I had gained 40 pounds during my pregnancy. I have since lost almost 45 pounds, most of it in the first 4 months postpartum.

CC isn't designed to accomodate nursing mothers so I'm not sure that you should go by the 1600 recommendation. I suggest using this calculator instead:

http://www.nutritiondata.com/tools/calories-b urned

Basically, I just ate what CC said my maintenance calories are and let the calories I burned producing milk be my deficit. I also "ate back" any calories I burned exercising. You'll be surprised at how many calories you can take in and still lose weight while nursing. I'm only 5'3" and was eating 1,900-2,100 calories a day and losing at least 1 pound per week.

I would have loved to join you in losing weight! Good luck with the nursing and weight loss! I also recommend KellyMom.com if you have any questions/problems/concerns about nursing.

I tend to store fat around my midsection more than other places. I just had my second child 12 months ago. Before I was pregnant, I was 5'3" and 128 pounds (160 cms, 58 kgs) and had a bit of flab on my tummy. It wasn't nearly as rock-hard as it was during my first pregnancy when I was 107 pounds (48 kgs) at the start. It did start to firm up about halfway through the pregnancy, though.

Just gain appropriately on the right kinds of foods and you'll be golden :)

I don't think you need to be enrolled in anything in order to take short-term disability. Your employer should have insurance (Aflac?) to cover it. I had a c-section and received 6 weeks of disability at 60% of my pay. In order to get the 6 weeks, I had to use one week of paid time off before the disability kicked in.

Link to the Department of Labor's website on FMLA:

http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/fmla/

I just flat out ignore them. My boss, who I also went to high school (but not college) with, sent me a friend request and I just never responded.

Honestly, if I wasn't friends with them in high school or college, I don't feel bad about ignoring them. Odds are, they woudln't take the time out of their day to bat an eyelash at me so I'm not going to do it for them now.

shrug I don't really care if it's rude or not. Normally I try to make everyone happy, putting myself last but I'm getting older and it's really draining. I'm going to be one majorly cranky old lady one day!

Lack of nutrients is a problem while nursing which is why you're still supposed to take a prenatal vitamin while lactating. This effects the mother's health, not the milk supply, though.

Exercise itself doesn't effect the nutrient content or production of your milk. Having too great a deficit does.

From http://kellymom.com/nutrition/mom/mom-weightl oss.html:

According to Breastfeeding and Human Lactation (3rd Edition, Riordan, pp 440), it is noted that fad or rapid weight loss programs should be avoided because fat-soluble environmental contaminants and toxins stored in body fat are released into the milk when caloric intake is severely restricted. I was unable to find a definition of "severely restricted" but I expect that it is significantly under 1500 calories per day (which they called a "modest intake"). I've included information on a study on this subject below.

Decrease the calories gradually
A sudden drop in calories can reduce milk supply. Some moms notice this during an illness, although dehydration and/or medication use could also be a factor in reduced milk supply when mom is sick. It has been hypothesized that a sudden calorie decrease can cause mom's body to go into "starvation mode" and cut nonessential resources such as milk production.

From http://kellymom.com/nutrition/mom/mom-calorie s-fluids.html

An exclusively breastfeeding mother, on average, needs to take in 300-500 calories per day above what was needed to maintain pre-pregnancy weight. Since the recommended added calories during the last two trimesters of pregnancy is 300 calories/day, an exclusively breastfeeding mother will typically need either the same amount of calories she was getting at the end of pregnancy, or up to 200 additional calories per day. That's the equivalent of adding 1-2 healthy snacks per day.

Per Breastfeeding and Human Lactation (Riordan, 2004, p. 438), "The amount of energy needed by lactating mothers continues to be debated. The lactating mother need not maintain a markedly higher caloric intake than that maintained prior to pregnancy: in most cases, 400-500 calories in excess of that which is needed to maintain the mother's body weight is sufficient."

There's a lot more information about dieting while breastfeeding on Kellymom.com.