Breastfeeding in Australia

Breastfeeding in Australia: This is a combination of a praise and a rant.

I met a lady at the park the other day. She is from Australia, has twin fraternal girls who are almost two and a half. She husband is on a exchange program through the Australian army with our Army. They have lived here about a year and a half.

We were talking about caring for twins and tips and stuff. I said that I decided when getting home from the hospital that I had to figure out the feeding them at the same time thing and how it would have never been possible without the twin nursing table I have. She agreed. The nursing table is wonderful. She then started ranting on how the United States is so NOT breastfeeding friendly. How people scowl at you if you feed in public, even when you're covered. Most of all she hates that there are no public Mother's nursing rooms in the United States. She said that in Australia its is super breastfeeding friendly. That almost every public building has a Mother's Nursing Room that you can use at anytime. That public nursing is encouraged and no one bats an eye at you. She talked about how ever since Australia went to a public health program it has instituted policies to encourage breastfeeding, make it easier for mother's to breastfeed and discourage the use of formula. She said that the attitude is now that you nurse your baby until they are two. 

I wish that we had public Mother's Nursing rooms all over the place. My son would never let me cover up. I couldn't, he would cry and scream and flat out refuse to eat if there was anything covering him. I live a good distance south of town. So when I go to town I go for the day and get everything done that I need to. Which meant staying in town to feed my infant. Since I couldn't cover up that meant finding a secluded shaded place to park (which really isn't easy to do in the summer in Arizona) and sitting in my hot car feeding my baby. I had no where to go. Why is it the breastfeeding is so looked down on here in the States? I know there are movements out there trying to raise awareness of how breastfeeding is so much better than formula. That there are more and more hospitals out there trying to encourage nursing and hire Lactation Consultants.

My mom remembers her mother saying that in her day it was looked at as a sign of poverty to breastfeed. Because that meant you were too poor to buy formula. Why is it that so many women just give up on nursing without giving it a good try. Even if you have to suplement, the advantages of nursing are so great- how can you afford not to give that to your baby. I don't understand the hundreds of women who eat healthy and to everything "perfect" during their pregnancy because they want the "best" for their baby, and then buy all the organic expensive stuff afterwards because they want to give their babies the "best". But when it comes down to it the true "BEST" for you baby is the milk that you make for them, yet they don't give that to their baby.

To encourage breastfeeding, Australia has started a number of campaigns. This video is a commercial that they made. Also the Australian Breastfeeding Association rates and gives out award to the best public Mother's rooms out there. That is awesome. On their website you can see what all these places rate.

Top reasons to Breastfeed:

1. You immune system becomes theirs, if you have had a vaccine or have build immunity to any infection you give them that immunity. With this there is no reason to seclude you and your baby for the first few months of their lives.
2. If they are ill, your body will be making the antidote. They will get over the illness much faster and build up their own immunity to it faster.
3. Your body made them, it knows exactly what nutrients their body needs. Your body makes milk designed to be exactly what they need for that stage of their development.
4. With the exception of a few diet items you may need to change, they will always be able to eat your milk, unlike babies who have problems with various types of formula.
5. Bonding between you and your baby happens on a level that just doesn't happen with bottles
6. Your hormones are better balanced when you breastfeed. These hormones will help your body return to "normal" faster.
7. I'm not a "Mother Nature Knows Best" person. But I am a "Heavenly Father Knows Best" person. I believe that this is how Heavenly Father designed it to work and he designs things best. I believe there is still benefits out there that we don't know about that science may yet uncover.

I wish our country could be more Breastfeeding Friendly like Australia. I don't want the Government to have to get involved. I just wish that people would become enlightened and realize that the "inconvenience" is nothing compared to the benefits. I wish that Breastfeeding would become the norm and formula would become the rare exception. And to accommodate this I wish public places would design in Mother's rooms into their design. Maybe this will become a reality someday, instead of just a dream.

One Month with Twins

 The twins are now a month old. They are both about 8 lbs. You can see the difference is 3 lbs. Their cheeks are getting chubbier, and so are their tummys, arms, and legs. But they are still small for 1 month olds.

A friend of mine had their little baby girl this week, she weighed 8lbs 10oz. I laughingly told her that her "newborn is bigger than either of my one month olds"

 We're just doing day to day. The highlight of the day is when we get to talk to daddy though Skype. I'm trying to get them to stay awake more and more during the day so that they will learn to sleep at night. We're doing mostly good with it. 

When we left the hospital, they made us rent their carseats because our carseats didn't adjust small enough for  how small our girls where when they were born. The photo is of the hospital's carseats- which I have already returned to the hospital. We are now in our own carseats. 

I have finally got brave enough to use the Moby wrap to carry both girls at the same time on my person.

I'm grateful to have such a carrier. I finally found some multiple baby carriers online at a Multiples specialty store and it was $130 before shipping for their twins carrier. Also the twin nursing table I was let has been a blessing too, that too is a 2nd hand item someone gave to me that I don't know how I would live without it.

 Al is trying to be a good helper. I'm glad he wants to be a good helper. Its hard sometimes to let him be a helper. After all a 2 year old can physically and attention span wise only do some much.

I've survived so far and I'll continue to figure it out and keep moving on with life.

I have really good kids.

They're Here (Announcing the birth of our Twins)

Short Story:
Doctor decided I needed to be induced. Checked into the hospital Tues night but due to no room in the inn (labor and delivery), I sat around the hospital until Wen night when at 9pm my doctor broke my water sac on Baby A, presenting baby. Baby A was born at 1:06am. Baby B being breech my doctor was awesome and delivered her fully breech, born 1:10am.

Here is the long story (not for those of you who hate birthing details)
Last Sunday my husband arrived back from his deployment for his RandR. RandR planned to be here for the birth. Due to the distance we live from our doctor and the hospital we were planing to deliver, we went to Tucson to stay for however long it would take. Tuesday morning when we arrived in Tucson I had an NST (nonstress test) and then a doctor's appointment. The NST went well, and so did my doctor's appointment, when the doctor checked me I was dilated to a 6! Not in labor. So we discus that although our hotel is 8 minutes from the hospital, it isn't 8 minutes from the delivery room and if these babies come anywhere near as fast as my son, then we might end up delivering in the hospital lobby. So it was decided that she'd induce me that night, show up at 8pm to the hospital. But by 8pm the hospital was hopping and it was super busy and there were no available beds in Labor and Delivery, but I was considered Pre-Term labor and they put me in a room to wait. In the morning we did an amniocentesis to make sure they were actually ready to come out (SUPER PAINFUL- rather have contractions than that ever again). Their numbers were good so we were a go. Still just waiting on a bed in Labor and Delivery to open up. I was so upset, I felt like a prisoner in the hospital and that they were never going to move me to L and D unless I went into full labor. Finally around 8pm they said there was going to have a bed open. At a few minutes before 9 my doctor broke my water on Baby A. Contractions started, but even after 2 hours I hadn't progresses a ton. After a lengthy discussion I finally gave into a low low dose of Oxytocin. This really kicked the contractions into gear. I was able to stay on top of them, but they were hard and didn't always let up with a break in between. Then the nurse boosted me to a higher dose. This almost made me pass out. I couldn't take it. I started to not be able to breath and my face was flushed. I asked the nurse to lower the does back down. I was so grateful that she complied because I couldn't do those high contractions. After all a woman can only take so much with no pain reliving drugs. At about midnight they wheeled me into the surgery room. Because Baby B was breech they had to be ready in case a c-section was needed. Baby A still wasn't far into the birth canal so we had a lot of pushing to do to get her down and out, born at 1:06am. Then the high risk doctor assisting my doctor was looking at Baby B through the ultra sound, she was telling everyone to prepare for a c-section. My doctor was so awesome. I am so grateful we felt inspired to go with her. She told everyone to hold on, reach up inside, grabbed Baby B's feet, pulled her partial out. Broke her water sac, then reached in again tucked her arms safely down and pulled out the rest of Baby B, born at 1:10am. Wow that was intense on my end but I am so grateful that she was comfortable doing that rather then resorting to a c-section. Awesome. 

Welcome back all readers....

We named Baby A, Penelope. And Baby B we named Rosalind. We are going to call Penelope, Nellie, or just P is what our toddler calls her. Rosalind we are going to call Rose. I wanted to call her Roz, but my husband doesn't like Roz, but we were both will to go with Rose. They are new and beautiful and so tiny. The Pediatric nurse who discharged us said that she wouldn't have felt comfortable discharging us if this was my first pregnancy, they would have kept us at the hospital at least until Sunday sometime. But because I was showing I knew what I was doing with nursing and taking care of them she was comfortable sending us home with our babies who were born pre-term at 36 weeks and 2 days. I am so grateful everything worked out well. It was a great stress in my life. Now my stresses can change to learning to take care of two babies at once with a toddler running around.

Daddy's Home

We had to request Daddy's R and R leave like vacation time so that he could be for the birth of these babies. He got home Sunday late morning. Yeah! We drove to Tucson yesterday morning and picked him up. Came home, he showered and then we went to sacrament meeting as a family for the first time is a little over 3 months. It felt so nice Now my paranoia about having to go though child birth without him can be put to rest. We did have a joke that if these babies came before he made it back then he was relinquishing naming rights to these babies. So now he has all his rights to naming back.
Now that Daddy is home we need these babies to come on their own. I don't want to wait to our induce date, Aug 18 Thursday an induction is scheduled at the hospital. I think that next Monday would be the best day to have these babies.

Friends to Visit

My roommate from college lives in the New England area. Each summer since they have moved out there they do a long summer road trip stopping in Wisconsin, Utah, and California. Each summer she has talked about coming all the way down south to come see me and my family but the long and the short of it is, my home is too much out of the way. Last summer she decided that no matter what they were making a stop down here. that was also before we knew we were going to be expecting at that time, let alone with two. But the plans were made. After a doctor tried to paranoid me into voluntary bed rest (not entirely sure what he real point was), my sister suggested that I let my friend know my situation and have her cut her plans to come see me. I felt fine about it and figured if they only stay a couple days it was still better than nothing.

They stayed from Tues to Saturday and it was fine. Our children got along great! My son would even still take his naps and go to bed on time. Two things that never happen when his cousins come to visit. We spend a lot of that week at the park, playing outside, and going to the pool. My friend did most of the cooking, not just because she was trying to help out the pregnant woman, but because her daughter is deathly allergic to all milk and dairy products. I never knew dairy was in so many products that you'd never think about. Since I'm Gestational diabetes and she has her milk allergy, we must have been an odd crew when ordering food when we ate out.

I loved having my friend come visit. I felt a little bad taking time away from her family members visiting time. But it was so much fun and I have missed her greatly. I said she was my roommate in college. We have actually be very good friends for much longer than that. We met at BYU music camp when we were 15 years old. We have kept in contact all that time, when we got to college we became roommates, I took classes with her husband (we had the same major), I went to her wedding, and when I finally got married she came out for mine. One Thanksgiving when we were roommates, she came home with me for the holiday break. We learned that my mom and her mom were roommates while young adults. Such a small world. 

Thanks for the visit. I really should visit you, but at least for the foreseeable time to come I don't see any road trips in our life.

Baby Shower for Twin Girls

My mom and sister threw me a baby shower for these twin girls. Everyone must love picking out girl clothes because we were given so many more clothes items then we did with my son. It was going to be a smaller family and close friends shower, but just about everyone came and it was a big group. 

Sometimes I forget that when you're inviting just family even we have a huge family then add in a few friends and we have a big group. I wanted to talk to everyone, but it was so busy and I hardly had the time. My sister did a great job planing. She enjoys putting things like this together. She wanted to play some twin games. She came up with two. 

The first one was called "Is a twin or has twins" I've pasted it here, see how you would have done:

·         Justin Timberlake

·         Sarah Jessica Parker

·         Elvis Presley

·         Shawn Marion

·         Singer Duffy

·         Celine Dion

·         Vin Diesel

·         Millionaire tycoon William Randolph Hurst

·         Lisa Marie Presley

·         Ed Sullivan

·         Liberace

·         Isabella Rossellini

·         Denzel Washington

·         Jane Seymore

·         Julia Roberts

·         Broncos quarterback John Elway

·         Mariah Carey

·         Mohammad Ail

·         Actress Parker Posey 

·         Actor Andy Garcia

·         Eva Green

·         Terminator Linda Hamilton

And the answers...

·         Justin Timberlake-twin(Laura Katherine, died after birth)

·         Sarah Jessica Parker-has twin girls, (Marion Loretta and Tabitha)

·         Elvis Presley- Twin (Jesse Garon, died at birth)

·         Shawn Marion- twin (sister Shawnette)

·         Singer Duffy- Twin (sister katy)

·         Celine Dion-has twins (Boys 2010)

·         Vin Diesel-twin (Brother Paul Vincent)

·         Millionaire tycoon William Randolph Hurst- twin died at birth

·         Lisa Marie Presley- has twins(Finley and Harper)

·         Ed Sullivan- twin, died in infancy

·         Liberace- twin, died in infancy

·         Isabella Rossellini- Twin sister (Isotta)

·         Denzel Washington- has twins (Malcolm and Olivia)

·         Jane Seymore- has twin boys

·         Julia Roberts- has twin (Hazel and Phinnaeus)

·         Broncos quarterback John Elway- twin brother

·         Mariah Carey- has twins (Monroe and Moroccan)

·         Mohammad Ail- has twin girls (Jamillah and Rasheda)

·         Actress Parker Posey- twin (brother Chris)

·         Actor Andy Garcia- conjoint twin, brother died shortly after removal

·         Eva Green- twin sister Joy

·         Terminator Linda Hamilton- twin sister Leslie

           How did you do? 

       The other game she came up with was done on Power Point. She would show a picture and we'd have to       guess who the person's famous twin is. Most of them I didn't even know who they were. I'm not up on my current celebrities.

        We had a great turn out to the shower. 

Thank-you to all who came. I wish I had been able to catch up with each of you.

Uncle Justin and Winnie the Pooh

The last couple times we've gone up to Phoenix I haven't contacted my brother-in-law. Busy, oversight, forgetfulness, lack of knowing what to do, all are to blame. I don't want him to feel that since my husband isn't around he isn't going to see his nephew. So this trip up I made the effort to contact Uncle Justin and see if he had time to meet us for breakfast or lunch some time. I even threw out there that if he wanted to he could join us in seeing the new Winnie the Pooh movie (came out July 15). He jumped on breakfast and going to the movie. Cool. Saturday July 16th we went to breakfast at Denny's (side note- really diabetic friendly place to eat). 
Then after breakfast we went over to the movie theater. My in-laws had given us gift cards to a movie theater in our Christmas stockings our first Christmas. We had used a little on each card over the past 3 years, but never seem to use them because we don't live near the theaters the gift cards are to. So I made a point of us going to one this time, after paying for 2 adults, 1 child, popcorn, water, and soda, it only cost us 3.50. Sweet. Winnie the Pooh was really cute. It was enjoyable for my son, and I really liked that it was cleaver, cute, and done in the traditional Winnie the Pooh style. Yes its not a movie I would choose to go on a date with my husband to or see with my girlfriends, but really enjoyable. My son handled the theater experience really well. The movie itself was only 1 hour and 3 minutes, I don't think he would have done with a much longer movie. We saw CARS 2 on my father-in-law's birthday and I had to take Al out once just for the change of pace. So Pooh was just the right length. Also now he finds stuffed animals of Pooh or pictures of Pooh and holds them up and says "Pooh", you can also prompt him by saying "Winnie the" and he smiles and finished "Pooh"- cute. 

We had a good time with Uncle Justin. I didn't think he'd be interested in the movie, but he was interested in getting some Uncle time. I forget that out of my son's uncles (not counting my brother on a mission), Uncle Justin gets the least amount of time with Al and the least amount of quality time. I was glad he had the time to meet up with us and get some uncle time.

4th of July Weekend

 The weekend of the 4th of July my sister's family came down to play. We went to splash time on Saturday morning, and dinner at Denny's that evening. Sunday they came to my ward with me and then instead of going over to my in-laws for dinner, my in-laws joined us at my house. On the fourth, we went to my ward's annual pancake breakfast. The primary children preformed and after breakfast the children rode their trikes, wagons, and bikes. 

In the afternoon we went over my in-laws home for a cook out. Yummy food and then it started to rain. The children played in the rain and got so soaked. When we brought them inside they got to play in their diapers while we dried their clothes. 

Lizzy and Al are so cute, same size and all running around in diapers. Tuesday we went to Bisbee and then my brother-in-law went home. 

My sister and her children stayed a couple more days and then drove with me to Tucson on Thursday. It was fun having them down. We love having visitors. 

Going Good

my sister caught me off guard with this photo, 31 weeks

Everything is going well with these twins. They are growing at a healthy rate. We're doing good. Twins are a lot more trouble getting them to full term than I'd want to deal with. Not only do I have my weekly doctor's appointments but now they want me to go to the hospital maternity ward for NST monitoring (non stress test) twice a week. It just takes so much time out of my life to be doing all these appointments. Every time I go I should expect it to take an hour, but the baby on the left is a trouble maker and keeps moving behind her sister so we can't read her for the full time, so it gets extended. When the one on the right is done with her ~20 minutes she decides she is done completely and kicks the monitor until it goes away. How do I end up with such stubborn children? The nurses at the hospital are going to know me real well after all this.
In addition, I'm gestational diabetes. I had already been eating a gestational diabetes diet since 24 weeks. My midwife had recommended this with my son and it made since. She recommends all her patients to eat this way for the last couple months of their pregnancy even if they passed the glucose test. She says that it helps you and your baby gain "the right type of weight". Well with Little Al I only gained 13lbs total and he weighed 7lbs 6oz so I felt confident that eating that way helped. So I had decided to eat that way. Now until week 27 I wasn't super strict on it. I would eat something here or there. I took the one hour test and failed it. Since I had already made the commitment to this type of diet, I declined taking the three hour test. I just didn't feel like I could handle it or the stress of doing it. So my doctor got me a glucose meter and I test myself regularly. The hardest part about actually being GD is I can't every once in a while say oh well and eat something. But I can't now.
Overall all the frustrations of this pregnancy haven't been that bad. Nothing that I can not cope with. I was telling my chiropractor the other day when getting my adjustment that if this back pain from carrying two is the  worst thing to happen during this pregnancy I should feel blessed. Sometimes I can't help but wonder if the only reason everything is going so perfect for twins is that Heavenly Father knows that with all the other trials in my life right now the last thing I need is to be on bed rest in the hospital worrying about my son. Whatever the reason, I feel very blessed.