Still Waiting

Hey Everyone,

Well, we are still waiting. No baby yet. Had the doctors appointment yesterday and the heart rate was at about 145. Its been up and down over the course of the pregnancy. It's been 140 a couple times, and as high as 170, but averaged right at that 150 mark.

This week has been very good but very stressful. We had out company IT assessment done the first part of this week, and it was a definite eye opener. I am extremely glad that we had a consulting firm to come in. My philosophy is that if you can all work together and have open communication, then everyone wins.

Other than that, not much is happening. We did a Ice Jam prep at fire practice this week, as there is (was?) one just east of Telkwa. The last Ice Jam was a little chaotic from the sounds of it, trying to organize personal to keep the public at large safe. This time we are preparing for it and mapping out our command structure and task forces as to be able to move very quickly in case the need for our services is required. And what makes us even more prepared this year is that we are now trained in swiftwater rescue, which helps us help people if they get into trouble on the river. We have a few members who also have their Ice Rescue training, and a whole crew going through that same training in early March, including yours truly. It should be interesting.

Other than that I'll leave you with a couple photos of some snow falling off the roof of our generator  roof at work the other day. It's kinda cool.

Cheers.

From Snow Falling

Moose'd

Hey all,

It is finally warming up. Yay. no more minus 40 weather please. I know that we are suppose to get that cold, but honestly, minus 30 is just as good and a hell of a lot warmer. Let's just see if we can now start getting warming now that we are on the other side of the winter solstice.

On a completely different note, here have some pictures. They are of our resident moose, that decided today that our back yard was a great place to sleep. The moose had been there for a while sleeping and then once I let the dogs out, it got up and just stood there and ate a couple branches, then after about 20 minutes of standing there, it just started walking away. Such a docile moose. I still wouldn't go up to it and pet it, but none the less, it could have cared less about Oreo and Grady barking up a storm at him, until I told them to be nice to the moose. At that point Oreo stopped barking.

And without further ado, here you go:

Baby's Room

Well I don't really have much to update with today. I worked some extra hours today so I can have some more banked time to take off when the baby gets here.

Anyways, here are some pictures of the baby's room, all ready for the little one to come. We also have a bassinet thats in our room that I don't have a picture of.

Enjoy

Breastfeeding

Hey All,

This post is about breastfeeding. Why such a random topic? Because that's what we learned all about in our prenatal course last night.

First off, did you know that babies don't just want the nipple? They want the entire thing. You essentially have to fill their mouth with boob. Here is a diagram I'll explain below.

So first I have to say that if done properly, breastfeeding shouldn't hurt, and your nipple shouldn't get all cracked and chewed up. This is straight from a registered lactation consultant. She's also a RN who has worked in the maternity department for 7+ years, and has a couple children of her own. So safe to say, she at least knows something, and she did say that she's not here to teach you how to, but to help you teach yourself what works for you.

So anyways, as you can see in the diagram above, the nipples goes into the mouth and essentially reaches the back to the mouth. Right now, rub your tongue along the top of your mouth until you feel the junction from the hard palette to the soft palette (it should feel like a line between bone and muscle). Its very far back, almost at your throat. This is where the nipple should be, right at the junction between the soft and hard palette. 

To get it back that far, what you should do is have the bottom lip of the baby about 2-3cm below the nipple. Tease, yes tease, the baby with the nipple along the baby's top lip, and wait for them to open wide with their tongue down. remember to keep their bottom lip 2-3cm below the nipple and roll the nipple into their mouth. Your nipple should brush along the top lip as it enters. This is how you get a good latch and allow your child to get as much milk as they need.

What if they still don't get enough milk? Breast compressions. No it's not CPR on a boob, but it might kinda look like it, but much slower. Essentially, you take your thumb and your finger and put then on either side of the breast, outside the areola (the dark area that surrounds the nipple). If you are too close, the baby can have a hard time latching, or keeping a latch. Anyways, you push your finger and thumb straight into your breast, then your softly pinch your breast. Only do this while the baby is sucking, not while the baby is swallowing. Do not "milk" your breast like you would a cow to get milk, that doesn't work on humans. 

You can tell by the pauses in the jaw movements if your baby is getting milk and when they are getting it. If the jaw is not moving, the baby is probably sucking the milk out. If the jaw is moving, then the baby is probably swallowing. You will get babies that don't have much of a pause, and if they don't have a good latch, they they will just suck on the nipple with constant jaw movements, so its important that the baby have a good latch. The way the suction works is the baby's mouth creates a vacuum on the nipple. When the baby opens its mouth, this opens the milk ducts in the nipple allowing for milk to flow into the baby's mouth, the long the pause, the more milk the baby is potentially sucking from the breast. The shorter the pause, the less milk. As with all things, it all depends on a number of factors. How big the milk ducts are is one of those factors. Your baby may have to "suck" hard to get milk even with a good latch. Essentially they will stop "sucking" when their mouth is full and they need to swallow. Just watch for the pause. If there is no pause, try to re-latch the baby. 

And one last piece of advice: only and average of 10% of women actually don't have enough milk for their baby. The most common reason people think they can't breastfeed or are drying up is because of improper latching. Breastfeeding isn't something you just know how to do nowadays because a lot of women are not exposed to it. If you look at the statistics, from 1900 to 2000 the number of women saying that they are drying up has gone up considerably, not because they are, but because the majority of them don't actually know how to do it. There is more science behind it that just put baby to nipple and feed. 

If you are having problems breastfeeding, I highly encourage you to seek our expert advice on breastfeeding because the majority of mothers can in fact breastfeed very well, they just need some help with the details of how to do it the more efficient and least painful way. 

Well I hope that I opened some eyes. Once our baby comes, I will let you know how the breastfeeding if going with Myrica (I'll have to take her word for it, for the most part). The amount of resources available to us in such a  small community is amazing, and I look forward to taking advantage of as much of it as I can.

Cheers for now.

New Blog

Hey everyone,

As you can see I have moved the family blog over to ethier.me hosted on Blogger.

I was using Google Sites but because of some of the restriction of the site, it was not meeting the needs that I had, specifically public comments.

So here we are, the new blog, where I (and maybe we) will be able to update you with little posts about our life and whats happening.

Sorry that I could not bring the previous posts from Google sites, but that was work that I didn't really want to do. I'm now looking for something easy, quick and fun to update. I know I can create website scratch, spending hours making it exactly how I want it, but alas, I have moved on to the though that I know I can do it, and I will continue to do it, but for the sake of keeping stuff up to date, I'm going to use something simple and integrated. Thus this site.

I'm a fan of everything Google. And this is another extension of Google that is more what I was looking for than Google Sites. I can now post updates from my phone, which will help in the updating the website.

So I hope that you follow me, and now comment on the posts that i (and maybe we) post.

Cheers for now.