My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.

Breastfeeding. That's what this post is about.

It's not a "Breastfeeding is good and Formula is bad" post. I don't believe in that crap.

When Nelly sees the nipple she opens up like Jaws (a lot more scary than this photo) and it makes me laugh every time without fail.

After Nelly was born, she latched on immediately to bring on the colostrum which is produced before milk comes in but despite feeding every two hours she did not have any wet nappies for 24 hours which was a cause for concern for everyone involved.

I had hoped that my augmentation would not impact on feeding in any way but even though my surgeon had assured me that it wouldn't, you just cannot know until the time came so obviously this thought was going through my head in the hospital and I was getting ready to blame my self.

One of the midwives decided to just manually 'milk' me which involves having your already sore nipples squeezed to ensure that milk/colostrum is being produced and let me tell you, that crap hurts, however it did show that there was liquid in there but that was not good enough for me, I needed my baby to have a wet nappy already.

We were asked if we were open to topping her up with formula to which I jumped at.
At that point I lost all my prior reservations about formula and just wanted to know that she would be fed, whether it came solely from a breast or tin. All I wanted was a happy, nourished baby.

As soon as we started the top ups of 30ml after each feed she started to wet her nappies much to my pleasure. Who knew that a wet nappy could cause so much joy?

Nobody tells you just how painful breastfeeding is at the start, and that is only because of the pain your nipples feel. They get all cracked and bleed, sticking to your breast pads.
To help this you can use lanolin or a cheaper (more painful) method is to express a little bit of milk and put it on your nipples and let air dry.

Think that you are too modest to let anyone see your boobs? Yeah, I thought that too.
By this stage you will not even blink if someone walks in on you doing this. You are used to your nipples being seen by every man and his dog every 3 hours.

The day that we were discharged from hospital, The Husband, Nelly and I were driving to my Family Dinner when I got all hot and my breasts started to ache and went rock hard within 20 minutes - my milk had come in, no doubt about it. A hot bath with hot facewashers on them helped, as did feeding as often as I could.

A milk drunk baby is a peaceful baby.

I have not had any problems with breastfeeding yet (knocks on wood), except for on two occasions when I had been unusually stressed and my milk supply really slowed down which lead to the baking of Lactation Cookies and giving Nelly two bottles of NAN formula to fill her belly before her night sleep.

I cannot understand why people try and guilt mums if they chose (or have no choice) to give their babies formula, it's really nobody elses business and as long as that baby is being fed, that's really all that matters - surely?! I really hate this mum shaming about how they gave birth, how they choose to nourish their child and how they raise them. Everyone has an opinion.

This is the recipe that I use for lactation cookies:-

1 cup butter
1.5 cups brown sugar
4 tablespoons of water
2 tablespoons flaxseed meal (often known as linseed)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups of plain flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups of oats
1 cup or more of chocolate chips (I use a mix of chocolate chips, almonds, macadamias, dried apricots and dates after my mum made these for me and they taste so much better with the mix of all of these)
2-4 tablespoons of brewers yeast (don't hold back as this is one of the main active ingredients)

Preheat the oven to 180c

- Mix together 2 tablespoons of flaxseed/linseed and water, set aside for 3-5 minutes
- Cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and mix well
- Stir flaxseed mixture and add with vanilla to the butter mix. Beat until blended
- Stir together the dry ingredients, except for oats and chocolate/nut mix
- Add to butter mixture. Stir in oats and then chocolate/nut mix (The mixture should be really, really tough to mix)
- Scoop or drop onto tray lined with baking powder. As the mixture is crumbly, it is probably easier to use a scoop.
- Bake for 8-12 minutes depending on size of cookies.

This mixture makes a heap of cookies so when mum made it for me she froze two rolls and I have just been cutting them in half and baking as I go along.

Don't be put off by the yeasty smell, these bad boys actually work.  I really didn't think that they would but the morning after devouring half a dozen I was leaking all over the place and was able to express 100ml in minutes when it usually takes half an hour to get at least 50ml.

I use the Medela Swing Pump but pumping just isn't a skill of mine unfortunately.

What I do manage to pump goes into a Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottle and Nelly takes it like a duck to water. It's nice for Dad or other family members to be able to feed the baby as it's such a lovely time.

My brother Joseph did get disgusted when some milk dribbled on to his leg, definitely repulsed by the idea of his sisters breast milk!

They actually taste really nice, not as nice as a peanut butter choc chip cookie perhaps but even The Husband has enjoyed munching on them.

As for breastfeeding in public, I suggest a light weight scarf which you can just drape over baby and if you are wearing nursing bras and nursing tops or just tops that pull aside, nothing really needs to be seen by the public.

Some of my best nursing clothes are just cheapies from Kmart surprisingly.

Also, breast pads. The Rite Aid ones are terrible. Do not bother. Go straight to Johnson & Johnson contour pads. They are fantastic.

At the start before your milk supply regulates make sure that you wear breast pads otherwise you will be soaking everything you own, including your sheets.

Heating Up

This weather has turned me a little feral, not that I wasn't a little feral before but this weather has just made me that much more so.

The news that the next 9 days will be in the high 30's have me praying that this baby pops out soon so that at least I will be in the hospital, which are always freezing, and won't have to leave for 4 nights.

Our air con works a treat at home, don't stress, but still. I'm working up a sweat walking to the mail box.

I had been hanging for a swim which is definitely not like me for over a week now and I ended up putting on The Husbands shorts and a singlet so as to not scare other beach goers and headed down with Mum.

We had the ever necessary fish n chips whilst watching the sunset and it was lovely.

I slept much better after cooling my body down, despite having some aches and pains which meant that mum was on high alert in case the baby decided to come. 

I'm pretty ready for The Baby to pop out and my OB told me she was engaged last week so now we wait.

Someone told me to drink Raspberry Leaf Tea to condition the uterus or bring on labour or some crap. 

I don't even like tea, but I had raspberry flavored tea in the cupboard (along with every other flavor that Twinings make thanks to a $1 sale at Coles) so even though it's not the same thing I decided to humor my self and have a cup.

One of the lovely tea cups from my Royal Albert 100 Years set, the first time I had used one actually.

This particular pattern is the 1950's 'Festival' print.

I used the breakfast muffin recipe from my previous post to make a loaf but I had no bananas so it wasn't quite as good. Still yum but lacking.  

So, how is everyone else spending their weekend? I think I will go to the beach and show the whales how it is done again.

In other news, I got suckered in by Energy people today who I think signed me over to a new company. I need to read the forms. I told you the heat makes me loco.

That's the thing about living in the burbs, door to door people come all the freaking time. 

Apologies for not being able to blog regularly  and for the lack of stimulating (hang on, was it ever stimulating? Ha) content but hopefully I will have more to blog about soon! 

Filling in time by eating.

I've been filling in my days by reading, baking and eating.

The Husband has gotten used to me cooking now so I am not sure what is going to happen when The Baby comes and everything goes askew.

I'm getting a bit bored during the day, even Foxtel is starting to get repetitive and I have become a regular at the local library, borrowing books and then speed reading my way through them.

Saturday I made Banana Pancakes and Sunday I made Apple and Cinnamon pancakes. Don't stress, after I took this photo a nice dollop of Vanilla Ice Cream entered the scene. 

I baked these mini breakfast muffins using The Cake Mistress' recipe, here. 

Fruit & oats feature heavily and they were delicious. 

The Husband doesn't eat breakfast unless I force him, but then he complains that when he does eat breakfast he gets hungry during the day whereas if he doesn't eat it he can go until 5pm without eating which is just plain concerning to me. I figure, even if he is eating muffins with sugar in them on his way out the door, it's gotta be better than nothing. Surely?

I also used this Peanut Butter & Choc Chips cookie recipe from The Cake Mistress (found here) but I accidentally bought buttons, not chocolate chips. I did the first batch with the giant buttons and then smashed them up for the second batch.

I rolled my cookie dough into massive balls so they wouldn't go flat, and low and behold, they were awesome. 

I've revisited my youth and have found saladas again.

I'm also eating my body weight in cheese, and let me tell you, that's not a small body weight.

Interestingly, cheese was one of my first pregnancy cravings and it has returned in full force these days.

I'm balancing out the cheese with fruit. I wasn't lying when I said I was filling the time with eating. 

I'm freaking sick of laying on my waterproof protector. It makes me so hot, even with a sheet over the top of it.  

My friend Celeste has started her own business, a fashion online shopping website 'Crowded Closet', I am so proud of her! 

You can visit the website for great clothes at great prices, follow her on Facebook or Instagram. 

Wondering who the gorgeous model is? Celeste of course!! 

It's too hard to get dressed these days, forget doing my hair. I swear my hair is matted from being in a permanent high pony tail. 

Keeping it glamorous at all times. 

In other news, my ankles are back. Turns out that putting your feet up for 20 hours of the day really does work in reducing swelling. 

I know you all must be sick of the baby related posts but it's all I have at the moment as I don't really venture out any more.

Is today Monday?

Maternity Leave is awesome but I have lost track of the days.

They are all the same, get dressed in one of the 5 dresses that still fit me, go to the new house, go to Masters or Bunnings, paint, garden, pack, eat, go home, sleep. Repeat.

We have floorboards, a painted house and a cleaned up garden now though.

Our couches are being delivered Tuesday, Foxtel on Wednesday (and possibly our fridge, mattress and dining set), bed on Thursday and then the mad rush to have the house kinda set up for Saturdays baby shower. At least we have outdoor furniture already.

 

 

We share a driveway with the house in front of ours and the lady grows tomatoes along it and up into our designated area (which of course is fine by me) and she stopped The Husband today to give him this tomato.

 

She is very sweet and it is nice to have neighbors that we actually speak to, unlike the neighbors at the apartment who I have never spoken to.  

 

Whilst at Southland last week, a lady called out to me "Do you like cookies?!" and who am I to lie to her so I waddled over and said that yes, I do love cookies and would love to buy one.

 

Then she dropped the bomb that she is selling premade preservative free dough, not ready made cookies which put a damper on things but by then I was already emotionally invested in the idea of a cookie and bought a pack, hustled home and baked them.

 

I was surprised at how freaking delicious they were. I may have eaten 12 on my own.

 

I didn't have high expectations of premade cookie dough but I was wrong.

 

To unwind after my hard days of being on Maternity Leave, I was treated to a fantastic pregnancy scrub and massage at Miss Fox .

 

I have not had a massage since Bali where I had two pregnancy massages at Ayana Spa & Resort.

 

I know that some are lucky enough to have weekly massages but I am not one of them so this was considered a massive treat!

 

 

SWEETNESS PREGNANCY SCRUB
Instead of neglecting your belly, treat it to a moisturising body scrub. This particular spa treatment will help you to get rid of the buildup of dead skin cells that can otherwise lead to an itchy belly — a perennial source of annoyance for mums-to-be. At the same time, it will help replenish some of the moisture that’s being lost as a result of hormone-induced skin dehydration.
1 hour $175

I was so relaxed during the scrub (and massage that was tacked on) that I could have fallen asleep but instead I yakked Erins ear off the whole time and grilled her on what she would do if my waters broke.
We figured that there were lots of towels around, so we would be fine haha.


 

 

I love the treatment rooms at Miss Fox - I want my house to look like this!!

 

Do orchids need much love? I think I might buy one for my bedside table. 

 

 

Believe me, I am happy to have a bath in our new home but if I had this bath my life would be near complete.

 

The perfect way to end a day.

 

 

Joey and I set out to buy some plants and trees to spruce up the garden a bit.

 

We are going to completely make it over but for the time being it just needs to look a little prettier, and Joey was the man for this. 

 

 

Don't mind my lack of sweeping. I have more photos to come in a few days of the end product but these trees made such a massive difference - the power of established trees.

 

We might add more to create a hedge effect, we'll see.

 

 

 

I had lunch at Laurent the other day and copped massive attitude from the waitress who advised I wasn't allowed to go and sit upstairs as I had ordered downstairs.

 

It took me 10 minutes to get on and off the super high stools they had remaining down stairs but I managed. 

 

 

I've finally signed up for a Parcel Locker with Aus Post and am pretty keen to see how they operate exactly.

 

I'm guessing that they send you an email with a personalised code and locker number when your parcel arrives but there is only one way to find out, and that is by online shopping.

 

I am sure that I will usually be home to sign for packages, but just in case.

 

I will report back.

 

Mindless dribble: over.

 



The Rainbow Cake

It all started with this little bad boy that Leah from The Secret Life of a Chef’sWife made back in May 2010. You have no idea how impressed I was (and still am) with it. Amazed.

Go through her blog to her most recent post and see the Toblerone cake her dad made, that is the shit right there.

Anyway, then I mentioned on Twitter my intentions of making one and was sent the link to Whisk Kid, which I had read before but forgotten about.

I just knew I had to make it and I had the perfect celebration in mind.

Wednesday celebrated Kitty’s birthday and the fact that she had to sit her CPA exam on her birthday made it suck.  Kitty always goes to lots of effort to bake for her friends in the office on her birthday, and I wanted to make sure that she felt the same love that she allows everyone else to feel!!

I haven’t baked for a long time and was not sure I had it in me.

I went to Safeway armed with my ingredient list, including 10 sticks of butter. Yes, 10.

Then I hit the cake mix aisle and thought to myself, why make this any harder than it needs to be? I’m baking on a Wednesday night after work, not a Saturday. If I can be a bit of a slacker and fake it til I make it, why not?!

Why do all this shit and use 1000000 mixing bowls if I can buy a packet mix? Yes sir. 

So I threw away the recipe from Whisk Kid (you can find it here) and decided to wing it. 

I picked up two of these. Don't ask me their measurements as I have no idea. 

And then my eyes settled upon the feast which is Betty Crock Ready Made Frosting. Oh yes.

I had to buy 3 of these. Just enough to clog your arteries and give you a tooth ache just from breathing it in whilst baking with it. 

3 Greens Vanilla Moist Cake Mixes (all the time whilst laughing about it having no artificial colors or flavors. Like that would make a difference once I put the food dye and frosting in the mix).

Obviously just follow the directions. You will need eggs, milk and butter. 

These four food colorings, plus a blue.

Once I used the pink and the red I realized they were very similar in color and will not use the two of them next time I make it.

I also mixed red and blue to create purple, but it was a bit of a grey purple.

I could only bake 2 cakes at a time, so I halved each batter mix and colored it as I went along.

Once all six were done I left them to cool for about an hour and then set upon slicing off the top of the cakes so that they would be flat.

I could have done a better job of this, but had an irrational fear that my cake would be too small if I did this.

Once you slice the tops off the cakes, it’s time to layer them upon each other with a layer of frosting in between each layer.

It was here that I slightly freaked out thinking how am I going to fill the sides in?! I turned to Andrea on twitter from tell her she’s dreaming and she sorted me out.

I continued to soldier on. Layer, slap some frosting, layer. Rinse and repeat. (No, don’t really rinse – that was a joke.)

During the baking process, The Husband messaged me to let me know he was on his way home and what was for dinner. I had to tell him that I was baking, there would be no dinner.

He wasn’t happy, and picked up some Subway on the way home. He did get to sample to cut off bits of cake and that made him a little bit happier, but I have been told to brush up my skills on cooking dinner.

Okay. All my layers are on. Some of them appear to be wider than others, creating a slight lean, but nothing that frosting cannot fix.

I did a crumb icing layer thing first, slapped it in the fridge, washed my hair, used my new Parlux (excellent. More on that later) and then used up the other 1.5 tubs of frosting for the outer coat.

Everything really can be solved with frosting.

You need to use a lot so that the outside is completely white, and the recipient has no idea what they are about to discover when cutting!!

After frosting it completely I pressed my spatula all over it and quickly removed it to give it Meringue-esque peaks and then used a little bit of frosting around the bottom of the cake in a cute little pattern.

Then I tried to get it into my cake carrier.

Do you think it fit? Of course not. It was too tall.

I had to put it in and glad wrap the top and hope for the best but when I left the house this morning it was raining, I had this damn cake which weighed a tonne, I couldn’t hold my umbrella and my handbag in one hand so decided to catch a cab rather than hope for the best on the tram. Who knows how that would have ended up. I can predict that it would not have ended well though.

I let Kitty cut it and when I wanted to film her doing so she got scared that there was going to be something scary on the inside.

I wont lie, I was holding my breath and hoping for the best that it would turn out as hoped for as I had hyped it up so much around the office!!

 Victory is mine. 

Happy Birthday Kitty. 

It turned out perfectly!! So much better than I thought it would thankfully.

Not to mention the fact that it was still moist, even though I expected it to be dry.  

So that is my way of doing the rainbow cake.

When I have more time, and more room in the kitchen, I will make it from scratch and report back.

Maybe one day I will move on from my ‘Aspiring Domestic Goddess’ status but I don’t see that being any time soon, despite the ridiculous name of this blog.