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.

She's gone feral.

5 Minutes back and I had a seriously feral child on my hands. 

I am typing this from a staff lounge at one of The Husbands offices and she was screaming bloody murder with a freaking smile on her face, just for the sake of it. 

She was fed, burped, clean, warm and not tired. 

Now she is just playing quietly - she put on a show for the clients trying to have serious meetings obviously.  

It's pouring so I couldn't even take her outside to shoosh her and give everyone some peace. Work places really are not for babies I suppose.

I have a feeling that there will never be a baby allowed in here again. EVER. 

I do like to set the bar high for bad baby visits though, so at least we succeeded in that. 

We trekked to Moama last week and you better believe that I was squealing WE ARE CROSSING THE BORDER!!!! when the time came.

I'm not sure why I was so excited exactly, but you know what they say - Small things, small minds.

We went to a beautiful wedding of a family friend who we have known forever and ever. 

We stayed in cabins which were like something you would see in a horror movie, but there was no murders to take place thankfully. If someone broke in I think I would have been the first to be killed though as I was on the window side and I am pretty sure that the person closest to the door or window always gets killed first.

The wedding started at 4PM and we arrived at 3:30 so everyone was scrambling to get ready.  At 3:58 we piled into the car, Nelly strapped in tight, me practically sitting on my mums lap, squealed out of the hotel drive way and noticed a wedding in the park directly opposite us.

Yeah, you guessed it. The wedding was literally 20m away from our front door. 

Somebody used whereis on their phone and said it was 1km but no, it wasn't. 

It took longer to park the car than it would have taken to walk. 

After the ceremony, Mum and I dashed to Target as I was in agony in my heels (I had ran into the legs of our bed bench that morning and my toe was black and would not bend) and I am going to admit that I ran in with no shoes on and bought a pair of $9 flat shoes. 

My outfit was already crap so no love loss.

I also had my hair blow dried at a really popular Bendigo salon, I won't mention it though. 

It was not great in my opinion.

For $61 I expect more. Come on, I am on a strict budget these days!!

My brother Lucas actually said "Look at your mum hair, couldn't you have at least done it? You've let yourself go" and to that I retorted "At least I still have all my hair". 

Take that Luc-Ass. I hope you are reading!! 

Anyway, at about 10pm it was time to feed Nelly so Mum and I left the reception room at the Moama Bowling Club in search to find somewhere to feed her. As there was no where available we headed towards some big leather couches in an empty section of the venue when a staff member ran up to us and said "You have to leave. There is a bar near here so no children allowed". I asked her if it was in case Nelly walked to the bar and ordered a vodka, neat, and someone served her? She didn't appreciate my humor but shooed us out. 

I had to feed her on a plastic chair in the bathroom. 

Okay lady, if that is your policy then fair enough but maybe your venue should supply somewhere a bit more comfortable for those with infants. 

I wasn't going to flop my boob out for anyone to see and be offended by, I am a discreet person but I guess that is just how the cookie crumbles these days. 

Rant over. Maybe not a big deal but it still annoyed me. 

I used to have one coffee every few months, and not feel bad about adding in 3 sugars to make it enjoyable but these days I am averaging 2 coffees per week and lets be honest here, I still don't feel bad about having 3 sugars.

Poached eggs are amazing. 

I have never been able to master them and would like to hear your secrets on how to make them work.

I have to eat pretty quickly these days. 

My friend Claire gave me this kit at my baby shower and I thought I would give it a crack yesterday. 

I probably should have done it at birth, and am slightly kicking myself now.

It was near impossible to get Nelly to unclench her fists, she really did not want a bar of it so the hands are a bit of a fail but at least the feet turned out okay. 

Perhaps this beanie is a tad too big for her head, which is in the 75th percentile. Takes after her dad.

Before I had Nelly I always said that I would not give my child a dummy.

Well stuff that for a joke. Got a grizzly baby and you have tried every other method to calm them down? Shove a dummy in their mouth and voila. 

We do only give it to her in emergency situations but it is still fantastic. 

People say "Oh but your baby will have bad teeth" but they obviously don't realise that she is destined for braces anyway - click here if you wish to see what my teeth were like before braces, but I do warn you - it ain't a pretty sight. 

So, do you give your kid a dummy? Did you have a dummy? At least you can take away a dummy, not like a thumb!

How is this little munchkin seriously over a month old? Impossible. 

Do you like her latest look? The George Costanza hair do is in full force. Completely bald on top. 

Bald like an egg I tell you.

In other boring news, I walked 6km in the rain on Monday. I need to get a car already.

It's not raining in this photo but you better believe that it rained seconds later.

At least walking will help shift the baby weight. 

We headed to the Maternal Child Health Nurse and happily, Nelly had put on 430g in a week so her lack of weight gain the week before was definitely due to her being unwell. I'm so glad she is back on track.