Entering the 4th Trimester; Postpartum recovery:
Massage your fundis (technical term for a uterus that has been pregnant) yourself for the first two weeks. Ask a nurse about this
Make ice packs out of diapers or pads for your healing/ swelling
Keep taking your prenatal vitamins. Add B vitamin supplement (Super B Complex).
Pads – buy different sizes (light to heavy), line with witch hazel pads (like Tucks) for cooling
Use Kotex brand pads instead of Always. The Kotex are more natural and causes less irritation. Or even better use Serenity Depends instead of pads for more comfort and coverage.
Sleep when your baby sleeps
Make a list of household tasks that you tend to do daily, weekly. Have it printed out and easily visible/ accessible as friends come by and ask "how can I help"
On Breastfeeding:
For sore breasts, use Lily pads, Mother’s Mates or Medela Hydrogel pads.
From Kristen: http://www.medelabreastfeedingus.com/products/412/tender-care-hydrogel-pads
"These were really great... That really helped to cool down and soothe until the next feeding (they just stuck on). It also made it so I never leaked or needed those absorbent pads nor any lanolin or anything. The box comes with 2 pairs since they wear out over time. If you end up really loving them, check out Mother's Mates, you have to buy online and they are more expensive. For perspective, I went through the Medela pads in one week and then Mother's Mates went 3-4 weeks and I used two pairs. http://www.mothermates.com/pages.aspx). By the end of that time I no longer needed them. I also got the Lansinoh soothies because they carried at Target, but they were sticky and hurt to peel off (why??!!)"
Milk Production: many lactation consultants/ la Leche League say that you need to nurse on demand or every so often in order to make enough milk. We disagree. If you are noticing your supply lower, you can move feedings closer together but you should first consider what you are eating and drinking.
Water: some nutritionists suggest that daily intake for everyone should be about half your body weight, in ounces. So a 140 lb woman should normally drink 70 oz per day. A breast-feeding Mom should almost double that.
What you need to eat to make rich milk:
Eat foods rich in iron and protein and butter fat.
breast feeding burns 500 calories a day – the equivalent of running a half marathon.
Hospital Bag/ First hours and days preparation bag:
Nightgown that you can nurse in
soft, no underwire nursing bra for sleeping (Walmart has some, and Target carries Bravado designs)
Snacks with good fats and protein.
Homemade power bars (recipes here and here)
Newborn care:
Clean meconium poops with Vaseline.
Meals to make ahead and freeze (or request)
Survival kit for meals for moms with young children
During my (Verna) days as a young Navy wife with 5 small children the hardest thing for me was dinner preparation. When my husband was gone for months at a time I just wanted to do mac and cheese and hotdogs every night because it felt easier than planning a meal and cooking it. (We weren’t in a place where eating out or take out was an option but if it had been, that would have been I might fallen into that rut instead.) So I asked myself, or we moms sometimes asked each other, what would make the evening meal easier for us? Usually the answer was not having to plan ahead each day but rather when dinner time hit, knowing exactly what to cook. I experimented with lots of things but finally landed on this routine that helped me keep cooking healthy meals.
First I wrote down all the meals our family likes to eat. I put them in categories of what kind of meat each used. Then I circled the ones that they would want to have more often. One of ours was tacos.
Next I took four 3 by 5 cards and wrote week 1 on the first one. I wrote down seven meals trying to keep the variety of meat served varied. One was tacos so I only needed to come up with six more, a couple with chicken, one with ham or fish and the others with hamburger from my master list. I did the same thing for the cards for weeks 2, 3 and 4. There were some that I did every two weeks, like spaghetti, that went on weeks 1 and 3. I didn’t write the days of the week because I wanted to keep it flexible. I now had seven meal options for each week.
Next I turned over the cards and wrote what ingredients I needed for each meal, including vegetables I could serve with the meals.
Massage your fundis (technical term for a uterus that has been pregnant) yourself for the first two weeks. Ask a nurse about this
Make ice packs out of diapers or pads for your healing/ swelling
Keep taking your prenatal vitamins. Add B vitamin supplement (Super B Complex).
Pads – buy different sizes (light to heavy), line with witch hazel pads (like Tucks) for cooling
Use Kotex brand pads instead of Always. The Kotex are more natural and causes less irritation. Or even better use Serenity Depends instead of pads for more comfort and coverage.
Sleep when your baby sleeps
Make a list of household tasks that you tend to do daily, weekly. Have it printed out and easily visible/ accessible as friends come by and ask "how can I help"
On Breastfeeding:
For sore breasts, use Lily pads, Mother’s Mates or Medela Hydrogel pads.
From Kristen: http://www.medelabreastfeedingus.com/products/412/tender-care-hydrogel-pads
"These were really great... That really helped to cool down and soothe until the next feeding (they just stuck on). It also made it so I never leaked or needed those absorbent pads nor any lanolin or anything. The box comes with 2 pairs since they wear out over time. If you end up really loving them, check out Mother's Mates, you have to buy online and they are more expensive. For perspective, I went through the Medela pads in one week and then Mother's Mates went 3-4 weeks and I used two pairs. http://www.mothermates.com/pages.aspx). By the end of that time I no longer needed them. I also got the Lansinoh soothies because they carried at Target, but they were sticky and hurt to peel off (why??!!)"
Milk Production: many lactation consultants/ la Leche League say that you need to nurse on demand or every so often in order to make enough milk. We disagree. If you are noticing your supply lower, you can move feedings closer together but you should first consider what you are eating and drinking.
Water: some nutritionists suggest that daily intake for everyone should be about half your body weight, in ounces. So a 140 lb woman should normally drink 70 oz per day. A breast-feeding Mom should almost double that.
What you need to eat to make rich milk:
Eat foods rich in iron and protein and butter fat.
breast feeding burns 500 calories a day – the equivalent of running a half marathon.
Hospital Bag/ First hours and days preparation bag:
Nightgown that you can nurse in
soft, no underwire nursing bra for sleeping (Walmart has some, and Target carries Bravado designs)
Snacks with good fats and protein.
Homemade power bars (recipes here and here)
Newborn care:
Clean meconium poops with Vaseline.
Meals to make ahead and freeze (or request)
Survival kit for meals for moms with young children
During my (Verna) days as a young Navy wife with 5 small children the hardest thing for me was dinner preparation. When my husband was gone for months at a time I just wanted to do mac and cheese and hotdogs every night because it felt easier than planning a meal and cooking it. (We weren’t in a place where eating out or take out was an option but if it had been, that would have been I might fallen into that rut instead.) So I asked myself, or we moms sometimes asked each other, what would make the evening meal easier for us? Usually the answer was not having to plan ahead each day but rather when dinner time hit, knowing exactly what to cook. I experimented with lots of things but finally landed on this routine that helped me keep cooking healthy meals.
First I wrote down all the meals our family likes to eat. I put them in categories of what kind of meat each used. Then I circled the ones that they would want to have more often. One of ours was tacos.
Next I took four 3 by 5 cards and wrote week 1 on the first one. I wrote down seven meals trying to keep the variety of meat served varied. One was tacos so I only needed to come up with six more, a couple with chicken, one with ham or fish and the others with hamburger from my master list. I did the same thing for the cards for weeks 2, 3 and 4. There were some that I did every two weeks, like spaghetti, that went on weeks 1 and 3. I didn’t write the days of the week because I wanted to keep it flexible. I now had seven meal options for each week.
Next I turned over the cards and wrote what ingredients I needed for each meal, including vegetables I could serve with the meals.