Mastitis and Breast milk baths

Not a good week for the Tata's.  Tuesday night I was feeding baby and told my husband my boob felt bruised, little did I know, that was probably a clogged milk duct.  Being that I did nothing about it, continued to wear a sports bra, sleep on my stomach, and be too lazy to pump before bed, it got infected.  Wednesday evening I was having hot flashes and was extremely tired by bed time I was so hot I couldn't stand it.  My skin was on fire, my bones were achy and I got no sleep.  As for baby that night she slept 7 hours!  I was dying for to wake up and nurse to relieve some pressure.  Imagine that she finally sleeps a good night and I am praying for her to wake up...  Anyway the next day wasn't much better, i thought I had the flu, Friday I went to the doctor Friday morning and get antibiotics and hopefully will be all better.  Now heres the FUNNY in all this my husband is convinced he can also catch mastitis.  its a bacterial infection which is NOT contagious.  It also only affects breast tissue so in very rare cases men could possibly get mastitis but he wasn't worried about his breast he was just positive it could infect his nether regions!!!  

Moral of the story, if you are breast feeding and your breast are tender and have a bruised looking spot call the doctor, otherwise you will feel like you've been hit by a Mack truck!!  Some things to avoid include wearing a bra that is not too tight, not sleeping on your stomach, and do not avoid the pump.  When your baby begins to sleep longer stretches at night and you become engorged can cause plugged ducts which lead to mastitis.  No worries you can still nurse your babe, all the good stuff in your milk will protect them.

Also this week we tried our first breast milk bath.  If your like me for the nine months of pregnancy I was on pinterest researching breastfeeding, cloth diapering, baby wearing and pretty much anything baby related.  I kept finding posts like '155 cosmetic and medicinal uses for breast milk'.  basically it can be used for anything from baking cupcakes, to removing makeup, to clearing up dry skin.  My husband and I would sit back and laugh at these lists until today.  I saw a friend post a picture of her son in a breast milk bath and a light bulb came on.  Thats how you clear dry skin, not by squirting on yourself.  So I put 3 oz in a baby bathtub and gave her a bath and we will see how well it works.  I have no idea how often this needs to be done so I am going to try for 2 times a week.  (and I would feel like I'm wasting milk but I was getting close to having throw a lot away because our deep freezer is full of fishing bait!)

Anyway until next time
~Coxy :)

Starting Over

So, we had a miscarriage in September 2014 but have now been blessed with our rainbow baby.  It is now October 2015 and our baby girl is 10 weeks, and 14 pounds.  I can't tell you how many times in the last few months I have heard Awe is this your first baby?, when I respond no we have a 12 year old, people look at me surprised and say oh your starting over...  hence the title of this post.  :)

I am also starting over with the blogging.  Being that I have taken some extra time off work I have extra time to blog.  So my goal here is to be real.  No perfect family perfect pintrest, perfect body posts.  

The name of my blog is Coxy's life.  That's me.  my maiden name, which my husband and brother in law still refer to me as.  Red Pens, Binky's, and Barbells refer to teaching, mom-ing, and bodybuilding.  I hope to keep writing about the state of education, but also my life with a newborn and 12 year old, and my fitness journey while humoring and motivating others.  

I kinda forgot to think of a word to add to the title that refers to our farming.  but I will also share stories of our farm.  I call it a small farm right now it kinda grows and shrinks depending on how hungry the pesky fox is.  We mainly raise free range chickens.  We had a free range goat but that turned out to not be the best idea, more on that later, and a donkey.  I will introduce all of these guys in a later post...  Oh yeah and I almost forgot about the 9 cats that we now have too!!

Anyway baby is beginning to fuss so I'll talk to you guys soon!!  :)

~Coxy