White Chili is on the menu by Paula Deen

I saw my first circumcision last Friday at my clinical rotation.  I then saw my second, third and fourth circumcisions. It was quite the day.

I’m doing my rotations in newborn and labor and delivery in nursing school and it is really challenging to me, but in a good way. I’m excited to be there and this time is further convincing me that I’m headed in the right direction with my career.

But… BUT… some things I was not prepared for, such as the circumcisions.  I had seen stuff on the internet regarding circumcisions and as a mom of two girls did more than neccessary amount of reading about circumcisions.  I have helped women make the decision whether or not to circumcise their own babies and have offered advice to women that circumcised and wanted to successfully breastfeed.

After Friday I want to put this advice out there for making your decision on circumsicion:

1. Dr. do not always give the maximum amount of pain pain relief medicine prior to procedure. It depends upon their schedule and their way of doing it.  Some comfort measures will be performed by the nurse attending the circumcision such as talking with baby, giving paci or sugar water, keeping baby warm with blanket, offering tylenol in hospital after procedure.

2. Babies that are circumcised have increased risk for breastfeeding difficulties since babies tend to go into a deep sleep after circumcision (a way to cope with the pain).

3. Babies that are circumcised must have the Vit. K shot.  It is necessary for operations that can cause baby to bleed.

4. Babies that are circumcised have increased risk for infection after procedure and require extra care for diaper changing at home.

Now, if you’re still trying to decide, I challenge you to read as much as you can.  You can always postpone circumcision and revisit it as an option when baby is bigger, breastfeeding is established and after 8th day when his blood clotting factors are ready to work on their own.  But once a circumcision is done… it is done, no going back!

Check out what Dr. Sears has to say about circumcisions as you research your options!

To preface: I did not eat all that junk food in last night’s post.  My husband found it on sale and brought it all home! It will last us a while for sure! But still a great deal!

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In college, I had what the doctors referred to as a “sensitive GI tract” or “extra digestive juice”… but no big problems BUT I spent lots of time during my freshman year in the fetal position on my bed begging for relief from my stomach pains.  It was only after I moved to Belarus for the semester that I discovered my problem was in processed food and the outrageous use of preservatives.  So, I began to get healthy and ate fresh food (for the most part) and my stomach pains vanished.

Since then I’ve been an advocate of fresh, homemade bread.  I never use boxed desserts but make them from scratch.  I used canned food only in a hurry and in that case only if two ingredients are involved: green beens + salt, black beans + salt, tomatoes + salt… you get the idea.

Even through my first semester as a FULL TIME nursing student and mom, I managed to feed my children fast food fewer times than I can count on one hand. Nutrition and health are very important to me. But… BUT, recently those stomach pains have been coming back.  And before I go thinking I’ve got some disease and get on some life-long med, I’m going to check myself.

So, here goes:

_Homemade Bread: RARELY… usually we get bread from Sunrise Bakery or Whole foods but almost 2x a month from Kroger’s bakery.

_Cola: I’ve been trying to limit myself to drinking original Coke only on clinical Fridays when good coffee is hard to find on my lunch break.  I have the tendancy of staying up WAY too late Thursday night hanging with the Mr. and Friday 5.30 alarm is always a bummer… so caffeine remains an issue for me.

_Caffeine: Still way to much… remember the 11 things I don’t need in 2011 post?  I’m still working on that one… working/ignoring. It’s time to act responsible and kick this bad habit.

_Cereal: My weakness… although I buy natural/organic cereals… it is flour and wheat and hard to digest processed grains.  It is my vice to eat this with organic whole milk at 10pm… uh oh!

_Alcohol: I LOVE craft beer.  I don’t like to drink too much of it.  Usually one bottle is all I want but it’s loaded with fiz and calories… not the best thing for your tummy.

_Bedtime and Stress: Now this is probably my greatest vice.  I am not the most responsible when it comes to managing my time (read: I should be studying during nap time… right now… instead I’m bloggin!) Nurse = stress + bad hours!  I need to kick my bum into high gear and get onto a responsible bedtime schedule, study schedule which will both reduce stress.  I don’t think that I hold stress in my cortisol or in my Blood Pressure or whatever.  I hold it in my gut… I stress out and my stomach aches, then I stress eat and then … See the cycle!?

In light of managing my life and helping my gut, I’m considering a raw diet for a short time.  I don’t know if I can do complete raw.  Simply because I am afraid to give up coffee completely and I know that I have lots of things demanding my attention right now.  But I would like to decrease my coffee intake and try more raw foods.

Anyone have any tips, suggestions, insights, experience to share?  I’ll be reading www.therawtarian.com

I’m thinking after my quizzes and exams next Tuesday… I’ll begin this little challenge.  Anyone with me!

I LOVE Kroger’s Manager Specials just about as much as I love organic junk food!!!!!! Yay!  Time for snacks!

Dear Mr. M, I’d sure love a locket for Valentine’s Day this year… or ________ (fill in the blank holiday).  Really any excuse you have to buy me something pretty, I’d love a locket.  Something sweet, feminine, sentimental without being too corny!

I’ve been browsing lockets on etsy.com lately and just came across some that are hand made to order, which makes me smile all over.  So, go check them out!!!! MStevensonsDesigns

This one might just be my favorite:

Or this one just makes me feel all fuzzy inside.  Imagine pictures of your little ones in it:

Or… LOVE this one. check out the story behind this one!

These are great for any occasion for a modern girl with a flare for tradition!  Ahhh… alright enough hinting, Buy me one, Mr. M!!!!!!

Head on over to ChildbirthConnection.org for more information on your rights as a pregnant lady.  Pretty interesting stuff, all in one nifty place!

Although Soup Sunday turned into pasta Sunday today it still lived up to one pot full of something yummy.  Truth be told, we had so many random foods in the fridge that didn’t really go together: macaroni with broth, red cabbage cole slaw, stratta, roasted chicken.  I needed to combine a few things into one big meal so that we would be sure to eat it all and not waste.  So, kinda like soup at the end of the week when all leftovers combined make something delicious.

I took some salad made of this with carrots, onion, celery and fresh turnips:

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Picture via: steamykitchen.com

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and made this:

And it was SOOOO yummy.  Lately I’ve really been wanting to Chinese and very spicy food.  I cannot eat restaurant Chinese because I don’t like the high sodium and MSG that is in most of it… but with a little ginger and imagination you can do it at home!  Plus, for you pregnant ladies out there… real ginger helps in the GI tract and might ward off morning sickness.  With the way that this dish tastes, it is worth a shot! You won’t be sorry!

Happy Sunday!

Right now, in nursing school, we are doing our labor and delivery/post-partum and newborn rotations! I’m so excited because that means that I’ll be learning lots about birth from a new perspective.  In addition, our lectures and books now are focused on woman’s care which just so happens to be my passion.  So I’m excited about reading assignments, etc.  This is why I’m in nursing school, afterall!

I’m doing my paper this semester on the importance of skin-to-skin contact in the first few hours after birth.  It is so interesting to shuffle through lots of medical and nursing journals and find consistent support for skin-to-skin contact.  There have been no articles that state that incubator care or swaddling is better than skin-to-skin contact.  Even in the case of a cesarean birth, skin-to-skin contact is encouraged for the dads to have with babies while mom is in recovery.

Here’s a link to the website which promotes ‘Baby Friendly Hosptials’ in America… notice that there is one in Kentucky.  In Edgewood?  Anyone know of that hospital?

From the above wesite:

Steps to Successful Breastfeeding for
Hospitals, as outlined by UNICEF/WHO.
The steps for the United States are:
1. Maintain a written breastfeeding
policy that is routinely communicated
to all health care staff.
2. Train all health care staff in skills
necessary to implement this policy.
3. Inform all pregnant women about the
benefits and management of
breastfeeding.
4. Help mothers initiate breastfeeding
within one hour of birth.
5. Show mothers how to breastfeed and
how to maintain lactation, even if they
are separated from their infants.
6. Give infants no food or drink other
than breastmilk, unless medically
indicated.
7. Practice “rooming in”– allow mothers
and infants to remain together 24
hours a day.

8. Encourage unrestricted breastfeeding.
9. Give no pacifiers or artificial nipples
to breastfeeding infants.
10. Foster the establishment of
breastfeeding support groups and
refer mothers to them on discharge
from the hospital or clinic.

About a month ago I was teaching some very young moms how to swaddle their soon-to -be babies.  These gals were doing pretty well with the standard swaddle technique (shown below):

Cute picture thanks to: http://www.eieiobabygear.com/store/index.php?main_page=page&id=1

But still I couldn’t help but think how much more easy and safe it would be if these young mamas had an almost fool-proof way of wrapping up their little ones.  So, I contacted a wonderful company: Halo Sleep-Sack and before I knew it they had sent a big pack of these wonderful sacks for all the girls that live at the home plus some extras! I was tickled to death that an awesome company made an awesome product and so has such an awesome desire to help out young moms.

So, that being said, check out these wonderful sleep sack and get you one.  I had a something similar for my first baby and it could not compare to the Halo sack.  Halo sacks come in two parts.  Baby may be swaddled in it, or use the sack without the arm/velcro part and wear it as a safe sleeping gown.  Plus, the zipper zips from head to toe – GENIUS! So as to not tickle babies chin!!  These sacks make nighttime changing a cinch and bad swaddle wraps a thing of the past.  Seriously… go get you one!

Even my 4 year old knows that babies need proper car safety belts.  That is why she has created for herself a safe seat belt for the toy car while she drove around a basket of babies today.  I think this is super creative!