San Diego

We left Paso at 8pm after some last minute packing.


Marshall was wide eyed and excited for his first road trip! Oh wait...


I was nervous driving so far with the baby. I was worried he was going to cry the whole way... or want to eat every hour. Usually he's really good in the car, but the farthest we've gone is to San Luis which is only about 30 minutes.

Luckily he slept the whole time. He woke up once, nursed, then slept the rest of the way. It was pretty late when we arrived.

Clearly the 5.5 hour trip didn't phase Marshall:

I fed the baby and we all fell asleep about 3am. Then woke back up at 6:15, got ready, and I drove Jerad to the house where his brother and boss were staying. We decided to get our own hotel so everyone else didn't have to wake up every time the baby did:)

Marshall and I got back to our room around 7:30, fell asleep around 8, and slept until 10.

I had thought about using cloth diapers for the trip. We've used them exclusively since about the second day after Marsh was born. I wasn't worried that it would be inconvenient, but it meant that we'd have to go 4 days without washing them and I was worried they'd be hard to get clean. So, I bought a package of disposable dipes and some baby wipes (we use cloth wipes at home).

BIG MISTAKE.

In the 7 weeks we've been using the cloth, we've had a few tiny diaper leaks. As in, some poo gets on the clothes (usually on the legs and only because we didn't do a good job putting the cover on) and makes a spot maybe the size of a quarter. In the 2 days we've now been using disposable, we've had 3 major blowouts. Besides not containing poo as well, they smell funny, and are so not as cute as the cloth. Plus not as soft! Would you want to wear paper underwear? Clearly, I'm not a fan. Next trip will be cloth all the way...

Anyways, because of the blowouts, we started our morning with a sink bath:


Then we got dressed and headed out to go shopping at the huge Outlets they have here. I was more excited about it than Marshall was:

He fell asleep in the car, and stayed asleep while I loaded him in the stroller. I ate lunch at a Mexican place then got to work. The Outlets were amazing!

I checked out a bunch of stores, got Marshall a cute outfit, and me some new bras. Then he started to loose his shit. Literally. First he had another diaper blowout, then he was so hungry he thought he was going to die and started that cry-so-hard-he-can't-breathe thing. Now, I'm all for breastfeeding in public. Restaurants, the park, the theater, no problem. But how do you feed your baby somewhere that is basically like Disneyland? There wasn't even anywhere to sit if I'd wanted to. I ended up going to Motherhood Maternity and nursing in a fitting room so at least it was somewhat peaceful. By that time Marshall was over it so we headed back to the hotel room.

After a little baby wipe bath and some more milk he was in a much better mood:


Then he passed out for a few hours. And when I say "passed out," I mean PASSED OUT:


When he woke up he had some nakey time which always cheers him up:



I thought about taking him down to the pool so I could read and get a little sun (I brought an umbrella for him), but he just wanted to eat, sleep, eat, sleep and I figured he'd had such a busy last few days we should take it easy so he wouldn't be over-tired for dinner tonight and then all day tomorrow.

So while he did that, I watched some stupid movie, and read a trashy book. Jerad ended up working really late (its 9:30pm as I'm writing this and he's still not back... after having 3 hrs of sleep), so I ordered pizza. Hopefully Marshall sleeps well tonight even though he's slept most of the day!

Marshall ended up waking right as Daddy got home and boy was he happy to see him!





I'm happy to report that everyone slept well that night.

Monday we all slept in then went down stairs for the breakfast buffet. Make your own waffles, mmmm!


If I could eat one food for the rest of my life, it would probably be waffles.

After breakfast we headed to the pool. It was beautiful and no one else was there.



Jerad and I got some sun:

and Marshall got some shade.



Then it was time to relax in our room and let the baby boy nap. Somehow he got an arm out of his swaddle blanket and slept with it flopping out. It was pretty adorable:)



For dinner we went to Marcus's house (Jerad's boss), and ate with him, his daughter, and Jerad's brother Joey. The food was delicious and Jerad surprised me with flowers.

Marshall was awake for about an hour before we left for dinner, so I thought he'd sleep through the whole thing. He's usually only awake for about 45 min to an hour and a half at a time. Boy was I wrong! He stayed awake almost the entire time, probably about 4 hours.

That night he slept 6 hours straight, a new record. It seems like that would be a good thing, but not so much. Normally he nurses every 3 hours. I woke up after about 5 hours and 45 minutes so engorged that you could feel the individual milk ducts. It was super painful. I pumped while he slept and got over 11 ounces, a record for me too! It worked out well because we had bottles to use while we were out and about.

Tuesday morning we didn't get moving until after 10am so we missed the waffles:( We went back to the pool until noon for some more sunshine.


Then we checked out. Only... we couldn't leave because Jerad had lost the keys. We looked through the bags and stroller, nothing. He got them to let him back in our room and searched EVERYWHERE, and nothing. Marshall and I hung out by the car while he re-traced all of his steps.

Finally we took out literally every item out of every suitcase and found them. He'd packed them. 45 minutes after checking out, we were able to load the baby in the car and leave. We went back to the outlets and had lunch at Ruby's, the 50's diner place. We both got new sunglasses, Jerad bought a few new pairs of shoes and I got a surprisingly stylish pair of Crocs as well:

After we had shopped till we dropped, it was time to head home. Marshall slept the entire way. I pumped in the car and would feed him a bottle every few hours basically in his sleep. We woke him up once to change his diaper. I think it took us about 5.5 hours to get home even though we hit some traffic.

When we got home it was bath time, followed by cuddle time.



Then back to life as normal.

It looks like Jerad will be getting more jobs down there, so hopefully we'll be back soon!

Off to San Diego!!!

Sorry for the lack of updates. Lets see... I've been to the ER to have surgery for my lady lumps and have been recovering from that, had lots of family get togethers, lunch with friends and babies, Marshall's 6 week check up, baby's first boat ride... and we bought a boat! I don't have time to talk about all that though because we're on our way out the door to San Diego.

Jerad has a solar job down there this weekend and me and the babe are going to tag along. While he's working we can go shopping and to the beach, and when he's finished we'll stay a few days and have a little family trip.

I go back to work after next week so it will be nice to get out and enjoy life a little first. In the meantime I'll leave you with some recent cuteness:

Lady Lump Update

And the saga continues. When we last left off, I was supposed to be on bedrest and had another appointment scheduled.

It was hard to be on "bed rest" because Jerad was working and Marshall doesn't understand the concept of "hey, the mama needs to rest." But I did try to take it easy. Jerad volunteered to sleep with the baby and give him pumped milk and let me sleep in another room to at least have a more restful night. Normally Marshall nurses 2-3 times during the night. Sleeping with Jerad, he only woke up ONCE. Its a lot different when there isn't a never-ending food supply sleeping next to him I guess.

Monday I went to another appointment with Andrea (the lactation consultant). Quick side note: Marshall had gained 8 oz since Friday. So even though I'm dealing with all this crap, the little guy is thriving. Which is my main motivation for sticking with the breastfeeding. I don't know what I'd do if he was having trouble gaining weight on top of all this! Andrea didn't think things were looking better, and called Tiffany (the midwife/naturopath) to see if she would look at me for a second opinion. Tiffany said I could come right over. She thought that it would be safe to wait another 2 days before doing an ultrasound or anything else so that the antibiotics would have had a whole week to work. She explained all about abscesses and Mastitis and told me I could also try alternating hot and cold compresses. Andrea asked me to come back on Wednesday to the weekly breastfeeding meeting she has in her office so she could take another look at me.

I went to the Wednesday meeting which was so fun. SO FUN. There were about 18 moms and babies. We all sat around and nursed and talked. Andrea answered all sorts of questions. I am definitely going to go whenever I can! Anyways, she took another look at me and decided I needed to see an OB since I had been on antibiotics for 6 days by that point and it was starting to look worse. So she thought that Dr. K at Creating Harmony could take a look and have it ultrasounded and probably switch me to another antibiotic or refer me to a surgeon.

She called Creating Harmony to get the OB to see me right away and the receptionist would NOT go for it. Andrea was like "please just tell Dr. Kromhout that she has an abscess that has been going on for 16 days and it is affecting her breastfeeding and see what he thinks." Still the lady would NOT go talk to him. She said the soonest I could get in would be Friday and that was them doing me a huge favor. Finally since Andrea wouldn't let it go she said she'd check to see if a nurse midwife could see me (which makes no sense because Andrea has a Master's in nursing which none of the CNM's do, plus is a breast specialist... but whatever) then the receptionist said that all the midwives were double booked for that day so they couldn't see me either. Andrea basically pestered until I got a 3:20 apt and the office girl receptionist was all snarky and said if I was more than 10 min late they'd give my apt away (um, I've NEVER been late there).

*I know I bitch a lot about Creating Harmony, but I think its mainly just that I have bad luck there. I know so many people that LOVE them, so don't let my bad experiences dissuade you.

So, we got there at like 3:15 and waited 20 minutes. Then the med assistant took me to take my blood pressure and even though Andrea had explained everything to the receptionist, how long it had been going on, what kind of things I'd been doing to treat it, what kind of antibiotics, all that she had written down was "breast issues." I had to re go over everything. Then I waited in the room another 10 minutes. The nurse midwife came in and kept asking me if I had discovered the lump before breastfeeding and I was getting confused. I was like "it appeared 16 days ago." And she would be like "so before breastfeeding?" I guess she thought Marshall was less than 16 days old maybe. I dunno. He was sitting right there and is clearly more than 16 days old. Finally she took a look at it and said "oh my gosh." Which isn't what you like to hear! She didn't touch it, or anything just looked real quick.

She went and talked to Dr K who said it needed to be drained (without ever seeing me) but he didn't do that so I needed to go to a surgeon. The nurse midwife came back and told me what he said and I told her Andrea really thought I should get an ultrasound. She was like "just go to the surgeon and he can have that done if he thinks. You should try to get in today to get this taken care of asap." Which fine, whatever. I asked her how they drained it and she said she didn't know, in her 30 years of midwifery she has only had one person with that problem. Then she was like 'thanks for coming in' and I asked her if she could at least write down the surgeon's name and number for me which she did and that was that. They didn't call him to tell him I needed to get in now or anything. She saw me for MAYBE 4 minutes.

If you're a patient its hard to convince a Dr that you actually need to be dealt with right away. The surgeon they wanted me to see couldn't get me in for a month, and one of his partners wouldn't do anything before 2 weeks. The receptionist at the third partner's office was nice enough to move things around and get me in the next day. I called Andrea to give her an update and she was livid that the midwife didn't call and get me in that same day.

That whole apt made me again SO GLAD that I switched to Tiffany. When I went to see her about it last week she really examined me, asked me a ton of questions, then explained all about how breasts work and how these problems happen and what to look out for. She asked me if I was worried about it or had any questions. Keep in mind that it was the same situation, the lactation consultant called her and said "hey I think you should take a look at this" and she got me in within 30 minutes. AND didn't charge me even though it was like a 30 min apt.

It makes such a difference seeing a doctor that isn't overbooked. They have the TIME to talk to you and establish a relationship. Both Andrea and Tiffany have given me their cell phone numbers and told me to call any time I need to. When I go in, they know me, Jerad, and Marshall's names and remember our patient histories. The appointments are never less than 30 minutes, are usually closer to an hour, and I always leave feeling like they care and I understand what is going on.

Today I had the appointment with the surgeon. He gave me some local anesthetic then stuck a HUGE needle in the lump and sucked a bunch of puss out (if you think that's gross... just be glad it wasn't you!). He was pretty clueless about breastfeeding. First he told me that he didn't know if it was safe for me to continue (luckily Andrea had already told me it was), then even though I had told him I was breastfeeding, he covered my entire boob in gauze and tape and told me to leave it on for a day. Yeah like that's gonna happen.

I thought that he was going to either aspirate or surgically drain it that day, but I have to go back next Monday. I guess he is going to have what he took out cultured, then go from there. I tried to ask questions, but honestly he was super old and deaf and we weren't communicating very well. I pointed out that I also had another smaller lump on the same breast that wasn't going away with antibiotics and he felt it then said "that doesn't impress me" and didn't take a sample from it. I have no idea what that means. Is he going to deal with it on Monday? Is he not going to do anything? Who knows. As of right now I still have a huge lump (and a smaller one), but now it has a hole in it from the needle, hurts way worse, and according to him "may burst open and drain."

I guess I can sum up by saying "fml."

And Marshall makes three...

... well, technically he makes 8 if you count our furbabies too, but that's beside the point.

Anyways, I love these because otherwise we have NO pictures of me and the baby or the three of us.

Newborn Photos

Here's a few pics from Marshall's newborn shoot at 10 days old. Our doula took them and I am in love with how they came out!

My Lady Lumps

File this under "stuff you probably don't want to know about my breasts."

Remember the breastfeeding woes post a week or so ago? Well my friends, its gotten worse.

12 days ago I discovered a lump. I consulted my breastfeeding books and google and decided it was probably a clogged milk duct. It was on the same side I was having problems with the deep cracking. My skin is slightly red there and hot to the touch. It quickly grew to about the size of a lemon. NOTHING I do will make it go away.

I've tried everything all the breastfeeding books/discussion boards suggest: nursing on that side first and trying to position the baby's chin towards the lump. I also nurse in all sorts of positions, including kneeling over the baby. I've been doing hot showers and baths, a heating pad, drinking tons of water, getting lots of rest, massaging the lump after applying heat and while breastfeeding (this is very painful), and applying the heating pad then pumping after nursing. I haven't worn a bra or any tight clothes in days and don't sleep on my stomach. I've also been taking Lecithin (1350mg 4x daily) and one capsule of Evening Primrose Oil/day.

It seemed like it was getting worse instead of better and then I developed another small lump on the top of the same breast.

After about a week I broke down and sent my midwife, Tiffany, an email. Even though it was 10pm on a weekend night she called me back in about 5 minutes (yet another reason I love her) and gave me 20 questions. She mostly was asking me about how I felt or if I'd had a fever because it was crazy that it had been going on so long and hadn't turned into mastitis yet. I assured her that I felt great, minus the huge lump. She had me start taking Phytolacca, a homeopathic med. every 3 hrs.

I took it for 5 days and still no improvement. Usually it only takes 2 doses. Also she had me start taking echinecea and goldenseal every 2 hours to ward off a possible infection, drink 100oz of water a day, take 4000mg vit C, and sleep as much as possible. After 5 days of no changes, she recommended making an apt with a lactation consultant for a thorough evaluation. She had a feeling that the way he was latching was causing the problem and/or the reason it wouldn't resolve. By this time my milk supply on that side was seriously diminished but I had enough on the other side to make up for it.

I called the lactation consultant's the next day and at first they didn't think they could get me in for at least a week, until they heard how big the lump was and how long I'd had it. After that they told me to come in at 9am the next morning (which was Thursday). They too couldn't believe it hadn't become infected and that I sounded so "perky."

They instructed me to come with the baby hungry and ready to feed, and my breasts ready to nurse. The last part confused me because, aren't they always ready?

The next morning (yesterday) we headed down there. They weighed Marshall naked (10.3 lbs!) and then with his clothes on. Then she looked at Marshall's mouth and determined that he has a slight tongue tie. Nothing severe enough to be clipped, but enough to make him a bad latcher. She had me take my temp to see if I had a fever, and was surprised that it was only 98.3. After that she looked at my lady lump as I affectionately like to call it. She said it looked like mastitis but could possible be an abscess. She also said my nipples were hammered and I must have an amazing pain tolerance. Then she told me I was a good mama for putting up with all the pain/issues for 5 weeks and that most people would have thrown in the towel. That made me feel really good:) She also told Jerad that she hoped he got me lots and lots of flowers for Mother's Day because I deserved them.

After examining me, she had me feed Marshall to evaluate how that was going. Me and the baby were both doing a few things wrong. I wasn't snugging him up close enough and instead was letting him lay on his back as if I was feeding him a bottle. I also was bringing myself to the baby instead of getting myself comfortable and pulling him to me which was killing my back. I didn't tell her about the position I had devised of sitting in the office chair cross legged with a rolled towel propped under one knee so I could balance the baby while leaning way forward to feed him while checking my email.... anyways, he also wasn't taking enough of the breast in his mouth, hence why I've had all the nipple issues and pain. She showed me how to get a good latch, and then pointed out that after a few minutes he would slide back down to the nipple and showed me how to fix it. It was phenomenal nursing without pain!

She weighed him after the feeding and he had taken in 3 ounces which was right on track.

She also tried massaging out the lump. It didn't work. She said that even though I wasn't exhibiting symptoms, I probably had mastitis. She wanted me to start taking antibiotics since I had been taking natural remedies for so long without any improvement. She called Tiffany who agreed. She sent me home with a hospital grade pump and some Blessed Thistle. My instructions were to take the Blessed Thistle right before feeding, and apply a warm compress to the lump. I was to start feeding him on the "good side" then after let down, switch him to the other. After we were all done I was supposed to use the pump on the bad side. Also I needed to take the antibiotics every 6 hrs, and take a warm bath and hand express a few times a day. And of course I was supposed to make sure he was latching correctly and not being lazy. Then she wanted to see me the next day (today).

For the most part I was able to follow all of the instructions. Its hard to keep relatching him when its so much easier to just let him do it wrong and put up with the pain. I've just gotten used to it feeling that way and he gets so mad when I keep pulling him off and readjusting. Plus, its one thing to be in her office on the comfy couch with a nursing stool under my feet, the pillows propped up perfectly and her there to help as opposed to dealing with a screaming hungry baby in the middle of the night. Anyways, we're working on it.

At first my appointment was at 11am but she decided to move it to 4pm so that the antibiotics would have a little more time to work. This afternoon I loaded up Marshall and made the trek to SLO solo. I fed Marshall and this time he ate 4.2 ounces. HELLO little piggy! She thought the lump looked worse and that my skin felt hotter to the touch and said it was definitely mastitis. She measured it and it was 9cm by 7cm. She wasn't happy since I am taking double the dose of antibiotics that she usually prescribes. So, she put me on strict bedrest over the weekend and said that if my symptoms get any worse, I'm to go to the ER. Not cool. She just couldn't get over the fact that I feel so good since I've probably had mastitis for about 10 days now.

In that 10 days I've walked around the Atascadero Lake, gone to my nieces' birthday party, gone to the Strawberry Festival, plus grocery shopping and multiple errands. I guess I do feel a little extra tired, but I just figured it was from waking up to feed the baby all night. I think having such crazy severe migraines for so many years gave me a high pain tolerance. I would pass out from the pain it was so bad. Bedrest always sucks, especially for someone like me, but it is going to be extra hard because I don't feel like I should be confined to laying down. She wants Jerad to take care of the baby as much as possible as well as pamper me. Well, that can't happen because he is working on finishing up a few side jobs this weekend and I'm going to be home alone. I had all sorts of fun plans like walking down to the baby fair at the park with Marshall, guess that won't happen now:(

Anyways that's where I'm at now. I go back Monday so cross your fingers for improvement! It hasn't been fun, but he's worth it.

This cracks me up

(10 days old)

New tricks

For about a week now I've been thinking that Marshall is smiling at me. If I kiss his neck or make funny sounds/faces sometimes I'll get a little grin. Also if I open my mouth sometimes it seems he's copying me.

This morning he decided to go all out and just went crazy with the smiles:




And copying faces:







Freakin adorable right? Kill me now.

Also his hair is turning so much lighter. I don't know how I feel about that.

Yesterday was amazing

AKA "I have the best hubby ever"

The day started with me getting up at 6am as per usual to feed the dogs, hopefully eat something myself, and change and feed Marshall. Jerad was already gone for his 6am shift. In the kitchen was a note saying "enjoy your breakfast babe" sitting beside a pot of coffee and crumb donut holes. Somehow my sweet husband managed to get all of that together before he left at 5:45 am.

After Jerad got home from working his part time shift, he took the baby and let me have a nap. I got two hours of uninterrupted sleep. It was heaven. I can sleep while he is at work, but its not a very deep sleep because its always holding Marshall or just having him next to me and he makes a lot of noises.

Anyways, I got a nap and it was heaven. Later we watched a few hours of tivoed ridiculous shows like The Bachelorette and True Beauty and ANTM.

Once our tv watching time was up, Jerad went in the kitchen and gave me strict instructions to stay out, he was going to make dinner and it was a surprise. He made a yummy salad with lettuce from my parent's garden, and red snapper and shrimp in this delish white sauce made with soy milk, capers, artichoke hearts and I don't know what else but OMG IT WAS GOOD!





The timing worked out perfectly and Marshall ended up staying asleep for the entire meal so we were able to eat at the table like grownups. Jerad even busted out the fancy china:) We used to eat dinner together at the table every night with the TV off and talk but since Mr Marshall arrived those meals have become few and far between. Nowadays we either gulp down our food super fast before he wakes up, or one of us eats while the other holds the baby and then we switch. It was nice having some grownup time!

I offered to clean the hammered kitchen (seriously, how does one person use so many pans?) if Jerad made some sort of dessert and he was more than happy to oblige. So, after the kitchen was cleaned we had dark chocolate brownies. Made from scratch.


Jerad had some autocad drawings to work on so I played with Marshall. He's starting to like laying in his crib (for about 2 minutes) and looking at his mobile and sock monkey. Its pretty cute.



After we did that for awhile and I fed him a miracle occurred: he fell asleep in his swing. For over an hour. This is a miracle people. While I do love holding him 24/7, I keep wishing there was SOMETHING that would entertain him for at least a little bit so I can get things done. Usually I put him in the carrier but its not always convenient to have a baby strapped on. Every day I've tried setting him in the swing. The most he's tolerated it has been for 2 minutes. Last night he just konked out.

I was able to fold all the laundry (like 6 loads that I've been throwing on the guest bed), wash and put away a load of diapers, reply to a few emails, straighten up the nursery, set out clothes for everyone for the next morning and pack the diaper bag.

I was worried the swing thing was a fluke but he took another nap in there today and I got to wash another load of laundry, vacuum and mop the whole house, straighten up the living room and play online. If he'll do this just an hour a day I think it will be a big boost for my sanity:)