With your prayers!
We have a tentative agreement for a contract for our house. Please say a prayer that the buyer’s financing is finalized and that people decide that they do not want to back out at the last minute!

St. Joseph, pray for us!

Recently I added a few new blogs to my sidebar. The first one is a blog devoted to St. Therese of the Child Jesus. It is full of quote, pictures and information about The Little Flower. If you are in need of a quick pick me up during the day, during times of attack or you just need something to meditate on while praying, check out her quotes.

The second blog added is that of Fr. Allan McDonald, the Pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Macon, Georgia. Not only does Father McDonald use this blog to help us to grow in our faith, he also uses it to give us doses of laughter, as shown in the As the Rat Turns Soap Opera. Father McDonald is also the priest who administered the sacrament of Baptism for our wee little Benedict.

May I also make a suggestion? If you haven’t heard of Google Reader, I suggest you check it out. It allows you to follow all of your favorite blogs and check to see if they were updated by just logging on to the Reader site. I know for me, it has streamlined my blog reading and I have more time to do things like folding laundry.

I will tell you this post will have a bit of too much information regarding nursing and myself, but I wanted to share my story in hopes that it may help other women out there.

As some of you know, I have always had difficulty in nursing my wee little ones. With Karol, it was thought that there were latch issues and my midwife worked with me just about everyday for a week to help me with the latch. In addition to her, there were a few women from the local La Leche League who came over to check out the latch too. Everything checked out, but Karol was not gaining weight. For some reason, I just did not have the milk. I had much guilt at that time, thinking that because it took so long for me to figure out that darn latch thing, my milk just did not come in.

We supplemented with formula using a Supplemental Nursing System (SNS) to help him get any milk I did have and give him the nutrition that he needed. It wasn’t easy, but we used it for about five months, alternating with bottles.

When Margaret was born, we waited to see if my milk would come in and after four days, nothing, so we began supplementing. It was hard, but not as hard as it was with Karol. Margaret supplemented using the SNS for about ten weeks, then we took a job in Illinois and it was hard to supplement using the nurser, so she went on bottles.

I had resigned myself to the fact that I could not fully nurse my children. I accepted this as my cross and was joyful (for the most part) in that.  I figured that God had blessed me with these wee little souls and if I could not feed them as He had intended, He had a reason for it.

Caecilia came along, we followed the same route we did with Margaret, beginning the supplement at four days. With Caecilia though, I used the SNS exclusively for four months, until she started needing more food than the SNS held. I was very proud that Caecilia was nursed for that long, even if using the SNS. I used it in public and in front of friends,  sharing my struggles with those who asked.

My midwife with Benedict has helped me quite a bit in upping my supply. I am taking herbal supplements along with pumping and I have much more milk than ever before. We do have to supplement, but he is taking quite a bit less than the other kids did but is gaining weight!

I started looking a bit further in to the cause of my lack of lactation. Most websites on breastfeeding talk of all the reasons a woman might have low milk supply. The reasons for it may range from bad latch to hormonal imbalance to poly-cystic ovarian syndrome. I do not have any of those problems, so what could it be?  Few websites address reasons beyond those listed for low milk supply and I have never seen one that said there may be a physical problem with the mother, where her body just does not have the ability to produce milk, because she just does not have the parts.

Until now. After much research and clicking on many links, I found this. I was so thrilled, I almost cried.

Insufficient glandular development. Very rarely, a mother’s breasts will not be able to produce an adequate milk supply for her baby. Simply put, the milk ducts and glands have not developed well enough to properly work. Mothers with this condition typically report that their breasts did not change in size or shape during pregnancy. There may also be a marked difference in the size or shape of the breasts. There is no note of the “milk coming in” during the early days postpartum and the breasts never feel full or engorged. These mothers should still be encouraged to breastfeed. While their babies will need to be supplemented in order to receive enough milk, the amount of mother’s milk received will still be invaluable.

While not what I wanted to hear, it was a start. I spoke with a Lactation Consultant and she suggested this may be the problem. She also said that with each child, the milk ducts and glands will develop more, so there will be more milk with each child. This explains why I have more now than with any other child.

I do not like the idea that I will probably never be able to fully nurse my children, I am glad to know there is a reason.

I also wanted to share a few websites that have helped me out with regard to nursing and has answered many questions about feeding my wee little ones.

Kellymom

Lowmilksupply.org

South Georgia Birth Services

Another soul was baptized in Christ today. Benedict Thomas received he first Sacrament this afternoon at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Macon, Georgia. He smells heavenly! Pictures to follow, eventually.

Today I went for a walk with Benedict, just around the yard, partly to get me back in to the swing of things and to get him some Vitamin D as he is a bit yellow. This morning he had a weight check and is a bit low, but we can’t say for sure if he is on the upswing from bottoming out or if I still have supply issues, so we will begin again with the more frequent weight checks. The doctor and midwife are not too concerned at this point, as he wets plenty and poops plenty also. (No really, this kid is a pooping machine.)

When I got back from the appointment, we had a visitor, our Very Special Priest Friend! The kids about fell over themselves to tell me his was here and we had a great visit. He blessed both me and the baby as well as Joshua and also blessed the home as well as Enthroned our home to the Sacred Heart of Jesus! We had a great conversation and had a great lunch with him, a great visit over all. I love asking questions like “What do you do when the music at Mass is unbearable?” He said “Be thankful that the validity of the Mass does not depend on the music”.  Good answer, Father. I then asked is the Mass still valid if the priest uses contractions during the Eucharistic Prayer and it was confirmed, with a yes, provided he says, properly, “This is My Body” and “This is My Blood” . After this conversation, was over, Joshua commented on how he has never heard a decent Mission Priest. …. For those who don’t know, our Very Special Priest Friend is from an order that, well, preaches parish missions. 🙂

Benedict’s Baptism will be this coming weekend and we are looking forward to it! I am excited to have my sister, Mary, joining us. We will have it in Macon at a Catholic Parish there so we will spend the night on Saturday night and go to Mass on Sunday, then the Baptism.

Joshua returns to work tomorrow, boo. Okay, not really. I mean, Sam, his totally awesome boss, gave him this past week off and said to work half days for the rest of this week. Thanks, Sam! It will certainly help to get things in order here.

I think the kids have finished cleaning up toys, so we will be going for a family walk now!

Story of a Birth was my 200th post, cool.

Well, I just wanted to post, for my memory and to share with you all, that I have been up since 330 and it is now 640 (am). I think the family and I will be going to 730 Mass now, because if I attempt to sleep, I won’t wake up for the 930 or the later Mass.

Also, in case you were wondering, part of being away was because of Benedict, but partly because Caecilia woke up. I called her to come to the living room and she did, where she promptly began playing with toys she found on the floor, in the dark.

Benedict, for the record, fell asleep about 10 minutes ago. Stinker.

As with most birth stories, gory details ahead, you have been warned!

I had been joking about having the baby on Labor Day but figured that I would go late again, so was planning for another week of being pregnant. However, that was not to be! (Praise God!)

Around 430 on Tuesday morning, I woke up to Caecilia crying and a feeling of heaviness in my belly. Joshua took care of her and I laid in bed, not thinking much of the contractions I was having. Ha. I wasn’t timing them and they were not that bad, but Joshua was timing them and they were about 10 minutes apart. At one point, he said “I am calling the midwife.”  I didn’t argue. Oddly. I usually do.

The midwife’s apprentice showed up about a half hour later and started getting things set up. My midwife arrived about a half hour after that. (And what a saint she is, she had just attended a very long labor and had pretty much no sleep all weekend).

With things set and ready to go, we were expecting a baby before Noon.

….

Nope, did not happen!  I was dilated to 5 cm, so certainly in labor, but not a quick one like I had with the girls. I took a bit of nap and my contractions were about 5 minutes apart, maybe closer, some very “productive” (read: painful) and some not so bad. He finally moved down far enough for the midwife to determine that he was posterior so she had me do hands and knee exercises for a bit. Things started moving again and let me just say “OUCH!!!”

Around 345, my water broke and I was hoping beyond hope to have him within the next few minutes (as the girls were born minutes after my water breaking) but, alas, he was stubborn.   Okay, perhaps not him, but my body. I had a cervical lip, so was not totally dilated. I wanted to push, but with the lip, this was not a good idea. I held off, only with the help of my midwife, she panted with me and put up with me telling her I did not want to listen to her advice. We went through a few contractions, holding off on pushing and let me just say, I hope to never have to do that again.

The lip disappeared and Benedict was born a few moments later, with quick pushes from me. I honestly was exhausted and did not feel that I could do it, I would say that he came out on his own, really. Okay, I know I pushed, but the energy was not from me.

When we realized Benedict was crowning, Joshua called the kids in and they were able to watch him come out. I honestly do not recall much of them being there but they did a great job and were very very excited about things. They were actually great all day long, too, watching movies, coming in to check on me, eating and even sleeping! When you get a chance, ask Karol about the birth and when baby Benedict came out, he will talk your ear off about the whole thing.

Karol has already put in a request for the next baby and I am sure most mothers, freshly  postpartum agree with this reaction: “Ha ha, no”.

Benedict had a follow up exam today with the midwife and is doing well. He seems to have passed most of the meconium and is soaking quite a few diapers, a good sign that my milk is at least adequate. (Prayers please!) I started taking a supplement called G0-Lacta before he was born and today I added Fenugreek and Blessed Thistle to help boost my supply.

The midwife said he has lost some weight, about 8 percent of his birth weight, but said that she is willing to attribute that to the amount of meconium he has passed in the past 12 hours. No, really, last night, Joshua was changing his diapers and went through something like four wash clothes, as Benedict kept “producing” each time he went to clean him off. I laughed and laughed. He did that again in the middle of the night, plus when the midwife was here.

He has a touch of jaundice, as our kids have all had. She suggested we take him outside to get some sun. I honestly thought “Is she crazy? It is cold out there.”  Then I realized, oh yes, I can take him out just not mid day as it is 94 degrees out there, so the heat might be a bit overwhelming for him. So tonight, after dinner, I will take him out and let him run around with the kids. Okay, I will sit with him outside while the other kids play.

Benedict Thomas Facemyer

Born on 7 September 2010 at 443 pm

Weighing 8 lb 8 oz and measuring 21 inches

Shortly after birth, being held by Papa. What you don’t see is his Big Sister, Caecilia, pointing and saying “Baby”.

From my phone, sorry for the lack of sharpness. Sleeping after nursing, being weighed and measured along with having vitals checked.

Big Brother, Karol with Little Brother Benedict. Karol was so excited for a baby brother, he danced around the house for three hours tonight.

Me with Benedict after his second nursing. He fell asleep shortly after and has been making baby noises ever since.