Yesterday we canned salsa. As many of you know, Jon and I have had very good luck with our small garden. So, the past two years I've been flash freezing tomatoes, peppers and jalapenos so that I can use them to make salsa. My mother has been using this recipe for years, so now she comes up to help me make it. And this year, Meredith helped as well. It went relatively well, considering Meredith was having one of her fussy days. I basically had to keep her in the Baby Bjorn the whole day while I did the least dangerous duties - like chopping peppers, onions and garlic - cleaning up and getting ingredients and wiping the jars and putting on the lids. It was an all day process, but now my deep freeze is much more empty and I have 35 pints of salsa to last until next year!
Today we finished the cleaning, which doesn't sound like a big deal - but with a 4 week old, it kind of is. My mom did most of the cleaning, and did a much better job than I would have. I basically just did the floors - vacuuming and mopping with Meredith - once again, in the Baby Bjorn.
My mom is leaving tomorrow and then Jon's mom comes into town until Monday - and then Jon will be home all next week - so there will be extra hands for another week and a half - then I'm on my own during the week. I can't complain much! Meredith will be almost 6 weeks old before I've had to do much by myself!
Update on Meri and all my lactation nonsense. Well, I had my last appointment on Tuesday and basically I still am overproducing. She is still getting more foremilk and more milk in general than she needs. So, this foremilk as well as a distended stomach is probably what causes her fussiness. What can I do about it? What I have been doing - expressing some of the foremilk before she eats so she gets more hindmilk and so it doesn't come out too fast at her which causes her to cough and gag and swallow more air (which also causes the gassy fussiness). I'm also on sage tea and using cabbage leaves in my bra to try to subtly decrease my supply. And I'm still using the nipple shield. We both agree that she takes in less air that way (which usually the opposite is true, but she can't sustain the latch without it because there's too much milk coming at her and that leads to more air intake). I'm still hoping to get rid of it someday, so I'm still trying to get her to latch without at the end of feedings to keep her familiar. We are hoping that everything will just eventually work itself out as my supply and demand issue will hopefully subside with time and as Meredith gets stronger, her latch will too! Only time will tell. I guess I'm okay with what we're doing. There's not much else I can do. I'm also giving her Mylicon before every feed and giving her Gripe water when she's extra fussy. But I did find out that she is gaining weight doing 7 feedings a day (foregoing one feeding at night, giving me a 4 or 5 hour stretch to sleep!!). So, that is at least good. I'm also considering trying a few other things to help - like Baby Yoga, asking about Zantac for GERD, and even possibly visiting a chiropractor (for Meri - my Aunt swears by it!).
Well, that's all for now. I'll have more soon - 1 month update and happenings from the weekend with Gma Stone! I don't have too many pics from the past week - but I'll post what I have. I also just received our photos from our professional session from Swaddlebee Photography! The photos are AWESOME! I'll post those soon, too!
Just a cute pic of Meredith sitting in the Boppy!
A visit from my Aunt Mary
Me with my Aunts Mary (holding Meri) and Nita
Another chance for Jon to feed his daughter.
Visit from my mom, helping out all week - one duty, bottle feeding (we're pumping and feeding bottles about once a day to make sure she's used to them for when I'm gone and back to work!)
A close up of Meri while eating
Our 35 pints of salsa!
Meri seemed to like the show "Nip/Tuck" last night! That's a little scary, huh?
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