Daddy & the flu

It all started on a beautiful Friday afternoon in January...it was the last weekend of my full maternity leave (I worked from home, part-time, the month of February).  My littlest love had just turned one month.  I felt amazing.  My house was scubbin' bubbles clean.  The laundry was done and put away.  Beds all had fresh sheets.  I showered and applied a full face of make up.  I even squeezed my 5-week postpartum self into a pair of jeans. Mr. had been out of town and working crazy hours all week to catch up from our trip to St. Louis and we all missed our daddy.  We had planned a Friday family date night and I was more than ready for a night out with my family!

I called my hard-working Mr. that afternoon and asked where he wanted to go for dinner.   To my dismay, he sounded terrible.  He so kindly asked if we could just order-in after he ran by the urgent care for what he believed to be another one of his sinus infections. I was sure it was nothing and he was just run down from the hard week and little sleep.

No big deal.  I changed into my comfy clothes and nursed Mattie while soaking in the freshly cleaned house.  I dreamed big dreams for our last weekend of my leave.  Parks, walks, nothing but quality family time.  Romantic.day.dreamer.

I headed to Jackson's school to pick him up, excited to hear all about his day.  I was going to surprise him and let him pick what we'd order for dinner.  But, as I walked into his school I could hear him cough.  That dreaded cough that lets me know he's having one of his flare ups.  Lovely, just lovely.

Between unloading the kids from the car and getting Jackson started on a breathing treatment, I got a text from Mr.

"Just tested positive for the flu"

My response, "FUCK"

The next text from Mr.
"Doctor says that I cannot be around Mattie for 4-6 days.  I am really sorry."

Good news was that he had been out of town Tuesday - Wednesday and was home after the kids and I went to bed on Wednesday & Thursday.  We barely saw him Friday morning, so I knew our exposure was low.  However, Jackson was burning up and the breathing treatment was not helping his cough.  My next thought was that he may have the flu too...so much for our family trip to get flu shots!

We had two options - either he left our house or I did.  But first, we needed to get Jackson tested as well.  If he had the flu, he was staying with daddy.  If not, I was a single mom again...for the next week!

Mr. and I discussed the options and he thought it would be better for me to go to my mom's with the kids instead of him going to his mom's.  My parents would at least be able to help me out for a day before they left on business trips for the week. And if I stayed home, it was all me the entire time.

The next call was to my mom.  Before I could even get the words out of my mouth, her and Pop were on their way to my house to help.  Pop immediately took Jackson to get tested for the flu and my mom and I gathered the crazy amount of shit you need with a newborn and headed to their house.

Poor Mr. sat in his car in the driveway and just kept apologizing.  I felt so sorry for him, but I'm sure my state of panic outweighed my sympathy for my sick husband.  Babe, I am sorry too!

Jackson's test was negative, but poor guy was sick.  Our first night at my mom's was rough.  He coughed until he puked all.night.long.  On me. On my mom.  On himself.  In his bed.  On the couch...

Mattie on the other hand, slept in a crib, in her own room, all night.  At exactly 5 weeks, she slept 8.5 glorious hours while her brother and I didn't sleep at all.  I'll forever be grateful for those hours though.  Not sure how I would have managed them both!

The weekend was long, but a little more relaxing then I thought it would be.  I had strict orders from my mom to rest when the kids napped.  No excuses of needing to pick up or do laundry.  So I managed as best as I could.  And after a couple of phone calls in to our pediatrician, I finally got Jackson medicine to clear him up and he was able to go back to school on Monday.

Cookies, wine and redbox...what every single momma needs!

My parents flew out on Sunday, so it was just me and the kids until we went home on Wednesday.  I managed to get Jackson to school relatively on time.  I was thankful that he was able to go back to school, since I went back to work.  There's no way I could have managed working from home with both kids! Nursing, pumping, answering emails, holding a sweet baby and entertaining Action Jackson would have put me over the edge.

Momma's little assistant, sleeping on the job

Thankfully, Mr. recovered very quickly from the flu.  He was really fine by Monday, we just couldn't share air space with him until Wednesday night.  I tried to maintain my cooking every night, but was so happy when my mom's sweet neighbor brought dinner for all of us one night!  I had to leave dinner on the door steps for Mr. and just wave to him on my way to pick Jackson up from school.  It was pretty pitiful!

To say Wednesday night was Home Sweet Home was an understatement.  I hope we don't have to deal with the flu ever again...or for a very long time, at least! And sadly, my cooking (and everything else) has slowed down a bit since returning to work.  There just aren't even hours in the day, and when I do have a free minute, my arms are full of these kiddos!

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Tips & Tricks for Pumping Mommas

It's been brought to my attention that I have been keeping the best kept secret for pumping to myself. I promise, I had no idea that I was keeping this little gem from you! Totally wrong of me to assume that you all knew about the hands free pumping bra by Medela. That's right Mommas, you can pump and do whatever else you need to do, like type a blog post about pumping hands free!

Before I went back to work I visited a local hospital that had a great lactation department in their gift shop. The Lactation Consultant even sat with me and shared some of her knowledge {I was very nervous about pumping and going back to work}.

The LC showed me all of the accessories that I would need to pump at work, like the hands free pumping bra. She introduced me to Lily Padz. She helped me understand the supply & demand concept as it relates to breastfeeding. And she helped me figure out my pumping schedule. Sometimes you just need someone to spell things out in black and white for you!

Her best piece of advice for starting out was to pump an hour after each nursing session, during the hours of my work day ONLY {because I was going to pump at work, nurse at home}. Again, supply and demand. If I would have pumped night and day, my body would produce too much milk at night when I didn't plan on pumping.

I started pumping about three weeks before I went back to work. And by the time I went back I had a pretty good frozen stash. Even if it was just an ounce at time, it built up! Once I was back in the office my pumping schedule followed Jackson feeding schedule. Pretty easy, right? I pumped when he was at home taking a bottle of my breast milk with the nanny. At first, totally OCD, I even made my nanny text me when she started giving Jackson a bottle. You do not have to be that exact:)

The best part about starting out the way the LC recommended was that my body was used to producing double what Jackson needed during the day. Remember, I was nursing and pumping again an hour later. When I went back to work, I was only pumping during these times. So, I was able to pump almost twice as much as he ate in a day. This calmed my crazy Momma nerves quite a bit. I was so worried that I'd run out of frozen milk. Now I think I have enough frozen to feed a small village:)

I've followed the LC's advice for the past year and she lead me down a great path. As Jackson got older and dropped feedings, I did the same. I would panic that my supply would go away as I went from 3 sessions to 2, and then from 2 to 1. Obviously, it didn't go away. But, it did take about a week for my body to adjust.

Sleep, hydration, diet and stress can really do a number to your output! I know its hard to do, but relax. The more you stress about your supply, the worse it gets. Some days you just pump less. Before you know it, you'll be filling up those bottles again and bragging about how much you just pumped:)

P.S. I pumped 6oz. in the time it took to type this;)

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