Breastfeeding

I immensely enjoyed breastfeeding my daughter. Not only did it create a special bond bewteen us, it gave me peaceful and restful moments with her each time I nursed her. I was extremely well advised from the beginning on by my midwife in Germany: she told me what to eat to increase my milk production, what to avoid to decrease it or to avoid producing gases for baby, etc. And I was stunned to notice that mothers here in the US are not given all this information. I've therefore decided to share this information here, hoping to help other mothers out there.

Herbs and foods good while breastfeeding:
fennel\fenugreek
chamomille
oatmeal
malt
anis

Herbs and food you should avoid if you want to continue breastfeeding:
sage
mint/peppermint/spearmint
parsley
garlic
alcohol (although 1 glass of wine every now and then with your meal will NOT harm your baby)
orange and grapefruit
all nuts
quinine (found in tonic water for example)
all drinks with caffeine (1 coffee a day is ok)
NO medicine unless you got the green light from your doctor

This list does not pretend to be complete. Check with your doctor for any questions or doubts!

That thing called motherhood

I have no time to achieve anything other than taking care of Baby Em these days. Not that I have had plenty of time for myself for the last nine months. But the fact is that she's slowly sleeping less and less, her naps becoming shorter and more rare, her nights becoming shorter as well, and I fear that the situation is only going to get worse. She'll start walking soon, I mean she's already standing, so very soon I'll be running after her and will have even less time for myself.

How do other mothers do it? I spend every day and every hour with her, and don't see how I could have some free time other than leaving her with someone else, such as a babysitter. And I am not quite sure that I'm ready for that step yet. Probably soon though, as I seriously need time to start doing things like emptying the last boxes, organizing the closets, getting in shape, reading a book, going back to my sewing projects, just to name a few. Besides, affording a babysitter implies starting to work again. Definitely not there yet. I have enough in my plate as it is thank you.

I often wonder how mothers of more than one child manage everything. Two mothers of nine month old babies I know are already pregnant again, and they seem extatic. One of them is pregnant with her fourth. No joke. I am by no means saying that a second child is out of the question, but definitely not so early. I wouldn't even have my 1 and 1/2 hour of "free" time per day with that scenario. Thank you but no thank you. Not for me. Not yet at least.

M. sure seems to be ready for that second baby though, considering his reaction the other day:

me: "I have good news."

M.: "Tell me."

me: "Try guessing."

M.:"Hmmmm... you're pregnant?"

No need to continue how that conversation went, right? Point proven, he's ready. But he's not the one spending 24 hours a day with Baby Em, nursing her, changing her diapers, playing with her, carrying her, getting little sleep, having no social life, and in charge of a household. I guess if I were in his shoes, I'd be ready too. Hell, I'd even consider having more than 2 children. Fathers/men have it much easier imho. Yet I wouldn't change my place with him for anything in the world. I'd miss out on that incredible magical fullfilling beautiful and undescribable thing called motherhood.

a lebanese feast

Lebanese has always been one of my favorite cuisines. I know how to cook all the wonderful mezza I love to eat thanks to the mother of S, a lebanese guy I used to date years ago. But today, I didn't need to cook to eat them all, as I bought kibbeh, tabouli, grape leaves, fatayer, labneh, and hommous from a delicious lebanese traiteur I plan to visit often! What a feast =)

Sunshine life

Sunshine life is so sweet and busy, I have better things to do than updating my blog these days. No worries, I have no doubt I'll be back soon. Till then, I'll just keep enjoying life =)

it's that time again

It's that time again! We're moving. Crossing the ocean once again. But this time around I'll qualify our move as first class, as I don't have to pack all the boxes. The moving company arrived at 7h30 this morning and is still busy packing all our belongings. Why didn't I always move like that?! Probably because I could not afford it, just as we wouldn't now, if it were not paid by M's company.

We'll be flying to Miami on Monday and moving into our new house on Tuesday. As our belongings will take between six to eight weeks to be delivered to us, we'll camp in the meantime. Although I'd qualify that camping as first class as well, since M's company is renting the basic furniture and houseware kits for us in the meantime. Anyway, camping in our beautiful house under the sun and the palm trees in a city like Miami can only be a partie de plaisir me thinks! Oh how I cannot wait to be there!

Birthday baby

Emily is six months today. It's unbelievable how fast the time went by, how much she's grown and changed in such little time. After the very hard first three months with daily colics, we really have the impression now that she was not completely with us yet - which explains why they call that the missing fourth trimester.

Emily is now another baby. She is patient, curious, playful, loves to listen to music and singing (she actually sings with) and laughs a lot. She hates to lie on her stomach, but loves to sit up to watch everything around her. Her new discovery these days is doing v and b sounds all day long.

I actually cannot believe she's only been with us for six months. It's as she'd always been here.

relationships

I don't know why maintaining good relationships is so darn hard. But I find myself having to watch what I say and what not more often than wished these days. Why can't we just be diplomatically honest to each other without hurting each other's feelings? Why are relationships so delicate? Why do we take everything so personal?

Fortunately, I just cleared a misunderstanding that had been going on for the past month with my mother yesterday. Whether I expressed myself wrong or whether she understood me wrong does not matter. The fact is it happened, with my mother, with whom I have an excellent relationship and truly thought such a misunderstanding would never occur. Maybe the fact that I want everyone I love to like each other is the cause to all my problems. After all, I also don't like everyone my loved ones love.