The Trip To The Tulips.

So I decided to head south of the border with my parents to go and see the tulip fields in La Conner, Washington. We planned to go on the Easter long weekend because my mom had extra days off of work and the weather was finally supposed to be nice. The plan was to see the flowers, shop at the outlets for a bit and maybe pick up a jogging stroller.

Here are some photos of our overnight in Washington state.

The drive down was pretty good. Babe was a little fussy off and on but she did fairly well considering she was in the car for over an hour. It was a lot of extra work for me to sit in the back and entertain her the whole time but again, it wasn't a really long drive.

I was really excited to see the tulip fields but alas, when we got to our destination there were no tulips to be seen. Boo. I remember asking my dad to call ahead and make sure they were blooming before we came...but I guess that didn't happen. I could have sworn he said he had checked - hmmmmmm. Anyway it was disappointing since it was the main reason we came.

There were however a few daffodil fields in bloom which were very pretty. But I got bored of yellow after awhile. I was really hoping that the tulips would bloom overnight but they didn't.

My dad had reserved us a two-bedroom suite in a local hotel, the La Conner Channel Lodge so that we wouldn't have to do all the driving with Babe in one day. It was great to be able to stay over because after a few hours in town Babe was getting pretty fussy and turning around and driving home would have sucked.

The hotel was really cute. Built right on the channel you can watch boats pass all day and hear frogs and crickets at night. This was the view from our room:

Unfortunately the two-bedroom suite wasn't exactly what we had in mind. The main room had a beautiful king-sized bed in it - perfect for my parents. But...the second bedroom didn't exactly suit Babe and I. I had decided against bringing her bassinet all the way there for one night and I planned on just letting her sleep in the big hotel bed with me. But when I walked into the second bedroom it was clear that wasn't going to work so well. The second bedroom with its pint-sized ship bunks was clearly intended for children.

Thank goodness I'm fairly short because I was still able to fit. Babe couldn't sleep in the other bunk because I wouldn't be able to roll over and feed her in the night. So we pulled the comforter off the other bed and grabbed a bunch of extra towels and Babe's blankets and made a padded area for Babe on the wooden edge of my bed against the wall. Don't worry - no part of my child touched the questionably clean hotel bedspread, it was only used for padding. I don't trust those things.

The rest of the room was perfect though, nice big bathroom, jacuzzi tub, cute porch and a fireplace.

We did a little shopping around La Conner that day. I bought one of these cool light bulbs at an antique lighting store (the bulbs aren't antiques) and we took photos of Babe in funny places. We finished the day with a great dinner at the La Conner Seafood and Prime Rib House. I had the macadamia nut encrusted halibut and vanilla creme brulee for desert. It was yummy.

The next morning I had a massage that my dad had generously booked for me. I think it was just his sneaky way of getting more time alone with the baby but it was super relaxing anyway, and since it was in house all I had to do was walk downstairs.

We then headed to the tulip gardens nearby just so we could say we had seen some of the elusive flowers. Here's the little outdoor field that was planted outside Tulip Town. It wasn't the same as the real thing but it gave me an idea of how the area would look once the fields bloomed. There was still a lot of green - even at the gardens.

After Tulip Town we stopped at the RoozenGaarde so my dad could order bulbs for the fall and we could have lunch. It was so sunny and warm that my little winter baby finally had a chance to take off her socks and explore the grass, another first.

After that we raced to the outlets so us girls could shop for an hour while my dad napped in the car and then raced back across the border before traffic got too backed up.

Just a quick little overnighter with Babe. Hopefully the next time Babe and I cross the border it'll be to visit my friend K in Washington, D.C. or to take Babe for a sleepover at my friend R's summer getaway.

A Blocked Booby.

OK. So I'm going to skip the post about our trip to La Conner and instead write about my recent trip to the ER. I'll post about the other trip next time.

So I've been struggling to get Babe into some sort of regular sleeping pattern. Currently she needs to nurse to fall asleep and then again (just for a minute) every time she wakes - which is about every half an hour throughout the night! And naps seem to be completely unpredictable. In an attempt to wean her from using the booby as a comfort tool I started nursing her before bed and then just trying to cuddle her to sleep. Then I rub her tummy when she would wake and only feed her twice. It was working until we went away on our trip. We were in a different room, a different bed and we were with the grandparents so the bedtime routine and the non-nursing plan went out the window.

I started again when we got home and she was just learning to fall asleep on her own when...my booby broke. The good one (I've since given up on the runt as it is slowly dying no matter what I do). Ever since the runt died I've been worried that something might happen to the good boob.

On the day it happened I was unsuccessfully trying to get Babe down for a nap at her new scheduled time, without the boob. It wasn't working and this time, because I was so tired myself, I did something I know from my experience as a nanny you should NEVER do in any discipline scenario - I gave in. I caved and said "F**k it," and I let her skip her nap. I gave her to J, which is a new treat now that he is done school and not yet working, and I went down for a nap myself.

When I awoke an hour later something was wrong. My breast felt really, really full and a little sore. I figured I just needed to nurse Babe and went to it. But Babe got frustrated quickly and I realized that no milk was coming out. After repeated attempts to nurse failed I tried pumping. Also a no go.

Now I was starting to panic because Babe won't drink from a bottle and of course it's not like I could just give her the other breast - damn you runt boob!

So I jumped in the shower and massaged the breast in the hot water, then tried again to pump and nurse. Nothing.

Envisioning the horrific freak-out Babe was sure to have when she realized that her precious booby was dead I raced off to the ER in desperation.

Like usual the ER was a zoo but I did get seen quite quickly, probably because the very lop-sidedness of my chest combined with the look of pain and irritation on my face was making everyone else in the waiting room uncomfortable. I guess there is something about a woman with one boob the size of a volleyball and one the size of a pancake that is more terrifying than a severed digit.

I think that doctors presume that a woman who has recently given birth has absolutely no shame or dignity left and are therefore perfect learning tools for medical students. I was seen by a couple of them before the "real doctor" finally came in. My personal favorite was the kid who took my medical history and asked me if the cesarean I had "was for the baby"?

This kid doesn't know a cesarean from an appendectomy and I'm supposed to entrust him with the great responsibility of ensuring my tit doesn't explode?! I think he could tell by the look on my face that it was time to get his supervisor.

I waited for another hour before a nurse found me in my room and realized that I had not been discharged as was written on my chart or whatever. No wonder no one was coming. And after a lot of confusion on the part of the male doctors (who by the way were all young and not at all skilled at hiding their disgust at the sight of my deformed breast) it was finally decided that a female OB should come to see me. So they called her and then promptly forgot about me again. I waited a couple more hours before the OB was able to sneak away from delivering babies and come help me out.

By this point my breast was very big, very sore and very lumpy. I could hardly move my arm because of the pain and I was feeling quite sorry for myself. I was also feeling lonely because of course J was at home with Babe and I was worried about her too. (She ended up drinking frozen breastmilk from a cup that night.)

When the doctor arrived (with another med student in tow) she said something that chilled me to my very core. She determined that she needed to get a breast pump and on her way out of the room she paused at the curtain and said, "I warn you, there is no pleasant way to fix this". Awesome.

Bless her soul she spent an hour rotating warm compresses, painful massage and pumping. I was offered morphine but when I heard that it would be administered through an IV that was the end of the pain management discussion. So I just closed my eyes and tried not to envision a giant zit popping, which I was assured would not be the case.

Only a little milk came out and after an hour the doctor had to go back to the maternity ward. So I was sent home with antibiotics and instructions to pump every hour or so.

After a lot of painful massage, pumping and compresses with a heating pad Babe actually broke the seal at her four am feed. She wasn't getting anything and then all of a sudden...she was choking on the milk it was coming out so fast! What a relief.

Now it's been a few days and I'm still pretty sore but at least the milk is flowing again and my right breast has reclaimed its title as "the good boob".

Thanks to my medical-field-friends S and L who gave me lots of advice and support. In fact L sent me some very helpful links on Mastitis and blocked ducts which I'll pass on below:

http://kellymom.com/bf/concerns/mother/mastitis/

http://www.breastfeedinginc.ca/content.php?pagename=doc-BD-M

Drugs and Lactation Database (LactMed) - "A peer-reviewed and fully referenced database of drugs to which breastfeeding mothers may be exposed. Among the data included are maternal and infant levels of drugs, possible effects on breastfed infants and on lactation, and alternate drugs to consider."

And just a note for any moms who might have the misfortune of getting blocked ducts or mastitis in the future:

A lot of people have told me about using cold cabbage leaves to relieve the pain. You place the big leaves over your breast like a bra. I've heard it works well, but the OB at the hospital told me that cabbage can actually dry up your milk supply and a better solution is to use refrigerated, grated potatoes. They give the same relieving effect but without the risk to the milk.

Easter and Firsts.

I'm trying to train Babe to fall asleep without the boob (starting tonight) so I'm just going to do a little post about our Easter while she works things out on her own in the other room. She went to sleep fine this evening but I can hear her semi-waking in there so I might not have much time.

Once again I really wanted to make something to mark the holiday but finding the time is so hard now. J is not home during the days and is busy many evenings and Babe hates to be put down so I haven't had much time to be crafty. I wanted to make some pretty Easter eggs but it didn't pan out. However I did see a cute idea on Pinterest (which I cruise at night while breastfeeding) and I managed to not only shop for the ingredients but I actually found time to make it for Babe's room. Now all I need is a frame. I changed it up from the one I saw by using pink buttons for the cherry blossoms and then I added wool for the grass at the bottom.

Our Easter was pretty low key. My Dad has been dying to give Babe a turkey drumstick (just the bone) to suck on since pretty much the day she came out of the womb. Apparently he gave me one when I was a baby and I loved it. Anyway, he was so disappointed that I wouldn't let him give Babe the drumstick at Christmas (when she was six weeks old) and he has been talking about it ever since. So I told him that if they made a turkey dinner for Easter he could give Babe her first turkey bone to suck on. He took the bait and my parents made a turkey feast on Saturday afternoon. Babe seemed to briefly like the taste of the turkey and then quickly lost interest which was probably a little anti-climactic for Grandpa. Anyway the only reason I even allowed it was because our doctor told me to start Babe on rice cereal a month earlier than I had planned, so Easter weekend also marked the first day that Babe had solids!!!

Here is Babe enjoying her first bites...and getting in some practice with the spoon too!

Easter was also another chance for the grandparents to spoil Babe with presents. She got a new amber teething necklace which is good because the anklet I bought her keeps slipping off her little foot. She also got an adorable little felted purse and gold ballerina flats and some bubbles (which I blew for her and she loved). And of course any chance to make the baby look ridiculous for the camera can't be passed up. Grandma bought her some bunny ears which Babe actually didn't mind wearing for awhile.

I had bought Babe the sweetest little party dress from Old Navy for Easter but unfortunately it was still a little too big to wear to Easter dinner. But she looks so cute in it I had to take some pics anyway. It should fit in another month or so.

It reminded me of Gwen Stefani's wedding dress in 2002 which I loved. Now Babe has the mini version.

Anyway, Easter weekend was really a weekend of firsts. Babe's first solids, her first time in the swings at the park, the first time she rode in her stroller facing forward (without car seat) and her first trip across the border with her new passport! We went down to La Conner for the night with my parents. My next post will be about how that trip went. I'll tell ya one thing though, I packed a lot lighter for this trip than I did for the last one.

First time in the swings. Babe was screaming when we arrived and managed to clear the park so we had the place to ourselves. Naughty baby.