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Stephens Christmas Newsletter

Pinterest

I love finding new recipes online and then I save them on Pinterest.

So, if you're looking for a new recipe, here are my 3 boards of recipes I want to try:

Main Dishes to Try

Baked Goodies to Try

Other Recipes to Try

Or, if you want a new recipe but are feeling less adventurous, here are my 3 boards of recipes that I have actually made, with my verdicts after the *:

Main Dishes: Made

Baked Goodies: Made

Other Recipes: Made

Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding

If you don't really want to know all the sordid details of breastfeeding, you should probably stop reading right about now. 

If you do a Google image search for "breastfeeding," you will come across many pictures like this one. They usually depict a smiling or peaceful looking mother gazing down at her baby, and it is obvious that they are experiencing a delightful bonding experience. This also always seems to happen in a pristine, white environment for some reason.

This image is slightly more realistic, but other than the surrounding mess, it still looks pretty peaceful. 

Some women love breastfeeding, and describe it as the most peaceful, beautiful bonding experience there is between mother and baby. 

For others, breastfeeding is painful, whether due to infants that bite, slap, or claw, chapped/sore nipples, engorgement, or various other issues. 

Breastfeeding was rarely painful for me, but it was also rarely a peaceful/relaxing bonding time. My daughter had a hard time latching on correctly at first, which was painful for me and frustrating for her. Once she did figure it out, things got easier. However, I think my daughter was the slowest eater on the planet. She would lay there, mouth in place, and just kind of chill. Then siiiiiiiip. swallow. Chill a few minutes. siiiiip. savor the milk in the mouth for a few  minutes, really enjoy that flavor....aaaaand swallow. Don't get me wrong, she was adorable. Just excruciatingly slow. This probably wouldn't have been as big of a deal if my only responsibility in life were feeding my child, but, like  most mothers, I had a million other things that needed to be done. Once she got big enough that I could prop her in place with a boppy/pillow and have my arms free to do homework, grade papers, etc., life got slightly easier. 

Of course, the slow sleepy nursing was only a minor annoyance. The main headache when it came to nursing for me was the crying. Sometimes, my milk would come in too fast and my daughter would start gagging on the milk, so she'd pull back, and then milk would be spraying her in the face and up her nose and she's wailing and flailing and milk is spraying her and the pillow and the couch and her clothes and my clothes and everything else within a three foot radius....so by the time I get the fire hose pressure tamped down and my daughter latched back on, she's giving me this reproachful glare like "I'm wet and hungry and you tried to KILL me. You suck." And we're both wet and smell like breastmilk and I'm frazzled and just feeling like, "Just drink your stupid milk. Bonding, ha!"

Granted, nursing does get easier with practice. By the time my daughter was 6 months old, we had breastfeeding down and she was quick and efficient. (So, naturally, she had to do something to liven things up--that's when the whole "Let's use mom as a percussion instrument" thing started. Also, the experimental pinching and biting.) 

However, certain things could definitely have been avoided and I will avoid them next time around. For instance, my sister, who also has fountainous milk, recommended expressing some milk into a nursing pad prior to breastfeeding, to avoid the whole drowning-in-milk thing. Once I tried that, things got a little less dramatic. 

Other things, like slow eaters, pinchers, etc., have more to do with the baby's personality and you'll just have to adapt to each other. 

Engorgement

Keep in mind, this is all just from my experience. Everyone is different, in case you hadn't already noticed. 

When my milk came in, it hurt. My breasts were huge and swollen, and not in a good way. There is nothing sexy about breasts that are constantly leaking milk and that are so tender that even a simple cotton bra hurts them. (Side note, I've always been smaller chested and kind of wished to have a bigger chest. Having had one now, I much prefer my smaller chest. Big breasts hurt, they get in the way, they're a pain to exercise with (literally and figuratively), and they're overall just annoying.)

The following things can  help with engorgement: 

• Express some milk. This is probably the easiest to do while in the shower, and the warm water helps with the aching as well. (For how to express milk, here's a good link, complete with illustrations: http://www.medelabreastfeedingus.com/tips-and-solutions/130/how-to-manually-express-breastmilk---the-marmet-technique)
• Get some of those cooling gel packs. 
• A bra may not be super comfortable, but if you're engorged you're also probably prone to leakage, so a soft cotton bra without an underwire and stocked with nursing pads is the way to go.

Keep in mind that painful engorgement usually only lasts for a day or two when your milk first comes in. Once your body figures out how much milk it needs to make, it slows down milk production and things get a big more normal. That being said, I had overly large breasts (though not painfully swollen past the first few days) that were prone to leaking for the first 3 or 4 months. 

Nursing Covers

This is a hugely, and stupidly, controversial topic right now. Every baby has the right to eat when they are hungry. Whether or not moms should cover up or not is another issue. Honestly, unless you're pulling off all of your clothes to nurse,  you generally can't see much more of the breast than you would if someone is wearing a skimpy top. 

 That being said, do I cover up if I'm nursing with people in the close vicinity? Yes. Why? There are a number of reasons, but I think the main one is that I am a private person. I don't like people in my space and I like to cultivate my personal space. And, even though nursing wasn't always a beautiful bonding moment between me and my daughter, I wanted it to be one. Having a barrier between us and the rest of the world made that a little more possible for me. Plus, my daughter rarely seemed to notice or care that there was a blanket draped around us, and if anything, as she got older it kept her from being constantly distracted and jerking her head around to try and identify random noises. 

My other, more  minor reason for covering up while nursing, is that I'm aware that not everyone is comfortable with seeing my breasts. I think it's horribly rude of people to openly stare or glare at someone who is nursing in public, and far worse to say something rude to them about it-- it's always inconsiderate not to care about other people's feelings. Me covering up while nursing doesn't hurt me or my baby and if it helps the person I'm talking to to feel more comfortable, then I'm fine with that. 

*Keep in mind that there are many reasons why people feel uncomfortable with seeing someone nurse, whether it's identifying breasts as sexual organs, discomfort with the human body in general, guilt because they aren't breastfeeding, pain because they can't breastfeed, frustration that nursing seems to be so much easier for you than it is for them, differing cultural/moral/personal viewpoints on privacy, etc. (If you prefer to nurse without a cover and you feel like someone is uncomfortable with that, instead of assuming that they're a narrow-minded jerk, try asking them if they're uncomfortable, and if so, why. Then listen to their answer. You both might learn something.)

All of that being said, if someone ever glared at me for breastfeeding (honestly, maybe people did and I just didn't notice. I'm not terribly observant), I would probably do something cranky and violent, because I don't appreciate rude people. But that's another topic. 

Weaning

When you choose to wean is up to you. Pediatricians recommend breastfeeding til at least 1 years of age, but some moms need to wean sooner or their baby just self-weans sooner. Claire started self-weaning around 10 months, and I weaned her a couple weeks before she turned one, because we were going to Disney World without her and I didn't want to try and pump while we were there. Plus I was afraid that even if I pumped my milk would dry up. Plus I was just sick of wearing ugly nursing bras. Claire showed zero signs of noticing or caring that she was being weaned and instead was all "Oo, my sippy cup has milk in it! Cool!" Which, I'll admit, eased my guilt over weaning her tremendously.

Anyway, remember how I was worried about my milk drying up over a period of a few days? Apparently some women can have their milk dry up really quickly. And apparently some women take weeks, or even months, to dry up. I weaned Claire over a month ago and my milk is still there. Really annoying, but hopefully it will go away soon. 

I can't think of anything else to say about breastfeeding, but if you can, let me know. 

The Claire Turns One

Well, we kept Claire alive for a whole year, which is more than I can say about any of the goldfish or plants that we've had (after our last fish miraculously survived us being gone for over a month, we decided he deserved a new home, so we gave him to my sister. He is doing quite well, and has even stopped his uncontrollable twitching, likely due to regular food and clean water).

As usual, Claire failed to be impressed. She just stared at us while we sang and blew her candle out.

She wasn't excited about her tambourine (even though the last time she saw one, she loved it). And though her favorite game is opening boxes destroying mail, she didn't seem interested in opening her presents.

She seemed mildly interested in her animal train, and stood her ground as it came towards her, singing manically. Even when it started to try and run over her foot, she didn't budge. Her rocking giraffe was her favorite present--well, the bow on its head was, anyway.

The present that got the most excitement from her was....nothing. She was literally staring at the carpet when this picture was taken. We'll pretend it was her cake or her rocking giraffe, though. I love her rocking giraffe, and I'm determined to have her love it, too. Since I've already successfully brainwashed her into loving her stuffed giraffe, I know it's possible.

Claire liked her ice cream, but hated how cold it was. 

We also went to a corn maze, where Claire loved traipsing about in her new sparkly shoes.

Claire didn't want us to hold her hand or pick her up--she's very independent. But since she's also really slow (we traveled about a foot a minute), we finally gave up and carried her in spite of her squalling protests.

It's hard to believe that Claire is already one. She's beginning to look  more and more like a little girl instead of a baby. 

Stay tuned for Halloween!

Low carb, high protein chocolate peanut butter balls

Chocolate peanut butter balls


1 cup Western Family creamy peanut butter
4 scoops Body Fortress chocolate whey protein powder
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 - 1/2 cup Great Value granulated no calorie sweetener
5 tbsp. ground flax seed
1 cup dry oats
1-2 tbsp. butter, softened


Mix everything together and let it chill for about 30 minutes in the fridge. Then form the mixture into balls and put them in a bag and stick them in the freezer.


Yield: 20 peanut butter balls

Each ball has:
5 net carbs

10 protein

Obviously, using a different kind of protein powder/peanut butter/etc. would alter that slightly--I picked ingredients based on their protein to carb ratio and their cheapness.


One batch costs about $5 to make, if you get everything in bulk/on sale, which is .25 per ball.
(one Atkins snack protein bar has 10 protein and 3 carbs, and costs about $1.40)

These actually taste surprisingly good--kinda like no bake cookies. 

nursery rhymes with claire

the itsy bitsy claire

the itsy bitsy claire
got food all over the place.

In came her dad and washed it off her face,

in came her mom and changed all of her clothes,

and the itsy bitsy claire made a mess all over again

Twinkle twinkle little Claire

Twinkle twinkle little Claire,

How you make your father swear.

All around you there are tears,

Giant messes and lots of smears--

 Twinkle twinkle little Claire,

How we love your grumpy stare.

If you give a Claire some toys

If you give a Claire some toys,

She'll ignore them to play with a water bottle and some wipes (way more interesting).


This will remind her that she hasn't urped on anything of yours recently,

so she'll go find your keys (or shoes, or purse, etc.)


After urping, she'll decide that she's hungry, so she'll want a snack.

Unless it's vegetables. Then she'll suck her bottom lip in for defense against possible invasion.


Eating will remind her of how tasty her fingers are, so she'll suck on those and get baby food everywhere.

All that cleaning will make her tired, so she'll want to take a nap.

Her dad will offer to help her sleep, but he'll fall asleep instead.


So then she'll want to be left alone with her blanket and giraffe, and stare you down until you leave.

When she wakes up, she'll want to go for a ride, and of course she'll want to ride in the trunk.

When you refuse, she'll put on her sunglasses and sulk.

But when she sees the swings she'll forget she's mad and want to play.

And play.

And play.

And play.

Everything will be fascinating or funny.

Until all of a sudden it's not.

She'll find comfort in trying to eat anything that looks like it might be food,

and then she'll probably want to be left alone.

So you'll give her some toys. And chances are, if you give a Claire some toys...

She'll ignore them to play with something else.

Some Claires

Some Claires like to have wild and crazy hair.

Other Claires prefer cute hats that coordinate with their outfits. 

And still others like to steal hats from their dad so they can look like super cool thug-babies.

Some  Claires like to stay in their pajamas all day long.

And some Claires prefer to be chubby nudists.

Some Claires like to eat their fingers,

some Claires like to stick out their tongues,

And other Claires like to smile and wave to the camera.

And sometimes, some Claires like to snuggle up on their dad's legs and fall asleep to the sound of their mom reading a story.

Things that don't impress her majesty.

Claire was singularly unimpressed by St. Patrick's Day, the color green, and socks;

She was unimpressed by rock shows, strollers, and bare feet;

She was unimpressed by skiers, flannel, and snow;

Nor was Claire impressed by warm weather, sunlight, or hammocks.

Her parents offered her a bumpo throne--she was not impressed.

They bought her a giant swimming pool and tried to make her a tiny swim top. She was unimpressed.

They found her other babies to play with; she was unimpressed (though to be fair, the Lily didn't seem too impressed either).

Her parents threatened to stick her back in her bassinet, which she was now much too big for. Claire didn't care.

Finally her parents left her alone, and Claire got what she wanted all along--to suck on not just one, but both hands, in peace.  

Let it be noted, however, that she was still unimpressed.