Mother's Milk Tea Review

The joys of breastfeeding...

When I started nursing Mack, I never really thought that I would be a person who enjoys nursing.  I mean it hurts likes crazy when you start out.  How could that even be enjoyable, right?

Well fast forward 6 months, and I am now a mother that not only enjoys nursing but is slightly sad that her time with her sweet babe will be ending somewhat soonish.  I plan to nurse Mack until he is at least a year old and may go a bit longer, but either way, time is fleeting.  I so enjoy nursing my son.  We have arrived at the part of the relationship where we are each comfortable with each other and enjoy our time together.  I love seeing him nurse and spending the extra cuddle time with my bug.

Though my nursing relationship will end eventually, it's already somewhat interrupted because I have gone back to work.  *enter sad face emoji*  Obviously work is a fact of life for many people, myself included.  Yes, my husband and I have bills to pay, so it's off to school I go.  Don't get me wrong; I love teaching!  I really do like being in the classroom, and let's be honest, the days when your child won't stop crying and is being a hellion can make the classroom look like a breeze.  But I do miss him, and I miss nursing him while I'm at school

Right now our nursing schedule is morning, after dinner, and right before bed.  He takes two 5 ounce bottles during the day, so it is up to me to get those bottles pumped while I'm away from him. 

Usually I can get the bottles pumped, but not always.  Especially lately.  School is super hectic, and I learned quickly that teaching Family and Consumer Science is even more fast paced than I ever would have thought.  I try to pump twice during the day.  Usually I'll get enough from these bottles, but sometimes I'll have to pump a little at home to add in.  If it's a super busy, I'll pump in the car on the way to pick up Mack.

Lately, I have not been getting the 10 ounces I need just from my sessions at school, so I decided to start drinking Mother's Milk Tea again.  I  have used it on and off since I started back to subbing in November, but I try not to drink it every day because it is slightly pricey-although it is less pricey than other galactogogues.  

When I drink even just one cup of Mother's Milk Tea, I notice that I usually pump an extra ounce during my first session the next day and an extra ounce or so in my next session!  Two ounces doesn't sound like a lot, but my pumping mamas know two ounces of liquid gold is a big deal.  It starts to put my mind at ease!

I read a lot of reviews before I purchased the tea and some said that it smelled and tasted gross.  That somewhat deterred me, but I decided to give it a shot.  My opinion is that the taste and smell are not terrible but not great.  Since drinking semi-regularly, I have found that I am used to the taste and actually don't mind it now.  It does have a black licorice smell to it, but I believe that can be attributed to the anise in it.

Though I'm super-duper frugal, I am willing to spend money on the tea.

Here's why I justify the costs:

• The tea really does work for me.  I notice a significant (usually 2 ounce) increase in milk supply within a day-or sometimes sooner if I drink it in the morning.
• As a result of drinking the tea, I can provide enough milk for my babe while I'm gone.
• By providing breast milk, I don't have to pay for formula.  Even though I have to pay for the tea, it's still cheaper than buying formula.

Please note that while I breastfeed my child, I do not condone formula shaming at all!  Just feed the baby, right?  We actually give Mack a bottle of formula when he wakes during the night, so I can get back to bed and get some sleep. I need sleep.  It's quite dangerous to be a zombie when keeping tabs on high school students cooking.   

Also, know that I bought the tea with my own money and have not been compensated at all for this review.  It is 100% my own opinion and experience. 

Olivia Makes A Life is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associations Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.  If you choose to purchase an item from one of my Amazon link, I will receive a very small compensation of which I will be eternally grateful.

Why I Paid $7 for a Binky Strap and You Should Too!

Picture this:

 1 month well-child visit.  The same doctor office you went to as a child.  The same nurses as when you were a child.  The same tables with that crinkly paper to keep it sanitary-does that actually work?  But now, it is not you waiting for the shots while naked and cold, but your babe.

How appealing.

On this particular September day, Mack was feeling cranky.  We had been at the doctor's over an hour; he was waiting for his shots; he was over it.  So were we to be honest.

So there we were just waiting for them to bring back the dreaded shots and get the show on the road and simultaneously over with, when it happens.  The binky drops on the floor.  *cue horrific music*

Uh yeah, so we're at the doctor's office.  You know, the place where sick, cough, cough, kids go.  Clearly, this is not a situation where picking the binky up off the floor and wiping it off with spit would work-at least not when my husband is with us.  Can you say #germaphobe?  GERMS! Germs everywhere!

Let the crying really commence now.  There was wailing and more wailing.  I started fishing around in my first-time-mommy diaper bag (read-ridiculously over full with tons of things you won't actually need) and was able to come up with a replacement bink, but it wasn't the same.  Mack was totally a binky snob for the first 5 months of his life.  If it wasn't one of these, he was not happy.

    

So after the incident, I broke down and bought one of those new fangled binky straps, pacy leash, or pacifier clip.  Whatever you want to call it.  

Pacifier clips are so cute, IF you have a girl.  Mack is a boy.  Clearly I wanted to get him a masculine binky strap to make sure he remained secure in his manhood, but I am not the biggest fan of camo.  What's a mom to do? Buy a strap, I guess.

This Booginhead is the specific strap I bought Mack, but I noticed it's been discontinued. Womp, womp.

There are some other styles and brands that are similarly priced or slightly cheaper, but I was looking for one that I could buy with my Prime and have pronto.

Hmm, why do I love my binky strap?

Here are my reasons why you should just shell out the money for the binky strap and make your life easier:

• It keeps the binky from falling on the floor.  Number 1 reason!  C'mon, everyone hates when the binky falls on the floor.  You have to lean down and pick it up.  Who knows what's been on the floor depending where you are?  I am not a germaphobe, but I am also not a fan of leaning down to pick the binky up off the floor 42,000 times over the course of the day.
• It keeps the binky attached to your child so when you're pulling the mom-maneuver (ie-reaching your hand into the back seat of the car while driving to aid your crying child, so safe) it's easier to find.  Just search for the strap then perform your magic to get it back in your child's mouth.
• It helps your child find the binky his/herself-talking about fine motor skills here.  Mack is 6 months old as of February 1, 2016, and those fine motor skills are slowly coming through, (read-making life somewhat easier).  Although he has not mastered putting the binky in his mouth, he does occasionally get it there by pure luck/accident.  Yay!  Now only if he could find the binkies we strategically place around his crib at night.
• Binky straps ensure that the binky won't get lost.  UGH, lost binky.  Need I say more?  I think binkies and Chapstick have a conspiracy together.  The more you have, the less you can find.  So keep the binky on the strap and keep track of it.
• The binky strap is also multi-functional.  You can put a binky on the end or some sort of teething ring.  You could even hook one of these mesh teether things on!  Mack is a big fan of chewing on the strap.  While I would think the straps could go in the washer, I usually just wet it and rub some Dawn on it to clean it up then rinse thoroughly!
  
   

Mack tested.  Mack approved.

So those are a few of the reasons I decided to spend almost $7 on a binky strap, and why I think you should to.

Olivia Makes A Life is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associations Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.  If you choose to purchase an item from one of my Amazon link, I will receive a very small compensation of which I will be eternally grateful.

The Quintessential First Blog Post...

Ahh... the quintessential first blog post. One that will most likely not be remembered even if this blog were to go viral (which in all honesty is what I'm hoping for). #Realtalk
So what should this monumental first post be about? I don't really know. Maybe a little getting to know you?  Getting to know all about you... Ok, shoot.

Name: Olivia

Age: 26 at time of writing

Occupation: professional substitute teacher struggling to find that magical unicorn that is a full time public school teaching job. 
But as for now, I do it all; English, science, wood shop, wherever they need a sub, I go.  
But not elementary. I don't do that crap.  I'm not good at having thirty 6 year olds swarm me at once.  But, I will say that on the few occasions I have subbed elementary, I come home with some pretty high self-esteem because there are always little girls that want to tell you you're pretty or they like your outfit or your nail polish is cute. What's not to like? I eat the compliments up, and typically while I'm basking in the 4th grade praise another 4th grader is doing something utterly disgusting and paid the little girls to distract me. Elementary are crafty. High school students just let it fly. Plus, they react better to my sarcastic jokes.  
My current gig is teaching home ec until June for a maternity leave at a small western PA school. I'll give you a hint, there's a famous holiday once a year that the town is known for. #gochucks



Marital status: married to Josh for almost 7 years. 
That's always a good story for school. "Oh yeah, I got married when I was 19, but I don't really recommend it for you and your Twitter boyfriend." Good times are had by all when I dish or dating advice. #theythinkimcrazy

Children: as of right now I have my main squeeze Mack who is 6 months and quite possibly the cutest baby on earth (I'll provide pictures to prove it's not just my bias) and my black fur baby Red who is 2 #blacklabsmatter

Talents: it comes down to the old saying "Jack of all trades, master of none." I'm into a little bit of everything.  
I semi like to cook. 
I say I like to work out (I really do like it when I actually do it, that is after it's over with and I've refueled with Doritos). 
I crochet. #oldladystatus And Cricut, craft,  etc. 
However, my true talent is being a multitasker disaster.  Why just this week, I made breakfast for my class at school while simultaneously burning dried fruit for a later period.  You wish you had my skills.

Subject of this blog: hmm, that's a good one.  As I mentioned, I'm basically into a little bit of everything, so this blog will probably be a little bit of everything! Some recipes, possibly some craftiness, and a heaping dose of real life, because why fake it?

So here goes. Let me know if there are others things you're interested or want to know! I'd love to dish out the info.

Photo creds: mainly my cell phone, but if you live in Western, PA check out Vanessa Huey (hueyfamilyphoto.com) she is amazing!

Tummy Time Help on a Snowy Day

Tummy time.  I know that some magical infants like this special time set aside to be face down, but Mack does not.  Not at all. At. All.  Like, it's basically torture.  He hates is so much that he literally rolled over when he was 2 weeks old.  I'm not even joking. 

So tummy time in our house either consists of screaming bloody murder or him rolling himself over promptly.  As he's gotten slightly older, it's not quite as bad--sometimes.  Sometimes it's still bloody murder.  

We have searched in vain to find ways to make tummy time a little more bearable.  Mirrors didn't help.  Books didn't help.  Getting down eye level with him made him scream harder.  So basically we would just wait it out.  A little screaming never hurt anyone even if it did drive Red crazy.

One day, I saw a picture on Pinterest that used a muffin tray with tummy time.  I don't have the link to the original post, but I decided to go off the picture and try it.  Rachael Ray will do different week long tributes to rarely used kitchen items.  I bet she didn't include this in her salute!

        

It's simple enough.  Take out your muffin tin, fill it with toys, and leave some holes open if you please.  This is a great way to introduce your babe to something being full vs. empty, etc.  I usually put these little yellow toys down (they are the type that you match with the right shape hole, hand-me-down), I had a hair claw clip one day so that went in, whatever really works.  Today I even included 2 ice cubes and 2 jumbo size shells-I didn't want him to choke!-so he could feel the different textures they offer.  Fast forward to when I'm writing this and the dog has claimed at least 1 ice cube and 1 shell.  Oh well.

I hope this may help in your tummy time adventures.  When all else fails, get a dog that will check the baby out and give a good face lick or 2!  It's also good for sitting practice too!

 

So this is what the fam is up to on this magical snow/ice day.  Stay warm!

Mack's Birth Story

The monumental day that forever changed Red's life...

Yes, the day his little brother Mack was born; or at least the day we thought he was going to be born.

On July 31, 2015, I woke up and had something quite embarrassing happen--well, that's what I thought.  I thought I had peed the bed.  I was slightly dazed since sleeping soundly is only for the very lucky when you are 39 weeks pregnant.  There was some umm, "pee" on the bed sheets.  Great.  How sexy.  So I discreetly got out of bed and went to the bathroom.  Josh was already getting ready for work, so I didn't say anything.  You know, trying to keep the magic alive.  I laid back down in bed and tried to rest a little bit longer.  Again, sleep was quite near impossible.  So the "pee" incident happened again right before Josh left for work.  Still. Not. Saying. Anything.  Oh yeah, to make it better, I was supposed to work that day at my waitressing job.  

Right before we left for the hospital.  Possibly worst picture ever except
my one school ID.

So, I decided I should probably start the day.  I got up and wasn't feeling too hot (we do have central air after all to keep our house daisy fresh).  I tried to get my day underway.  Then the thought occurred; "is this my water breaking"?  Like the true millennial I am, I had researched tons on what it was like to go into labor.  I had read good birth stories, horrific birth stories, attended prenatal class (which was a waste of time and $65), but was this actually it?  I didn't know.  Again, I had made no mention of these things to my husband before he left for work.  Somewhere around this time, I called my husband, the doctor, and work to call off.  I tried to be real discreet with work since I wasn't sure if I was in labor.  Thankfully I spoke with a male manager who wasn't really reading into things and just told him that I was having back pain (which I WAS) and wouldn't be in to work today.  The doctor told me to go to the hospital, and they would do a test to see if my water had actually broken, and my husband, of course was FREAKING OUT that I didn't mention anything to him before he went to work.  Hey, I wasn't sure if it was labor and didn't want him to waste a personal day if it wasn't.  Clearly, I was only thinking of him.  So I got a shower, packed the last few things in the hospital bags, and the husband came home.  Off we went.

We pulled into the parking lot around 10 am and park just about as far away as possible : / and head in.  We didn't take our bags because I was scared to death of being those people that have to take the walk of shame home without a baby.  We went to maternity, and they started running their tests.  Guess what?  Indeed my water had broke.  So we started the admission process.  During this time, my husband had to be somewhat sneaky because he and my mom work at the same place.  Again, we didn't want to sound the alarms that the first grandchild was coming to either family in case he was in fact not-but he was, so it was time to make the call or text-who really remembers?  I looked at my phone once we got into the room and had about 5 text messages from my female co-workers who were all asking if I was in labor.  I had the pleasure of letting them know that I was.  I also promptly text my boss and let her know I would not be at work the next 2 days.  She was ok with that!  Then the wait started.

You know how they always encourage people to walk the halls?  That would be better if it didn't take 2 minutes to make a full lap.  I mean how many times can you walk around the same halls while trying not to disturb the tired mamas?  Josh decided that they should have a sort of outdoor walkway or something like that connected to the maternity ward to make it better.  I agreed whole heartedly. Yeah, we walked the halls maybe 10 minutes at the most.  But I wanted to do my part to get this party started, so I walked circles in the room.  Even more constricting and boring.  I should mention that during this time I didn't really feel any contractions.  My back hurt, but that was it.  

Around 11 am, I started feeling contractions.  So we waited.  I tried to walk around the room or do anything that would make this process speed up.  It didn't.  Around 2 pm, the contractions were starting to be quite painful, so when the nurse, who coincidentally we knew her brother, came in around 3, she gave me some medication-Nubain.  Ah, much better, for a while.  She told me I couldn't have anything for another 3 hours.  So the Nubain worked it's magic for about 2 hours, then it stopped.  That 3rd hour was difficult and breathing doesn't work, or what I suspect more is that I'm mentally weak.  So she came back in at 6 pm, and, praise the Lord, I could get an epidural-known as the nectar of the anesthesiologist gods.  They gave me some other drug to help with the pain until the doctor could get there, but it did squat.  

So at 6 pm I was declared ready for the epidural; any guesses on what time the process started? 8:30 pm.  Yeah, not the happiest of campers.  Remember, my water broke sometime before 5:30 am, so it's already been a long day.  But he came and worked his magic.

Josh came back in the room, and my cousin Emily was with him.  At this point, the nurse shift change had occurred, and I had a new nurse.  

Shortly after my epidural, all heck broke lose.

Well Mr. Mack had decided that he was tired of waiting, kind of, and started moving down.  However, my body wasn't going to let him go without a fight.  The umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck, and his heart rate immediately started dropping.  The nurse hit a button and 15 people were in the room within seconds.  Well, they got that all squared away, and I ended up resting on all fours for about the next 3 hours.  Meanwhile, I had the shakes like crazy.  I wasn't scared though.  Throughout the whole situation, I had a sense of calm that God bestowed upon me.  Before the nurse and midwife left the room, they told me for sure that this would be a July baby.  Ha.

So I "slept," lets call it semi-resting, on my hands and knees for about the next 3 hours.  When I decided to turn over, the epidural had totally taken affect, and I felt nothing from the waist down.  I started to turn, and Josh immediately caught me and hit the call button for the nurse.  They helped me turn over, but the little Mr. was still having heart rate troubles.  So they decided to have the on call OBGYN look at my scans and see if I should have a C-section.  Let me say, I didn't care how I gave birth, well I wanted it to be as painless as possible, I just wanted the baby.  At this point it was about 2 am, and we were ready for a baby.  So we waited and waited.  About an hour later, they came to check on us and gave us the news that the doctor didn't think a C-section was necessary yet.  Couldn't they have given us that news like an hour ago so we weren't getting our hopes up?!  Oh well.

Time progressed and finally we started the delivery process.  Mack was a little trickster, so it took a while.  To spare all the gory details, he was delivered with a vacuum assist, and the doctor cut the cord around his neck as soon as his head was out.  Then my sweet boy had arrived.

Remember, 4:30 am, in labor almost a day.

Mack Elliot was born on Saturday, August 1, 2015 around 4:20 am.  He was 6 pounds 5 ounces and 19.25 inches long.  Perfection.

During our stay, some of the most wonderful visitors (my mom and sister) brought me good coffee, Trader Joe's Unexpected Cheddar (Ah-MAZE-ing), and Coke!  My mother-in-law also brought cookies that everyone enjoyed!

Since I was in labor almost 24 hours since my water broke, we had to spend an extra day in the hospital.  We came home Monday afternoon to start this new round of our life.

Red has loved his little brother ever since except for when he goes on long crying jags.

Coming home outfit!

Not thrilled about the car seat...

So that was the day Olivia truly made a life. Haha, you see what I did there?