The daily struggles of a sometimes SAHM
When I was pregnant with my first child, H, my mom made me and my husband an advent calendar for my final month of pregnancy. She asked our friends and relatives for parenting advice and wishes for us and the baby. One of my favorites came from a friend and co-worker who reminded us “Always clean the neck folds.” Her advice came from her own experience with two chunky babies and a memorable moment where she thought, in her words, “Why does my baby smell like ass?”
Remember when I said I was tired of feeling gross? Yeah. About that.
Everything about my experiences with my two children has been opposite. My son, H, turned three two days after my daughter G was born. Where he was a spastic, sporadic eater who struggled to latch due to a short frenulum (tongue-tied), she is a hearty, efficient eater who can drain one side in seven minutes. With H, my struggle was more emotional than physical. Breastfeeding is hard. Like, really hard. While I did have a baby that would eat for 30 minutes, fall asleep for 30 minutes, and then decide to eat again – creating a never-ending nursing marathon that rarely allowed me unburdened time – what I didn’t have was physical issues. I used a nipple shield to help him latch, gave him a pacifier after a few months, and he took a bottle quickly and easily. Unbeknownst to me at the time, all of these things that made my life easier were also making me susceptible to thrush. But I never got it. Not even once in the year he was breastfed.
Flash forward three years, and just three weeks after G was born, my sister noticed a white spot on her tongue. “I think she has thrush,” she said with an apologetic smile. I sighed heavily, realizing this was going to be an issue I really did not have the energy to deal with. By the evening, my nipples were bright red and itching like crazy. So it was clear, without a shield, pacifier, or bottle to blame it on, we had thrush. Continue reading “Today I’m Struggling With…Thrush”