I want to give daily thanks in honor of Thanksgiving this year. Instead of a new post each day, I will recap what I am thankful for at the end of the week. It is a great way to reflect on the little things in our daily life that we should be thankful for.
First I have to give thanks to you readers who are going to forgive me for not posting this days ago. I forgot to schedule it, and didn’t realize it. oops.
7 Days of Thanks Nov 15-21
Nov 15
The ability to easily make friends. This boy can and will make friends with anybody where ever we go. I’m not gonna lie, sometimes the other kids don’t realize they are friends or that Ian is playing with them, but he is. It allows him to have fun and be carefree where ever we are.
Nov 16
Family get togethers. I have a wonderfully amazing family. And we try to find any excuses to have a party. Even if it is only to try out some new coffee. Which then became a birthday party, but alas I didn’t take pictures of the actual people there.
Nov 17
Fearlessness. OK, so sometimes I am not really thankful for it, because he gives me a heart attack like every thirty seconds. But I am thankful that he is adventuress and has the drive to figure things out. He couldn’t reach the door handle, so he pushed his chair over.
Nov 18
Our fume hood. Stinky thiols are horrible to work with, and I am so thankful that I have a working fume hood to keep them.
Nov 19
The things this kid says. I try really hard to write down what he talks about, but sometimes it is so much and so funny, I can’t get it all down. I really need a recorder in my car, or better yet, just attached to him. He is constantly making me laugh.
Nov 20
The treadmill. I know sick right? But if it were not for the treadmill, I would be out walking/running in the very cold wet yucky weather. Plus I can use it, at the gym, after the boys go to bed without fear of running in my neighborhood. This way I am able to stick to the C25K program that I just started.
Nov 21
Another thing I am thankful for at work is these auto-tip fillers. Could you imagine refilling this by hand? That is like a million little tips to fill the box. Maybe an exaggeration, but not if you are filling them by hand.
I would like to warn you this post is about breastfeeding.
I understand not everyone has the same views on breastfeeding and breastfeeding in public. This post is about something I recently experienced. These are my opinions, and I hope that you respect them, even if you don’t agree, as I respect yours.
At the end of November 2012 our zoo welcomed a new member to the elephant family. This is the second child of two of our elephants, this one a girl named Lilly. Elephants will nurse exclusively for the first three months. After a year the young elephant has the ability to feed itself independently but will still nurse till around three years of age. It is thought that suckling after two years helps maintain growth rate and body condition.
Mama and Baby Lilly in March 2013
Since Lilly is still less then nine months she is still nursing fairly regular.
The other week the boys and I were visiting the zoo and were inside the elephant exhibit. We have a building where we can go inside to observe them, usually eating and this is where we went.
Both mom, Rose-Tu, and Lilly, were inside eating when we were there. Lilly draws a pretty big crowd, as she is still little and really cute.
Mama and Baby Lilly July 2013
Also watching the elephants were two women who had at least four children between them, one was still an infant less then three months old. The others were a girl around the age of 10 and two kids about 3 and 5. I don’t know their story, or if there was other kids with them. These are just the ones I saw them interacting with. I do know that the older woman was mother to the three older kids, at least, by the way she was addressing them and the things she said.
This woman, the older one, talked in a very loud patronizing voice. The kind of voice that she thinks she is educating and helping, but really just comes off as condescending.
I couldn’t help but notice these things and think about them while trying to watch the elephants because she was just so loud and made her self known to everyone.
Now, the reason I bring this up is because while sitting there watching the Ian and the elephants this woman exclaims “Look, [someone’s name]! It’s her TEET! The baby elephant is feeding! OH MY GOD! Isn’t it the most beautiful thing? Come look!” She was practically yelling it, and the room echos.
It made me feel embarrassed. And she wasn’t even talking to me, or about me.
My baby is still breastfeeding and is under a year old. I have always thought it very important that babies get breast milk till at least a year old. By the time they no longer need milk as a meal, and their bodies can digest cow’s milk, it is the time to ween them off mother’s milk.
The World Health Organizationrecommends exclusive breastfeeding until six months of age, and then to breastfeed with the addition of foods until at least two years of age. The main reason for this recommendation is due to the antibodies that are passed from mother to child through breast milk, and to maintain adequate nutrition.
My personal belief, remember this is my opinion, is that it is not necessary after a year. My children get adequate nutrition from their diet and we don’t live in an area with out appropriate medical care. So I have made the decision to completely ween my children off breast milk after twelve months.
That doesn’t mean that on their first birthday I cut them off. It is a gradual process, with Ian it took a two months. But shortly after that we also eliminated bottles, so there was no need for it.
I think everyone who can, should breastfeed their babies. Again my opinion, but I don’t judge those who have decided it is not for them, or who simply can’t. You have to do what you think is best and what works for your family.
I think breastfeeding is great, and wonderful, and yes also beautiful. But I also think it is something personal between a mother and her baby.
This is why I had such an issue with this woman and her drawing attention to the nursing elephant. I wouldn’t want someone to walk by me while I was feeding my baby and shout and point at us.
I agree, that it was wonderful and amazing that the baby elephant was nursing, but I could help but feel that I was invading their privacy. That we were all intruding on something so personal.
OK, yes I understand that elephants don’t understand English, and these ones are used to people standing on the other side of the glass watching them, but that doesn’t mean we have to be evasive of their personal lives. Does it?
Ian and the Elephants
I am pretty sure the elephants didn’t notice or minded. But I couldn’t help but think that if I had tried to breastfeed Sid while sitting there, she would have made a big deal of it, or at least drawn attention to the fact. I know crazy thoughts, but what else do expect from me.
It is hard enough for us mothers to breastfeed that others shouldn’t also make it social awkward for us. Especially if we are nursing in public and accidentally have a some boob showing!
I think it happens a lot, I am probably over reacting.
It doesn’t help that he is not a huge fan of wearing shoes on a regular basis.
Which is funny cause he loves shoes, he always wants to buy them.
This past weekend, on a Friday afternoon, he got stung by a bee. Again. He was stung the week before on his finger.
We were swimming at my mom’s house, and I was on a lawn chair feeding Baby Sid. Ian left the pool and was walking the grass. I was watching him, he got about four steps in the grass and stopped. While looking at his feet he brought his right foot back and kinda shook it. Then he put it down and started crying.
While this was happening I was calling to my mom, who was in the water, that Ian was getting stung by a bee.
She rushes out of the water and brings him back to sit on a chair while she gets the stinger out and washes the venom off his toe.
The bee stung him inside the big toe on his right foot in the joint between the metatarsal and phalange. My mom put a poultice of baking soda and water on the site of the sting.
On a side note:
Growing up we had a pool, the property behind our house was home to a farmer who also raised honey bees. He thought the far end of his property, next to the cedar trees would be a great place for his bees. Since that area butted up against the back of my mom’s property, we didn’t really agree that it was a great place for bees.
The bees were constantly coming to our pool for water, which meant we got stung all the time. Luckily none of us had any bad reactions to the bee stings. Every time we got stung we would make a poultice of baking soda and water, just like our mom taught us.
Poultices have been used forever as a way to draw out toxins from the body. Making a poultice out of a neutralizing agent also helps draw out the venom from the site of injection. Some claim mud works just as well.
A paste of baking soda and vinegar (mainly apple cider vinegar) can also help with bee stings. This is an endothermic neutralization reaction, it will bubble up some when they are add together. It is said that the vinegar helps with the pain, but I haven’t tried it, so I don’t really know if this is true.
You may have heard to make a poultice with meat tenderizer, supposedly there is an enzyme in the unseasoned meat tenderizer that helps to break down apitoxin.
I suspect the best would be a paste would be made with vinegar and mixture of baking soda and meat tenderizer.
After a while the pain subsided and he was back to his normal self, ready to tackle the yard filled with clover flowers and more bees.
About 12-15 hours later, at 5 o’clock in the morning, he woke up in tears telling me his foot hurt.
Ian: my foot hurts. I got stinged by a bee esterday.
Me: I know honey, do you want some medicine to help the with the pain?
Ian: ok….No mama not my mouf, I need medicine for my foot, not my mouf. My foot still hurts
Me: I know honey, this is medicine we put in our mouth and it makes the pain go away.
Ian: but it still hurts. I needa band-aid
I had given him some Tylenol and he eventually went back to sleep, still thinking he needed medicine on his foot.
When he got up at a more reasonable time his foot was swollen and still hurt. It was red up to his ankle and on the ball of his foot, which was also hot to the touch. He didn’t have a fever, nor did he have any trouble breathing.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
I wish I had a comparison picture for you to see how bad it was.
Since this was a Saturday I called our pediatricians advice nurse. She told me to give him some Benadryl to help with the swelling.
We had a birthday party to go to, so while the Benadryl made him a little slower, the swollen painful foot didn’t stop him. He couldn’t put any pressure on his big toe so he was walking on the outside of his foot and limping around.
After the party we went to my mom’s house for my Aunt’s birthday dinner.
His foot continued to swell and turned from red to a purplish color. His foot was still hot, so the purple color was not from lack of blood circulation. He was also starting to complain about the pain again. He could not bend his toes, they were huge!
He had a bath to soak it and we added another baking soda poultice, thinking it might help draw out more venom.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
My family had me convinced I needed to take him to urgent care, which was now closed.
So I called the advice nurse again.
She told me watch for a fever, if he starts to have trouble breathing, red streaks going up his leg or his face gets swollen. If any of those happen then I need to take him to the ER, otherwise we could wait to see the pediatrician the next day.
The next day was Sunday, so our Dr wasn’t there, but one of his partners were. By the time we got to the Dr office Ian was walking and jumping on his foot. It was still red and swollen, but not as bad as the night before.
What Ian had was a local allergic reaction to the bee venom as opposed to a systemic allergic reaction. This means he is not allergic to bees. If he was allergic to bees he would have had hives, difficulty breathing, or swelling in the face. Any of those symptoms can indicate an allergy.
If he had any streaking up his leg, that would have indicated an infection.
The Dr said it could take a couple of days to a week for his foot to be back to normal. And it would probably start itching.
Since my husband was out of cell service on a fishing trip, he know about it until he got home Sunday night. To which he replies “I used to swell like that when I got stung as kid too.”
Would I have still been panicking the night before if I had know that?
I Tri and Craft 