FoodFash

FoodFash is a food and travel blog based in Austin, TX.

Baby Breakfast: Green Pancakes

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Nothing could have prepared me for how much work feeding an infant would be. Perhaps I made life more difficult by going the Baby Led Weaning route, but at the time {6 months} it felt like the right approach. Five months later {at 11 months} I couldn’t be happier that we toughed out the messes and the meal prep. Fixing Ezra’s meals for the week is still a ton of work, but I’ve come up with a few “go to” recipes that make it easier. And seeing how independent of an eater he is just lights me up. His fine motor skill development and appetite for textures and flavors are pretty incredible.

I created this Green Pancake recipe as a solution for weekday breakfasts. I wanted a meal that was packed with nutrients, sized/textured for self-feeding, and easy to make in bulk then freeze. I’ve been modifying this pancake recipe in some form over the past decade – it’s wonderful!

I use a cookie scoop to make baby-sized green pancakes. I keep a few in the fridge for the current week and store the rest in the freezer for future breakfasts. I’m guilty of snacking on a few green pancakes here and there too!

ZeroWater – 000 Total Dissolved Solids

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Thank you ZeroWater for sponsoring this post. All opinions included within this post are my own and based on my own experiences.

For various reasons, I’ve never been a tap water drinker. I moved from solely bottled water to a pitcher filtration system years ago and assumed I was drinking good quality water. It wasn’t until having a baby that I started to rethink our water situation.

We are renting an apartment for the next year or two, so it didn’t make sense to invest in a water filtration system for the house. It’s not a sustainable solution to purchase bottled water, especially for a family of four. So that kind of put me back where I started – using a pitcher filtration system. “But how good can the filter in pitchers be?”, I thought.

I stumbled upon ZeroWater filters and was lured in by the TDS (total dissolved solids) meter. The meter, in my opinion, is genius. Not only are you able to test the quality of your water filter initially, but you’re able to test it after time passes so you know, without a doubt, it’s time to change your filter.

As soon as I received the ZeroWater pitcher, I tested my tap water (Austin, TX) and my current filter water. My tap water read 125 ppm and my current filter read 111 ppm (WHAT!). I was super impressed that the meter read 000 when I tested the water filtered through the ZeroWater pitcher. And, also to my surprise, I could tell the difference in the taste of the water as well. My husband didn’t believe me when I told him, but he was able to tell the difference too. It’s that noticeable.

So what does ZeroWater’s five stage water filtration technology remove? Almost 100% of chromium, lead, mercury, chlorine, and fluoride. It’s the only filter certified by the NSF to reduce both lead and chromium. And I can tell you with 100% certainty that I don’t want any of that stuff making its way into my baby’s cup.

In addition to feeling good about the water you’re drinking, ZeroWater will make you feel good about helping others drink good water too! ZeroWater has a community outreach and assistance program that matches each donation 1 to 1. Though this program, ZeroWater has been able to help communities struggling with access to clean water like Flint, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and Chicago.

Ezra August’s Birth Story

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I wrote Ezra’s birth story while I was in the hospital and, for no legitimate reason, haven’t been ready to re-read, edit, and post. His delivery felt semi-traumatic at the time, but I really don’t have any negative feelings {or any feelings at all, for that matter} that arise when I think about it.

On Thursday, 1/31, I woke up super nauseous. I went to work and powered through some meetings and left for a pre-scheduled acupuncture appointment during lunch. The acupuncturist helped with the nausea but I started having period-like cramps while on the table. I called work and told them I needed to go home. For the rest of the afternoon, I laid in bed. I went to sleep around 8:30pm, convinced that work would be easier tomorrow if I got a full night of sleep.

Around the time I went to sleep, the fire alarm went off in our apartment building. My husband and I spent a good amount of time going outside and back inside, only for the alarm to go off again. He ended up finding some ear plugs and I fell asleep to the sound of a muted fire alarm. 

At 3:30am I woke up to use the restroom and noticed it was pink when I wiped. I hadn’t spotted since 7 weeks so felt a little funny about it. I got back in bed and heard and felt a POP. I leaned over to Google what the pop could be. I read about hearing a pop with no water leaking and rolled back over to go to sleep. As I rolled over, I felt a gush of water everywhere. I woke up my husband and walked to the bathroom and continued to leak water (pretty heavily). I was so bummed. I was exactly 36 weeks and this meant no birthing center. I called the after hours midwife line and they said to pack a bag and come to the hospital.

From there I took my time, I showered and blow dried my hair. I finished packing the hospital bag that I had just started packing a few days before. I ate a string cheese. And we headed to the hospital, in the dark of the night, listening to our delivery playlist for the first time. Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You” was playing as we parked the car. 

I checked into the hospital around 5:30am and they confirmed it was my bag of water that broke. They checked me in and my midwife arrived shortly after. It was a huge relief to see our midwife. I initially thought that going into pre-term labor would require an OB delivery. 

I was 2cm dilated, 50% effaced, and +2 station. The midwife was pleasantly surprised, but advised me that I was up against a timeline for infection (meaning c section). I also hadn’t been tested for GBS yet and found out I was positive when the hospital ran the test. While not ideal, I don’t recall feeling super derailed by the news. All I can remember is how much the penicillin burned as it pumped through the IV in my right hand. 

By noon, I had only progressed to 4cm and the midwife said that pitocin was my only option to avoid a c-section. I felt defeated, but also knew it was my only choice. I labored for 12 hours with pitocin (starting at 2 MU and ending at 22 MU). I was in so much pain, I figured I had to be close. I was wrong. When the midwife performed the cervical check, I was only 6cm. I had only dilated 2cm in 12 hours! I felt like I had to be close to 8cm, which sent me into a little bit of a spiral. My birth plan was becoming more and more out of reach.

At this point I was given another choice: epidural or possible c-section. I knew I couldn’t labor another 2 hours to get to 10cm. After lots of crying and my husband not knowing how to support me (he had 8 months of training to talk me out of epidural), I opted for as low of a dose epidural as possible. The anesthesiologist gave me an epidural with no medicine and let me pump over time until I got the desired result. Looking back, it was the best decision I could have made with the water breakage situation at hand. Especially since I ended up laboring another 14 hours before we met our baby.

I slept for a few hours and woke up at 4am at 7cm, 90%, 0. I felt like a new woman and had a positive outlook on the entire situation. By 6am I was 9cm, 100%, 0, but had a piece of cervical lip in the way. They put me on the bed with the peanut and let me sit for a while. I could feel my legs completely but couldn’t feel any pain except for a back ache between my hips and ribs. When the lip was out of the way, around 9am, I still wasn’t feeling the urge to push, so they put me in an upright sitting position to let gravity labor for me. This position caused the monitors to alarm and the on-call OB to make an appearance.

By noon, it was time to push. At this point I could feel and move my legs, could feel contractions coming on and at their peak, and would soon feel pressure. I pushed for 4 hours straight doing what I can only describe as crunches with my legs spread wide, using handles to pull me up. I made progress with every push. While I was pushing, there was a constant battle between my midwife and the OB regarding interventions. The OB would mention the vacuum, the midwife would talk her out of it. The OB would turn on the surgical lights, the midwife would instruct her to turn them off. My midwife, nurse, husband, and I felt like the best team.

Ezra August Pruitt was born at 4:01pm on 2/2/19 weighing 6lb 3oz, measuring 20″, and with an Apgar score of 8.9. I didn’t experience any tearing. And I did #2 while pushing and was totally aware of it (awkward).

All of his tests came back great until 36 hours where we faced issues with glucose and jaundice, which are apparently very common for 36 week-ers. We spent 5 days in the hospital. We were able to keep glucose under control thanks to supplemental donor milk from my lifesaver of a friend. And jaundice also improved thanks to donor milk and the bilirubin machine. 

Nothing about my birth plan worked out except for vaginal birth and healthy baby and I couldn’t be more at peace with those things. I wholeheartedly believe my birth team guided me in the best and only direction for a vaginal birth. I’m so thankful because, when I wrote this, our baby was just over 3 days old and I noted feeling totally fine. I felt sore and puffy, but not sore enough to take Motrin. 

I can’t say enough good things about the Mama Natural birthing course {online}. Because of this course, my husband and I both felt super prepared to make informed decisions through every step. At points we felt like we were annoying, but we came out of the process feeling confident we made the best decisions for our family during our 5 day hospital stay. 

Almost 5 months later, we’re still doing wonderfully. Ezra is almost 17lbs., making him an above-average sized baby on a full term baby scale. He’s hitting all of his development milestones and there’s nothing about him that feels pre-term. I still wonder how our experience would have been different had he baked for another few weeks and I was able to deliver at the birthing center. But ultimately, he’s here and oh so happy so there’s no point in letting my mind go there. 

Did your delivery go according to your birthing plan? What would you do the same or differently next time around?

My Breastfeeding Journey

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When talking to any new mama, she likely has a breastfeeding journey to share. IT. IS. TOUGH. Looking back, having friends that were so open with their breastfeeding struggles over the years was so important during my journey. And so I’m telling my story with hopes that I can do the same for others.

During pregnancy, I researched HARD. And it is the one over-researched topic in my life that completely paid off. Almost immediately after finding out I was pregnant, I joined the LLLI Breastfeeding Support Group on Facebook and spent most of my sleepless nights reading through new mama questions, IBCLC {International Board Certified Lactation Consultant} advice, and expert mama advice. And if I only took away two things, they were 1. Get help before there’s a problem, and 2. Nurse on demand. My secondary take-away was that it’s an unpredictable process and I was going to have to learn how to read my babe when he arrived.

And then he arrived… four weeks early. When my water broke at 36 weeks I was filled with a lot of panic. The anchor of my birth plan, delivering at a birthing center, was immediately ruled out. And while coming to terms with delivering at a hospital, I wondered if my body would be ready or able to breastfeed this early. It turns out that breastfeeding a late-term preemie was a legitimate thing to worry about.

Ezra August, while early, was a beefy little baby. He weighed 6lb 3oz and measured 20in. He passed every newborn screening with flying colors, landing him a spot in our room rather than spending any time in the NICU. We were given extra attention by the hospital lactation consultant staff because he was a 36-weeker. Ez latched and my body was producing colostrum almost immediately. All felt good! …Until it didn’t.

At 36 hours, Ezra’s labs indicated he was slightly jaundice and also that he was having a tough time keeping his glucose levels up. My world felt wrecked. We were not bringing our boy home any time soon and the pressure to supplement with formula was STRONG {they wanted him to poop the bilirubin out}. I had three nursing mama friends at the time and I knew one of them would be able to help me out {it made me cry when all three offered to help}. Ezra was given 15mL of formula against my wishes while my husband went to pick up donor milk from my friend Amanda. The hospital staff experienced the greatest meltdown of my life while I was wearing nothing but mesh panties, covered in tears.

Rewinding back to getting help before there was a problem… I had already sourced a lactation consultant that was covered by my insurance in the early days, so I got the wheels in motion to schedule a visit after I was discharged. But in the meantime, I worked with the hospital lactation consultants to “triple feed” and that would be my life for the next couple weeks.

Triple feeding was hell. I’d nurse Ezra to get him familiar with the breast and trigger my body to produce milk. I’d top him off with Amanda’s milk. And then I’d pump, pump, pump. I did this 10 to 12 times per day, around the clock, for about 2-½ weeks. I had little faith that I’d be able to exclusively nurse one day. And I felt like a slave to an electrical outlet. Looking back, I’m so grateful for my husband who, never once, suggested formula being an option. Even though I was exhausted, felt devastated that I didn’t get to experience the last month of pregnancy, and my breasts were constantly hooked up to something – quitting never felt like an option.

Then something good happened. Ez was gaining weight like a champ! He was back to his birth weight before two weeks. I was going to weekly lactation consultant appointments where the IBCLC monitored his latch, gave me tips on how to help him latch better, and weighed my nursing sessions. The weighing of nursing sessions was key to giving me confidence that my body was enough for Ezra. After he hit his birth weight, I took a leap of faith, gave up the pump, and started exclusively nursing. And I nursed, nursed, nursed whenever he even hinted that he might be hungry and never looked back.

What to expect in the early weeks

Increasing Low Milk Supply

While his struggle was over, my struggle was just beginning. Because of triple feeding I had this miraculously plentiful milk supply. But because of that {I think}, I also developed milk blebs {milk blisters}. In addition to the normal pains of breastfeeding {sore, chapped nipples}, I also experienced razorblade-like pain in my left breast every time I nursed for the first 10 weeks. One milk blister would heal, just for another {or two!} to take its place. My solution for this ended up being nursing on the “bad side” first, lots of aggressive rubbing with a warm washcloth, massaging my breast with a vibrator/electric toothbrush before nursing, and taking sunflower lecithin. And Alyse, one of my nursing mama friends, suggested counting to 20 whenever baby latched and by the time you’re done counting the pain would be gone{ish}. She was right!

How do you treat a milk blister?

And then the next newborn challenge is, of course, sleep. My biggest new mama insecurities set in when someone would ask if Ezra was sleeping through the night. Friends and family all talked about how they sleep trained their baby by X weeks and I just didn’t feel like we were there yet. My lactation consultant suggested reading the book Sweet Sleep and, let me tell you, that book was like giving me a giant hug. I’m not sure that I’m getting any more sleep than I was back then, but my perspective changed instantaneously. We moved Ezra to the bed {gasp!} and practiced/still practice safe bed sharing. I learned the importance of frequent night feedings for both baby and mama and, even more importantly, we both started to get some GOOD sleep. We are 20 weeks in and I have a baby that puts himself to bed around 8:30 and rolls over around 2am and 5:30am to nurse while neither of us are fully awake. Other than having a few rough nights with a cold, he’s never cried in the middle of the night. And honestly, he’s not much of a cry-er during the day either!

Co-sleeping and Bed-sharing

So let’s fast forward past that 10 weeks when breastfeeding no longer felt like daggers. It’s like the second I came up for air, I was overwhelmed with the anxiety of going back to work and maintaining my milk supply. I extended my maternity leave from 12 weeks to 14 weeks and was able to work from home {with help} for the first three weeks. And I am eternally grateful for that time because it allowed me some extra time to build up my stash.

The initial stash was also a ton of work. Every time I nursed Ezra, I’d use a hand pump on the opposite breast. Morning pumps would yield the most {around 3 to 4oz.} and I’d collect about 1oz. during each subsequent nursing session. I absolutely hate washing pump parts and took advantage of the “hack” to refrigerate the entire hand pump in between each session. I’d pour the cold milk into a large glass bottle and continue to add the cold milk I had previously pumped whenever it was time to pump again. I’d stop at around 6oz., pour into a milk bag, and lay flat in the freezer until it was solid before storing upright in a container. During the month of May, I was able to stock 100oz. of milk in the freezer before returning to the office in June.

I felt good with that 100oz. Most of the anxiety I had about not being able to provide for Ez went away. I was able to focus on the “now” and developed my nursing/pumping plan. I’ve been back at work for 3 weeks now and it’s been working well {so I’ll share}. A typical day looks like this:

  • 7:30am – Nurse Ezra AT daycare. In Sweet Sleep, I learned that our bodies make custom antibodies for our babies based on the germs we’re exposed to and that it can help build baby’s immune system to nurse at daycare. So nursing at daycare at 7:30am did a few things for me: helped build his immune system, topped him off so he’d be happy for his teachers, and reduced the number of bottles I had to leave him with.
  • 9:30am – Pump 1. This is the most important pump of the day. I can typically get between 6 and 8oz. during this pump. I haven’t gotten crazy with any supplements, but I do make sure to have a green smoothie for breakfast and have some kind of snack {pistachios!}  before I head to the Mothers’ Room.
  • 12:30pm – Pump 2. I like that this pump happens during my lunch break so it doesn’t seem like I’m always heading back to the Mother’s Room. I’ve been eating lunch at my desk to make sure I’m meeting deadlines. I typically get around 4 to 5oz. During this pump.
  • 3:30pm – Pump 3. This is a well timed pump because this is when I’m typically getting sleepy. I look forward to having this time to myself so I can regroup and knock out a few more tasks before it’s time to pick up Ez. I typically get around 4 to 5oz. During this pump as well.
  • 5:30pm – Pick up Ez! At first I was nursing Ez at pick up to, but now I’ll only nurse him if he seems like he’s showing signs of hunger. He’s really not a huge fan of the car, so it helps to fill him up before the drive.

So for the past three weeks, I’ve pumped between 14 and 18oz. while I’m at work. Thankfully Ezra’s teachers were well versed in paced feeding and have been super supportive with giving me feedback on how bottles are going. We started with four 3oz. bottles and he was leaving a ton behind. From there we scaled back to four 2oz. bottles and he seemed to be doing ok. He was also battling his first cold during that time, so I think he was drinking less. We landed on four 2.5oz bottles for a while, but I decided to up it to 3oz because I’m running out of room in my freezer {just passed 200oz.!}. I also think he is drinking the bare minimum during the day so he’ll be extra hungry when we’re together. He pretty much cluster feeds throughout weekday evenings. And I don’t mind letting house work wait or ordering take-out because I miss my boy so much during the day that I need him to need me during our time together too.

How to bottle feed the breastfed baby

Bouncing back to sleep, bed sharing has been extra meaningful to us since going back to work. It gives me the opportunity to “night time parent”, which essentially means I get to sneak in some extra quality time during feedings or when I randomly wake through the night to check on him. And I’m confident that his night time feedings and being near to him has helped me maintain my supply after almost a month of daytime separation.

Twenty weeks of breastfeeding feels like a huge accomplishment and is something that I’m incredibly proud of and grateful for. Do you have a breastfeeding journey? Please share your successes and/or challenges in the comments!