How Dads Can Play an Important Role in Breastfeeding and a Giveaway

06/15/2014 R.C. Liley 9 Comments

Happy Father’s Day to all of you awesome dads out there! These two girls make me a happy father/husband every day!

Yep, I’m one proud and lucky guy, and I’m elated to be celebrating this day for the first time! Avery also turns 7 months old today; she’s past the half year mark!

I finally get to find out what my wife has been keeping me from in our front room for the past month. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you soon.

Besides having two beautiful girls in my life, I’m proud of the fact that Going Mom chooses to only breastfeed Avery and will never consider formula. I understand some situations where it’s not possible, but just giving up isn’t a good reason or fair to babies.

No doubt, breastfeeding, from what I’ve seen and heard, is no walk in the park and has many hurdles to get past, but it’s not impossible. Going Mom is one of many mothers who deal with the #boobissues on a daily basis, and I do my best to support her however I can.

In honor of Father’s Day, Medela shared with me that they have collaborated with Kuroji Patrick, one of Medela’s 2013 Breastfeeding Hall of Excellence inductees, to create a list of tips for dads to get and stay involved with the breastfeeding journey.

We take pride in raising our daughter with the best nutrition from Mother Nature, and I hope this list will held dads support their partners and be an advocate for breastfeeding.

Daddies and Breastfeeding: Ways to Stay Involved

Before the Baby Comes

Be supportive of your partner’s decision to breastfeed by understanding the benefits of breastmilk.

Help your partner find information on what breastpump your insurance will cover. The Affordable Care Act requires insurance companies to provide equipment and support with no co-pay, but the actual pump provided will vary from company to company.

Join your partner in preparing for the experience of breastfeeding by taking a course that will provide you both with the information you’ll need to know.

Seek out other fathers who have supported their partners while Breastfeeding to gain real world advice.

At the Hospital

At the hospital, be an advocate for your partner. Make sure the staff knows that she wants to breastfeed and that formula should not be given to the baby without consent.

Find the lactation consultant if mom is struggling. Many hospitals have one on staff, and early intervention and support from a professional is crucial, particularly for first-time moms.

Ask the hospital staff about local breastfeeding support groups for after your family goes home. Peer encouragement is helpful, and it’s an excuse for mom and baby to get out of the house.

At Home

In addition to making sure your partner has what she needs while she heals from childbirth, you can help the breastfeeding transition to home by making sure she is comfortable while nursing—by bringing her pillows, foot rest, water, etc.
It doesn’t sound glamorous, but diaper changes are a great way for you to get involved in baby care. In addition to giving your partner a break, it’s a chance for you and your baby to start practicing conversation skills by making eye contact, cooing noises and engaging your baby with changing facial expressions.
If your partner starts pumping, you’ll have a chance to bond with your baby over a bottle and give your partner a break. You can further help your partner by washing and sterilizing pump parts and bottles.
Be your partner’s biggest cheerleader. Breastfeeding can be frustrating and difficult in the beginning, but you can provide moral support by acknowledging the difficulty of nursing and offering to find a professional to help, such as lactation consultant (which should be covered by your insurance). And remind your partner of why she wanted to breastfeed in the first place!

I have been utilizing tips like these since Avery’s birth and know I have a stronger bond with my daughter and wife as a result. The benefits of breastfeeding are powerful and I’d hope any parent would want only the best for their children.

Medela’s online education course, Breastfeeding University, costs a reasonable $25 and offers you priceless information, but they have agreed to allow me to offer 3 readers free access codes to the course! This would be perfect for the expecting couple to complete together or any couple looking to add to their breastfeeding knowledge database.

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment below telling me about your experience or plans with breastfeeding. I will randomly select 3 commenters to receive access codes to use to take the course for free. Contest ends next Friday, June 20th.

This giveaway has ended, but don’t worry, I’ll have plenty of other opportunities to win great prizes in the future!

Thanks to everyone who read and commented on this post, it’s something I am deeply passionate about. The three winners are Maggie, Ashley, and Stacy. Congrats and I have sent an e-mail for your code!

Hope everyone has a great day! Treat the dad in your life extra nice today! 🙂

Disclosure: I was not compensated in any way for this post and all views are strictly my own.

Going Reviews

Going Reviews: Stop the Splatter with Spray Pal

06/14/2014 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

We’ve been a cloth diapering family since Avery was only a few weeks old, and we don’t plan on “changing” until she’s done with diapers for good. It was intimidating at first, but now the whole process is second-nature and is comforting to know it’s better for the environment and our wallets. Plus, what baby wouldn’t want to be surrounded by colorful cloth they poop and pee in?

Avery at 4 months helping me "organize" clean diapers. — Avery at 4 months helping me “organize” clean diapers.

As a stay-at-home parent, I do most of the washing, and after a short learning curve, it hasn’t been a problem. We were only feeding Avery breast milk to give her the best (and free!) nutrition available which made her poop, though messy and stinky, never having much substance that required spraying. Then we started solids; “Crap.”

And “Crap” was right; it got bigger and more substantial! That wasn’t the last time we saw those carrots on the tray; nope, they were there waiting for us after her next “movement.” Now we had poopy diapers that needed the poo removed before going in the bin.

But there was a light at the end of our dirty diaper conundrum; Spray Pal, the splatter shield for cloth diapers! Man was I ever so grateful that the kind husband and wife behind Spray Pal recently agreed to send one for review so we had one ready to be used!

Jen and her husband David are both elementary school teachers with 2 kids. Their first is a little girl, and their youngest is a boy who was born 3.5 months premature. Now, their son is over 2 years old, but he has to be on an oxygen feeding tube and is visually impaired and profoundly deaf. Despite this, they are a happy, close-knit family who are extremely caring.

I love seeing small, family-owned businesses like Spray Pal, and it just feels good doing business with them as opposed to some large corporation. Think buying produce from Wal-Mart vs. going to a local farm and purchasing directly from a farmer who will use your money to grow more food. Jen and David are “farmers” who use the proceeds from Spray Pal to go directly towards their son’s medical expenses after operating costs are met.

I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather give my dollar to farmers of the world who are personable and have a story to share. And what you get in return is their Spray Pal Splatter Shield that keeps your bathroom floors and walls free from poop splatter. Need I say more? Okay, well,I will anyway.

The Spray Pal is a high quality sheet of BPA-Free plastic with a tri-fold and a heavy duty clip in the center to securely hold those dirty diapers.

It’s nice to see a baby item that doesn’t look as complicated as Pandora’s Box!

After Avery gave us our first test sample, I made use of our newly installed diaper sprayer and the Spray Pal.

Getting a dirty diaper on the clip was tricky at first because you’re trying to avoid floor “plops” while simultaneously working to keep from touching the poo. But after a few uses (you’ll get plenty), it’s not so cumbersome and just like cloth diapering, becomes a matter of course.

What’s great about the Spray Pal is that you can spray at full pressure and not worry about splattering anything around you; just right in the toilet. Of course, test your sprayer first and make sure you have the Spray Pal past the toilet rim; otherwise, you’ll have a wet floor. I might know from experience….maybe.

After spraying, you can use the Spray Pal to squeeze out the excess water and carry the diaper to the pail.

If you’re squeamish, don’t look at the toilet water. What? Too late? Sorry.

We used to have the dirty diaper bin in the nursery next to the changing table, but now we moved it into the bathroom to avoid any nasties dripping on the floor.

Spray Pal sells different bundles to get you everything you need to tackle dirty diapers with the most basic one including their Spray Pal Shield and a Jaq Jaq Bird Wet Bag. We don’t have the wet bag, even though I know it would be useful; instead we place the shield in a plastic trash container on the side of the toilet.

This works just fine for us and we haven’t had an issue yet.

Now that we have a hang of it, I couldn’t imagine trying to spray a diaper without the Spray Pal, especially with the shallow toilet we have! I am happy we have the Spray Pal to save us from a splattery mess, and now we use it for every big poop! It will take getting used to, but so would cleaning poop off your wall, so pick your battle! 😉

If you are a cloth diapering family or thinking of becoming one, the Spray Pal is almost a very necessary item to include. I highly recommend! Check out this video on how to use the Spray Pal and give you a sense of how simple it really is.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14trK_HU06E&w=560&h=315]

Show some Spray Pal love and like/follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. They are Going Dad and Going Mom approved, so what are you waiting for?

Disclosure: Spray Pal provided their product to me free of charge in exchange for review. I was not compensated for this post and all views are my own.

Life, Parenting

Fresh Raspberries You Can’t Eat?

06/13/2014 R.C. Liley 2 Comments

You can’t even pick them or find them on store shelves, but you might find them in stores.

I’m sure you see where I’m going here; these are the kind of raspberries you blow making a”pbtpbtpbtpbt” sound along with a little or a lot of spit.

Avery has been giving us plenty of these fresh from her mouth each day. She blows them when she’s happy, she blows them when she’s mad, and hell, she blows them when she’s sleeping!

It’s been going on for a while now, but lately she’s making a point to show us how well she can make raspberries at all times of the day. Emphasis on “all”.

We’ve woken up to the sound of raspberries emanating through the baby monitor at night, and she blows them every time we change her. I get that babies love to do new things they learn, and it’s cute, but what’s not cute is that she has also found her high pitch voice.

Ugh, anytime she’s crying (which is a lot since she’s teething), it has to be in the highest pitch she can muster. My throat hurts just listening to it, and I have no clue how she carries on for so long. But you pick her up and you’d think nothing was ever wrong; she just goes back to raspberries and smiles.

Since she’s given us several pictures of her raspberry blowing in action, I want to share the photos with you today. Enjoy the pics, and please share any raspberry stories you may have. I’d love to see the pictures of your kids’ raspberries if you have them; just share them on Going Dad’s Facebook page please!