Afton’s Baby Blessing

30 October 2011

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Afton was blessed by Hyrum along with his brothers and father, and my brother and father. He said he wasn’t nervous until he got up there and the mic was put in front of him. It seems kind of silly to be nervous giving a blessing to your child but I have to remember this was his first time giving a baby blessing and dozens of people were listening. I suppose I’d be nervous too. He did a beautiful job though and it is a beautiful experience to listen to your husband use the priesthood of God to bless your new baby girl.

I told him he couldn’t change her name at the last-minute up there like some people have. I feel if you felt prompted to change it then you should have felt that prompting before you were in front of everyone where we couldn’t discuss it! Afton’s first name is a name I’ve loved for many years now. It is the name of a river in Scotland, which the poet Robert Burns wrote about. His poem is called Flow Gently, Sweet Afton and it was made into a folk song, which many musicians have covered. I first heard from the band Nickle Creek back in 2001. If you want to listen to the song click here.

Afton’s middle name, Erlene, is my maternal grandmother’s name. I wrote about her earlier on the blog here. I especially loved living close to my grandma and spent a lot of time at her house over the years. She passed away in 2010 and it felt right and good to name Afton after her. She’s definitely a worthy woman to live up to.

Since we live in a less than 600 sq ft apartment we couldn’t have all of Hyrum’s family and my family over at the same time to celebrate Afton. So I had my family over in the morning before church and we fixed pancakes and crepes. After church we went over to Hyrum’s sister’s house (she lives close-by) and enjoyed the same thing there with his family. It is always fun to get together with family and especially to celebrate a baby. In the words of Mr. Bilbo Baggins (or J.R.R. Tolkein),

“But today of all days, it is brought home to me: It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.”

The Baby Chronicles: Afton’s Food Sensitivities

Food allergies, or sensitivities, among babies is a growing issue. One of the main culprits is dairy. The thought is that a protein (proteins tend to cause allergic reactions) in cow’s milk causes irritation in a baby’s GI tract. Now some people refute this and argue, quite vehemently, that proteins are completely broken down by the time the cow’s milk is carried into breast milk. Regardless of whether it was/is a protein or lactose, Afton’s intestines were not handling it well.

The first thing that alerted us to this was a blood streak in her poopy diaper. I was at a meeting one night at the church and I went to change her diaper and saw it. As a first-time mom needless to say I was quite scared. When I got home that night I immediately went online to see what might be the cause. The information overwhelmingly pointed to this dairy allergy. So I made sure I didn’t eat any dairy that night and in the morning I contacted Afton’s pediatrician. She agreed that I should stay away from dairy and see how she does. This was around 6 weeks of age.

You can tell a lot about your baby’s health by looking at their poop. Since her sensitivity was discovered I have consulted her poop whenever she is fussy. Including a blood streak in her poop, her messy diapers were very mucousy, runny, and green. I know green poop can be a symptom of too much foremilk and although that may have been some of the issue it didn’t account for all of her diapers, especially the mucousy ones. Shortly after taking dairy out of my diet I began to notice that she was particularly fussy and had odd messy diapers after eating food with soy in it as well. So I decided to take soy out of my diet as well and noticed a change in her, in correlation to removing dairy. Her eczema went away really quickly and she seemed to improve.

Around 3-3.5 months we had a day where she was pooping all the time and had blood in each one. I was so upset and worried because I had been very diligent with not eating dairy or soy and was worried about there possibly being more things she was allergic/sensitive to. While discussing it with her pediatrician she felt that it had to be that I ingested dairy without knowing. It was around the holidays and even though people reassured me their holiday dessert didn’t have dairy in it most probably did. There is hardly a dessert out there without dairy and if you aren’t familiar with what products have dairy in them even homemade desserts often include dairy. However, her pediatrician also advised me to stay away from nuts, strawberries, and eggs. I could have eggs in baked goods but not scrambled or in any other form.

Overall Afton did improve and starting sleeping through the night at 4 months. Hooray! Of course, now that she’s teething that’s gone down the drain but the 6 weeks or so that she slept through the night were bliss. And sorely needed! I was able to normalize my own sleeping and become mostly normal again (will I ever be?).

Afton is now 7.5 months and I’ve started eating food that contains soybean oil in it to try to help her intestines become accustomed to it. I was thinking I’d try dairy at her 8 month mark. Her pediatrician said that baby’s intestines mature between 6-8 months and that babies with food sensitivities/allergies generally outgrow them by that point. Here’s to hoping she does! I miss dairy….

The Baby Chronicles: Life After Birth – The First Few Weeks

Recovery from birth was an unexpected experience. For some reason I never talked with anyone about what it might be like after having Afton. I constantly talked to people about pregnancy and birth but hardly ever about breastfeeding and never about recovery. However, breastfeeding turned out wonderfully with Afton! I didn’t really talk to people much about it but I did a lot of reading. One book in particular I would recommend to anyone who is about to have a baby for the first-time and wanting to nurse or one who has experienced problems in the past but would really like it to work, is Ina May Gaskin’s Guide to Breastfeeding. She also has a guide to childbirth but that book can be quite shocking if aren’t desiring a natural birth. I was even shocked by some of it as Ms. Gaskin is quite the hippy! Back to Afton. Afton was a natural at nursing and I felt we both helped each other and things worked out beautifully. Even to this day I’ve only had two problems come up but they are common things (clogged duct) and I was able to take care of it swiftly.

My physical recovery was an experience I wasn’t quite prepared for. I only had a 2nd degree tear but I had incredible swelling. The other unpleasant “wound” was a hematoma I received on the upper inside wall, which still causes me some discomfort and pain. I visited with an OB/GYN recently and she said there is no scar tissue and no remaining hematoma and the pain and discomfort will just go away with time. It’s been 7 months already! Ugh.

For two weeks after the birth I had to lay Cleopatra style on the couch. Since Afton was NOT a good sleeper she was my constant couch companion. She and my ibuprofen. I have always struggled with my iron levels and this was a problem while I was pregnant and afterwards. I was pale for a long time and a week after the birth I tried to go on a walk with Hyrum and Afton and I basically used the stroller as a walker. I felt like passing out most of the time. But I needed to get my body going again. By my two week check up I was in my jeans again and at my midwife’s office doing great (minus the intense sleep deprivation – remember, Afton did NOT sleep). Although I was doing great internal swelling persisted for quite some time. It took a number of months for that to be back to normal.

While Afton and I convalesced on the couch for two weeks we ate, sang, watched movies, read books, tried to sleep, and had visits from friends and family. Hyrum was able to stay home for a week after the birth and he was such a stud, champ, life-saver, you name it. He did so much for me during that time and in truth still does and always has. He’s one amazing partner!

One of the things that kept my spirits up (besides my beautiful wee girl and hubby) was the movie 17 Miracles. If you haven’t seen it yet I definitely recommend it! Thanks to mom and dad Jensen for letting us borrow it for so long! I appreciate more and more the comfort in which we have to give birth and all the resources and support we have to make it a safe and beautiful experience. Do you want to give birth on the plains in the dead of winter with hardly any food or water?? Yeah, me neither. The movie reminded me of the myriad ways in which our Father blesses us and pushes us to achieve greater faith, testimony, and compassion. Go watch it!

Here are a few pictures of our life on the couch during those first few weeks….

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Great Expectations Birth Care

A number of people have asked me about where I gave birth to Afton. I am all too happy to share my midwife with others. She is the only midwife accepted as a provider with BlueCross BlueShield and is highly respected in her profession. She offers competitive pricing and you receive so much care and support. But best of all, she is kind, loving, knowledgeable, professional, has a quirky sense of humor, she is understanding, patient, smart as heck!, and will take very good care of you. As long as I live in Utah I want to birth with Rebecca! (no, I do not get any advertising money from her!)

Rebecca Williams, CNM, CPM, MSN

5801 S. Fashion Blvd, Ste 130
Murray, Utah 84107

Phone: (801) 281-0567

www.greatexpectationsbc.com

Happy BIRTH Day, Afton

16 September 2011

AFTON ERLENE JENSEN

(9 days old)