Merry Christmas From Our Family to Yours!

Unpaid Overtime for Big D

I love winter - I do ... There is something mystical about the snow when it falls and makes a beautiful white cover across our farm.

However, I have to say and my Real Farmwives of America friends know exactly what I'm talking about - being a livestock farmer during the winter months is not so much fun. The waterlines can freeze, pigs can get cold if our thermostat on the climate-controlled building malfunctions, doors on the barns are frozen shut, snow covers driveways making it difficult for trucks to get in and out. And not to mention - we all have to layer up on coveralls, long johns, hats, gloves just to peel half of it off once you get inside the warm barns where the pigs are housed. Things are just more challenging during the winter months. And this week was certainly no exception ... on Wednesday evening - the weatherman forecasted 4-5 additional inches of snowfall headed our way to top the already 3-4 inches on the ground from Sunday. Awesome.
So my husband - Big D - peeled himself out of our nice cozy home at 3 a.m. Thursday morning to drive to one of our offside hog barns to crank the curtain up helping to assure that the pigs wouldn't get too cold. Now, the pigs on their own generate quite a bit of heat especially as these specific hogs were in a group pen. Since many of our barns are climate-controlled to keep the pigs comfortable, we have curtains (that are only a few hundred feet long) to crank up or down (up during cold temps, down during hot summer temps) depending on the temperature inside, temperature outside, wind and type of precipitation.

Now many barn curtains are automated to maintain a certain temperature inside for the pigs. This specific barn is a manual crank curtain. So Big D woke up all worried about the pigs getting too cold and ventured outside to crank 'er up leaving 3 inches at the top to give em just a little fresh air, but not too much! And all at 3 a.m. before ANY snow plows had cleared the roads in our area. This makes for good times.

Big D is certinaly not one I would classify as lazy ... we do what needs to be done because we realize that when the pigs are warm and content - they are more productive and thus, support our family. Hopefully, the weatherman predicts only moderate snowfall Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - because the bossman (Big D) and I will be in Ohio celebrating the holiday with my family and I'm hoping this means no catastrophes on the farm. Crossing fingers now!

Sometimes things DO worked out as planned!

As you may remember I was all worried last week prior to some bachelorette festivities I was attending about ... A) leaving my baby girl overnight for the first time and B) the whole alcohol and breastmilk situation.

Well I'm here to inform you that sometimes things really do work out. And in this case, things worked out even better than I'd hoped.

It turns out that Reagan's sitter had been banking some of my extra "milk" in her freezer and I had plenty to cover the entire day that I was gone. Hallujehah!

And after speaking to some of my mommy friends, bloggy moms, a lactation consultant and Reagan's doctor here's what I learned about breastmilk and alcohol ... (thanks by the way guys! at one point I wanted to reach out and hug some of you for your support and words of encouragement!!)

-Current research says that occasional use of alcohol (1-2 drinks) does not appear to be harmful to the nursing baby.
So I could have a couple drinks - pump and the milk was fine after I arrived at the party

-There is no need to pump & dump milk after drinking alcohol, other than for mom's comfort -- pumping & dumping does not speed the elimination of alcohol from the milk.
Apparently, the whole pump and dump thing is sort of an old wives tale according to my lactation consultant who said "You only need to do it for comfort purposes after drinking more than 2 drinks. Can you really imagine pumping if you are drunk anyways?" Yes she really did say that!

-If you are sober enough to drive, you are sober enough to breastfeed. Less than 2% of the alcohol consumed by the mother reaches her blood and milk. Alcohol peaks in mom's blood and milk approximately 1/2-1 hour after drinking (but there is considerable variation from person to person, depending upon how much food was eaten in the same time period, mom's body weight and percentage of body fat, etc.). Alcohol does not accumulate in breastmilk, but leaves the milk as it leaves the blood; so when your blood alcohol levels are back down, so are your milk alcohol levels.
So when I woke up the next morning - my milk was free of any alcoholic toxins. This was news to me, because I was afraid that alcohol would linger in my system the day after. Not the case.

I should mention that I do not condone drinking and breastfeeding more than once and a blue moon. The only reason I made an evening out of it was to help celebrate a good friend's last night out as a single lady. And we had a great time - we did. And better yet I woke up the next morning without a hangover - bonus! And I was so excited to get home to see my baby girl - just to also find out that she did great with my mom-in-law and Big D. She was an "angel." This made the weekend a complete success!! And extra bonus I got to cuddle with her ALL day on Sunday - extra bonus! I just love when things work out!!

Anxiety is a dirty word!

I'm having a little bit of mommy anxiety right now and well I'm going to use my blog to breathe out a little ... and seek any words of encouragement from fellow moms out there!

Here's the deal ...
I decided pretty early on in my pregnancy that my intention was to breasteed my baby girl for 12 months. And while I wouldn't define Reagan as an "easy" baby (whatever that means since I have no other babies to compare her to) I have to say so far so good in the nursing department. It's been great, honestly, ever since she was born nearly 4 and half months ago!

Anyways ... this weekend I will be away from my sweet baby girl for almost 24 hours at a bachelorette party for my dear friend Liz@Two Maids a Milking. You can probably tell where this is going ...

First off - I'm SUPER excited about the bachelorette festivities for one of my last single friends out there!

Second - I'm scared to death about leaving Reagan for that long. Here's why ... I'm afraid I don't have enough "expressed" breastmilk to keep her happy for that long. So that means I have to supplement with formula. NOOOO ... I don't want to give her formula!!! For some reason the whole idea of it kills me and is giving me serious anxiety. I don't have anything against formula per se - but the whole nursing routine has worked out so perfectly up to this point - I hate to screw it up.

Third - I really want to enjoy the party to the fullest - we are heading up to my ol' alumna mater - Purdue University - and will be visiting at least one of my favorite establishments in the area. So ... yes I'd like to have more than one drink (ie. the limit if you are breastfeeding) So that means I have to "pump and dump" my milk. And by the way - I hate that word - dump. So that may put me back in the formula supplement predictament yet again when she goes back to the sitter on Monday.

Holy smoke! - I have anxiety just thinking about how all of this is going to work out. And Big D isn't necessarily helpful in soothing my anxiety, because he has all sorts of worries himself as he is planning to take care of Reagan most of the time, along with my mother-in-law ... overnight.

I've called both the lactation consultant and Reagan's doctor for suggestions and recommendations - but it's not helping me. It's not about me, but in a way, it kind of is. I'm both EXCITED and WORRIED about this weekend!! I'll be about 1 1/5 hours away - so getting home quickly isn't really an option - plus with the whole drinking thingy - driving altogether isn't really an option. And how on EARTH am I going to be able to get myself up in the morning and drive home at a decent hour before the milk runs out at home. Ok ... obviously I should calm down ... Getting calmer now ... A glass of wine would help ... too bad they don't carry one in the office vending machine. *sigh*

A big surprise at the "orchestra"

I love surprises. Surprise announcements, gifts, trips, dinners or surprise! I cleaned your house (too bad that last one doesn't happen more often)!

Anyways ... Big D's parents surprised us and my sister-in-law and her hubby on Thanksgiving Day with tickets to the "orchestra." Notice the "orchestra" in quotation marks. My first thought when we received the tickets was of course thank you, but the "orchestra" is not really my cup of tea. No offense, but given orchestra or George Strait tickets - I'd take George Strait in a hot minute. I'm just a little too country I guess. Don't get my wrong - I love dressing up, glamming out and living the high life once and a while. But given a cold beer and a little country music and I'm a pretty happy camper!

So the orchestra ... I was thinking a cute dress, but something warm might be better - I settled for a nice Ann Taylor cardigan and dress black slacks. Yes, I just said slacks. As we were walking into Conseco Fieldhouse - this is where the Indiana Pacers play basketball - we wondered if we would be surrounded by gray hairs and also how many of those gray hairs would be nodding off during the subdued performance. As you can tell - we were skeptical about this "orchestra" performance. 

Boy were we in for a big surprise. These were not just "orchestra" tickets - this was the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Still ... I'm thinking an orchestra like violins, trumpets, flutes, clarinets ... you get the idea. Wrong, wrong and wrong. Think more along the lines of an orchestra with headbangers, a light show and electric guitars. Serious electric guitar.

As soon as the music started, I felt as if we were transported in time ... to a Megadeath concert. Granted I didn't even know what Megadeath really sounded like ... I was thinking like a KISS or AC/DC concert, but Big D corrected me - he said Megadeath or Metallica, definitely. Vintage ... late 80s/early 90s. Clearly, I don't know my heavy metal.

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra (often abbreviated to TSO) according to the band's official website is a Progressive Rock Band founded in 1993 by producer, composer, and lyricist Paul O'Neill. The band has ties to rock bands such as Savatage, Aerosmith,  AC/DC, Joan Jett and yes ... Megadeath. TSO is most famous for their rock operas, complete with stories told in both straight prose and poetry form.

The first part of the performance was their Christmas music and it was definitely entertaining and NOT AT ALL what I expected (See the video below from GMA 2005 for a snippet of what I'm talking about). The light show was incredible and some of the vocals were pretty incredible too. The Christmas narrator we could've gone without - but he kinda tied all the music in together. I get what they were going for. I kinda liked it, but I don't think I'm going to rush out and get their CD anytime soon. And if I would've known then what I know now ... I probably would've worn something a little less "slacks" and a little more "rock and roll."
 

Smoke and light show

Ok ... so there was a violinist, but he was still a headbanger.

Not in "rock concert" attire