Adventures with My Monkeys: The What in my Breastfeeding Journey: A Breastfeeding Carnival Post Day 5

Welcome to The Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival! This post was written as part of the Breastfeeding Cafe's Carnival. For more info on the Breastfeeding Cafe, go to www.breastfeedingcafe.wordpress.com. For more info on the Carnival or if you want to participate, contact Claire at clindstrom2 {at} gmail {dot} com. Today's post is about products that have helped you to breastfeed. Please read the other blogs in today's carnival listed below and check back for more posts July 18th-31st!

There have been many things that have helped me in my journey. I would like to list them and then highlight a few that I especially liked or that are unique.

Boppy: I love my Boppy pillow to help my arms have a little bit of a break!
Nipple Shield: These are thought to be evil but for some babies they are necessary. I would pick using one any day over not being able to nurse at all due to latch issues that can't be resolved otherwise.
Breastfeeding Box: I will talk about this in a minute!
Lactation Cookies and tea for growth spurts: I will talk about these in a minute!
Leftovers, frozen meals, and easy prep meals: I HIGHLY recommend freezing some meals in advance. Use a friend or neighbor or someone at church's freezer if you need to but get some meals frozen that you can toss in the oven or crock pot especially in the first 6-8 weeks. If you can use a few a week you can spread them out further and be sure to double to make it a little easier on your wallet so you're preparing one recipe for that night while you're expecting and then freeze the doubled part.
Nursing bras
Nursing pads especially cloth ones. I really love Bamboobies.
Earth Mama Angel Baby nipple butter: This was an absolute must with Roxy. I tried lanolin in the past but I tried this for Roxy and I'm SO glad I did. All of my cracks that I got were healed very quickly and it smells really yummy.
Tongue tie revisions: for my babies these were a must and I recommend everyone learning a bit about how to identify them. This blog is by Roxy's doctor and it's very informative.
IBCLC: A necessary part of my tool belt. Find one as well as your local LLL information before baby arrives so that you can contact them IMMEDIATELY if you need some help.
Speech therapist: For Roxy this professional was a must. She needed a lot of extra help because of her strong gag reflex. She is orally defensive like Korver and we use a tool like the Z-vibe to help desensitize her mouth using various z-vibe tips. She really enjoys this. Some people find electric toothbrushes do similar things but for sure use these tools ONLY under the advice of an actual medical professional which I am not :).
Water bottle: Keep one of these handy all the time. I just got a Hydroflask (This is an affiliate link-purchasing through this link gives a small portion of the sale to me to help support buying homeschooling books for my children, thanks!) and so far I really love it. I've only used it for a couple days but it has kept my water refrigerator temperature all day even when left in a car when it was 70 outside.
Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (again affiliate link-see note in bullet point above): Many moms refer to this as the "Bible" of breastfeeding.
Nursing necklaces: These are just a fun way to keep baby's attention on the breast. There are a lot of them out there. If you want recommendations feel free to comment

Now for a few details.

I love the breastfeeding box put out by 16 Minute Club. I learned about the box from The Mommy Dialogues and decided to order after seeing a box in person at the Portland Big Baby Shower event. They are great and packed with information, full size products that go along with your baby's age, and a bunch of samples and coupons. I really look forward to each box, Roxy does too. These are a couple of items that came in the teething box:

The Appeteether and Drool Cloth were really fun surprises in the box. Ironic though because Roxy is allergic to broccoli :).

Lactation Cookies-I like to have these as a milk boosting treat especially during fussy growth spurt times.

Here is the recipe I use to make mine:

1 C Butter
1 C Sugar
1 C Brown Sugar (dark brown is better because it has molasses)
4 Tbs Water
2 Tbs milled Flax Seed
2 Eggs
1 Tsp vanilla
2 C Flour-1 C wheat 1 C white
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
3 C Oats
1 C Chocolate Chips (ok I add a whole bag...I'll admit that!)
2-4 Tbs Brewer's Yeast
1/2 C-1 C Raw Pumpkin Seeds (the green ones)
1 C Raisins (I like to do 1/2 C Raisins and 1/2 C Pomegranate infused Craisins)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flax seed and water and let sit 3-5 minutes, set aside. Beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar well. Add eggs and mix. Add flax mix and vanilla. Beat well. Sift together flour, brewer's yeast, baking soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients to the rest. Stir in oats, chips, pumpkin seeds, and raisins, feel free to add other seeds or nuts as you wish. Drop on to baking sheets. Bake 12 minutes.

I love herbal teas now especially yummy ones that I just need to add a little raw local honey to. My two favorite lactation teas are Anna's Naturals which I first heard about from Adventures of Lactating Girl and Bird's and Bees Teas blend which I received a full size tin in one of my 16 Minute Club boxes. Yummy!

Do you have any breastfeeding products that you've enjoyed using?

*I did not receive any compensation to "advertise" any of these products. All affiliate links were noted otherwise I'm just sharing links to awesome products that I enjoyed.*

Here are more posts by the Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival participants! Check back because more will be added throughout the day.