Last week was my first week back at work. It went pretty well overall. I guess when you've done something for the past 10 years and you have a pretty good system down of doing what you do getting back into the swing of things isn't too difficult. It was kind of like riding a bike. OK, if I'm being completely honest, the moment I walked in to my classroom and saw the desks arranged differently and the piles of stuff that my sub had left on my desk and tables I felt a bit overwhelmed, like, "Where do I even start?" I just had to tell myself that I wasn't going to get everything put away in one day and that getting re-organized was going to take time. The teaching part was the easy part. I just stepped right back in like I'd never been away. After only a day and a half being back at work I took a half day on Tuesday because McKenna had her 2 month well-visit with her pediatrician. McKenna is getting big so fast-she weighed in at 11 pounds 5 ounces and measured 23.4 inches long. While we were there the pediatrician asked me if I was still breastfeeding her, to which I replied yes, I still am. She told me that we should put McKenna on vitamin supplements and that she would call in a prescription for them. The pediatrician stated that it would be just to make sure that McKenna was getting all of the necessary vitamins that she needed, because apparently when babies are exclusively breastfed that they are lacking some of those vitamins. I didn't pick up the vitamins until after work on Wednesday, and Wednesday night I read the box before I gave her the first dose. They didn't sound so bad, as the box claimed that the vitamins were fruit flavored and she only needed 1 milliliter per day. After I opened the box and the bottle I was surprised to see that said vitamins were the consistency and color of (clean) motor oil and smelled (for lack of a better word) vitaminy. There was no fruit smell for sure, I certainly hope that the vitamins tasted better than they smelled. McKenna has now been taking them for 5 days and has now started to make a horrible face when we give them to her and has even started spitting some of them out. Which leads to my question...all these healthcare professionals and even friends and family will tell you that breast is best. However, if you give your baby formula he or she is getting those essential vitamins built right in and they don't have to take the nasty vitamin concoction (supposedly). Maybe some babies still do end up having to take liquid vitamins if they are formula fed, I'm not sure. I mainly wanted to breastfeed McKenna because I knew it would be good for her immune system and honestly I wanted to save money (for those of you who don't know, formula isn't cheap). It just makes me wonder...if breastmilk is so fantastic why should we have to supplement with motor oil vitamins? Sometimes I think it would have been easier if we had just formula fed her from the beginning. It would have been expensive and I would have felt like a bad Mom if I had formula fed her though (thanks to the pressure I put on myself and the pressure that I feel from others about breastfeeding). After a rough start breastfeeding is working out for us, even if we do have to give McKenna the lovely Poly-Vi-Sol vitamins. Guess it's what's best for us for now.
Until next time, I remain,
Jenuinely Yours
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