Scout's Cake
Sunday, April 29, 2007

Breastfeeding seems to be getting much easier. My nipples are still a little sore, but I can tell that they are healing from the rough start we had. Our little girl is getting plenty. I love it when she is done eating and there is milk dripping from the corners of her tiny mouth. I love it when she drifts off to sleep in my arms with a full belly. It seems like all I do is nurse her, but that in itself is so satisfying.

We haven't started using cloth diapers yet, although I am looking forward to making that transition. I just figure that my mom and grandma have enough to do around here without me asking them to wash poopy diapers in addition to our other laundry. I want to start using cloth soon, though....plus, we're running out of disposable diapers and we are in somewhat of a tight financial spot right now.

Speaking of which, we have no insurance and now we have an unexpected hospital bill to pay for. I try not to think about that too much. I know it will get taken care of, even if we just chip away at it with small payments over a long period of time. The safe arrival of our sweet daughter is certainly worth a hospital bill, no matter how expensive.

I have put a lot of thought into how I will refer to our little girl in blog-land. I've decided that there is no harm in using her real first name. I Googled it to see how easy it would be for friends and family to find this page if they did a search for her name, and there are so many other pages that come up in the search results - I doubt that they would ever stumble across this one.

Her name is Scout.

One of the things I included in our birth plan was that we would celebrate the arrival of our new baby with a carrot cake from our local natural foods store (yum! my favorite!) Here is a picture of Scout with the cake her daddy ordered for her. Sure, we ate it a couple days after her actual birthday....but it was still special...and really delicious.

Oh yeah, and here is a pic of the very first time I met Scout:

I LOVE this picture. It makes me want to cry.

Labels: cloth diapering, finances, food, labor/birth

posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 1:54 PM,

7 Comments:

At Mon Apr 30, 12:50:00 PM CDT, Annika said...: I also had an unplanned transfer to the hospital with no health insurance. I called the finance office and asked for information on financial assistance. They sent me a form to fill out which basically asked how much we make and how much our bills are. After more than six months (during which time I kept getting late notices for my $20,000 bill and calling to ask if they were still processing my application) I was given 100% charity adjustment and owe nothing to the hospital. We still have doctor bills to pay (our hospital's doctors all bill separately), but the bulk of it was taken care of because of our financial situation. I don't know if your hospital offers the same, but you should definitely call and talk to them.
At Mon Apr 30, 12:51:00 PM CDT, Annika said...: P.S. I already said as much in email, but I have to say it again: Scout is the best name EVER and it suits her so perfectly.
At Mon Apr 30, 05:52:00 PM CDT, twolinesonastick said...: That picture of her with the cake is SO beautiful. Glad to hear nursing is continuing to get easier for you- it's improving each day for us too. Speaking of which I think she just woke up hungry :)

Have you figured out how to nurse hands free yet? I finally mastered that last night in front of the computer, using the big armchair/desk chair and Boppy. GREAT discovery :)
At Mon Apr 30, 06:06:00 PM CDT, Lynanne said...: For what it’s worth, I still have sore nipples even though I was breastfeeding a toddler.

As for cloth diapers - I personally found it is easier to use cloth once the baby is a few weeks older and doesn't pee and poop ever 20 seconds (an exaggeration of course). Plus, the early poops stain the heck out of cloth diapers. You either have to live with stains or bleach and double rinse (sometimes triple rinse depending on how sensitive her skin is). It gets easier once the poops slow down a little (great thing about breastfed babies!) so don't feel bad for not starting right away. It's a toss up which is more environmentally friendly in the early days when you factor in all the laundry you'd do.
At Tue May 01, 09:05:00 PM CDT, Wendy @ WMF said...: Scout is such an adorable name. I don't know which looks more yummy; the baby or the cake!
At Wed May 02, 02:36:00 PM CDT, Sorlil said...: oooh I love carrot cake, that's so sweet. Scout is a great name and the pics are just lovely.
At Thu May 03, 10:12:00 AM CDT, heidi said...: that precious picture brought tears to my eyes. thank you for sharing your daughter's name with us. scout is a beautiful name...brings back happy memories of reading "to kill a mockingbird" for the first time :) breastfeeding my baby gives me the most fulfilled feeling ever. i remember the days where it seemed all i ever did all day long was switch him from one boob to the next over and over...now he's the healthiest tub of lard i've ever laid my eyes on! glad to hear the soreness is decreasing. blessings!