So as I've said before, I have had to cut out all foods with milk products, milk protein and soy from my diet so I can continue to provide breast milk for you even if it is just part time. Right now your bottles are half breast milk and half special formula. You are starting to eat more at one time, but less times a day. This has been a challenge since I'm not producing more breast milk during the day than I used to, so sometimes your bottles are a little more formula than breast milk. This bothers me, but it is the best that we can do right now. I'm trying to stress less about pumping every so many hours or a certain amount of times a day. I just need less stress in my life right now.
Mommy has never been able to stick to a diet on her own baby. If I was making all these diet changes for myself, I would have cheated on my diet so many times by now especially with all the holiday food I've recently been around. Since I am doing this for you, though my darling, I've been able to stick to it. I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself. It has been extremely hard, costly, and caused mommy quite a bit of stress. I feel like I'm hungry most of the time these days, but every day I'm learning about new foods that I can eat or trying new recipes using milk free/soy free butter substitute and almond milk.
I don't branch out with foods a lot right now. I'm afraid to branch out too much at this point because I'm fearful we will find something else that you might be allergic to. Right now the foods that I've been eating have helped you feel better so even though a lot of what I eat is not extremely flavorful, as long as you are happy that is all that matters to me. I eat a lot of pasta (egg or whole wheat noodles) with pasta sauce and bacon pieces in the sauce for some added meat protein. I have to be very careful about what pasta sauce I choose. When I go grocery shopping these days I literally have to examine every single food label. Every Kroger brand pasta sauce has milk in it, but there are some Prego options that I can have. I used to always just buy whatever was on sale. Cheap was my motto when it came to grocery shopping. I would say all these diet changes have made our grocery bill go up about 200%. I'm not even exaggerating about that number either baby. Eating healthier and having to switch to these different foods is definitely not cheap. I also eat a lot of rice, veggies, and imitation crab made from other fish. Sometimes it is the little things that you might not think about that will get you too. Most taco seasoning and spice mixes/rubs will have either a milk or soy ingredient! I would have never guessed that, but we figured it out the hard way. My diet really is limited at this point. I hope to add specific recipes to some upcoming blog posts soon so that if any other mothers out there are going through the same thing, they have some recipes to start with. It has been difficult for me to find resources online about milk free/soy free diets. There was a mom who created a spreadsheet of foods that she liked to eat when she was going through the same diet changes for breast feeding purposes. I have found this spreadsheet to be very helpful for grocery shopping. I think that I may create a spreadsheet of my own in the next few months with some of the foods that I have found as well. Here is the link to her spreadsheet: https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tSt1VyIgb6Li5FMjMer6xZA&single=true&gid=0&output=html
I am grateful for companies like Lays who do fry some of their chips in sunflower oil instead of vegetable oil which almost always contains soybean oil. Regular Lays BBQ chips or regular plain Sun Chips are my junk food go to right now. It is just nice to have at least a few options of things that I can quickly put in a bag and take to work. I don't have the option to order Jimmy Johns or grab Arby's if I don't have time to pack a lunch in the morning because there is really nothing that I can eat at restaurants these days. I have to plan every meal and every snack. Sometimes this is very difficult especially when I work both of my jobs in one day and I'm out of the house for over 13 hours. That's a lot of food to pack and carry with me!
I love breakfast foods, but my breakfast options are very limited right now. I cannot just throw a yogurt or breakfast bar in my bag to eat on the way to work. I ALWAYS used to eat breakfast on the go because I value my sleep, but now I have to plan breakfast time into our morning routine. I do have some cereal options. Mini wheats and Honey Nut Cheerios are two of my favorites. I now use almond milk as my milk substitute. I have tried coconut milk before and I find it to be just a little too sweet for my liking. I do like SO Coconut milk coffee creamer for coffee when I drink it, though. I can also make my own oatmeal or cook up some eggs in the morning if I have time. Eggs now have to be cooked in olive oil or my milk free/soy free butter substitute because pan spray has soybean oil in it.
Next week I want to try to make no cheese lasagna. If I can find some almond milk cheese at a whole foods in the area I may try that on lasagna, but I'm really starting to feel ok without cheese. I used to love to eat cheese baby. I would eat it all the time on everything so it was a big change to cut that out. I have been missing sweets lately too. I want to try to make some milk free fruit pies soon. Your daddy made me some no bake cookies last week with 100% cocoa, natural peanut butter because regular peanut butter has soy in it and a milk free/soy free butter substitute. They are really quite good!
As I'm getting used to all these diet changes, things are getting easier. I'm craving less of the foods that I used to eat and I can tell that my taste for things has changed. I have just been craving fat lately. It is hard to explain, but I can tell that my body just wants fat. Not necessarily sweets or junk food, but fat. I used to eat a lot of fat in my diet, more fat than I needed. Honestly, I did not eat well before I changed my diet and to be truthful, my diet is not very well balanced right now. I'm glad that I'm still taking a prenatal vitamin since I'm breast feeding so I at least get the vitamins I need daily for you. I need to eat more fruits and veggies because I don't feel very healthy right now. I had you in September, but I weigh about 15-20 pounds less than BEFORE I got pregnant with you baby. So I've already lost all of the baby weight that I gained with you plus 15-20 pounds more on top of that in just a few months. It has been a rapid weight loss. I thought for awhile that my weight had kind of evened out, but I can tell that I'm starting to lose weight again in these past few weeks. You just keep gaining weight and mommy just can't stop losing it! Everyone tells me that I look good, but I just don't feel healthy. I know I shouldn't complain about losing so much weight, but I'm really not trying to lose weight right now.
I know my blog posts always seem negative and I feel like all I do is complain. I hope that everyone reading our journey can understand that mommy has had a very rough past four months. My body has been through so many changes. I had you baby. That's a huge adjustment to a woman's body to begin with. Then I've felt more stress than I could have ever imagined in these past four months. I've had hormone changes, diet changes, sleep deprivation, and depression. Physically I'm not sure how much more I can take and mentally I just feel kind of numb. I know that you are feeling better baby so now mommy needs to start taking better care of herself. You are my number one priority, but now that I have you taken care of, mommy needs to take some time and focus on myself. I made all of these changes for you my sweet girl and I wouldn't have it any other way. I would do absolutely anything for you. I love you so much and will always and forever.
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