Sorry but is that your baby?

Yes I know what a bizarre title for a blog post... so humour me

In my drug induced exhausted state, my very first words I said when I saw Shyra-Beth was "oh she is so fair!" Initially I had a few random Asian grandmas ask if she was mine but as she has grown older, browner and started to display some of my features, I haven't had anyone look quizzically at us in a while. But if you know us personally, let's be honest, as soon as Shyra opens her mouth, everyone knows she's mine. 

Let's fast forward to Jeremy, if you follow me on instagram, you would know I sometimes make reference in jest to the fact I had a white kid with grey eyes whose hair is now dark blonde. And yes I do think it is quite funny. I've had to get used to the double takes at the supermarket every week and of course the oh so popular, "how did he come from you?" And in all honesty I do laugh it off, I do find it quite funny most of the time. Don't worry I'm not going all #brownisbeautiful or #mixedbabiesrule on you in this post, even though I totally agree the colour of my children's skin has nothing to do with how utterly adorable they are. 

I guess this whole identification marker thing has been playing on my mind. How do you tell that a child has come from a parent? In a world full of mixed race marriages and blended families it isn't always easy to tell from external appearances. 

But I want to take it further than appearances today and talk about a child's character. I know children aren't always a reflection of their parents but I guess its this whole nature vs nurture argument. I have no say in how my children look, but how much should I be concerned about the people they are becoming? As their mum, what role do I play in shaping their character? I remember having a really hormonal stint in my second trimester with Shyra-Beth where I was absolutely inconsolable for a good two weeks because I was convinced I was going to ruin a life I didn't feel qualified to be responsible for. Any mums feel me out there? 

When Shyra-Beth first started having tantrums she would throw herself, like her entire body face first flat on the ground for a few minutes and then get up entirely composed. I thought it was the most bizarre thing until one day when my parents were over and she had a tantrum. The look on my dad's face was priceless, he looked at me and said "I haven't seen that happen in 25 years." Eluding to the fact that, that was exactly what I used to do when I was upset. There for you is nature right there. However a year ago during one of the lowest points of my pregnancy with Jeremy, I burst into tears in front of Shyra-Beth who was a few months off her second birthday at the time. Shyra walked over to me, wiped my tears away and said "it's ok mummy" and gave me a hug. I would like to think that there is nurture. 

If you are reading this and wondering at what point I'm going to offer some sort of magical tip or solution to raising wonderful human beings... it's not coming. I guess this post is more a reflective parenting pondering. Just to be incredibly deep and insightful right now, I guess the whole nurture thing comes down to Monkey See, Monkey Do. Does my behaviour reflect the characteristics I want to see in my children? That's my challenge daily as I bring up these little ones. So before being able to see how good a job I'm doing at this, step one would be to identify these characteristics. I've been thinking about these for the last few weeks and I'm not entirely 100% set on these and I feel like they are a work in progress. 

1// Followers of Christ

2// Kind

3// Stand against Injustice

4// Hardworking

5// Honest 

Instagram would tell you I've been currently running on about 3 hours sleep per night for last month, so if this post makes no sense, let's blame the sleep deprivation. If this concept is something you identify with I'm really interested to hear what your top 5 characteristics are, even if you don't yet have kids, so please message and let me know what your top 5 are! xx Mags

Gluten Free and Dairy Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Guys! I'm so sorry I've been a bit slack on the blog front. A mix of settling into a new kindy routine and Jeremy teething has just got me wiped out. Anyway my insta-story game has been pretty good though, so if you want to keep up with our adventures, make sure you follow me on insta! 

I made these on my insta story yesterday and got such a good response I thought I should share the recipe here! I kind of freak out when it comes to gluten free and dairy free baking as I'm just not very experienced working with these substitutes and I often find the ingredients necessary like almond meal and gluten free flour can get a bit pricey. I loveeee these cookies because they are gluten free and dairy free, they are melt in your mouth delicious, they use ingredients most kiwis have in their cupboards and they literally take 2 minutes to whip up. 

This particular batch i have adapted to be breast milk boosting by adding some flaxseed and brewers yeast. If you are a breast feeding mum, soak 2t flaxseed in 2T warm water for like 5 mins and add that with 3T brewers yeast to the mixture at the end! 

Also one more thing to note is that these are just so incredibly soft and crumbly when they come out of the oven so make sure you are super careful when shifting them from the baking tray to the cooling rack 

These aren't on the weight watchers list as they are quite sugary, so I will be experimenting with a refined sugar free version soon but for now, just indulge xx

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (DF,GF) 

1 cup smooth peanut butter

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius

2. Soften peanut butter in the microwave for 30 seconds

3. Add sugar, egg and chocolate chips to the softened peanut butter and mix till combined

4. Portion out cookies using an ice-cream scoop

5. Bake for 15 mins

6. Transfer to a cooling rack very carefully so that the cookies harden

How To Survive A Road Trip with a Breastfed Babe and A Terrific Two Year Old

I have friends who just refuse to travel with young children. To be perfectly honest I totally get it. It is no easy feat. If they are miserable, all the time, effort, energy and money you put into the trip, is all for nothing. And then I have other friends who are absolutely insane and travel the world with their young children. Now them, I envy because of all the amazing adventures they have and the fact that they are brave enough and carefree enough to do so. Me, I like to sit somewhere in the middle. Travel the world with young children with long haul flights, different weather, different food and different toilets, probs not. Travel our beautiful country, New Zealand with young children, sure why not! Actually someone the other day that we have done quite well with our domestic travel, having just a young wee bub. In Jeremy's short life of almost 6 months he has done 2x almost week long trips to Auckland, 4 days in Christchurch and 5 days in Wellington. I like to think that's a pretty good effort on our part. 

Now Wellington. When we locked in Queens Birthday Weekend to go and visit Josiah's Nan in Wellington I don't think I had quite thought through the fact that meant an approx 7 hour roadie with a two and a half year old and five month old. As it got closer to the trip I'm not going to lie there was quite a build up of anxiety. I just had to think back to the first time we took Shyra-Beth from Auckland to Rotorua and it took us about 5 hours because of the amount of times we had to stop for boobie, nappies, spillies, burpies, you name an ies and we stopped for it. I think it might be a first time parent thing because this time it was a bit different. But to see the memories and connections made between nan and our kids, the trip was defo worth it! 

Now here are a few disclaimers: 

1. Josiah's mum came with us, so it was incredible having the extra set of hands and having someone in the back to entertain the kids. Now if there are just two of you, one can totally still sit in the back 

2. We pre-planned our stops. Google maps placed 5.5 hours of driving from our house to nan's. Factoring in weather (we had heavy fog for about an hour of the drive), bladders, naps and food it took us approx 7 hours. We stopped at places that had toilets, coffee and a safe place for the toddler to blow off some steam. If you saw my insta stories you would have seen Shyra running circles around a rock in Waiouru. 

Not going to lie I feel a bit stupid doing this post because a lot of it is common sense. But a lot of these tips I picked up from other mums or just thought through and they seemed to really help, so hopefully it does reduce pre-holiday anxiety! 

1. Haakaa Pump 

I know I've already written about this beauty but seriously, one of my main concerns with this roadie was the fact Jeremy cluster feeds like there is no tomorrow and I really didn't want to have to stop every hour to feed him. I did the majority of the driving on our way down and much to Josiah's shock and horror I attached the pump before driving so lalala within the hour I had filled a good 50-70ml. This was so good, because Jeremy started screaming in the middle of the dessert road with no place to stop so all Josiah had to do was pour my milk into a bottle I had in my bag and my mother-in-law fed it to him in the back. This satisfied him till our next stop where I gave him a proper feed. While I was feeding him, I had the pump on the other side catching the let down, and we did exactly the same thing the next time he started crying in the car! 

I don't know about you but I absolutely can't handle a crying screaming baby in the car. The feeling of helplessness is awful, especially when you can't stop. This wee contraption helps to eliminate that problem! 

2. Lamaze Scrunchy Book

A friend bought this book for Jeremy and he absolutely loves it. It literally entertains him for like 20 minutes, which might as well be an eternity when it comes to Jeremy. You don't have to have this exact book but with babies if you are wanting a compact multi-function toy this one is pretty good. The plastic bits are great to chew on, the bright coloured animals are entertaining and the best part is the scrunchy noise. The little hoop at the top is also really good because you can attach it to the capsule so they can't throw it away and scream! 

3. Water Wipes 

I always buy these any way but they are amazing to have on a roadtrip, especially when you have borrowed your father-in-laws straight out of the showroom Mazda CX5. Being chemical free, we used them to wipe snot of faces, milk spills from tops, mud from gumboots that got on the seats and of course to change nappies

4. Guess How Much I Love You 

Shyra-Beth loves reading, so packing books in the car was a no-brainer but facing a children's library of what looked like a million books I had to be smart with my choice. I chose this book because its one of her favourites, it's got just the right amount of word to picture ratio for a two year old and it's got actions she could do sitting down. You could choose any book, but the above are just a few things to bear in mind, that entertain two year olds! 

5. Whittakers The Full Eighty

This was a necessity for the grown ups. This is a limited release from Whittakers and it is delish! Josiah is a dark chocolate fan, I'm a milk chocolate fan so the fact that he likes this milk chocolate based treat is a massive win for me. I like finding all the different wee bits they have in there. Also it's good bribery to get the toddler back in the car, when she didn't want to leave the Adventure Playground in Levin. If you are ever going through Levin, that is definitely a place worth stopping at! The playgroup is huge, well maintained and has so many different activities for all ages. Definitely one of the best playgrounds I've ever been to

6. Babu Organic Cotton Swaddle 

I grabbed a few of these at the baby show last year and they were by far my best purchase. I use these as actual swaddles for Jeremy because he is an escape artist and this is the only non velcro, non zip swaddle that contains him. But what I loved about it for this trip was that because of it's size it was a great cover cloth while feeding. Also because it is organic cotton I didn't have any worries when I used it to drape over his capsule while he napped in the warm car, during the drive. Having an organic, breathable fabric I knew he wouldn't overheat or get too uncomfortable and wake up! 

7. Magnetic Drawing Board

We got this for Shyra-Beth for her birthday last year. This is I guess the knock off of the original magnadoodle but it was just such a life-saver in the car. Firstly the pen is attached via string to it so you don't have to try and pick up a pen from the floor in a moving car. Secondly it is endless entertainment! We got Shyra to draw the things she could see- sheep, cows, trees and of course her favourite "The North Mountain" aka Mt. Ruapehu, because I might have fibbed and told her she might see Queen Elsa there

These are just a few ideas, if you have any other road tripping fool proof ideas with kids, please comment I would love to hear them! If you notice.. the key thing here is there is no mention or iPad's or apps! We did result to about 10mins of Paw Patrol on the phone at one point but other than that we were totally tech free aka we all ran out of data 

A New Season

I posted a photo a while ago on instagram, where I had a wee rant about being 'Just a Mum.' I guess this is an elaboration on my thoughts surrounding said rant. 

Whenever someone asks me how I'm enjoying being a stay at home mum, my answer is generally the same- "I'm learning to embrace this season." Which is so true, I really am. But I have been asking myself the same question lately, why is it, that I have to learn to embrace this season, why can't I just embrace it? There are probably a million women out there who would love to be in my position. Stay at home mum of two, with an amazing husband, beautiful home and super supportive hands-on family! So why am I discontent? 

For some women it is totally the career thing. To be honest I had an important role in the job I had before having Shyra-Beth but one couldn't really call it a career. So if it's not the career thing for me, what is it? Why is it that I just can't embrace the fact that I'm a mum and that is my primary function at the moment. 

And then I had an epiphany, which came in the form of an article that caught my eye "Is it better for Moms to stay at home?"  It was the following passage that really resonated within me 

"I didn’t like that nothing was ever done. At work, I finished projects. At home, I could work the whole day, and at the end there was absolutely no evidence I had done anything at all. There was always more laundry to do, another mess in the living room, another meal to fix, another diaper to change. At work, I could tell when I was doing a good job. At home, I struggled to have confidence in my abilities. I was pouring into my kids, but the changes were so incremental I couldn’t tell if anything I was teaching them was taking hold. Was the investment of my time and energy really making a difference?"

 - Adrien Segal

And it suddenly all made sense! For a goal oriented person who used to live by to do lists, runsheets and write completed tasks on my list simply for the satisfaction of crossing them off, motherhood did not fit into that mould. Toddlers do not abide by runsheets and babies do not help with crossing off to do lists. You can't simply say "right my list says change eight nappies a day and you are on your ninth so tough, sleep in your poop tonight." A mother's work is never complete. Ask my mum that as she sat next to her grown up, mother of two daughter this week, making me take panadol and vitamins as I slept off my sinus infection. 

In this stage of motherhood, there is no completion, no sense of achievement, no finality. Motherhood does not satisfy my desire for a happy ending because it is on-going. 

Motherhood is not something that you do, it is who you become. I realised learning to embrace this new season was a not bad thing. In acknowledging that I have to learn I have identified a problem. Identifying a problem is the first step in resolving a problem. So how am I resolving this problem of embracing this season of motherhood? Well two things:

1. Thankfulness

Every single day, regardless of melt downs, giggles, story time, baking time, adventure time, poop everywhere time, I try my hardest to always find something to be thankful for. Thankful for Shyra telling me she loves me to the moon and back every night. Thankful for the way Jeremy loves snuggling into my shoulder. Thankful for the way Josiah still looks at me, even when I'm covered in spit up and have a monobrow because I haven't had time to get my brows done

2. Realising it is just a Season

Now some of our friends have put money on this. But we have a deal that I'm not allowed to make this decision until Jeremy is a year old, but I am 98% sure that I am not getting pregnant again. Which means there is an incredibly high chance that all of this. The spit up, the nappies, the breast feeding, the one income, the fluctuating hormones. This might be the last time. This might be the last time I get to see my baby smile for the first time. This might be the last time I stay up all night having cuddles because my baby is teething. 

Autumn is my definitely my favourite season. There's just something whimsical about the colours the leaves turn and the crisp, fresh air that just put me in my happy place! I was so adamant on being an autumn bride we only had a five month lead time to plan our wedding! But the thing we all know about seasons is that they change. Before you know it the tree covered in bright red and yellow leaves is bare, leaving crushed brown leaves on the ground, but give it a few months and the blossoms start appearing again. Such is motherhood I believe. Just when you think it gets really hard, it starts getting better but you look at your baby and your baby is a baby no more. 

So I'm going to be grateful and  learn to love it all. The good, the bad, the pukey and the ugly because I'm never going to get this season back ever again, even if by some miracle we do decide to have another child Shyra-Beth and Jeremy will never ever be this age again so I'm am going to learn to take all the cuddles with all the struggles

Rant over. xx

Chunky Vege and Bacon Hock Soup

So I was really tempted to name this post "The Vege Scraps Strike Again," but then I didn't. Ok so it is cold, like we just bought 10 boxes of thermals from Kathmandu cold. Seriously Rotorua makes Auckland feel like Bali, and it isn't even actually winter yet. 

With winter, comes soup season. Seriously though, there's nothing more inviting than coming home on a cold, wet, windy day and digging into a chunky, warm soup with some crusty bread. With soup recipes, a lot of them call for stock. This might just be me, but I personally feel like if you are going to make a soup with powdered stock, why don't you just have a continental cup a soup? Soup to me should be full bodied, nourishing and wholesome, but who on earth has time to make stock and then make soup? 

This is where the vege scrap stock strikes again... seriously I'm just a bit too obsessed with that phrase at the moment. Because you can make this stock when you get a spare minute and freeze it for months, it is literally at your disposal any time you need AND it literally costs nothing to make because as the name suggests, you make the stock from scraps. Check out my pea and lentil soup recipe for the vege scrap stock instructions. 

Jeremy has just started solids, so I've been making tonnes of baby food, so the idea of a thick pureed soup, didn't seem to appetizing for me. In my head I was almost thinking a minestrone type soup with chunks of bacon on the top. The slow cooker is also my favourite "baby is teething" kitchen appliance. 

Really, this soup could totally be made in the slow cooker if you didn't mind the vegetables completely broken down. All you would need to do is saute your veges, shallots, garlic and spices before they went in the slow cooker.

As you can see below, I didn't even bother defrosting my stock, I just let the slow cooker do the work for me! The other thing to note with the soup, feel free to use what ever veges you have on hand. Soup is a great way to hide your not so fresh but still edible veges 

I really feel like its the use of spice and fresh rosemary in this soup that gives it that extra depth of flavour but if these aren't things you have in your pantry feel free to replace with all spice or dried mixed herbs

Now for the best part of this recipe. Definitely helps achieve your five plus a day goals, it's cheap to make AND Shyra-Beth my chicken nuggy obsessed toddler ate two whole bowls of it including all the veges. Winner Winner Bacon Hock Dinner. About $8 in total for this meal which gave all three of us dinner and lunch the next day

Chunky Vege & Bacon Hock Soup

1 Bacon hock

2 litres of vege scrap stock

1 litre of water

2 cups of diced seasonal veges of your choice (I used squash, carrot, celery) 

Olive Oil

1 T Rosemary

1 shallot diced

2 cloves of garlic

1t cumin

1t coriander

1 can of diced tomatoes

Optional
1/2 cup of red lentils

1 cup of small pasta (By small i mean elbows or macaroni, I used these novelty bear shaped ones) 

1. Cook the Bacon Hock in the vege scrap stock. Either simmering on a stove top for 1.5 hours or on high in the slow cooker for about 4-5 hours, until the flesh is easy to pull off 

2. Remove the bacon hock from the stock and strip off the meat. Set the meat aside for later

3. In a large stock pot heat olive oil on a medium heat and add shallot, garlic, rosemary and your veges (I didn't add my squash at this point because I didn't want it to go mushy) 

4. Sweat the veges down until softened

5. Add the cumin and coriander powder and let it saute for a further few minutes

6. Transfer the stock from the slow cooker to the pot and add in 1 litre of water 

7. Bring to the boil (I added in my squash at this point)

8. Add in the can of diced tomatoes, lentils and pasta and lower the heat to a gentle simmer until the pasta is cooked through and lentils have broken down

9. Season and serve with chunks of bacon on the top

Spiced Feijoa Crumble Loaf

Today has been one of those days. A day where I want to give a standing ovation to every single person who works in childcare and loves working in childcare. 

Thursdays are the only day Shyra-Beth doesn't go to kindy. Usually this OCD organised mummy, ALWAYS has some sort of activity planned. Today the plan was to go the the animal nursery at the Agrodome. Seriously if you are ever in Rotorua you have to check the Agrodome out, especially if you have little animal lovers! 

However last night Master Paul decided to wake up at 2am which in turn woke Shyra-Beth up. Me being the amazing wife who didn't want to wake up my hard working husband, I tried to handle the situation by myself. MISTAKE. Basically to cut a long story short I ended up in bed with both babies and Josiah ended up sleeping in Shyra-Beth's room. This morning when we woke up I opened the drapes to find a bitterly cold, wet, windy day and I knew it was not worth trying to get two grumpy kids out of the house which was MISTAKE #2

I kid you not, we did every rainy day activity imaginable. We built forts, baked, watched movies, painted, coloured and rearranged all the living room furniture so that we could dance every time there was a song on Frozen. By the way, I'm doing all of this while constantly feeding a very grizzly, teething five month old! So right now I'm lying in bed, exhausted but so grateful for Shyra-Beth's amazing kindy, and my ultra cozy European cushions. 

Josiah's parents have a couple of feijoa trees and this year they got an amazing crop so we have tonnes of them! If you aren't from New Zealand you are probably wondering what the Fee- what-a is a Feijoa. Think of it as a guava cross with a passionfruit. I guess that is the best way I would describe it? I'm addicted, I was especially addicted while I was pregnant! I remember smashing through an entire bucket in like two days. It's just something about the sweet sour grittiness that is just oh so addictive! As you can see below, Shyra is a huge fan too! 

Having tonnes on the verge of being over ripe I thought I had better bake with them. I did a cake earlier this week but wasn't happy with it because I didn't put it in a big enough cake tin so most of it overflowed, the crumble was average and I could still really taste the baking soda in it. 

This recipe isn't for an overly sweet cake and is more of a tea cake as opposed to a dessert but it was still a winner in our house! Also I chose to do it in a loaf tin because it is so loaded with feijoa it is quite crumbly, so the loaf tin makes it easier to cut. Enjoy! 

Also make sure not to chuck out your feijoa skins, if it works I'll be sharing what I did with mine! Ooooooh the suspense

Spiced Feijoa Crumble Loaf

Cake

3/4 cup mashed feijoa

1 cup of sugar

125g melted butter

1 egg

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp all spice

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp baking soda

Crumble Topping

25g butter chopped

2T Flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup shredded coconut (Desiccated is fine but I prefer the texture of shredded) 

1. In a bowl whisk together melted butter, egg and sugar 

2. In another bowl sift all your dry ingredients 

3. Mix wet ingredients into the dry ingredients being careful not to over mix

4. Gently fold through mashed feijoa till well combined

5. Add butter, flour and brown sugar to a bowl and rub with your fingers until you get the consistency of bread crumbs

6. Add rolled oats and shredded coconut 

7. Pour the cake batter into a lined loaf tin and top with the crumble topping

8. Bake for  40-45 mins in a pre-heated oven 170 degrees Celsius or until the skewer comes out clean*

* Make sure to not put your tray too near to the top of the oven or your crumble might get a bit burnt 

Giving Babe the Best

Breast feeding is such a contentious issue. I mean there's #breastisbest #fedisbest #dontjudgejustfeed #sorenips #mybreastpumpsucks 

Ok but actually, this whole idea around feeding a baby has just gone crazy! Today I received my Haaka pump, I was literally so excited I almost greeted the courier with my boobs not quite in my bra yet....almost

So like all mum bloggers I thought I had better share my "breast feeding journey." Gosh, I really do hate that term. So to start with let's get one thing clear- I do not enjoy breast feeding. Like at all. I've read all these blogs about feeling like a life giving goddess, that amazing bond and all that, and yeah I totally get that life giving nutrients are literally flowing from you. But when I think of breast feeding all I think about is that time we took the kids to the Rotorua A & P Show and we walked into the milking shed. Hours on end, my full time job is to sit on my bottom and feed this beautiful precious child. That is my main function in life, as a breast feeding mum, just like a dairy cow. 

Let's get one thing straight, breast feeding was not difficult at all with Shyra-Beth. I was incredibly confused at the start because each different midwife I had at the hospital told me something different, but once my midwife who was also a lactation consultant came in and gave me direct step by step instructions we were off and away. I fed Shyra-Beth right up till a few weeks after her first birthday and then she discovered Anchor Silver Top and fell head over heels in love. In fact I remember the last time I breastfed. Josiah was at his soccer final and I was sitting on the couch watching Grey's Anatomy. It hit me, this is probably the last time I am going to breastfeed this child. There I sat waiting for it, sadness? remorse?... nada! Like actually if anything, if I'm being perfectly honest there might have been a hint a relief.

Does that make me a horrible person? I've had friends who have had the works! Sore, cracked nips, intense pain. Here I was having no breast feeding consequences other than dire boredom and raging hormones (not in a good way at all) and I really disliked doing it. Am I allowed to say that? In a culture where breast is best is so glorified, am I able to express my feelings around this issue?

Jeremy has been a whole different story. From day one I noticed his latch was different but as he was piling on the weight in start, it didn't really worry me. It wasn't until after we were discharged by the midwife that he started dropping percentiles. By 3 months, he was feeding all the time, but had dropped two weight percentiles and gone up 2 height percentiles. Shyra-Beth did the same thing around the same age so we weren't too worried, until I started connecting dots. My nips were always sore, I wasn't hormonal, I had never needed a breast pad even when we started doing long stretches at night and when i pumped for a friend I got next to nothing. My mum-tuition started kicking in so I took him to the doctors. Two doctors and a nurse who was a former midwife looked at him and said nothing was wrong. But mummy always knows best. One appointment with the lactation consultant and less than a week later Jeremy was getting his Grade 2, lip and tongue tie lasered! Yay for our first pain free feed! Featured below

Two months later, this boy is feeding heaps better, my supply is up but he is still not putting on enough weight! He does long stretches at night but feeds quite a bit during the day. We have just started solids and plunket has recommended I start expressing as well. 

Ahhh expressing the joy of my life. Actually no, I dislike it more than breastfeeding. The buzz of the pump, the looking at cute baby videos to stimulate oxytocin, the fact that you literally just have to sit there and do nothing apart from maybe watch TV or read a book. The only time of day I can sit and do nothing is when both my babies are asleep and during those moments the last thing I want to do is sit there and feel like a glorified milking cow! This is where the Haaka Pump comes in! 

You attach it and that is it, completely hands free! This morning I had it attached while I helped Shyra-Beth with breakfast and TA DA, 50ml of milk. 50ml of milk would normally take me 20-30 minutes of sitting down and expressing with my electric pump. My most intense let down is first thing in the morning after JJ sleeps 9pm-7am (Yes I know, he is amazing) So I have my wee Haaka pump chilling on my bedside table waiting to be attached first thing tomorrow morning! 

So I fully don't know if anyone actually reads these, or I'm just ranting away to myself. But if you are...There's such a mum-culture about giving baby the absolute best everything. For goodness sake we have a $800 pram! That's more expensive that most first cars! I guess the moral of my story is give baby the best that you can. That may be breast milk or it may be formula. You give baby what is best for baby, even if it comes as a sacrifice to you. But don't mistake the fine line between sacrifice and suffering. You can't give baby your best if you are suffering, and if breast feeding is causing you to suffer, it's not worth it. If like me, breast feeding is just annoying, do it, make the sacrifice, your babe will thank you for it! 

That's my 2 cents for today! But seriously if you are a breast feeding mumma Haaka have their original pumps on special for only $20! It really is a must have!