What Did You Eat?

This is a question that has haunted me for almost four months now. Why? Because I have an incredibly gassy baby, and since I'm nursing everyone assumes it's something I ate. What people don't realize is, that question is a huge confidence killer, and new mom's need all the confidence they can get. Here I've been silently feeling like the worst mom ever because I can't figure out what I ate or drank that is causing my baby to scream out with gas pains at the most random moments.

I have read every article out there on what you eat while breastfeeding and the majority of them say that gassiness is not directly affected by mom's diet. So I would then reassure myself it's not me and she is gaining weight and otherwise healthy so don't worry about it. Until someone much wiser than me says those lovely words, "Well, what did you eat?" Knife to my fragile heart as I scramble to defend myself all the while second guessing everything I have ingested in the past twenty four hours while trying to calm my fussy baby down.

Well the last couple weeks have been worse while she cut her first two teeth. The last two nights had me seriously wondering what I'm doing wrong, as she has woken up twice both nights screaming in pain. Then today Nicole was feeling around her gums making sure there weren't anymore teeth coming in and discovers my sweet baby is lip tied.

So tonight I looked up the symptoms of a lip tied baby...
They include....
-excessive gas and reflux
-coughing, choking, and noise while eating
-feeds that last for extremely long times
-making a mess while eating
-frequent short feeds
-baby falling asleep while eating and then waking up shortly after still hungry

Then I watched this video: https://youtu.be/XZae0tz8RPE

Then I sat here dumbfounded as she spit up all over me again while trying to pass gas....

It really isn't my fault! It really isn't my fault. Oh my gosh it really isn't my fault. My poor baby, why has nobody looked for this before? No wonder we're tired and go through gripe water like crazy and I do laundry for burp rags and bibs. This explains why you often soak my undershirts when you eat....my sweet beautiful baby, no wonder you're miserable, you're lip tied. It's not what mommy did or didn't eat it's that tiny piece of skin in your mouth. Oh my, oh my...

That's a Beautiful Baby

I may be a little biased but I happen to agree with the lady who told me that this morning. This got me thinking about beauty. It is such a vain thing to worry about yet, we all do. Even as a new mother you're hoping this baby you have been carrying comes out beautiful, no one wants an ugly baby! lol I fully believe no mother has an ugly baby! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or so they say, so when you're holding your baby all you see is beauty.

I was talking to Adah after the lady left who said she was beautiful and I said, "I hope you never forget that." It's true I pray my beautiful baby girl never forgets that she is beautiful, it's her namesake. But more than that I pray she never forgets why she is beautiful. For me beauty is so much more than skin deep. Yes, I was blessed with a baby people love to look at and talk to, but it's her spirit that shines through making her so beautiful. When she giggles and coos it just steals your heart. She is beautiful because she is the daughter of the King on loan to Adam and I. I call her mine but she really belongs to God.

All of humanity ultimately belongs to God, we just choose whether or not to believe it, and we get to choose whether or not to claim that identity. We are all beautiful because we were chosen by the King of the universe, He knows us by name and uses that name when He calls us. None of us are worthy of His love but He gives it anyway, and it flows freely from the cross where we were saved. When we choose Christ we choose a life of beauty. And yet we all get wrapped up in the vanity of life and worry about our thigh gap or the lack thereof and forget where our beauty comes from. Our beauty comes from God not our pant size. Our beauty comes from Christ, no earthly relationship, job, or body type can give it to us.

Because of Christ's love for me I get to be a princess, and we all know there is a special beauty about royalty. So when your mirror is telling you something different, or you aren't getting the reassurance you feel you need,  remind yourself you are a princess (or a prince).

I believe it is my job, and my husband's to make sure my daughter knows this and believes it!