Taweret. The Hippo Goddess.
Hello Mamas,
well, a shameless friend of mine (Hi T!) asked to be in a comic and even went so far as to e-mail me her choice for goddess. A stunning choice as it turns out: Taweret. She even hangs sometimes with Hathor~! and isn’t that interesting that in our time/place we feel horrified at the comparison to a Cow or a Hippo, yet here they are, Goddesses? And the protectors of motherhood, too. Makes you wanna rethink that aversion doesn’t it? Go ahead wallow in the bath today and say, “Yay, Taweret, Goddess Protector of Mothers and Babies”! Splash, splash, wallow, wallow. Aren’t we awesome?
In Hippo-Cow Solidarity,
Love,
Heather
sewathomemama said,
November 14, 2007 @ 6:02 pm
yay, taweret! i want to be an animal goddess! i’m gonna go do my research…
cairomama said,
November 14, 2007 @ 8:50 pm
When I bought my pump from the Lactation Center the LC told me that it takes practice to pump and not to think that I had no milk if I couldn’t get much out with the pump at first. I’m so glad she did because I had just assumed that the pump would get more out that the baby. So many women I run into say,”I tried to nurse but I just didn’t make enough. I pumped for 45 minutes and only got an ounce.” Or they say,”I didn’t make enough the baby wanted to nurse constantly, he was starving.” In the breastfeeding and childbirth classes that I took they covered that frequent nursing was just increasing supply and to “feed on demand”, but no one mentioned that pumping would be difficult. If not for that comment from the LC when I bought the pump, I might have doubted my supply as well.
Barbara said,
November 15, 2007 @ 10:05 am
ha!! love it!
wiffersnapper said,
November 15, 2007 @ 1:41 pm
Since my daughter was in the NICU, I had to pump from the start. The hospital’s way of “supporting” me was to drop the pump off in my room while I wasn’t there. No one came to show me how to use it, no one asked if I had any questions. I can remember sitting on the bathroom floor in the middle of the night, pumping away, getting like two ounces, and bawling my eyes out. Thank God I’m just stubborn and have a really supportive husband, or I might’ve given up right there and then.
queenmommy911 said,
November 15, 2007 @ 2:23 pm
Here’s a fun one for ya. My first was a hospital birth in the days of moms being discharged at 24 hours post-partum but baby had to stay for 3 days. I was sent home with a pump and a general idea of how to use it. I managed to pump a grand total of an ounce after an hour of trying. I brought that ounce when I returned to nurse the baby so they’d have something for her in case traffic held us up later. The nurse *laughed* at me! “There ain’t enough there to fool with,” she said. I can’t remember the exact words, but she did insinuate that I’d not be able to nurse successfully. Later the very same day I was dying from the engorgement and got in the shower and had milk shooting everywhere then got out and pumped 3 or 4 ounces to bring back and stare that evil woman down. Too bad shifts had changed…
ethele said,
November 16, 2007 @ 10:40 am
wiffersnaffer - wow, that’s horrid. Especially since 2 oz. is great for those first days, esp. with a NICU baby! If only someone could have told you how well you were doing!
I attended the twin-specific childbirth classes at a baby-friendly hospital. The entire first session of four was on nursing and focused heavily on pumping for a baby in the NICU (50% of twins are premature). The main messages: Every drop counts (even if you get two drops, take it to your nurse, she’ll get it out of the bottle w/ a syringe), and premies who are fed breastmilk are discharged from the NICU an average of 2 weeks sooner than those who aren’t. Guess there is a reason why King County, WA has some of the best breastfeeding numbers in the country.
I could never pump more than an ounce (maybe two occasionally) on top of what my babies nursed. But I pumped 18 to 24 oz a day when I returned to work, 6 to 12 oz a session, and I actually had oversupply - I could actually nurse two babies from one side for six hours straight with my supply.
wiffersnapper said,
November 18, 2007 @ 5:11 pm
The truly gratifying part was that, when my DD came home at a whopping 5 lb 1 oz, she nursed ALL the time! It was like she’d been denied it for too long and wasn’t ever going to suffer that again! For a while, she was gaining an ounce a day. The doctor asked, “What are you doing with her?” and I said, “Nursing whenever she wants.” His response- “Good! Keep doing that and she’ll be fine!” (It’s a shame we didn’t see him BEFORE we left the hospital.) And I wound up having so much milk that I donated to the Milk Bank twice. I would feed her with one side and pump the other, and it just kept coming. It was great!