Tag: new mom

Prepartum Depression and Postpartum Depression

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Prepartum and Postpartum Depression

This blog post is for all my mama’s out there and mama’s to be. Let’s get real and let us talk about postpartum depression but only not postpartum but prepartum depression which is something I experienced the first few months of my pregnancy.

It is said that the cause for postpartum depression is unknown but can be linked to rise and drop in hormone levels after giving birth. After a woman gives birth they given six weeks before coming back for their first postpartum checkup. In my opinion that first visit just goes by really fast and because postpartum depression is such a big topic of discussion in motherhood and pregnancy one screening for postpartum depression is not enough. Thats exactly how it went for me and several mama’s out there. During your six week check up you are given a questionnaire to fill basically asking you questions in relation to how you are feeling at that time. If you score above a certain number on that questionnaire it may mean you might have postpartum depression.

After my six week visit everything was good and my doctor said to come back in a year. I was thinking to myself a year? Thats it? That is all? This is where I feel things go wrong screening for postpartum depression should not just be after the first six weeks but should continue throughout that first year of being postpartum. 

As for my experience with prepartum depression which I am not sure is really a term but that’s what I would call it, I experienced this between my 2nd to 4th month pregnancy.  I just remember feeling really down and like I didn’t feel like myself, I didn’t want to get out of bed. Throughout most of my pregnancy I did feel very sick and was nauseated and dry heaving almost everyday so some of those things could have played a factor to making me feel more depressed but it just a different feeling that I never felt before.

It is very important that we know the signs and symptoms of postpartum depression which are:

  • Depressed mood or severe mood swings
  • Excessive crying
  • Difficulty bonding with your baby
  • Withdrawing from family and friends
  • Loss of appetite or eating much more than usual
  • Inability to sleep (insomnia) or sleeping too much
  • Overwhelming fatigue or loss of energy
  • Reduced interest and pleasure in activities you used to enjoy
  • Intense irritability and anger
  • Fear that you’re not a good mother
  • Hopelessness

If you feel that you may be exhibiting any signs of postpartum depression please reach out to your primary care provider

Written By: Vanessa J

Check Out My Youtube Video on Postpartum Depression

Blogmas Day 17 – Breastfeeding Bags

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As a new mom breastfeeding was a high priority for me but I struggled to do it and my son could not latch on correctly. Even though I was sad about it I still wanted my son to get the nutrients from breast milk. So a little after giving birth I got my breast pump and was excited to start. Little did I know pumping is a full time job and can get messy at times. For me I don’t have a large supply of breast milk but even if it was a little bit I wanted my son to have it. 

I didn’t realize how messy it could get to transfer breast milk into breast milk storage bags and back into the bottle. So I finally stumbled upon the Kiinde bottle. My husband had gotten a free bottle in a sample box sent to us but I didn’t notice how good the storage bags are. The kiinde storage bag allows you to pump directly into the bag by using adapters that can connect to any breast pump and the storage bags come with a cap which makes it easier then the traditional storage bags to use.

I absolutely love it and now i’m not spilling  all over the place!

Blogmas Day 12- Oh Baby!

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Me and Baby Boy

This year I was blessed with one of the greatest gifts I found out I was expecting and the baby was arriving this same year! . I was excited and nervous at the same time. As much as I felt I had experience with children such as babysitting my younger cousins and watching them grow up there is nothing like having your own child.  Then you begin to wonder what your child will be like , how will their personality be ?

There is no instruction manual that can fully prepare you to become a parent. For some reason I thought that babies just sleep all day 😩😩😩😩 boy was I wrong! My baby boy was born in October and when I tell you first month was rough , it was rough.  Shortly after arriving back home from the hospital the baby was sound asleep peacefully then once night hit my husband and I were up for hours. We couldn’t figure out how to calm him down everything we did changing him, soothing him, and feeding him nothing worked. We were more than sleep deprived. We soon figured out that our baby boy was colic. I had heard the term but didn’t quite know exactly what it meant. Then I learned that it is the term for when a baby cries for more than 2 hours straight.

Then we started to get nervous because people were telling us “colic” could last for up for up to three months or more. Then at his first doctor’s visit the doctor told us “colic ” is not really a real diagnosis or condition but just a term. We soon figured out that the reason he might be fussy is because he has gas and his digestive system was very sensitive. He was not being breastfed so we tried changing his formula to something more gentle and that seemed to help a lot.

One thing to remember is that babies have to get used to being outside the womb after being in there for nine months. They do not know the difference between day and night, so during the day they sleep and during the night they may be a bit more cranky.

Now at  two months my son is currently much better and started to develop a routine even though the routine is not permanent we are happy he is doing much better!

Oh Baby!!!!