Xiola’s father thinks it’s creepy that the world can see pictures of his daughter online. While I don’t think anyone who doesn’t know us personally would really care about our family, he isn’t wrong about the weird factor of the www. Xiola is an individual and she should have a say in whether she wants to have her picture posted or not. And since she can’t say anything now except REALLY CUTE “Ah-GOOOO”s and “WOOEEEEEOOWWWWW!!” and *CROAK* (yes, she croaks. It’s awesome), I’m gonna take it as a No, Mummy, I want to protect my privacy.

Henceforth, all posts with pictures of Xiola’s face will be password protected. Friends & family, password is my 10-digit cell number.
If you don’t have it, email me.
P.S. It’s in my Facebook profile contact info which only my friends can view.

I will still write about cabbage though.

(I wrote this 3 days ago and never completed and posted it).
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I have cabbage leaves in my bra. And it is a lifesaver.

I first read about this at Dooce. Somehow, it got archived at the back of my mind, because when I woke up at 4am last night moaning from the pain reverberating from my exploding boobs down to my fingertips and across my back, a vision came to me, like a message from God….CABBAGE.

Yes, cabbage.

Let’s rewind a little. Since Xiola’s been sleeping through the night, it’s been hard for my boobs to catch up. By which I mean that the boobs work on an amazing demand and supply system, but it needs time to adjust to the baby’s needs, or lack thereof. But she slept so long so fast I had to pump. But apparently, all I was telling my boobs was to produce more, whenever I pumped. The best way, it seems, to not have to wake up at 4am to pump, or to sit and pump for half an hour at midnight when I just wanna crawl into bed, is simply to tolerate the pain till the boobs are adjusted.

When I returned back to work, I simply nursed her at night and in the morning. Since I leave my pump at work, there is no option or temptation to pump. Then Xiola started to sleep 2 hours longer within the span of a week or so. Now, her last feed’s at 815, in bed by 845pm and she doesn’t stir till 630-7am. Which is AMAZING in every way, except my boobs started to KILL me. I’d wake up at 4am and wanted to claw the skin off my breasts to give them some space. It was BAD. I spent the next 2 hours in agony. That’s boob training for you.

Then, CABBAGE came flashing to my head. I revisited Dooce’s site, googled “breast cabbage” and read women swearing by it. I promptly went out to buy a large head of cabbage…just regular green cabbage, the sites are prompt to remind you.

And it SOOO WORKED! Holy mother of jesus! It WORKED!!! Almost INSTANTANEOUSLY. I thought it would be the coolness of the leaves that eases the pain. But it worked even better after the cabbage leaves warmed up against my breasts (cabbage + my + breasts are words I never thought I’d use in a sentence, but there you go, I have done so repeatedly in this post), so there must be something in the cabbage that works almost like anesthesia for the breasts. It was incredible. I pretty much left them on all night. I still woke up at 4am. But instead of groaning from the pain for the next 2 hours, I replenished my bra withe fresh cabbage (again, my + bra + fresh + cabbage, words I’d never….you get the point), and fell back asleep pain-free till Xiola woke me and my boobs up at 645. Cabbage, oh, cabbage, my lifesaver!!!

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So after that night, I didn’t need to use Cabbage in Bra anymore! Somehow, the boobs managed to get trained and tuned in to Xiola’s time. I just had to get through that few nights of intense pain…I just wished I bought that head of cabbage earlier.

And so, the point of all this information would be…? you ask. Yes, I know. TMI. But someone blogged about this MIRACULOUS vegetable and it turned out to be a lifesaver for me. Maybe this post would help the next poor breastfeeding mom with engorged boobies too.