So I promise that this will not become a mom blog, but my life currently (and for the foreseeable future) revolves around my little Fox and working on getting her home from the NICU!

Quick Anika update: she continues to do well and is growing/getting stronger everyday.  It is amazing how much can change in one day for her!  She is considered a “grow and feed” baby at this point, meaning she is healthy and self-sufficient (no more oxygen, breathing issues, etc) but needs to build the stamina to stay awake/tolerate oral feedings.  Once she can eat fully on her own and maintain weight, she can go home.  Unfortunately that isn’t quite as easy as it sounds – we have had some good days, and some bad and it has been quite the lesson in patience.  Trying to continue to take it one day at a time as we approach the 3 week mark on Monday.

I will be going back to work and travel for my job so I want to make sure I’m doing everything I can these first few weeks to help my milk supply come-in.  I’ve been doing my best on the basics (drinking water, remembering to eat, and skin-to-skin when I’m at the hospital) but given the stress of schlepping, sitting in a dark room, and leaving my newborn everyday I haven’t been able to master the relaxation/sleep piece so was looking for some additional ideas.

My fantastic NICU neighbor recommended this Upspring drink mix (you can get it at Target or Amazon) and it seems to be helping!  After also doing some research/talking to lactation consultants, I was introduced to the world of “Boobie Bites” aka an array of recipes containing ingredients to help increase milk supply.  I really miss cooking/trying new recipes so am leveraging this as an opportunity to try something new and do something that feels a bit “normal” again!

There are several options online, but I opted for these chocolate cookies from How Sweet Eats that claim to be “the best.”  The key “lactation ingredients” are the brewer’s yeast and ground flaxseed, both I purchased from The Viatmin Shoppe!

Overall they are pretty good (Luke even enjoys them, and don’t worry guys you won’t grow boobs from eating them), and if nothing else like I said were a good excuse to get my bake on and share with my NICU neighbors 🙂