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This is my baby in a pod:
(That is also her Pavlovian smile response to the camera.)
She is in the pod to measure her body composition. Specifically her fat percentage. This is because we're enrolled in a breastfeeding study at the U of M. I had a prenatal health survey, she had a one month check and now this is her 3 month check. She has one more at 6 months.
Her body fat is 33.9%--up from 19% at one month. Is this good? Bad? Normal? I don't know! Her data is setting the curve. The researcher indicated that it was on track.
During an appointment she is weighed many times. With clean diaper, without diaper, before feeding, after feeding. It's interesting because I don't normally know how much she eats or weighs.
She's put in the peapod machine and we can't touch the machine for two minutes. She is measured with calipers on her thigh and belly and arm and her little baby back fat. She is tape-measured around her head and chest and belly and biceps and thighs.
None of this she seems to mind.
They have me feed her there. I answer questions about breast dominance and hand dominance and sleep and exercise and when I got my first period. The researcher takes her for another hour while I answer questions about breastfeeding style and times, depression, sleep, and everything I've eaten in the last month.
They feed me snacks and juice or water or tea if I want it.
Two hours from when I feed her there, I pump from the right breast for a milk sample. (OMG. Hospital-grade pumps are amazing.)
During all this, the baby managed to poop on the changing table, the scale, the peapod, and all over the floor. She spit up on the couch and peed on the scale for bonus fun. I didn't feel bad; they are the ones that needed her sans-diaper.
She was really good otherwise, though.
They also weigh me.
They've added on to the study--if she had been born a little later they would also collect her poop to analyze her microbiomes. But the researcher said they'd need another consent form for that. I told her she could take all the poop she wanted, but alas.
And then I get a $50 Target giftcard for my time and milk and such. I'd do it for free for SCIENCE, but it's a nice bonus.
They asked if we'd like to be enrolled in future studies. Yes. Yes to all the research!
And now Nadia has been nursing for 40 minutes on and off because even though she didn't mind any of this, it was clearly a traumatic experience.
(That is also her Pavlovian smile response to the camera.)
She is in the pod to measure her body composition. Specifically her fat percentage. This is because we're enrolled in a breastfeeding study at the U of M. I had a prenatal health survey, she had a one month check and now this is her 3 month check. She has one more at 6 months.
Her body fat is 33.9%--up from 19% at one month. Is this good? Bad? Normal? I don't know! Her data is setting the curve. The researcher indicated that it was on track.
During an appointment she is weighed many times. With clean diaper, without diaper, before feeding, after feeding. It's interesting because I don't normally know how much she eats or weighs.
She's put in the peapod machine and we can't touch the machine for two minutes. She is measured with calipers on her thigh and belly and arm and her little baby back fat. She is tape-measured around her head and chest and belly and biceps and thighs.
None of this she seems to mind.
They have me feed her there. I answer questions about breast dominance and hand dominance and sleep and exercise and when I got my first period. The researcher takes her for another hour while I answer questions about breastfeeding style and times, depression, sleep, and everything I've eaten in the last month.
They feed me snacks and juice or water or tea if I want it.
Two hours from when I feed her there, I pump from the right breast for a milk sample. (OMG. Hospital-grade pumps are amazing.)
During all this, the baby managed to poop on the changing table, the scale, the peapod, and all over the floor. She spit up on the couch and peed on the scale for bonus fun. I didn't feel bad; they are the ones that needed her sans-diaper.
She was really good otherwise, though.
They also weigh me.
They've added on to the study--if she had been born a little later they would also collect her poop to analyze her microbiomes. But the researcher said they'd need another consent form for that. I told her she could take all the poop she wanted, but alas.
And then I get a $50 Target giftcard for my time and milk and such. I'd do it for free for SCIENCE, but it's a nice bonus.
They asked if we'd like to be enrolled in future studies. Yes. Yes to all the research!
And now Nadia has been nursing for 40 minutes on and off because even though she didn't mind any of this, it was clearly a traumatic experience.
