Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Cabbage leaves? Really?

Will someone please explain how cabbage leaves help relieve engorgement and help dry your milk up? I must admit..I was skeptical of this old home remedy. I am weaning Ms Avery and OMG, I thought I was doing it right. I started skipping pump sessions, one by one and then on Sunday I went down to one. I got so engorged that I could hardly bare the pain of pumping for relief, which made it even worse. OH WOW! That hurts! My boobs all of the sudden changed from huge and floppy and huge and ROCK HARD. Sorry, I know that is a lot of information about my boobs. When you have a baby all of the sudden you find your self sharing details about all sorts of your anatomy that you probably felt uncomfortable talking about before... I guess its all part of it. Modesty, to some extent, has certainly become less sensitive! Anyway, back to my rock hard boobs that are now a size DD...I do miss the pre-pregnancy boobs. I was as small as I had ever been, I could wear a size A cup, Im telling you, boobs are over-rated!! ;-) People keep telling me this old remedy for weaning that is over 100 years old, that is to buy green cabbage, crush up the leaves with a rolling pen an place them inside your bra. Well, I said I wasn't doing that, until Sunday evening, GET ME CABBAGE PLEASE!!!!! I'll try anything, what ever it is, no matter how silly it sounds, I am just that uncomfortable!!!!

Low and behold, it worked! I smelled of cole slaw, but i really couldn't have cared less, H and I got a huge kick out of me putting them in my bra, we use country slang here "Oh baby, Ill never be able to eat at a fish restaurant again with out thankin of you" LOL!! "Baby, you look good nough to eat" HHE HEH! We're really not right! We laughed till we cried, well, I really did because it hurt to laugh!! Now it may just be in my head, but it really did bring me tremendous relief, thank God! It has been 3 days now and although I am not ready to do jumping jacks with single support, I do feel much better. BTW, Nicole had us do a million jacks last night in her class, I think she wanted to cause me pain because I was showing out ,trying to one-up Brandon. Im truley sorry Nicole!! I get it, you're pissed!! You got me good, if the class wasn't full, I would have just put my hands over my boobs to hold em in place, the 3 sports bras were no competition to jacks and ski's!! LOL!

Scientifically? I cant find any conclusive studies except that women consistently show improvement when compared to placebo....we need some conclusive info here! Is it mind over matter? A certain nutrient that is released to resolve inflammation, in which case, does it work on a sprained ankle, pulled muscle, black eye? If so, what is the nutrient? Or does it specifically target the mammary glands, somehow helping your body to magically absorb the milk back into the body quicker? I think Im reading too much into this... I know my Mammaw could answer this question. If she was only here..:-( Does anyone out there have a clue?? Just wondering! I want to extract what ever it is that has this effect and make it a cream, that's right, Ill make my millions! Oh yeah. Love you all!-K

4 comments:

nichole said...

You sure do know how to make a girl feel special!I can't believe I made it into your blog!I only wish I did that to you on purpose,(that would have been sweet),that will teach you for sharing too much information and then try to show me up in class.LOL I love it! I am still waiting for your first novel,you would be great at writing...see-ya!,nichole

The Daniels Family said...

Hey Kara-
Yeah I had that problem when I weaned Hailey. I did not try cabbage although I did hear that! I just took HOT showers and massaged by own boobs---now theres some info!! :-) When I got out of the shower milk was leaking everywhere it was freaking halarious! I love all your post you are so honest. Hope Ms Avery is doing well!

Sarah said...

I got super engorged for some random reason around Christmas. My mom recommended cabbage and then I read about it in a parenting magazine. No clue why it works, but it does. I didn't try it, just took hot showers and nursed like crazy. Good luck with weaning!

Ladybug Johnson said...

I've never heard of this but it is an interesting concept. I agree that Mamaw could definitely answer that question. I guess we need to find a serogate to help us even though no one could ever replace Mamaw. As for the cabbage leaves, I'll be sure to give this advice to my daughter-in-law. She will be facing the boob issue soon if she hasn't already. Thanks for the info.