NATALKA BURIAN, BROOKLYN, NY
Taking care of a newborn is insane - everything about it seems so absurd in retrospect (and, to be honest, while it’s happening, too.) So much of caring for your infant is triage; soothing the crying, doing mountains of laundry, grabbing sleep wherever you can, keeping the older sibling from throwing weird blankets and things on the baby when you just need to go to the bathroom for one minute for God’s sake, and maybe taking the occasional shower are just some of the things expected of new parents. My main piece of advice is to be kind to yourself. Everyone will be fine - you’re probably doing a great job. And if you’re not, ask for help. If it gets to be too much, there is never shame in reaching out to a friend, your partner, a relative, or anyone you trust.
After my first pregnancy and delivery, I struggled with breastfeeding. My daughter was born at thirty-eight weeks, and when we brought her home, her weight had dipped to under five pounds. She was terrifyingly small, and had trouble staying awake to nurse. I tried everything - lactation consultants, visits to our pediatrician, scouring the internet - but nothing helped. So I started pumping. I was told, by friends and by the internet, that once my baby was used to drinking from a bottle, she would never go back to the breast. So, I could basically count on exclusively pumping for as long as I wanted my baby to drink breast milk. I pumped and washed the attachments and bottles, I stored and froze my milk for weeks. It was exhausting, waking up in the night to make a bottle, and then pump, and then wash everything. The memories are all a blur set to the rhythmic wheezing of my hardworking Pump In Style. I believed what all of those people and breastfeeding bloggers told me; my baby would be hooked on the bottle forever.
Until one night, about six weeks in, I thought whatever, I’m too tired, let’s just give this a shot. And guess what? My daughter latched and drank her fill without any problems. She breastfed for fourteen more months without a problem from then on. I started getting a lot more sleep, and we were all much, much happier. So in addition to be kind to yourself, and ask for help when you need it, I’ll also add, trust your gut. You’re probably right.
NATALKA’S FRESH MINT AND TARRAGON SYRUP
While I was nursing my first child, the most important lesson learned - and the most quickly forgotten - was staying hydrated. I rarely drank before I started to feel thirsty, and I began to resent the boring, usually room temperature water I was consuming on a regular basis. Fortunately, I have access to lots of interesting syrup recipes because we use so many of them in our list of signature cocktails at Elsa and Ramona. The really good news is that these syrups are as wonderful without spirits as they are with. The Fresh Mint and Tarragon Syrup below is one of my favorites because it can be added to soda water or iced tea in the summer, or to hot tea or warm lemon water in the winter. These drinks make staying hydrated a pleasure.
And, if you’re at a point in the breastfeeding journey where you can enjoy a real cocktail, a lighter, lower alcohol-containing spritz can also be made with this ingredient. You can garnish any of these drinks with a verdant sprig of mint or tarragon if you want to get fancy.
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup turbinado Sugar
1 cup very hot water
1 tablespoon fresh mint, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh tarragon, coarsely chopped
DIRECTIONS:
Steep mint and tarragon in the hot water for twenty minutes, covered. Strain out the herbs and add the warm liquid to the sugar in a small glass bowl. Mix well until sugar has dissolved. This can be kept, covered, in the fridge for about a week. Add a tablespoon or so to a glass of iced soda water and stir, using more or less depending on your taste.
My favorite is adding this syrup to a pitcher of iced chamomile tea with a few lemon and cucumber slices. Keeping it in the fridge to have handy on a hot day is one of the smartest summer beverage moves I’ve ever made. It’s also wonderful in a hot chamomile tea with a slice of lemon, too. If making a pitcher of iced tea as pictured, use 1 tea bag per 1 cup of water and steep for about an hour and a half and then add the syrup and stir. For a sweet tea, use the entirety of the Fresh Mint and Tarragon Syrup. For a less sweet tea, start with half of the syrup and add more to taste. Chill in the fridge until ready to serve over a glass of ice.
Natalka Burian received an MA from Columbia University where she studied Eastern European literature with an emphasis on the work of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. She is the co-owner of two bars, Elsa and Ramona, and City of Daughters, a line of specialty cocktail goods. She is the co-founder of the Freya Project, a feminist fundraising reading series, supporting small, non-profit organizations doing crucial work in communities that do not support that work. She grew up on a farm in Maryland, but now lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters. Her first novel, Welcome to the Slipstream, was published last year.