Thursday, August 4, 2016

World Breastfeeding Week

(Editor's note: this post contains pictures of me breastfeeding. If pictures of a mom breastfeeding her baby offends you, you're probably reading the wrong blog. :)) 

Hey everyone! I know things have been a bit more quiet here on the blog lately. Honestly, I've been super busy taking care of my little family and really don't have much excitement to write about. 

Quick housing update: we dropped price. Again. At this point I'm so desperate to sell, someone could really take advantage. Lol. We have a great house and we've had a lot of interest, but the market is really slow in our area right now. Could be those consistent triple digit temps... 

AND quick Luna update (I'll have another one soon, girl is getting huge! She's such a chunk. Like 13 lbs of pure cute baby. Lol. 


But in other news, it's World Breastfeeding Week! As many of you know, I spent some time working as a breastfeeding support leader and educator. I loved it. 



And I still provide help to those who ask. While I personally love breastfeeding and advocate for it, I also believe that fed is best and I'd never say my decision is what every other mom should do. Don't want to breastfeed? Cool. Just don't start out feeding your kid spicy chicken wings and we're cool. Ha. 

When it comes to parenting, there can be a lot of controversy and opposing views. But never have I seen a parenting topic result in so much "warring" between moms than that of breastfeeding. I once read lactation consultant write about how "breast isn't best, but it is the biological norm." That's really stuck with me. 


Breastfeeding is natural and is what our species is meant to do to survive in infancy, but as many of us know, nature can be a total jerk sometimes. Breastfeeding is definitely not as easy as it looks. And for some, it's downright impossible. That said, I do think a lack of resources and education regarding breastfeeding is why some moms are unable to continue doing it even though they want to. That's why it's so important for moms to be aware that there is help out there! Usually there are pretty easy fixes to the problem. 

I've had a bunch of issues I've had to troubleshoot between breastfeeding my two kids. It's a journey and there are definitely rough patches along the way. 

Between Jack and Luna I have now spent three years of my life breastfeeding. THREE. 

So crazy. I know some of you are doing the math right now and you're like, but Luna is only two months old... 

Yeah I breastfed Jack for 34 months. That's almost three years. I really proud of that, to be honest. Around some people I've felt embarrassed and lied or ommited the truth about when we stopped breastfeeding. But I don't even care anymore. I did what was best for Jack. And anyone who has done adequate research on the benefits of full-term nursing would agree with me. 



But again, that was the right decision for US. I would never push that parenting choice onto another mom. I ended up weaning Jack as a result of my milk drying up during my pregnancy with Luna. Jack was only nursing for about a minute a day at that point anyway. It was totally for comfort when he'd fall asleep at night. I felt like our breastfeeding relationship had run its course anyway.

 

When my milk came back in during my second trimester, Jack wanted to nurse again and I didn't let him. I had no interest in tandem nursing my kids, although I know some moms who do and major kudos to you. I just knew it would make it harder on Jack in encouraging him to be more independent. Which he and I both needs that little push and it was good for us in getting ready for Luna's arrival. 

I'm so grateful I get the opportunity to breastfeed again and love the bond that it creates between you and your baby. It's incredible. I love those times when it's just me and Luna and she unlatched and looks up at me and gives me a big milky grin before going back to eat. It's seriously the sweetest. 

This was the first ever pic I took of Luna after she was born. First latch! 

I'm more comfortable than ever nursing in public and I've green pretty good at it, especially while I have the baby in the carrier. Seriously, no one can even tell or bats an eye. 


I'm so glad nursing in public is getting the attention it deserves to help to normalize breastfeeding. It's just a mama feeding her baby and that's pretty amazing. <3






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