>topless thursday: fart and run

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A bit of housekeeping:

* It’s Leukemia/Lymphoma Awareness Month and I wrote a guest post for Laugh Until You Cry! Click here to check it out!

* Also, be sure to enter my Terracycle “upcycled” pencil pouch giveaway! There will be three winners. Click here to see the giveaway.

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It isn’t often I can get Hayden to nurse in public. Probably because we didn’t try much when we were alone with her sister. But the other day, sans two year old, I sat down at a vacant sitting in the middle of the shopping center, at about 1 p.m. on a Monday. And she latched. Under a blanket. And it was lovely.

MY LITTLE GIRL WAS NURSING IN PUBLIC!

And then this guy sat down next to me. On the couch I was sitting on, not the empty chairs opposite the couch. Commented “I need to relax a bit!” Asked if I was using the iPhone. Farted. Then took off.

Not only did he gross me out, he stirred Hayden up and on to the bottle we moved.

Sweet!

>topless thursday: memories

>Some of my favorite memories of the baby years with my daughters will be the times spent nursing. All the hard work at the beginning of their lives – the tears, cracked and bleeding nipples, several minutes spent trying to achieve the perfect latch – all worth it. Because in the end, I have the memories of their little eyes examining me while they eat. Or them snuggling next to me in a milk induced coma, falling off to sleep.

These are memories, even the rough ones, I will forever store in my heart. I am blessed that I was able to nurse and enjoy it.

>topless thursday: gisele’s a pompous ass

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Recently super model, Gisele Bundchen made the news for suggesting that there be an international law requiring all mothers to nurse their babies for six months. And she goes on to say (in Harper’s Bazaar’s September issue) , “Are you going to give chemical food to your child when they are so little?”

And as a mom,  breast feeding or not, I get what she’s saying as far as wanting what you think is best for your baby.

But I think she’s a pompous ass.

What she doesn’t account for in this “law”she is suggesting is that not all mom’s can nurse their babies for medical reasons. Low milk supply. Not producing milk at all. Complications from breast surgery or even cancer. Medications necessary for mom, but not good for baby. Or the baby wont nurse.

And for these reasons (and so many more), her comment is asinine.

Who is she to publicly judge how mother’s raise their babies?  My mother, wanted to, but couldn’t nurse my brother and I. We were formula fed. And she raised us wonderfully and we are both healthy, well adjusted adults. Gisele’s comment suggests that she wronged us.

And even if mom’s don’t nurse because they think it’s weird or unnatural, who is she (or we) to judge? So a baby gets formula. Really, is it that bad?

I visited a township in South Africa where mom’s were giving babies stale Coca Cola in their bottles to give them calories. And even then, is it fair to judge?  Perhaps they can not nurse all the time, don’t produce milk, or worse, trying not to pass the HIV virus that they are infected with along to their baby via breast milk and have no means to purchase pricey formula. Those mama’s are doing the best they can with their resources and what they think is best for their babies.

I had challenges in the beginning nursing Hayden. She was a few weeks early and the lactation folks felt that she had some preemie tendencies when it came to feeding. So I pumped and bottle fed for two months. And finally, she accepted my breast willingly at home, but tends to not want to nurse when we are out and about. And frankly, with a 2 year old to chase around, it’s hard to sit down while out and spend the 30 minutes or so necessary for a good nursing session when. Not to mention spending half your day attached to the pump. So we supplement with 10 oz of formula a day. And she is happy and growing beautifully! Mind you, if she would take from me all the time and was an efficient nurser, I’d totally be doing it. And if someone asked my opinion I would certainly say “breast is best,” but this is our situation.

Bottom line, a babies gotta eat. And as long as we do what we think is best for them, who is anyone to judge if they are getting a bottle of formula or breast milk. I can’t fault Gisele for doing what’s best for her baby, but I am angered by her lack of compassion for other people’s situations.

PS – Gisele has taken quite a bit of flak about her comments! See here and here.

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>topless thursday: world breast feeding week giveaway and promotions

>This week is World Breast Feeding Week and there are all sorts of promotions going on for nursing mama’s.  Check them out:

* Udder Covers is giving away FREE nursing covers ($32 value(. I have one of these and have used it for both babies. I love it! Makes nursing in public much easier as I feel comfortable.  Enter the code “breastfeeding” at check out. OR, you can get their three piece gift set for only $5 using this code. You will need to pay the $9.95 in shipping, but a great value, none the less.

* Lewis Crazy House is hosting a nursing cover giveaway.

* Becoming Mothers is giving %15 off breast pumps, nursing accessories and clothing, this week only.

* Pump Ease is giving 50% off select prints of their hands free pumping system.

* Bebe Au Lait is offering free shipping.
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GIVEAWAY GIVEAWAY GIVEAWAY!

As a proudly breastfeeding mama, now on baby #2, I am celebrating World Breastfeeding Week by paying the shipping on an Udder Cover for one of my readers. Whether you are a mom-to-be, a nursing mama, someone who needs a baby gift… All are welcome to participate. While I’m a believer that a baby needs to eat, whether it be formula or breast milk, I want to help mama’s who want to nurse.  Nursing wraps made it really simple for me and I hope this will help you too.

I wish I looked this great while nursing!

This giveaway runs today, and today only. Entries will be accepted until 7 p.m. CST at which time I will select a winner and place the order to be shipped directly from Udder Covers.

Here’s what you have to do…  Visit the Udder Cover’s website and tell me what your favorite pattern is. Easy, huh?

You want extra entries?  Well, OK.  Follow me on Twitter for an additional entry. Like me on Facebook for another. Vote for me on Top Baby Blogs for another. Leave separate comments for each.

Four opportunities to win! Good luck!

Also, don’t forget about my other giveaway… I’m giving away an Ikea Bug Mobile.  Click here to enter.

>topless thursday: shy nurser

>I learned something about Hayden while traveling last week. She is not keen on nursing in public. She likes to snuggle up in bed and snooze and nurse. And I don’t blame her. I like that, too.

But it was a tough lesson on an airplane as it was landing when I realized that she preferred the bottle over the breast. And I didn’t have any water to make a bottle. (sorry Southwest flight from Denver to San Francisco for my child’s shrill cry).

Hadley, on the other hand, would take the boob anytime it was offered. I mean anytime. She LOVED the boob. Still does, though she doesn’t nurse. She just touches them. Actually, she licked my cleavage yesterday. Which was weird. But you catch my drift.

Is your baby a shy nurser or a boob fiend?

>topless tuesday: a baby’s gotta eat

>Recently, I was strolling around downtown San Clemente with the kiddos and a friend of mine. Hayden started screaming, and I, being the mother of the year, didn’t bring a bottle and bottles were the best way to actually make her eat at that time.

But this is when she and I turned a page in our nursing adventure together.

I had my boob. A hungry baby. And she latched. And drank. Right there on the curb in downtown San Clemente. No nursing wrap. So we walked. Talked. And shopped. All while Hayden nursed.

And you know what? I didn’t even care that I wasn’t covered. I don’t know what passersby thought, because I just didn’t care. My baby was hungry. And she was feeding from me, which up until that moment was a huge feet for us.

The fact is, I’ve now nursed two babies. In public. Combined for 18 months. I’ve never been told to stop. I’ve never noticed disgusted looks or heard nasty comments.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m sure those looks and comments are there. Other nursing mamas have recounted appalling tales. But I guess I have chosen to pay the comments and looks no mind and I have never noticed them.

But, a baby’s gotta eat. From a boob or a bottle. They just need to eat.

— Post From My iPad

>topless thursday: comfort boob

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Today is the last day to enter to win Minnetonka Baby Moccasins.

Go here to enter by 5 p.m. PST today.

I stopped nursing Hadley when she was 15 months old. The weening process started at 12 months when I day weened her. At 15 months, I had to go to Minnesota to close on our house, so we used the opportunity to ween her completely. And it was a success.

But she hasn’t given up on the boob completely…

For some reason, Hadley finds comfort in sticking her hand down my shirt and squeezing the inside of the boob. Sometimes when I am nursing Hayden, Hadley sticks her hand down my shirt. It’s a little bit of a juggle, but it really doesn’t bother me. But it does look a little funny to those who don’t know us and we are meeting for the first time. Here I am holding my toddler and she is trying to show off my goods.

Sometimes she says “boobs” when she does it.

There have been two occasions (and I am certainly not making a habit of this) that she was so upset that I asked her if she wanted to touch my boobs. I get a hiccupy “yes” and her hand goes right down my shirt and she is suddenly all better.

I have to sometimes warn other ladies who hold her that they might get felt up.

It’s her comfort boob.

What sort of habits do your kids have for comfort?

>topless thursday: memories

>I really didn’t know how nursing would go for me. I almost threw in the towel with Hadley, especially after coming down with a wicked case of mastitis. Not to mention my cracked, bleeding nipples. It was rough. I’m not going to lie.

Then week three rolled around. I bought a nursing wrap. Nursed in public successfully. And we were off and running. And it was wonderful. Not only convenient (no need to tote a bottle), but when I’d look down and see her little eyes looking back at me. Or the day she put her hands in my hair as I was nursing her… Those were the moments that made the excruciating mastitis pain and bleeding nipples worth it all. Those are memories of her baby years I will hold in my heart always.

And now with Hayden I am creating the same memories. Things are not as convenient with her because I just don’t have the time it takes to nurse her 100% of the time, so the bottle is in tow. But when I do nurse and she looks back at me, I fall in love over and over again. I’m creating memories with her too.

So, needless to say, nursing ended up being a wonderful, memorable thing for me. One I will miss, bittersweetly, once Hayden is done. But I am glad I was able to have those moments with both of my girls.

New mamma’s out there… Hang in there. Breastfeeding can be tough. But all worth it in the long run.

>topless thursday: public nursing

>I’ve never been offended by public nursing, I just didn’t know how I would be once I had a baby. Shoot, I wasn’t sure that I would nurse, but I would give it a shot.

The first time I nursed in public was when Hadley was about four weeks old, at the Corte Madera Nordstroms. But I snuck into the ladies lounge. After we finished up, I found my Bebe Au Lait nursing wrap in the baby department. That opened the world up for me. With Hadley I was much more modest, so to have coverage made me quite comfortable. I nursed everywhere. Stores. Malls. Parks. Beaches. Airplanes. I even nursed Hadley through a lovely dinner at nice restaurant that probably didn’t even have a high chair on more than one occasion.

Side track… While boarding a puddle jumper flight from Salt Lake City to Grand Junction, CO I was seated next to a transexual from Mississippi. She offered to hold Hadley while I got my seat belt on. She was very sweet, albeit a little awkward with her. Right before take off, I put on my nursing wrap and popped Hadley on the boob. The woman asked if Hadley liked being under the fabric. I commented, “she doesn’t mind because she is getting fed.” She blushed, then I realized that she didn’t realize at first that I was nursing.

With Hayden I am not quite as modest with nursing. Maybe because I agreed to an audience while delivering her, therefor a little exposed nipple doesn’t even phase me. I strolled downtown San Clemente with her on the boob and no supplemental coverage. Even made a purchase with her on the boob.

I’ve heard nursing moms comment about poor reactions to their public nursing. I’ve never noticed it and I probably wouldn’t react to it. Nursing mommas, what has your experience been?

— Post From My iPad

>topless thursday: nursing baby #2

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Photo by Sarah Christensen of Becoming Sarah

Nursing my second child has been an interesting, frustrating challenge (to say the least). Not only did she have some “preemie” challenges, even though she wasn’t technically a preemie, with latching and ultimately feeding, she also has a big sister who is under two and was a boob fiend until she was 15 months old. Oh yeah, and is a very curious, busy kid. Needless to say, these two factors alone has made nursing challenging.

In the beginning I was producing a lot of milk. A LOT! Like ten ounces in a ten minute sitting when Hayden was only four days old. My freezer is full of milk, still (Unfortunately, we figured out that she has reflux and some cows milk sensitivity, so all that milk sits). But, I couldn’t get her to latch properly. So, I decided to be patient. Put her to the breast, feed her by bottle, pump.

Let’s just talk about the attempt to breast feed, feed by bottle, pump scenario… Mom’s who’ve had to do this know that this is no walk in the park. When you have a kiddo that latches, you only have to do one of these processes. But add two more tasks. Plus, feeding a newborn every two hours. You may as well leave your pump bra with all the gear attached and never leave the house, because this is all you will have time to do. Not to mention the nights are a bear. It’s really not a reasonable situation when you have a tot running around trying to keep your attention, too.

Anyway…

After three weeks or so of this vicious cycle, I sought the help of a lactation consultant. This is when it was determined that Hayden has premie tendencies – not transferring milk from breast and falling asleep at the breast – when it came to feeding and we devised a plan to teach her how to nurse. The plan included using a nipple shield and a supplemental feeding device (a syringe with a long tube that goes into the nipple shield and provides bate of expressed breast milk or formula to encourage baby to suck).

While the plan was a good one, it wasn’t working. And the more frustrated I became. My baby was screaming. Sounded congested. Not nursing. My milk supply was drying up because I was not pumping like I should. And I was sad that I felt I couldn’t nurse my child. I gave myself a deadline of two more weeks to make it work, then we would go to 100% formula.

Back to the lactation consultant we went… She became concern of Hayden’s lack of weight gain from birth weight (I don’t think she understood that she lost nearly a pound of that at the beginning) and the fact that she seemed colicy and seemed to have reflux. The new plan was to visit her doctor, cut out dairy, nuts and chocolate from my diet, pump and bottle feed, then reintroduce the breast the following week. So, off to the doc we went… Not a huge concern with weight, but we were provided with baby Zantac and instructions on how to manage reflux. And pumping I did.

I went back to the lactation consultant’s breast feeding support group the following week to see if we were making progress with nursing. But, per the usual, Hayden fell asleep in the clinic and wouldn’t nurse. I started to cry. Right there among all these blissfully happy, breastfeeding mommy’s. Mine wouldn’t nurse. I was going to have to formula feed as pumping eight times a day just wasn’t a possibility for a mom who was busy with another kid. The consultant felt my pain and lent me a scale to take home to do pre and post weighs to see if Hayden transferred milk when she would latch.

The next day, Hayden transferred 2.5 ounces. There was hope.

So I continued trying and it got better. I eliminated the breast shield. And she go even better at it. She even seems to look for the boob.

NOW… Hayden is two months old and nursing like a champ. However, I have found that nursing her exclusively is just not possible with Hadley. I like to go out and do things with Hadley. And sometimes we just don’t have an hour to allow Hayden to feed off the breast, so we give her a bottle during those times. Also, I tank her up with formula before bed and we generally get a nice five hour stretch of sleep out of her. After that, I nurse her (which is a good time for us because everyone else is asleep).

While I had hoped to feed her breastmilk exclusively, at least I feel good that she gets breast milk and we have that bonding time. I needed to recognize what my capabilities were as a busy mom of two under two, not beat myself up about not being able to do it the same way I did it with just one baby, and set my limits. I think we have a good system that everyone is content with.