A long overdue update

It’s been a long time since I updated, various circumstances kept me from making progress on my draft for the longest time.  Wordpress has gone through various glitches and upgrades that have mutilated my draft and repeatedly lost my layout so this post will be barebones because my formatting still disappears everytime I try to save.

Normally I’ll tinker around with WordPress until I force it into submission but add to that the fact that I now work during the time that I previously blogged and it’s harder to sit down and properly tinker or allow inspiration to flow….

A lot has happened in this time that would take me too long to write and would further delay a post so instead I’ll summarize it by saying, one night Shammy went to sleep a baby and woke up a toddler the next morning.

He is just a couple of weeks away from turning 1 year and he is already asserting his independence, testing boundaries and more.  Plus we now have the amusing acrobatics while breastfeeding and requests to breastfeed his toys.

In the time since my last post Shammy got his first couple of teeth and a few weeks later Shammy got officially sick needing his first trip to the doctor (outside well visits) and prescription.  Thankfully he is all recovered now and back to his smiling self.  I credit breastfeeding with his speedy recovery as when he stopped eating he would still nurse and when he refused pedialyte at the ER the doctor didn’t push it further because he saw him breastfeeding (the look that I got when they found that that he still breastfed at 10 months was something else altogether, lol).

My boobs have gradually adjusted to not pumping at work, the first day I gave myself a plugged duct complete with a milk blister that took Shammy a couple of days to work out but it has been getting better since then.  I am really enjoying my job although the office days are draining because of the massive amounts of driving that I have to do.  I have been out of training for almost 2 months and I feel like I am making a difference with moms and babies but sometimes it’s an uphill battle with my higher ups as they seem to be very pro-breastfeeding but anti-breast, if they could have a baby breastfeed through a shirt they probably would.  That is all that I will say on that matter.

Because of my job I have been really inspired and interested in becoming a CLE (Certified Lactation Consultant) but I would have to suddenly find myself with $700 that could only be used for education and not for one of my many bills to get the training for that, IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant) would be a better  thing to pursue but that one feels very unrealistic, at least for now.

I have found a breastfeeding friendly bathing suit almost by accident.  I had a gift card and decided that a new bathing suit was in order, my bikinis still fit but I now find that the elastic in the bottom sits right on my scar making them rather uncomfortable so I bought my first one piece in over 20 years, it’s got a very plunging neckline for easy access, I have no idea when I’ll wear it for the first time.  Looking at it, it completely fits the criteria given by magazines as the bathing suit for a postpartum body, lol.  And that’s how I added yet another item to my “you know you are a breastfeeding mom when…” list, when you evaluate the merits of clothing based on ease of boob access.

I have been entertained planning Shammy’s first birthday party.  It has turned out to be a much smaller affair than originally as most people will not be coming which is a good thing since he won’t remember it anyway.  I just wish that I knew it was going to be this small before I started shopping, oh well, some stuff may end up on Ebay.

My husband had the idea to create an e-mail account for Shammy, this way we can write e-mails to him as he grows up and attach pictures, etc.  Once we get off our asses and finally send the first message we plan to share the address with family so that they can do the same.

 

Today’s rant is moms that say that they are going to “try” breastfeeding.  It’s now what they say but how they say it, it’s as if they are already convinced that they are going to fail before baby is even born, I hear this daily at my job.  Another observation from my work is that most moms don’t understand that  just because baby cries it doesn’t mean it’s hungry, they don’t bother to eliminate other possible causes of crying (like a dirty diaper) and instead say “I don’t have enough milk, my baby is always hungry”.  I actually had a mom tell me this last week as her baby feel asleep satisfied after nursing and she was still leaking though her shirt.  “Hey lady, your t-shirt disagrees….”

In my work a lot of moms have never seen anyone breastfeeding, don’t know how to do it, didn’t research it yet they expect it to come naturally once baby is born and then give up because it wasn’t “easy”.  This article clearly illustrates how even in the animal kingdom it takes a village and breastfeeding need to be visible.

 

To help improve breastfeeding visibility (and try to set a new world record) I am the local organizer of the Big Latch On.  A worldwide event aiming to set a new record for the most number of mother’s breastfeeding at the same time.  I would love it if you could attend/sponsor/donate.  Even if you’re not currently breastfeeding we need volunteers and sponsors.  It will take place on Saturday, August 6th, 2011, click on the photo to learn more.

 

A “July Babies” message board that I belong to recently posted a survey for mothers to answer various questions about baby’s first year.  At a glance I noticed that formula fed babies had many more sick visits to the doctor than exclusively breastfed babies so the geek in me actually sat down and analyzed the first 100 responses to the survey and came up with the following analysis:

Babies exclusively breastfed at least 6 months had 0.66 sick visits to the doctor in the first year compared to formula fed babies that had 11.67 sick visits!  This figure included premature babies that only got formula.

When I take out formula fed premature babies out of the equation (I still counted breastfed preemies), formula fed babies that were born healthy still had 3.3 sick visits in the first years.

Let me put this in clear words:  This is 5.5 times MORE ear infections, colds, diarrhea, viral infections and other illnesses than breastfed babies!

And then people wonder why I am such a breast milk advocate….