Breastfeeding

Recently breastfeeding has been getting some negative press and while I won't dwell on that too much, this was a comment I left on Dirty Diaper Laundry blog in response to a recent slew of ugly celeb tweets about BFing:

I never gave much thought to BFing until DS was born, now I can't imagine not... introducing solids makes me sad too since I know i can't BF him forever... well maybe till middle school :) (j/k) Its upsetting that BFing is so low in the public eye and it seems formula is the immediate response everyone gives when you ask 'how will you feed your baby?' The fact that celebs are blasting it.. well.. it just go to show you that you really shouldn't listen to what celebs have to say... they're famous... not necessarily experts on anything beyond that! Of course complaining about people complaining about BFing isnt really a solution either... to make a difference its best to help spread the word about BFing rather than putting anyone else down for their opinion... and yes formula seems pretty icky to me... but i suppose 'to each his own'? sorry for the rant... :)

To elaborate on that, I love BFing my son. The first few weeks were very difficult and I had thought of giving up a few times while still recovering from birth and adjusting to taking care of a newborn, especially since DH had to be gone during the week and could only drive down to my parent's house where we were staying on the weekends. DH also saw how broken I was and was suggesting that maybe we should switch to formula to keep my sanity (and his).

So it was tough, I thought I wasn't doing it properly, that the latch-on was wrong, I was a mess.... How did you guys feel? Did you have a hard time then too? Anyway, besides all the raging hormones and the fact that it hurt to sit, walk, stand... etc... those first few weeks were really tough and I am so happy I stuck with BFing in the face of that. For any new mom on the fence, I won't beat around the bush, BFing takes time to figure out and perfect, but the reward you get from bonding with your baby and knowing you are giving him exactly the 'formula' that he needs because it is catered especially for him, is priceless.... I am not saying that formula is bad per se --- but if you have the opportunity and the time to BF, give it a serious try. [Personally I am all about naturally taking care of my baby so formula is verrrrry distant in my mind at this point]

What really helped me was that the first day back from the hospital, I was freaking out and DH found a lactation consultant in our area who was gracious enough to come by our house and talk with me for probably around 2 hours, encouraging me and showing me how to latch on and such. That was invaluable... if not for the technique then definitely for the confidence boost she gave me to know that I can do it. I still call her from time to time for advice. So I definitely recommend locating a lactation consultant in your area (preferably before the baby is born unlike how we were frantically trying to do everything two days after DS was born!).

The La Leche League has a great website and posts lactation consultant contact information. Also, we found KellyMom to be a great resource those first few days as well. Not to mention the myriad of other places on the web that talk about breastfeeding.

This is shorter post than I'd like it to be and I will definitely modify it later but for now.. BFing is great... no sense in listening to the crazy rants of people bashing it... and help spread the word about BFing to all the mamas-to-be that you know and give 'em support... Twitter has some nice support groups as well #breastfeeding and #bfcafe are the ones I know of...

Feel free to comment on what resources helped you while you were starting out, what resources you still use - i.e. web, twitter, fb, or share your own BFing experience!

a new blog is born

I am a 26 year old mommy who also happens to be a graduate student trying to work on her dissertation. My husband, who just received his PhD, and I met in grad school - we happened to have the same advisor in fact.

On this blog I hope to catalog all things related to being a new mom. After 6 months of learning how to take care of my little boy, Noah Samuel, I have some experience that hopefully might help others. My parenting philosophy is that I would like my son to grow up in a safe, healthy, and stimulating environment above all else. To accomplish this, I've breastfed him exclusively and will continue to do so as long as he wants. This hasn't been without pitfalls of course, but that is a post for another day.

As of today, we started cloth diapering! Went an entire day CD him and its worked out so far except for one leak - more washes needed to make the CD more absorbent as its organic cotton. It's been about 3 months since I started looking into CD and finally on April 22 (Earth Day) and Noah's 6 month b-day, I decided to buy a couple diapers to try out. I decided that AI2's would work best for us but time will tell. So I ordered some GroBaby's, a DreamEze, a Flip, and got a BumGenius free since they've got a promotion there now. I also have a bunch of Gerber prefolds that we got when he was just born but I suspect DH won't want to deal with those as he is our main diaper changer. I am considering trying them in the Flip, but don't know if they'll hold up.

Today was also the first day we fed Noah both rice cereal and some apple sauce - yay for trying solids. He likes the cereal, used to it by now, but apples make him make some funny faces :)

Anyway, that's it for now - hoping to include lots more posts - about first few weeks of being a new mom, trying to live a more 'green' lifestyle, and managing school and parenthood. This whole blogging and twitter thing is brand new to me so still trying to figure it all out.