By Guest Blogger LeighAnn
An ounce of determination + an ounce of education and an ounce of support = unlimited ounces of breastmilk
Sounds easy, huh? As I close in on six months of exclusively breastfeeding, easy isn’t what comes to mind, however it’s such an achievement and great gift to my dear Macie. [Read more…]
By Davina Wright
My first goal when we found out we were having three babies was to lower my expectation of sleep! I figured you couldn’t get upset with what you didn’t expect to have in the first place! When we brought our triplets (Willow, Connor and Summer) home after 3 weeks in NICU, it was a creative challenge to figure out how we would all sleep. Lots of people suggested keeping them on the NICU schedule, but it was a ridiculous schedule meant for a single nurse to be able to feed one baby at a time in a constant rotation and totally wouldn’t work in a real life home setting. Others suggested putting them on a 3 hourly schedule where we would just wake them all up at 3 hourly intervals, feed them all and put them back to sleep. This is what the majority of triplet parents do…they will tell you it is all about the schedule. Unfortunately, most triplets aren’t breastfed, and mine were, which to me meant supply and demand, day and night, so no schedule.
Often when I post about a woman who has been harassed while breastfeeding in public or a blog post advocating for the fair treatment of breastfeeding women I see comments such as these:
“I breastfeed in public and have never been harassed.”
“You all must be do something different than me because I have never experienced this.” [Read more…]
I wanted to share some of my recent favorite photos shared by the Badasses themselves!
Badass Crystal
by guest blogger Danielle
My husband was an infantry assaultman in the U.S. Marine Corps for 4 long years. He got to travel the world. He helped dig people out of the mud in Leyte, Phillippines in 2006 when an earthquake caused a mudslide to fall over an entire town. He was in our local newspaper. The next year he was sent to Iraq. He was stationed in Ramadi and Kharma. He worked every single day for 7 months. Not a day went by that I did not worry about him. There were no days off. He was involved in dangerous fire fights and was nearly ambushed once when a Humvee broke down. After my husband was out of the Marines I was talking to my uncle, a Marine who served in Vietnam, and I said something about my husband being a “former Marine.” My uncle was quick to correct me, “No,” he said, “Once a Marine, always a Marine.” And how right he was! These experiences are woven into the fabric of my husband’s being. They have made him into the man I know today. He cannot unlearn the lessons that he learned while he served in the Marine Corps. He is not active duty anymore, but he is still a Marine and a combat veteran. [Read more…]
I have been putting this off for 3 & ½ years. For a long time, I couldn’t even think about the birth of my twin girls without crying and I could barely talk about it. I realized at one point that unless reminded, I went through my life as if those first 5 days didn’t happen. I was pregnant and then they were here; everything in between was just a dream.
Now it has become a dull sort of pain that is just another part of my tapestry. I don’t dwell on it or even think about it much, and I often forget how open and raw the wound is until something reminds me and the tears flow like I flipped a switch. These sudden reactions always catch me by surprise. [Read more…]
Facebook Q&A with Nancy Mohrbacher, IBCLC 12-6-13
QUESTION 1: I need help with low milk supply. Ten days ago I had the flu and was dehydrated. To recover my supply, I’m 1) nursing & pumping a lot, 2) drinking lots of water and mother’s milk tea, 3) taking fenugreek 3x/day, 4) mixing flax meal into my food. It’s helping, but my supply still seems lower than usual. Any suggestions?
NANCY MOHRBACHER, IBCLC: I’m glad you reached out. You’ll be glad to know that milk production is such a hardy process that even mothers who have never been pregnant have brought in milk for adopted babies! You just need to know how it works. First, despite popular belief, drinking more water and eating foods like flax do not affect milk production. Your body knows how much [Read more…]
