Oh no, you didn't say... what?

So there are those of you that are reading this who consider yourselves to "know" me quiet well.  Then there are the rest of you.  To the first group of you, this post will not surprise... to the rest, well good luck!

Thank you to my sorority sister for the inspiration for this post.  I love her as if she were my own sister.  She and I have always been able to argue our continuing differences of opinion over lunch and/or a jazzercise session.  She's an attorney now, but I've always been able to hold my own with her.  She is beautiful, insightful and a strong woman.  I want her and a handful of others by my side if my life ever depends on an argument.  It's not like I've never addressed this subject before, but she brought it up "post blog world" for me.   Here's how.

Yesterday she posted this on her facebook.  http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/51017 with the caption of "This is why people hate seeing women breast feed in public."

FER REAL?  I felt my blood pressure rise, and my heart pound.  I HAD to respond.  Like seriously, my fingers would not even allow me to sit on them to keep silent.

It's not what my friend said that upset me as much as the caption of the picture and the fact that someone actually took this photo and posted it to the people of walmart website.  As if to categorize this action of perfectly normal people and behavior in with the same as well, the rest.  I'm sick.  The pictures that are removed on a daily basis from Facebook that women have posted of them breastfeeding their child and this picture can be posted on the above website and it's ACCEPTED.  Here's a fb site http://www.facebook.com/events/228835587202033/ if you're interested in learning more about this.

The other problem I have about this shared site is the caption below the picture.  There's the problem, we allow men who are; by nature, visually aroused and quiet frankly dislike any threat to full frontal exposure of women, to weigh in on the subject.  Now, if you ask my husband (or probably any other husband of a nursing mom) he will tell you nursing our child is no threat to him.  That is because he's a very happily married man.  My child nursing on my breast is not interfering with his sexual pleasures.   The trouble is, the man who is obviously giving is immature and SELFISH opinion is only looking out for his own jollies.  These men (and women frankly) are guilty of oversexualizing breast feeding.

But see, that's not what breastfeeding is for.  God made breast for two reasons.  The first, to satisfy and arouse a woman's husband.  This purpose is meant for a husband and wife.  I know many of you can understand what I am saying without blabbing on about another subject.  The second reason for breast is to feed your child.  GOD made this type of food, PERFECT!  GOD did.  It's the most natural and PERFECT way to feed a child.

When I see a woman breastfeeding her child, I think of how PERFECT it is.  It's beautiful.  Reading the caption of the picture in question I can say that "adding the child to the mix makes this a beautiful and perfect gift to the mother and baby, not to mention those who take the liberty to view and ultimately weight in."

This should be why people LOVE to see breastfeeding in public.

Lack of breastfeeding has proven to be a major public health problem.  From the tiniest infants to the oldest breastfeeding mom, all are benefiting tremendously from breast milk.  From decreasing the risk of premature infants getting necrotizing entercolitis to decreasing cancer risks.  This stuff is truly PERFECT.  No wonder they call it liquid gold!  By the way, Texas Children's Hospital is one of the first NICU nurseries in the world that is 100% human milk... that makes me wanna cry.  Anyway, other benefits of breastmilk besides the amazing bond developed between momma and baby are decreased risk for developing pneumonia, asthma, gastritis and later in life obesity.  That last one... it's BIG.  Obesity is a co-morbidity to so many health problems; such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer (two of these are top reasons for death in the United States).  Here's another website for the benefits of breastfeeding.

http://www.womenshealth.gov/breastfeeding/

So others may argue, "Yea, I'm not against breastfeeding your infant.  So long as it's not in public or a toddler or at the dinner table or..."

Fools...

That's like saying, "I can understand you may want to eat corn, but just don't do it in front of me and whatever you do, if you are over the age of 13 you are no longer allowed to eat corn because 13 year olds offend me when you eat corn."  How ridiculous does that sound?

Now, I understand mothers who may want to "cover up" or blend in while nursing in public.  When Missy was younger, I was one of them.  I haven't a problem with "covering up," trouble is... Missy did.  She wanted to be part of the world while eating.  She didn't want to stop exploring and experiencing life while eating.  She certainly didn't want to be smothered by an apron in the dead of the hot Houston summers. So SHE boycotted the "cover up."  As far as being discrete; well, I don't announce I'm breastfeeding and I am conscious to display as little skin as possible (mostly because I have a lot more "skin" than some people).  But, I refuse to be so discrete as to hop on into the bathroom or even seek out those ever convenient "nursing mom's rooms."  It's my right to feed my child in the vegetable isle if it's necessary for my child.  Just the same as it's my right to eat skittles in the vegetable isle of walmart, if that's what my tummy deems necessary.  Did you know this definition of discrete?  http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/discrete Kind of sad that some people ask us to set ourselves apart from others just to feed our little bits.

My final point.  Who watched the last Victoria Secret fashion show on prime time T.V.?  When was the last time you were blessed with the opportunity to see someone's hairy butt crack when they bent over? How many times have others been able to fully describe your thong or underwear because it's been seen on the outside of your pants?  Is someone is willing to take a "stand" against something that benefits society as much as breastfeeding does, but doesn't see the demise that these things are causing on society.  Aren't we going in the wrong direction?  Isn't is shameful of what society has come to expect and accept from us women.

By normalizing and accepting nursing in public, perhaps more mothers might nurse their children.  By more mothers nursing their children, perhaps the public health spectrum will improve.  Plus, babies will be smarter and healthier, and we may even decrease the child abuse incidence as well, but that's for another day.

I'll leave you all with the World Health Organization's stand on the subject.  In case you were wondering.

http://www.who.int/topics/breastfeeding/en/

"Breastfeeding is the normal way of providing young infants with the nutrients they need for healthy growth and development. Virtually all mothers can breastfeed, provided they have accurate information, and the support of their family, the health care system and society at large.

Colostrum, the yellowish, sticky breast milk produced at the end of pregnancy, is recommended by WHO as the perfect food for the newborn, and feeding should be initiated within the first hour after birth.

Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended up to 6 months of age, with continued breastfeeding along with appropriate complementary foods up to two years of age or beyond."

Sweet weekend

This weekend was fun.  Drummer man and I both had the weekend off, the first for this year.  So what'd we do?  Called in the grandparents.

I was especially excited, we were going to do stuff that adults without children do.  I pictured myself strolling into art galleries, sipping a glass of wine, enjoying a movie and then spending the rest of the evening outside watching the stars.  So Saturday came around and about 12:30 the grandparents show up, we leave the house around 1pm.  When I get in the car, it dawns on me... we have "NO" plans for our glorious day of pretending to be parents without children, and not only that but the grandparents stated they wanted to be back home before dark (which means, they had to leave our house for 5pm).  Riiighhht. So then comes the stress... YES, STRESS on a day off of trying to figure out what. to. do.

Finally we ended up, speeding through a late lunch at an extremely awkward Greek place off of Montrose and rushing off to the Museum of Science to visit the Civil War exhibit.  All the while, texting the grandparentals to find out if the Missy was doing ok, and had she taken a nap and if not then don't let her because it's so late in the day, etc.  The war exhibit was entirely too boring, and we didn't finish it because we needed to get back to Missy Prissy, so that the grandparents could get back before dark (who didn't even end up leaving that night until 7:30pm, which I'm totally grateful for their visit).

Truth is... we are not adults without children.  From now until; I don't know, the children leave the roost we'll always be adults WITH children.  That means no more sipping a glass of wine, strolling through art galleries, leisurely lunches and enjoying an evening watching the stars... without the stressor of having children.

BUT... Adults that have children laugh more.  They count their blessings more often, because they see what they could be missing out on.  Adults with children are more selfless, they gave up the above activities for their children.  Adults with children learn something about life everyday. Adults with children do something outside of their "box" everyday.

I'll tell ya something...  Single moms, You are AMAZING.

Here's something funny.  Saturday, Missy Prissy taught Mr. Drummerman an important lesson.  She was "squatting" in the bathtub.  This is definitely how she'd rather take her bath, because for whatever reason she doesn't like the feeling of her rump against the bathtub.  Anyway, Drummerman was washing that sweet little rump and the Missy stood up only to show Drummerman that she'd "turded the tub."  Drummerman lifted that sweet little self out of the tub and fished the Babe Ruth's outta the tub with his hands.  All the while stating, "and this doesn't even bother me."   We sanitized the tub and recommenced the Missy Prissy washing.  This was totally out of Drummerman's box and he laughed the whole way through.  Adults without children, don't get to fish cute little baby turds out of the tub with their bare hands.  You can't tell me there's anything better than that.

Sunday the family went to church.  The church was having Dr. Kevin Lehman give lectures on "The Deception of Perfection," "Have a New Husband by Friday," "MomStress," and "Have a kid by Friday."  I will definitely be blogging on these lectures as we are fortunate to be able to attend them all.  I think I'm going to wait until I'm finished with the last lecture (which is tonight) so I can catch all the bullet points.

I'm going to include some really great breast feeding links.  I have nothing to blog about breastfeeding right now... but I will later this week have some information about possible changes in my career.


The Science of Breastmilk.  http://www.drjen4kids.com/soap%20box/notjustfood.htm#.Tx2-hc0TCeY

• This is a great site because it's not got a ton of information, but smaller pieces that give Breastmilk a better chance at science rather than formula.  LOL, who would have thought?  Something God made has better science than something man made. 

For the pumping Mom.  http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/index.html

• I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Kellymom.com.  This is a website that has helped me from before I had Missy Prissy.  It's SO easy to navigate and has a lot of Evidence Based information... yep.  Evidence Based.  I usually go here for quick reference, and there are SO many extra links for further reading, when necessary.  

Enjoy.  

 

Introduction... Hello and welcome

Hello.

I am Sarah.  I am a full time mom, wife and nurse.  My initial hope in beginning a blog was to share my world with others, as if my world is that interesting.  So then I came to the realization that, "Hey, I'm a mom... a nursing mom.  I like to read blogs from other moms.  They help me realize that I'm not the only crazy woman out there.  What if my blog was that helpful to other moms?"

So here's what I have to say.

1. Getting started is the hardest.  I promise to get better at blogging as I get more used to writing them.  I don't promise perfect grammar... I'll end a sentence with a preposition (does anyone remember what those are anyway?), I'll mix up whether and weather, I'll try to keep your and you're straight, I totally over use the exclamation point and spelling has never been my strong point (sorry Ms. Hawley, my 6th grade English teacher, who definitely earned her keep that year!).

2. I don't intend to "bare it all" on the blog-o-sphere, but I am known to not hold back.  Let's face it, it's my blog and being a mom, a wife and a nurse can bring up; hmmm let's see, touchy subjects... I do intend on sharing.  Life is raw... What's so bad about that right?

3.  I LOVE the natural influences of being a mom.  Don't get me wrong Miss A definitely gets her share of Mac N' Cheese and chicken nuggets... but what I mean is I LOVE that nature is so perfect when it comes to being mommy.  Like the fact that I always seem to wake up like 2 mins before Miss A does for her nightly feedings... how amazing is it that being a mom is that natural?

4.  I read a lot about Breastfeeding.  I am nursing Miss A, who is 16 months old.  I intend on nursing her as long as nature allows.  Since I am also a RN, I take great interest in breastfeeding relationships, and how to empower mothers to have the best breastfeeding relationship they desire.  I am open minded and understand that not everyone desires to breast feed their child for long periods of time or for any length of time, but I AM a breastfeeding advocate.  I believe EVERY DROP COUNTS.  I believe that breast milk gives every infant the best start to life.  I believe that if more mothers breast fed their babies, that it would drastically improve the public health spectrum; more on that later.  I think that many times mothers are not given the BEST support for them to be the MOST successful (or as successful) as they want to be in their nursing relationships!  With all of that said, more on breastfeeding later... just expect it.

5.  Nope.  I don't consider myself "crunchy" or "granola," but have always said I'm "almost a tree hugger."  I cloth diaper my Missy Prissy and use bio-degradeable soap, but she's wearing a disposable now.  Doesn't that make sense.

6.  I totally expect and want feedback.  I'm just saying... no one really blogs just to have give their "typers" a workout, or their mind a place to go for a few.  I do care what you think.  Blogging is boring without comments and feedback.  Plus it'll help me know which topics you (the totally awesome, completely relating to my mommy business and crazy hectic life reader) interest you most.  Tee hee... I may even add an resourceful link or a recipe in the mix a time or two.

ENJOY!  I look forward to this journey and challenge in life.

Oh, and for extra entertainment... heres a cute picture to start off my blog.