Serving doubles at the breastfeeding bar, straight up with a twist of peaceful parenting.
Ever wondered how to make a belly cast? This is a fun idea for the last few weeks of the the third trimester (or after baby’s Guess Date has come and gone) when your belly is as abundant as it’ll ever be, and you’re waiting on baby to make his or her arrival among us air-breathers.
Have you ever had your pregnant belly painted, either with acrylics or henna?
Here is some inspiration for those who love the positive energy of color, art, and creation. These would also be perfect to re-imagine on a belly cast if your skin is sensitive to paint.
(In no particular order).
Not too many weeks after the positive pregnancy test, we told MaiTai he was going to be a big brother.
We wondered if he even knew what it meant to be a brother… to have a brother or sister… or even the differences between himself at not quite three years old and a newborn baby, much less one in a womb. He knows what a womb is, right?
We had a lot of work to do! Or so I thought.
You are interesting. You carry a mystery, an unexplained power, a blessing that gets bigger every day. Do you not see the way you evoke turned heads with that package of life centered right on your body, one that might feel fragile to you, or burdensome with its new demand for constant responsibility and attention?
Have you forgotten (or have you ever really considered what it means) that “a woman’s body is the first environment”?
I tell myself this now…
But almost four years ago as a first-time mother, I couldn’t appreciate the changes in my body during three trimesters’ worth of pregnancy and the fourth trimester postpartum.
Alright. It’s time I write about this.
About being tired of breastfeeding.
So tired I was hating it. So tired… and no longer looking forward to it. How could all of me feel like “I love him and I love this” and “I don’t want this to stop yet,” but at the same time all of me worried about feelings of “I hate this.”
I wanted to feel normal again; I wanted to feel my breasts cry of milk instead of pain.
“The life of a mother is the life of a child: you are two blossoms on a single branch.”
– Karen Maezen Miller
Photo Credit: Javier Mantrana
As with everything experienced in our breastfeeding journey, there’s no predicting what direction this nursing relationship will take with MaiTai once his little womb-dwelling brother needs sustenance ‘on the outside.’ MaiTai is currently older than three years old and will turn three-and-a-half when his baby brother is born.
And he’s still nursing… technically.
Support, pictured left. Demand, pictured center. Supply, pictured right. Photo Credit: Ana & Ivan Photography.
Milk Production: Supply & Demand
Last weekend I hosted a Peaceful Parenting table for Intact Houston/Intact Texas, local chapters for Saving Our Sons (the not-for-profit organization Peaceful Parenting/Dr. Momma‘s focus on circumcision).
My challenge was to include genital autonomy as one crucial component of the peaceful parenting lifestyle … without calling it by name.
I had spoken with a marketing director at my local Babies ‘R’ Us about setting up inside the store to hand out information. After browsing the Dr. Momma web site, she said she’d love to have us there. In fact, as a company they’re very welcoming toward many of the topics mentioned, she explained. Ones like co-sleeping, breastfeeding (they hold regular classes there for newbies) and child-led weaning, babywearing (regular classes at Babies ‘R’ Us for this too), encouragement of gentle discipline and alternatives to punitive parenting (i.e. spanking and crying-it-out) and so on.
But…(there’s always a but, isn’t there?)
There are quite a few ways to guess a baby’s sex. As far as concluding whether to expect a boy or girl, you could try the Nub Theory, Ramzi Method, over-the-counter gender test kits, Harmony test or chorionic villus sampling or amniocentesis done at a medical facility, and probably some other things I’ve yet to discover.
Old wives’ tales aren’t rooted in any kind of fancy science, but they can be fun to test out. Who wants to get all technical with fun anyways?!
Think you can accurately predict an unborn baby’s sex? Here’s a rundown of many common old wives’ tales that claim to know the secret behind your baby’s sex. You can use these clues along with the comparisons between my first pregnancy with a boy and my second/current pregnancy with a… well, you make the guess and let me know what you think 🙂
I’ll reveal the answer in an upcoming post!
(FYI, it’s the sex not the gender we find out by noting what type of gonads a baby has… though I get how the term “Gender Reveal Party” caught on whereas the potentially confusing “Sex Reveal Party” never will. And another side wondering: why don’t any of these tests account for potential intersex babies?).
I spent most of this weekend with The Designated Dad talking to people about circumcision — mainly the two most common types in our country, which are neonatal male “medical” circumcisions in hospitals and religious circumcisions with mohels.
Our location: B.I.R.T.H. Fair (the acronym stands for “Bringing Information and Resources to Houston”), which is a hugely popular event that features more than sixty vendors, speaker sessions, giveaways, and education about pregnancy, birth, and parenting.
Our mission: Make it easier for people in our area to know better so they can do better… the result of which would see them bringing their whole babies home ❤
Read on for a collection of memorable stories and interactions from our day at the event.
Brazil’s Paediatric Society of Rio Grande do Sul (SPRS) targets breastfeeding moms in a new ad campaign that warns how a diet that includes processed foods can harm their nurslings. While not the first offensive-for-shock-value ad of its kind (read my other post on “The 7 Grossest Breastfeeding Ads“), it has recently provoked much confusion, defensiveness, and resistance from breastfeeding women.
Not surprising, as we’re all pretty sensitive… hormonal… sometimes already feeling like slovenly, frumpy new moms, even without the help of ads that highlight our so judge-worthy maternal insufficiencies…
And us breastfeeders like to eat (everything, as many of us will testify on the book).
I really never imagined I’d be nursing during a pregnancy. It amazes me the endurance of this tradition we’ve made and how it’s seen us through so much.
I don’t know if almost three-year-old MaiTai will tire of it soon, or if aversion will strike the crazy into me and call a halt by my discretion. Or if we’ll just keep nursing like we always have, because it’s as normal a thing to do as would be not choosing to continue.
I do know that nursing isn’t so comfortable anymore. Aversion is milder so far than with bleeding cycles, but it just feels… different. Not all oxytocin-rush-of-pleasantness, squeeze-him-tight and never let go, butterflies of love swooping through my body kind of stuff like I wrote about here.
It feels how I imagine some people who’ve never breastfed might think breastfeeding feels like — a little person sucking on your skin, perhaps a most unwanted hickey? Still it’s not “gross” (he’s my baby, he’ll never be icky to me!) but it’s not a street paved in my favor as far as physical contentment. Emotionally though? Another story.
Many women holding that positive Home Pregnancy Test meet intense pressure to tell others who’d feel left out otherwise. Others feel great pressure to zip their lips until the calendar hits 12 weeks.
**Spoiler alert** (since that’s what this post is about, right?): Based on some hyper-scientific and extensive research, I’ve concluded that the best time to announce your pregnancy is…whenever YOU feel like it! No explanations, defenses, or peer-reviewed supporting hypotheses necessary.
I see nothing wrong with waiting to spill the news of pregnancy… even up to the moment of birth! If a woman doesn’t want to tell anyone about her pregnancy, I wish her influences (society, family, what-have-you) wouldn’t oblige her to believe she must do so. No woman should feel the need to inform others of her pregnancy before she’s ready.
Likewise, she also needn’t wait the standard 12 weeks to share her news if she feels like she’s unwillingly fighting an invisible muzzle.
The first time around, we waited until nearly the close of the first trimester to inform the general public that we were expecting. This time we tried something a bit different.
Mama's Milk, No Chaser 