I May Be Showing My Age Here…I clearly remember watching The Alligator King on Seseme Street when I was a kid. I think I love it as much today as I did back them. The perfect thing to watch while you’re pumping.Guaranteed to put a smile on your face! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40JL_NKmGO0 Buffy Saint Marie on Sesame StreetDo you think you would see this today on children’s television? http://youtube.com/watch?v=g3DWRhfNm4c I would like to see it, but I have yet to see breastfeeding shown in a positive way on any of the shows my kids watch. More often, bottlefeeding is shown as the norm. Some Websites of InterestTed Grenier has a new and updated website. His writings have been well organized into categories making it easy to find information quickly. Well worth a visit, especially if you are not familiar with Mr. Grenier and his work. http://www.global-breastfeeding.org/ Low Milk Supply is a site that I have just recently come across. It’s focus is on helping women understand what may cause a low milk supply and provide current, accurate information to help mothers increase their supply. The site was created by lactation consultants Diane West and Lisa Marasco as an outgrowth of their BFAR site (Breastfeeding After Reduction). http://www.lowmilksupply.org/aboutus.shtml MOBI Motherhood International is the website of the MOBI yahoo group. The group (Mothers Overcoming Breastfeeding Issues) provides information and support to women who are or have experienced breastfeeding challenges. http://www.mobimotherhood.org/MM/default.aspx My Ramblings and Reflections Five Years LaterMy son is turning five years old this month. Hard to believe. Five years ago I started pumping for my 31 week preemie thinking that it would just be for a short time until he was able to breastfeed. Never could I have imagined that it would end up taking me where I am today. After one year of exclusively pumping for my son, I weaned. One month after that, I started writing my book, Exclusively Pumping Breast Milk: A Guide to Providing Expressed Breast Milk for Your Baby. About ten months after that, I had completed the book and begin this website. Now, three years later, there have been over 25,000 visitors to this site from all around the world and the number of daily hits to the website continues to increase. My year of pumping seems so distant now (oh how I wish I had this understanding of time and perspective while I was going through it all) and yet it encompasses everything I do on a daily basis: my book and publishing company, the fact that I am now nursing my 18 month old daughter, my new business venture, Nursed and Nurtured, through which I hope to provide education and support to women in order to provide them with the support, encouragement, knowledge, and strength that I wish I had received with my son. The lessons from that year are still being deciphered and continue to amaze me. Life is precious. The experiences we have in this life are, each one, an opportunity for growth, for reflection, for celebration, for sharing. The past five years have taught me to enjoy life in the moment, not to wish away the experience regardless of how difficult or trying it may be since it’s these difficult moments that remind us just how sweet life is. As the U2 song states, “The only pain is to feel nothing at all.” To really experience life you need to feel the entire range of emotions, and I guess in some small way I look at difficulties now as a reminder of how good life is. Dennis Brutus, an anti-apartheid activist, was imprisoned in South Africa at the Robin Island Prison. While there he wrote a poem called Endurance. It begins: Endurance is the ultimate virtue, The essential thread on which existence is strung, When one is stripped to nothing else and not to endure is to end in despair. Perhaps the most important lesson I have learned from my experience exclusively pumping specifically, and from motherhood in general, is the lesson of endurance. To simply endure and continue, even though it may be difficult, provides such wonderful rewards in the end. And now, five years later, I can look at my wonderful, sensitive, thoughtful son and not have a single moment of regret over the many, many hours I sat expressing my milk for him; the many, many hours of sleep I lost; or the freedom that I may have had if I was not pumping. I don’t think I could say the same thing if I had, as had been suggested to me numerous times, chosen to switch to formula. Switching from EPing to BreastfeedingI couldn’t believe that there was a website for other women who went through much the same experience as I did. Gave birth to a very small 29 weeker earlier this year. I believe that much of the reason that she is doing as well as she is is because of my determination to EP when she was in the NICU, and until she could correctly latch on. I was determined to continue to EP until she either learned to latch on or got to 12 months adjusted. Read More… 14 months pumping after HELP and a 31 week preemieWish that I had found this web-site last year. Hopefully by sharing my story it will give encouragement to someone who is facing a similar situation. I was 39 years old and 31 weeks pregnant when I woke up with abdominal pain. The pain reminded me of a gall bladder attack only I had my gall bladder removed several years earlier. Besides gestational diabetes which I was controlling with insulin injections, I had no other problems. Because of my age I was being seen every week. Read More… I Worship at the Shrine of My Medela Pump in StyleI am the mother of a darling boy who surprised me by coming into my life, then surprised me by arriving 6 weeks early, and continued to surprise me by chewing my nipples off every time we tried to feed! After several bouts of thrush, latching difficulties, lactation consultants who scared the pants off me about my supply, a few good souls who helped me gain my confidence, and countless tears shed in utter frustration (not to mention pain), I became the full-time pumping goddess that I am today! Read More… Thoughts, memories, and advice from ChristinaJust found your site. Soooo wish I would have had this kind of resource three years ago. Things are going different for me this time, but I still remember so vividly how much of a failure I felt like when I couldn’t nurse and had to EP and everyone made me feel like it was a stupid thing to do. I will answer based on my thoughts and feelings for EPing for my son. I now ebf my daughter and pump at work. Read More… Thanks in Your TouchThis selfless duty I proudly took on, shamelessly waking at the first peek of dawn.I ignored all the negativity, and kept going strong, they laughed and scoffed and said I was wrong. For wasting my time and for giving too much, But they can’t feel the thanks in your touch. Read More… The Special Mother by Erma BombeckI remember reading “The Special Mother” by Erma Bombeck on my first trip back to the hospital with my son. It was taped to the wall of the waiting room in the Developmental Follow-up Clinic. It really had an impact on me and made me realize what a miracle and gift I had been given. Here it is for you to read: Read More… Next Page » |
 
 
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