Thanks, Facebook and BabyCenter!

 

 

                                                               

From user Mama2LexiAnn:

 

I just have to say, I'm so proud of myself!!

With my dd, I wouldn't nurse in public, I didn't even nurse in front of extended family. When we were out to eat, is nurse in the car or the *gasp* bathroom. Id always go to nursing rooms if available.

But with baby J, I've nursed him everywhere!! Right now, I'm nursing him while dh and dd ride a ride. I've nursed him on a train ride, at lunch, and at a picnic pavilion. I've nursed standing in line for a ride. I'm so proud of myself, it's definitely making my day more enjoyable not having to go find a private place to nurse every 1.5 hours.

I've nursed all these places and baby is only 3 weeks old!! I also nursed in tons of gas stations on the 2 day car ride here!!

Take my word for it.

Well, I don't have any photographic evidence, but we had an eventful holiday weekend! Yesterday my son went with his grandmother to a small family get together in another town while hubby and I went to church. After church, we had lots of time to kill and decided to be spontaneous. We went to see Star Trek: Into Darkness. And guess what? Ten minutes into the movie a certain baby girl got hungry. What's a nursing momma to do? You guessed it, BIP! Obviously I can't take a picture during the movie without disturbing the other viewers, so you'll have to just take my word for it.

Today our neighbors invited us to a BBQ at the park. And once again, Miss Janet was a hungry girl! This time we forgot the camera, so again no photo. Don't worry, though, one of these days we'll get our act together!

I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day. Let's all take a moment out of our day to remember those who fought and died for our freedom, and those who have served our country in other ways as well.

BIP Photo Submission!

 

Cayla and Baby Zoe!

Birthday Fun!

Whew! It's been a crazy week for us! This past Monday was my son Lander's birthday. He is 3 years old now, a big boy! His big brother Aidan and my husband's parents (Gigi and Grandpa Jim) came to visit, and everybody had a wonderful time. Here's some pictures from our big day!

A little bit groggy on his birthday morning.

We had our party at church. The boys had a blast!

Arts and crafts with Big Brother and GiGi!

More arts and crafts- this time Daddy joined in!

Time for cake!

GiGi and Grandpa Jim got him an InnoTab2!

Big Brother Aidan helped Lander open his gifts. What a gentleman!

He even helped pick up the trash!

Playing with some new toys!

Went to the pool at GiGi and Grandpa's motel. Lander wasn't so sure about it at first.

So he played with the pool noodle instead.

Big Brother had a cool life vest to help him float!

Daddy tried to talk Lander into swimming.

For a while he resisted.

But GiGi said some magic words and lured him in!

Finally swimming!

The water was really cold!

Big Brother let Lander try on his life vest. Like I said, a gentleman!

 

And of course, what outing would be complete without a little BIP?

 

We were all very sad when Big Brother had to leave on Tuesday, but we are hoping to see him again next month! Today is my in-laws' last day in town, so we'll be having breakfast with them before they hit the road. What a fun, but exhausting weekend/week it has been! Can't wait to do it again next year!

More BIP photos!

 

Rhianna's twins- Sophie and Lillian

 

Michelle from Washington

Breastfeeding Success- worth the pain!

Just wanted to share my breastfeeding story! 5 minutes after she was born we started breastfeeding she nursed for an hour and a half!! She weighed 8 lbs. We had a bad latch at first and we had bleeding nipples.. so we had to have 2oz of formula. But mommy decided to push thru the pain! Now 7 weeks later we are ebf and she weighs 11lbs!! I hope I get to breastfeed till she's two!

 

Story and photo courtesy of Manda Jade

 

Many women are discouraged when their first breastfeeding experience turns out to be a painful or uncomfortable one. Unfortunately, there is a lot of pressure these days for women to give up and switch to formula without really giving breastfeeding a chance. This can lead to feelings of guilt or incompetency in women who had planned to breastfeed, but "had" to formula feed instead.

 

I would like to encourage all women to tough it out, even though that seems very hard. The initial discomfort and pain of breastfeeding will, in most cases, pass in a week or two. Talking to a lactation consultant or another breastfeeding woman can help tremendously.

 

If, for some reason, breastfeeding genuinely isn't in the cards for you, there's no need to feel guilty or like a failure. The most important thing is that your baby is being fed! Many formula fed babies thrive and grow into successful, intelligent human beings.

 

Just don't switch to formula simply because you experienced a little discomfort the first few days.



Got a problem with public breastfeeding?

Courtesy of yin69yang

Courtesy of EthansMomma09

Apparently, I'm not the only one with an opinion on the matter!

Baby's needs trump comfort zone!

I received another email with a great BIP story to share with you. This one comes from Kathryn:

Hey, I am Kathryn and a mother to two girls. My newest sweet addition is two month old Lula. I exclusively breastfeed, and this little miss knows exactly what she wants- the real thing. She absolutely refuses pacifiers and bottles, which has forced me to accept the fact that regardless of my shyness about nursing in public, it has to be done.
     In the beginning, I (tried) using a nursing cover. Luckily my first nursing in public experience was at her first doctors appointment. I tried so hard to put off feeding her until we were called back, only to have a screaming hungry baby. I cautiously fed my baby under the nursing cover, and I could feel everyone staring. Then came letdown, my baby gulped air and let out a scream and I knew she needed to be burped. As I tried to position her, the cover got pulled and exposed my whole breast! Of course, everyone just happened to be staring at this point! I felt myself turn red and seriously thought about going to the bathroom to finish this feeding. Just that moment, her name was called and I could leave my embarrassment out in the waiting room.
     Lula never liked the nursing cover, she would sweat under it and fuss. To be quite honest, as modest as I wanted to be I didn't like it either. It drew more attention and made nursing a hassle. I ditched the cover and started wearing a tank top under whatever shirt I wore, this way while in public I could pulled the tank top down and the shirt up, only exposing my breast enough for Lula to latch on and when burping her I simply hold her over the breast exposed. I still get second-glances at times and the occasional stare, but it's something I've grown comfortable with. My baby's needs come first, and anyone who doesn't like that has to deal with it themselves.
    
I absolutely love my breastfeeding experience, and I am proud of our success. Nursing my daughter is such a bonding experience and it feels amazing to meet her nutritional needs in the healthiest and most natural way. Breastfeeding may not be for everyone, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

Kathryn and baby Lula

On Co-sleeping

I found the picture above on Facebook, and thought it was too funny not to share! This is what we experience when we let my son sleep with us. Sometimes my husband will even get up and go sleep in Lander's bed, just to escape the feet and arms flailing about!

Pumping at work

I am very excited to share our very first story submission! It's not about BIP per se, but pumping at work is also a very important part of exclusively breastfeeding your child. In fact, today is my first day back at work, and I will also be pumping in the workplace. Today's story took a lot of worry off my own mind!

Hi Elizabeth!  I saw your post on the February 2013 board on BBC and wanted to share a story.  I'm keeping pictures of LO off the Internet for now so unfortunately no photos!  Here's my story:

I'm an exclusively breastfeeding mom of a sweet four-month-old boy, and I happen to work in a mostly male accounting firm in downtown Chicago.  There's an acceptable mothers' room for pumping, so my transition back to work has gone mostly well.  Then last week one of the male partners in the firm signed me up for an all-day conference at a swanky corporate club without consulting me.  I was so nervous!  What was I going to do about pumping?  In a normal day, I pump every 2.5 hours, and I'd be at the conference 9 hours.  And I was going with two men from my firm.  I was so worried all week.  When would I pump?  What if I leaked?  Is this going to affect my supply?

Finally, I decided to call the private club where the event was being held.  Again, I worked myself up over it.  I texted back and forth with my mom, and she said I had to call to make a stand for working mothers!  I knew she was right.  I called right away and explained that I was a nursing mom attending tomorrow's conference, and would there be a private room available?  It took a few transfers, but eventually I spoke to someone who happily shared that I was welcome to use the women's locker room.  I'll take it!

Fast forward to the next day, and I arrive at the conference with my laptop bag, double electric pump, and portable cooler stocked with ice packs.  The locker room worked perfect.  It wasn't 100% private, but very nice and clean!  During my afternoon pumping session, a woman came in from the pool.  She did a bit of a double take when she saw I was pumping, and immediately doubts and self-consciousness started flooding my mind.  She's an older executive, she probably doesn't have kids... What if she complains to someone?  I couldn't have been more wrong.  Once I was all packed up she asked if I worked in the city and we struck up a conversation.  She has a 25-year-old, 23-year-old, and twin 22-MONTH olds!!  She said how nice it was to have a quiet place to pump because 25 years ago, there was nothing!  We shared war stories from being pregnant and commuting, and turns out we both puked in front of Union Station in our first trimesters!  :)

I had worked myself up over nothing.  I went home to my sweet boy with 10 ounces of the good stuff on hand and settled in for our post-work nursing session.  I wanted to share this story for all the other working and nursing mothers out there.  Sometimes I feel like it's such a taboo in the business world, even though I'm so proud of nursing my son.  I'm hoping my story will help someone else feel a little more comfortable!

Emily 

 

 

Thank you, Emily, for sharing with us! Isn't it funny how sometimes we can get so worked up over such a simple thing? Fortunately for women today, many business and workplaces are finding solutions so that nursing mothers can comfortably pump at work. From a personal standpoint, it's not so much the flashing my boobs that bothers me, it's the noise from my pump. I don't want to distract anyone from their work!

 

Also, here is today's photo submission, courtesy of m_odom42:

 

Who says breastfeeding can't be classy?

 

BIP- Back by popular demand

I received a few more photo submissions! Thanks, Ladies!

Ash from Orange County- You go, girl!

 

Bekah from D.C., under the cherry blossoms- How peaceful!

Katie from Colorado- thanks for sharing with us!

 

 

Sarah J- celebrating Cinco de Mayo and BIP at the Mexican Restaurant!

 

I am receiving tons of photo submissions, and will keep adding more pictures with every blog post. I am also going to start sharing BIP stories. Please feel free to submit your photograph or story!

 

 

See, other mommas do it too!

Photo submissions:

Sarah and her LO (Little One), breastfeeding at the park in her carrier. High Five, Sarah!

theycallme_mama from my birth club, breastfeeding at Jack In The Box. Way to go!

 

 



I am looking for photos from breastfeeding mommas everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE! Where do you nurse your baby? The park? Wally World? At the BK Lounge? I'd love to share your BIP photos, so we can show new (and not-so-new) mommies everywhere that it's okay to BIP!

Washateria or Laundromat? You decide!

I have heard public laundry facilities referred to by both names. Depending on where you live, one term may be more popular than the other. I've always called it the Laundromat (pronounced Laundry-Matt), but when we lived in South Texas I often heard the word Washateria. It took me a long time to figure out what people were talking about.

Anyway, I did laundry yesterday. My neighbor Becky was kind enough to give me a ride. Guess what I did while we were there? Besides laundry.

Ever-Awesome Becky was kind enough to snap this shot of frumpy ole me BIP. And yes, if you look closely, you can tell that I'm wearing my maternity jeans still. 9 months up, 9 months down, right? (Oh, yeah, right...)

Janet was feeling pretty rested after her dinner.

 

 

Later, my husband and I took the kids for a walk to the grocery store, since we are Living Carless in Colorado. On the way home, the boys played in the park for a few minutes.

 

 

 

 

It was a good day!

My personal reasons for breastfeeding

Seriously, what is this face about?

There are a lot of great reasons to breastfeed your baby. I'm not a doctor or a scientist, so I won't get into the medical benefits of breastfeeding, but I will tell you why I do it myself.

• No prep work required. I don't have to mix anything, bottle anything up, or worry about how sanitary the water is. My milk comes out at exactly the right temperature, so I don't have to warm any bottles up either.
• My boobs stay huge. Seriously, I took that into consideration. I consider it a perk. I imagine my husband does too.
• Portability. My boobs go everywhere I do, therefore I can breastfeed anywhere. Oh yes, I BIP (Breastfeed In Public), thus the name of my blog.
• I have been told by my midwife that breastfeeding burns as many calories as running 7 miles. So now I don't feel bad about eating two bowls of cereal for breakfast, or saying yes please to second helpings of brownies!
• It's good for baby. My breast milk is designed to nourish my baby, specifically. We are made for each other :)
• Breast milk is free! I make it myself, and I'm not about to charge me for it.
• Breast milk is SAFE. I read some study once that recommended that women nurse their babies for two to three years, rather than switch their children to cows' milk at age one. The main reason for that is that cows are pumped full of hormones to help them produce more milk. Also, when you buy cows' milk you are buying the milk of hundreds of cows all mixed together. That's weird.
• I have a great excuse for not doing the dishes. "Sorry, honey, baby's been cluster feeding all afternoon and evening. I haven't been able to do a thing!"

Now here is a picture of a baby hippo, for no reason other than that it is cute:

Who I am and what I do

My name is Liz, and I'm a Mommy and a Wife. My family lives in a cute little tourist town in Colorado, in a small one bedroom apartment (gasp!) above a candle store. Yeah, we're quaint like that.

Yes, those are towel racks behind me.

 

I've been trying for weeks now to figure out what I want to blog about. What makes me different from the millions of other mom-bloggers on the internet? I'm crafty, but so are other moms. I'm snarky, but so are other moms. I'm a Christian, but so are many other moms. I was lost. What makes me different?

Well, I never did figure out what makes me totally different, but I do know one thing: I'm breastfeeding. "Well, yeah, but so are other moms!" Right. But how many other moms are willing to blog solely about the breastfeeding experience and all the things that go along with it? I admit, I did absolutely no research on that. For all I know, there are 107 other breastfeeding blogs. Probably with similar titles to mine.

Whatever. I'm passionate about breastfeeding and doing what's best for my family. Occasionally I might throw in other fun topics, too, like crafting, homeschooling stuff (which I am admittedly new at), knitting, and cooking. Oh, and cute pictures of my kids. Can't forget them!

My son and daughter, in matching outfits.

 

My daughter sleeps better in the car seat than she does in her own bed.

So prepare yourself. At some point you might accidentally see a picture that has my boob in it.

To get started, I thought I'd post a few pictures of my breastfeeding/pumping paraphernalia! Here we go:

 My pump. It's an Evenflo SimplyGo Single Electric. Some people like fancy pumps, but I just don't see the point. This one works just fine for me.

Okay, so we have two things going on here. The jars are for storing breast milk in the fridge. I like to cool mine down that way BEFORE freezing in bags.

The cup is the one they gave me at the hospital when I delivered my daughter. That thing is awesome! I try to drink at least 3 or 4 full cups (approx. 90-120 oz) of water each day to help keep my supply up.

 

These are the only two bottles I bought. One Tommee Tippee, one Dr. Brown's. They are both equally great, and we have no problem switching back and forth between the two of them as well as the breast. Highly recommend either brand.

 

 This is my breast milk stash from the freezer. Each bag contains 5oz, so you're looking at about 40oz of breast milk. That's a little more than one full day's supply. I pump at least one bag's worth of milk each day, so that when my mother watches the kids there's always plenty of milk!

 

More kid pics!

 

After-snack snooze.

My son is becoming a sleep-walker, and he occasionally ends up in interesting places!

The family bed! Yeah, we are semi-co-sleeping. It just kind of happens!

 

 

I hope you'll join me and my family on our fun journey for (hopefully) at least the next 2 years of love, laughter, and yes, breastfeeding. Should be a good time!