Nursing Your Kids

Sam’s second birthday is tomorrow and we’re throwing him a small party to celebrate. I’m not an indulgent parent. Sure, I’ll let him eat pretzels for breakfast, but when it comes to an event he’s not going to remember I’m not the type of person rent out an establishment or provide pony rides, clowns, Elmo or an ice sculpture. We went all out for his first birthday and invited all of our family and friends, but that was more of a milestone for us. We made it through a year. At this point, a year later, we’re glad to celebrate Sam’s second year of life outside the womb and look forward to his third, but at seven months pregnant I don’t feel like feeding fifty people again. So a small party it is.

Of course Bob’s family is big and close so small is relative. His generous aunts send cards and call when Sam’s sick so it would feel wrong not to invite them. And if we’re inviting his aunts and uncles it would be weird not to invite his cousins, who may or may not come anyway. Right now small looks like it’s going to be about twenty people. Maybe a few more, maybe a few less. We scheduled the party for four o’clock in the afternoon which is kind of an odd time for a party on a Sunday afternoon, but any earlier, say a normal two o’clock in the afternoon party, would probably interfere with naptime.

I’ve spent the last several days trying to clean parts of the house that haven’t been cleaned much and today while Sam naps I’m baking his birthday cake which I’ll freeze overnight and frost tomorrow. Rumor has it that frosting is much easier when a cake is frozen.

And now I’m going to tell you a secret that I may or may not share on the food blog. As I went to put the cake in the oven I realized the oven rack was set too low. I turned to put the cake pan on the island behind me, turned back to adjust the rack, and splat! The cake pan fell upside down on the swept, but certainly not clean floor. I froze for a moment, then scraped it back into the pan, tapped the side a few times to release any air bubbles, put it carefully on the island, adjusted the oven rack, and put it in the oven. I may pretend that it never happened. I may not. Time will tell.

Nursing Mother Supplies, a company that (duh) sells supplies for nursing mothers asked me to promote their Breastfeeding is Green Contest.

Get your saying on a t-shirt, win a $300 breastfeeding gift basket and help the environment all at the same time.

* The winning phrase will be printed on t-shirts and sold at nursingmothersupplies.com.
* All of the profit generated from the sale of t-shirts will be donated to charity.
* Fifty percent of the profit will be donated to La Leche League International to assist in its effort to promote breastfeeding.
* The other fifty percent will go to an environmental organization chosen by the winner.

You can read more about how to enter and the contest rules at their website.

Also from their website is this list of reasons why breastfeeding is green:

While it is common knowledge that breast milk is the best source of food for babies, many people are not aware that breastfeeding is great for the environment. Do you know how truly green it is to breastfeed? Consider the following:

1. The fabrication of artificial baby milk is an inefficient use of land. Each cow used to produce baby formula needs 10,000 square meters of land, which leads to deforestation and soil erosion.

2. The manufacturing of packaging for artificial baby milk creates toxin and uses paper, plastic and tin. For every 3 million bottle-fed babies, 450 million tins of formula are consumed. The metal in the tin cans is not recyclable.

3. The manufacturing of artificial baby milk contaminates water. The sewage from dairy cows and fertilizers used to grow feed for cows pollutes rivers and ground waters.

4. The production of artificial baby milk, baby bottles, nipples and other bottle-feeding accessories require a great amount of energy worldwide. Not to mention it takes vast amounts of water used clean used bottles on a daily basis.

5. The transportation of the raw materials for the manufacturing of formula and the transportation to and from the store use up precious fuel and create CO2 emissions.

6. Breastfeeding is a natural birth control. Women who are exclusively breastfeeding for the first six months after childbirth have a less than one percent chance of getting pregnant. This helps to control the world’s population.

7. Mothers who exclusively breast feed have their menstruation delayed, saving on insurmountable amounts of paper used in sanitary products. The nursing baby uses breast milk efficiently therefore they have fewer diapers. Producing diapers, tampons and pads require fibers, bleaches, packaging, and fuel used in the manufacturing and distribution, especially if cloth alternatives are not used.

And the list goes on.

A few weeks ago Casey from The Beautiful Letdown awarded me an Excellent Blogger award. I was touched by the gesture then promptly forgot about it because maybe I’m not so excellent after all. In my defense we suffered through illness and sleep deprivation and pregnancy brain since the award was given, but I’m still a bit of a slacker. So without further ado, I’ll do my part and pass on the blog love and present the Excellent Blogger award to the following blogs/bloggers.

1. Ladybug’s Picnic- we’re currently pregnant together for the second time and after meeting her in person this weekend she was nice enough to not blog about my child smashing a bottle of wine on her dining room floor.

2. EditorMom- Katharine’s blog is interesting and timely and she’s as good a commenter as she is a blogger. She should also win an Excellent commenter award.

3. Chutes and Ladders- I started reading Brooke’s blog after she left a comment here. She is funny. I appreciate that in a blogger.

4. Safe Mama- Motherhood has turned me into a hippie and this website helps me make safe choices for my family. Check out the cheat sheets in the sidebar for links to safe bottles, sippies and pthalate-free items.

5. One More Moore- I found this blog through my online expecting club and I am awed by her talent. Check out the lovely items she makes on her blog then buy them at her etsy store.

6. The Yummy Mummy Cooks Gourmet- I read a lot of food blogs for my Kids Dish site and this one is the perfect blend of kids and food. Kim’s writing is funny and her recipes are always interesting.

7. Babygadget- If I had unlimited funds I would buy just about everything Babygadget links to. Their bloggers have a sharp eye for design and find the most stunning toys, furniture, gear and everything else for kids.

8. Farm to Philly- I should be posting to the site, but pregnancy has seriously interfered with my desire and ability to seek out local foods. Luckily there are plenty of other more devoted locavores to take up the slack. February is the Tofu Challenge month. Who knew there was locally made tofu in Philly?

9. Smitten Kitchen- 9 out of 10 recipes I try and post about at Kids Dish come straight from the pages of Smitten Kitchen. Yum.

10. The Twinkies- Stacie nurses twins. I can’t even imagine. She’s already gotten one of these, but I’m still so impressed by the nursing of the twins that I can’t help but give it again.

A while back I wrote about the episode of Family Guy where Lois weans Stewie. I couldn’t find a clip (copyright laws be damned!) but Tanya at the Motherwear blog just posted one today!

Watch and enjoy.

I saw this clip at ConnieTalk and couldn’t resist posting it. It’s a vintage 1977 Sesame Street clip that totally warms the heart. Big Bird watches and asks questions as Buffy nurses Cody.

I love this for so many reasons.

He’s old enough to eat solids, but Buffy still nurses him.
Buffy gets to hug him while he nurses.
He likes the milk because it’s warm and sweet and natural.

I wish television showed more images like this. The only television show I can remember showing breastfeeding was a surprisingly pro-nursing episode of Family Guy. In the episode Lois tries to wean baby Stewie and he’s outraged. At the beginning of the episode he walks up to her and says, “Open your shirt woman, I’m hungry.” He sneaks into her bed at night, hooks her up to a breast pump, accidentally spills the milk and laps it up off of the floor he needs it so badly. In the end she misses the bonding and can’t wean him. I’m sure her breasts expanding two sizes didn’t help much either!

Speaking of weaning, Sam is clearly ambivalent about it. He continues to nurse daily for a few days at a time then go as long as a week without showing any interest. Some nights he wants to nurse before bed. Other nights he just wants to rock. I guess I’m ambivalent too. When he’s nursing for no reason at 10 in the morning I just want him to stop. When he’s nursing sweetly and quietly drifting off to sleep I think I could nurse him forever.

And if you missed it the first time around, here’s another sweet breastfeeding clip from Sesame Street.

Honestly, I’m not that great at any kinds of posting challenges. I once signed up for and successfully completed Holidailies, but that was before I had a child demanding constant attention. (Come on, enough with the diapers already, mommy’s trying to blog over here.) So I don’t know about NaBloPoMo this November. I may not make it and actually post every day, but I suppose I could give it a shot. Angela at Breastfeeding 123 created a networking group for breastfeeding and mothering bloggers to join.

It is time to start gearing up for National Blog Posting Month: NaBloPoMo! For NaBloPoMo, bloggers around the blogosphere commit to the challenge of posting at least one blog post per day for the month of November. I had a lot of fun with it last November. This time around NaBloPoMo allows participants to create their own networking groups, and I have set up one for Breastfeeding and Mothering bloggers to join! Please join the group if you are a breastfeeding mother and blogger who is up to the challenge of writing a post a day for the month of November! You certainly do not have to write about breastfeeding — the point is for breastfeeding mothers to discover the blogs of other like-minded mothers. Want to play along?

Planning to join? Post a comment here to let me know!

The Great Virtual Breast Fest

Activate your wonder powers by pulling out your boobs on October 10, 2007 at 10:00am (mark your calendars!) and showing the world that you’re a boobtastic superhero mom and damn proud of it.

We’re asking women around the world to speak out - and squirt out! - against the banning of breastfeeding pictures on Facebook, as well as against the constant onslaught of negative attention toward breastfeeding mothers in public spaces and in the media.

That’s right. We’re staging a virtual nurse-in!

On October 10 at 10am, women around the US and Canada and - we hope - the world will breastfeed for justice. We’ll nurse our babies or bottle-feed our babies or reminisce about doing either of those things and we’ll post pictures and video, all together, and let the world know that there is no shame, only power, in caring for our children.

Spread the word by placing a button on your blog, and then set up your web cam to live broadcast on your blog on October 10 at 10am (your time). If you don’t have a web cam, but have a video recorder, post some breastfeeding video! Load it up on YouTube and tag it “The Great Virtual Breast Fest” on October 10!

If you don’t have a web cam/video camera or you are not currently nursing, send us your breastfeeding pictures (leagueofmaternaljustice at gmail dot com), along with your blog url (if you have one — non-bloggers are WELCOME and strongly encouraged to participate!). We’ll be creating a video montage of pictures that you can embed onto your blog. (If you’ve already written a post with pictures, please still send us a photo!)

So not to exclude our non-breastfeeding friends, you can participate by writing a post - even a blurb will do - about why you support women’s right to nourish their children whenever and whatever and in whatever manner they wish.

We love your boobs too!

Whatever you’re planning on doing as part of the Breast Fest, make sure to let us know how you’re participating by emailing The Boob Squad. Want to breastfeed live but need a webcam? Plan on putting video up? Sending us some pics?

We want to know! Are you with us?!

And finally, please SPREAD THE WORD. Leave a note on your message boards, tell the moms at your playgroup, or heck, send an email to Oprah! And will someone please load this up over at the Facebook protest group?

This is not a Breast Fest without breasts and lots of them! Swipe a button code, write a post, and let people know we’re not hiding under blankets any longer. We’ll be adding the links to our sidebar and keeping tabs on our Brest Fest participants!

For more on our Facebook Sucks mission, click here. We’re still encouraging people to throw a stone at the big man and deactivate accounts!

And if you know of any potential sponsors - we’d love to get web cams to women who want to join in, but any kind of sponsorship will do! - Please send them our way! Or donate a few bucks in our sidebar. All the proceeds will go towards getting us one step closer to Maternal Justice!

Mamamojo really gets it right with her post Breastfeeding in Public (warning: offensive content)

You may not want to click through to her post if you’re at work since those breastfeeding images are *really* offensive, but here’s an abbreviated version so you can get the gist.

Totally offensive:

Not at all offensive:

Whenever I feel frustrated nursing a toddler I have to remember that at least I’m not nursing a litter!

I’ve seen this on a couple of breastfeeding blogs lately and couldn’t resist posting it here.

Sesame Street sure has changed since the seventies. Could you imagine them showing something like that now?

sesame street, breastfeeding, breastfeeding video