Looking for a good, clean time?

As a Proud Breastfeeding Mom (going on 5 1/2 years) I am always looking for ways to learn about ways to encourage other Moms. I have experienced different challenges with each child. Number one was getting comfortable NIP (Nursing in public), an incorrect latch, and some witty responses to naysayers that questioned breastfeeding past my son turning six months old. With the second child, it was colic induced by hyperlactation and pumping every day for a year and a half. Then came baby number three. She latched right away and was a constant nurser. Out of the blue, I was hit with Mastitis when she was four months old. Ugh, I hope to never experience that again.

One thing, however, remains the same. It can be hard and frustrating to find a place to NIP.

While attending a twitter party tonight, I found out about a spectacular tool for parents.

Bye Bye with Baby is a website that serves as a directory of baby-friendly places. You can search by location (radius of 5-100 miles) for locations depending on your criteria. Sure, one of the choices is Nursing/Breastfeeding, but there are other choices such as Urgent Care and Clean Gas Station. They also just created a new form on the website if you’re looking to suggest a location.

I can just imagine how helpful this site can be when planning a trip. Soon, the site will have an iPhone App. Wow!

Engorgement hurts.

Several times unfortunately I have experienced engorgement while breastfeeding.

The first time was when my 1st child was stillborn at 28 weeks. My milk came in a few days after delivering him. I had no idea what to do and my Dr. gave me no Rx or advice. So I just suffered thru it. :(

With my 2nd, I was engorged while away from him for a business conference for about five days. Along with pumping and an OTC pain reliever, I took a lot of hot showers.

With my 3rd, I was working part-time and going to school full-time while she was in child care, so I had some episodes of engorgement. I would just try to pump as often as possible when away from her.

This time (4th) I am happy to say I have only been engorged once, when I had mastitis. I used cold packs, hot showers, pumped, and tried to nurse as often as possible. It still was like carrying rocks around. Did I mention I am a size 44H? Yeah - the size of most people's heads. HUGE rocks.

I sure WISH I knew about Earth Mama Angel Baby Bosom Buddies. ugh.

Check out the EMAB Facbook page for more details. Trust me, you will want relief as soon as possible.

This is why I blog...

A few months ago, I shared my fustration about finding breastfeeding/nursing bras and clothing as a plus size woman. One of my readers happens to not only have experience with this issue, but decided to do something about it. Her name is Judy and she owns A Mother’s Boutique.  I am glad she chose to blog about my post and share her story because it not only validated my feelings, but she shared some items I am really looking forward to trying!

Read all about it here and let me know what you think.

BIG booby trap

Best for Babes does an amazing job of addressing issues (aka Booby Traps) that women face when attempting to breastfeed. These booby traps can make breastfeeding difficult or impossible for some women.

I want to address the elephant in the room that I will call the BIG Booby Trap.

Just like the name, this booby trap refers to the issues and or problems that women who are plus size and/or have big breasts face. It is almost impossible to find a nursing bra bigger than 42DDD in any brick and mortar store. And forget about nursing tanks...apparently women with big breasts just like to throw a tent on, because ya know, we don't need any support at all. Glamourmom supposedly offers a yank top in plus size, but I find they run really small. The worst offender, in my opinion, is La Leche League. I love, love, love them as an organization, but their bras and tank top are sadly lacking in size options. Sad.

Today, I came across a link that advertised the new maternity & nursing clothing line from Shari Crisco. I admire Shari for her outstanding work in supporting new parents and especially educating breastfeeding mothers. I clicked on the link and was pleasantly surprised to see the web page showing pictures of the clothes being modeled and captions such as "Sizes and styles to fit EVERY Mom!".

Oh! I was ex-cit-ted!!

So, I clicked on the "Size and Colors" link. Squeeee!

Colors available, nice! Black and pink, I like that.

Styles available, uh huh. Only two, That's okay, I can deal.

Sizes...what? No way! This can't be right!

The clothes only go up to a size 20.

Say what? Is there some odd alternate world I don't know about where only women size 20 and under are allowed to get pregnant and breastfeed?

Hmph.

So I tweeted Shari. "Really? EVERY woman in the world is size 20 or smaller !?! shar.es/0yM5V #breastfeeding #pregnancy #bigwomenbreastfeedtoo"



She responded to me " Of course there's moms larger. That's why my loungewear runs big and very stretchy. Haven't found a momma I couldn't fit :)"


Hmmm. I still don't agree with her. I'm not a size 20 or smaller and I am now breastfeeding for the third time. I can't possibly the only plus size woman that breastfeeds or has breastfed.

What do you think?

If you agree with me, help me let Shari & other brands know this is not okay.

Shari Crisco/Nurturewear       Twitter     E-mail
La Leche League     Website feedback form
Bravado      Twitter   Website contact form
Medela     Twitter     Facebook    Webpage contact form
Glamourmom    Twitter     E-mail

Bravado Contest!!

If breastfeeding offends you, put a blanket over YOUR head!: Enter to win a FREE funky pro-breastfeeding t-shirt!

If breastfeeding offends you, put a blanket over YOUR head!: Enter to win a FREE funky pro-breastfeeding t-shirt!

Earth Mama Angel Baby SALE

Don't miss out on a great sale during this month!

Booby Tubes® are a natural, safe, gel-free breast pack made with a 100% organic cotton shell and filled with all-natural flax seed. Use warm or cold, depending on your nursing needs.

Bosom Buddies™ is a blend of healing herbs, cabbage leaves and black tea (ever hear a grandma say that nursing women should put cabbage leaves or tea bags on their breasts? Turns out grandma is right!) along with organic calendula blossoms, organic plantain and organic marshmallow root.

Earth Mama Angel Baby's Breastfeeding Support Kit has four of our best all-natural necessities for every breastfeeding mama! Our most requested nursing tea helps support healthy breast milk production, lanolin-free nipple cream helps prevent sore, cracked nipples, gel-free breast packs ease breasts sore from engorgement or mastitis, and organic, herbal breast compresses provide extra nipple and engorgement care.

Ruby red, minty, refreshing and delicious, USDA Certified 100% Organic & Certified Kosher No More Milk Tea is a blend of herbs traditionally used to naturally reduce the production of breast milk. Lovely iced or hot, Mama suggests drinking up to three cups a day.

PumpEase 1/2 off sale

THIS MONTH ONLY to celebrate Breastfeeding Awareness Month ~ 50% off the regular price of PumpEase Petite!

The picture above might look strange to you - it sure did to me. Then I read about it and thought about how hard it was for me the year and a half that I pumped for my oldest daughter and WISH I had something like the PumpEase.

An excerpt from the description on the PumpEase website explains the benefits;

Wrap PumpEase™ hands-free pumping support around your chest and fasten in the front over your nursing bra, nursing top (lower panels first) or over nothing at all. Insert the breast pump horns into the openings, centering over your nipples and start pumping. You will enjoy having both hands free for checking email, taking phone calls, banking online, writing thank you cards or tending to baby - all while pumping!

Glamourmom BoGo

In celebration of National Breastfeeding Awareness Month, Glamourmom has put together a donation program 'Buy One, Give One', which will run until August 31, 2010. Any purchase of a nursing bra tank on www.glamourmom.com during the duration will be matched and will be donated to moms in need.

Earth Mama Angel Baby FREEBIE

You’ve heard there are herbs that can help stingy milk, and you know there are herbs you shouldn’t use while breastfeeding. But what if you don’t know your Pimpinella anisum from your Borago officinalis? Now there’s a book to make it all easy for you.

Filled with herbs, breastfeeding tips and advice from Mama, EMAB’s A Comprehensive Guide to Herbs and Breastfeeding is an essential reference for careful mamas who want to safely harness the goodness of herbs. Best of all, it's FREE!!



Simply click the picture above to fill out a form and you will get an email with the secret link so you can download your very own copy.

Wordless Wednesday...er, Thursday