Bring me the tissues!

Normally I am a calm, unemotional person. Very few things make me cry at the drop of a hat. I was relaxing, errr researching blogs when I stumbled upon a website and came upon this beauty.



It knocked me on my feet and my eyes leaked. Wow, that was surprising. I guess I am an emotional sap, after all....at least when it comes to my children.

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.