Monday, January 31, 2011

Extreme Breastfeeding!

Luke signing "milk" while nursing on the beach in Riviera Maya, Mexico.

Nursing my cranky sweetie in ancient Mayan city of Tulum.  He was upset by something in the area of the ruins and mommy's milk made everything that much better.

Oh look, a hippie mama blog.

So here it is.  Another blog.

I don't have a lot of time to write, so this will be picture-heavy.

I started this blog to document things about my son Luke as well as post articles I come across and my thought on them (this will be more rare)..  I'll probably also use this to post pictures of my 'crafty' stuff and sewing projects.

Things about me outside of being a mom:
-I'm 26, I live in a small-ish town in southern Ontario.  We moved here from Toronto about half a year ago and I've never felt more at home.  The air is so pure and the food from the markets is fresh and ripe and juicy.
-I've been married to my husband Noel for 3.5 years.  I met him when I was 18 or 19, or so.  He took his sweet time with asking me out and we started dating when I was 22.  He didn't take that long to propose and we were married when I was 23. 
-I have a BA in English Literature.  Before mat leave I was working at Free The Children, as an executive assistant.  I miss my office and my friends, but I've now spent 7 months with my little man and I can't imagine being away from him all day.  I foresee a tough decision ahead of me.

Things about Luke and about parenting in general:
-He is 7 months old (how time flies!).
-He is breastfed.   We had a really rough start with breastfeeding and it took about 7 weeks until breastfeeding no longer hurt (he had a severe tongue tie), and then another couple months until it was easy (I have low supply and have to take domperidone), but now we try to see if we can set a record for amount of random places we've breastfed in.  I'll likely be posting pictures of us breastfeeding in totally random locations.
-We started him on solids at 5.5 months and he hasn't looked back.  We looked into baby led weaning, but I found it not inclusive enough.  We give him food we eat.  If he can self-feed, great.  If he can't, then we feed him.  So far he's had dozens of fruit and veggies, beans, rice, egg yolk, fish, turkey, chicken, pork, steak, ribs..  You name it, kiddo will eat it.
-He is cloth diapered.  We have way waaay too many diapers at this point.  I can easily go 4-5 days between laundry days.  I also started making my own diapers and covers and it's so much fun.  I get to buy all these cute prints that you can't find anywhere else.  I'm planning to eventually put some of them up for sale, but right now I'm just enjoying seeing my son's bum in a diaper that no one else has!
-He is a free-range baby.  We've tried the crib.  It didn't work.  They tell you not to put baby in bed with you or they will get used to it and will not want to leave.  What they neglect to tell you is that you will get used to it and will not want them to leave, because then one day you put them in their crib and lie there awake wondering if you should take them back into your bed because you miss snuggling them and can't sleep.  That's right, I use my kid as a tranquilizer.
-Being a mom is one of the most challenging and at the same time the easiest things I've ever done.  Every day is a new challenge and a new joy.   Sometimes I lie there (for about 45 seconds) after he falls asleep and look at his pouty lips, and his long eyelashes, and his cute little button nose, and I wonder how we managed to create someone so funny, quirky, and just wonderful.