The Great Debate: BREASTFEEDING VERSUS FORMULA.

Lately I feel there has been a war between formula feeding and breastfeeding mothers. And to be completely honest with you, it's driving me nuts. I don't really have a stance. Obviously, breastmilk is nutritionally and economically superior to formula. That's a fact. Tried and true. I feel more strongly about the arguments women are using to back their views up with. Let me try to make this concise (for me, concise is less than 20 paragraphs. Lol!)

1. Only 2% of women in the United States of America CANNOT PRODUCE MILK.
Two percent. At LEAST 1 out of 4 mothers I have met claim that they cannot and did not produce milk no matter how hard they tried/are trying.

I. Call. Bullshit.

Claiming that you are physically incapable of producing milk is a disservice to the women who REALLY cannot produce breastmilk. For example, women with double mastectomies, women with diseases that pass through breastmilk, what have you. Unless you are one of the 2% of women who truly cannot produce milk for whatever medical reason, don't say you can't. Drives me freaking crazy.
Newsflash: If you try hard enough and put enough effort into it, you will produce enough milk to feed your child.

2. Another thing, saying your baby isn't getting enough in the first few days. What the actual heck? A newborn's stomach is smaller than a ping pong ball. The tiny bit of colostrum you make after birth is all baby needs. Your actual breastmilk doesn't come in for a few days, give or take a couple of days. And what do mothers base this off of? Crying. You've gotta be kidding me. Crying? Am I the only one who totally doesn't buy this argument? Newborns cry. It's normal. They just made the transition from your small, cozy womb to our big, crazy world, all in a matter of days...even hours sometimes. It's normal for them to cry. Shoving a bottle of formula in their mouth isn't going to magically change that.

3. "My baby didn't like my breastmilk." This one is just...I hardly have the words to describe how I feel about this. Babies. Love. Tits. They do. Have you ever tasted breastmilk? Have you ever tasted formula? Exactly. Even to the most objective person, breastmilk is far yummier than formula. Secondly, babies are born to nurse and to drink breastmilk. They are born to breastfeed. Period. Why wouldn't they absolutely love your yummy milk? Either evolution (or whatever you believe in) has some serious and sudden flaws, or someone's making excuses. I tend to go with the latter.

Now, there are many more arguments that I've seen and heard, but these three have really been bothering me. Really. NOW. I don't encourage mothers to formula feed from the get go, but I certainly don't look down upon mothers who do.

Breastfeeding is natural. But it CAN be very stressful and demanding. Sometimes having a 9-5 job, pumping around the hour, and downing Milkmaid tea like a madman is just too much. I understand, trust me. If I didn't have a good supply, I would be very tempted to just give up.
This is obviously the case with many mothers. And I think that this is why many women give up. Which is okay.

What is NOT okay is making excuses and trying to make your situation sound different than it is. Own it. Own the fact that you just couldn't handle it. It doesn't make you any less of a woman and mother. What does make you look bad is trying to cover up the fact that you quit.
I'm pretty dang sick of it. And I don't think I'm the only one.

Own your shit, ladies. Breastfeeding, or a lack thereof, does NOT define you as a woman. Your character does. And blatantly lying and covering up your true situation is in poor taste and shows a lack of character and integrity.

Personally, this is more than the superficial to me. This isn't just about what is or isn't in your baby's belly. It's about women. It's about women having enough confidence to be honest with themselves and others. So I encourage you to encourage others. Encourage yourselves. Be confident and honest.

The End. (for now...)

WHEW!

I seriously need to start posting on here more regularly! I doubt I have any readers, but still. Even if I have just one, I need to give updates on my life! Alrighty. SO, I started A&P on August 14th. It's now September 19th and it's been relatively easy so far. And by that I mean, it's been easy compared to building a jet engine by hand. Maybe not THAT hard, but it's definitely not easy. But so far I have definitely enjoyed the challenge! I currently have a 96%. YAY! But don't get too jealous. My professor (bless his heart) curved our first exam. What always screws me up is the content on the quizzes. We have to study about 3 chapters for every quiz we have. We never know what exactly is on the quiz, so we basically just have to have the three chapters memorized. For example, I took my Tissues quiz today and scored a 14/20. ICK. I had all the epithelial and most of the connective tissues memorized, and the majority of the questions ended up being about connective tissue. Anyway, sorry for the rant. I really love the class overall. It's absolutely fascinating to me. If there were more careers based around it specifically, I'd definitely get a degree in Physiology. I just can't stand the thought of being a professor. But who knows! Either way, I love it.

School difficulties aside, things are okay. Not great, not bad. We just seem to be in a lull. But I'm not too worried, because I know it's common in this stage of life and I know it won't last forever. It's actually a bit of an 'exciting' lull if you will. Although school is tiring and demanding, and making ends meet is a struggle all on it's own, I know that all this effort and time will be worth it in the long run.

Little Miss Ava Rose is 7 months old! She is doing wonderfully. She is a proficient crawler and is officially into everything. I love it! She is just getting more amazing and beautiful by the day.
All this work that Junior and I are doing is for her, and of course our future children. Which brings me to my next topic.

I WANT MORE KIDS!

But not right now. Although I'd really love another one right now, lol. It's just not realistic. However, we are planning on having another one as soon as we can!

Well, I think that's all for now. I'm sure I'll think of something else to blog about in about 10 minutes.

Happy trails!

16 weeks of sleepless nights and endless coffee; here I come!

School starts on the 19th. GREAT. I'm applying to Nursing School in April, and there are four classes I have to take in order to apply. This semester I'm taking English (easy peasy) and Anatomy and Physiology (not so easy). I'm also looking for a part time job so that I can have some money to myself. I'm going to be stretched soo thin! I also have to get all As in my pre-req classes...MAYBE one B. This should be interesting. I know it will be difficult, but it is SO worth it.

COUNTDOWN 'TIL CLASS STARTS; 

6 days.

GO AWAY FAT SACK.

So basically, I've hit an all time low. I am 5'7 and I currently weigh 142 pounds. Now, I'm not saying that people this height and weight are overweight at all. But for me, it is overweight. I have a very awkward body. It's half apple/half pear shaped. I (normally) have a slim waist and larger hips. I attribute this to my vaguely Middle Eastern background (lol!). Whenever I gain weight now, postpartum that is, it goes straight to my belly/love handles. What the heck is up with that? So weird. It used to go to my butt and thighs. Anyway, I'm at a complete loss here. I breastfeed, so I need tons of calories per day. So working out doesn't necessarily go well with that. When I work out now, I have to make up for the calories I burned. So in essence, it's useless. Granted it's always good to do cardio and keep your heart strong and healthy.

I have never been unhappy about my body. I've always managed to find some sort of beauty in my body. I can't seem to do that now. I mean, I am so so proud of my body for creating and carrying my lovely child. But at the same time, I hate the way it looks now. I do think that part of it comes from society and the media. I'm sure you've seen all the billboards and commercials for perfumes and clothes. The models are literally so tiny! Forever 21 is one of these companies.

Now, I absolutely adore their clothes. They're decent quality, adorable, and super affordable. When you go to their website and look at clothes, it shows the models "stats" so to speak. It shows her bust size, waist size, and hip size. I mean, these models are absolutely fat-free. Their bellies are flat and toned, not to mention tan. Of course Photoshop has a role in this. But you can't really fake bellies like that. Anyway, I'm just ranting here. I am not really happy with my body, but there's not much to do about it at the moment. If any of you (my readers-whoever you lovely people are) have any tips or advice on losing weight while breastfeeding, or even just advice on how to accept the jiggly postpartum body, feel free to comment below!

First day of "sleep training"...yikes.

Since day 1 (pretty much) we've been bed sharing.  It's awesome and so easy, especially since I'm breastfeeding. We all get a good night's sleep. However, little miss Bear has started to roll around and is almost starting to crawl. Oh. My. Goodness. Now that she's started this, none of us get any sleep. So Junior and I decided that it's time to transition her to her crib. And OH MY, what an impossible thing to do! As I type this, Bear is in her crib crying and whining. It breaks my heart. I'm usually all about attachment parenting, but she needs her own space. I read somewhere online that it took a mother 215 times to get her baby to sleep! WHAT?! I desperately hope that it is not that difficult for us. Her room is gorgeous as well. Pink walls, Pottery Barn, overpriced everything. I guess she's just so used to nursing herself to sleep or being put to sleep in the bouncy seat. *Le sigh*. Well, I'm going to go get her now...I can't stand it when she cries. It really breaks my heart.

Ava Bear: 1 

Mommy: 0

Prophetstown! Gettin' old school.

So Indiana has a state park called Prophetstown. Junior, the baby and I were driving in the country and came across it. Not only is it a state park, but it's actually a historic farm/village. If I recall, only one family lived there, but it is basically like an extremely tiny town. Their house is still standing and it is absolutely wonderful. I'm a sucker for all things historical, so I had a field day here. There are many more photos, but they are all of the land. For some reason I didn't take photos of the house inside, although I regret not doing so. I was baby wearing and it was 100 degrees. I'll go again later and take some decent photos of the inside!

These are photos of the family that lived in the home, or at least

I think so. Note the gorgeous wallpaper!

I don't know what type of flowers these are, but I LOVE them.

They are just lovely.

So amazing. This is true beauty.

God is good.

Ava's first adventure!

We went to a park called Happy Hollow on Sunday. It was Ava's first time being in a forest! She did awesome. There were nasty bugs all over the place, but we managed to get some photos. It's so fun to take her to new places and see her explore her world!