Paying Back Brien For "Clown Suit" Comment

LOL. This post is about breastfeeding. Take that, Brien. :)

People told me that if I pumped, it would be horrible. Actually, pumping's quite easy. I can usually pump quickly (5 minutes or less) and anywhere (with batteries). The biggest problem is having to carry the pump in my car. I actually only nurse Loki a little bit - just enough to keep him in practice two or three times a day. Loki takes a bottle or nurses directly just fine. Honestly, I'm surprised myself.

My poor sister followed all the recommendations. Wait until 4 weeks to introduce a bottle, so as not to cause nipple confusion. Now, her daughter will barely eat out of a bottle at all. And she can't pump much, because she hasn't taught her body to demand more. She goes back to work in a few weeks, and it's going to be bad.

I was also told that formula fed babies are fatter. Hmmm...Ander skinny, Loki, um, not. I'm not doubting the statistics, but they aren't pointing to horrible consequences for formula fed baby. Instead, they point to a slight weight difference.

I wish the advice out there was not all tailored to women who are staying at home for a full year and have support and can just breastfeed. All women have different lives and different needs, and I suspect that if more women knew there were options like combo feeding, more women would breastfeed.

I also heard that the medical profession would sabotage breastfeeding. To the contrary, I've seen full support. My sister, who had an uncomplicated delivery of a healthy baby, was encouraged to nurse on demand. (Her lactation consultant, however, was crap. But that was the ONE person who is there to encourage breastfeeding. She did encourage it, but see the complaint above regarding only nursing at home for a year as the ONLY option. Sigh.) Even in my case, with a preemie, sick baby in the NICU, the hospital did everything to help me get the maximum amount of breastmilk and to wean from formula and train Loki to nurse as quickly as possible. His peditrician very much encourages nursing, even though she only nursed for a little while (until she went back to work). His pediatrician's partner, who saw us yesterday to hand out scripts for breathing treatments - yippy - nursed for 22 months. (That won't be me. I am happily anticipating the day I stop nursing. It's so easy to pump that I might pump enough to last a year, which should take until about 7 months, but then that's it. And if it wasn't so easy for me - and no one has production like I do - I wouldn't last that long.) I received free formula, but the support I received made NOT using the formula an easy choice.

I do hate it when well-meaning breastfeeding supporters (men and women, unfortunately) walk up to me while I am discretely nursing the baby in a corner, to chit chat and encourage breastfeeding. I think a woman should have every legal right to breastfeed whenever, wherever, as long as the baby has a legal right to be in the place. (So, it's okay if baby can't be fed, say, in a courtroom or R-rated movie...not that I would kick a nursing mom out of either, since baby is to tiny to notice, as long as baby isn't disturbing others.) That doesn't mean that I choose to breastfeed whenever, wherever. Therefore, if I must nurse in public, I will go to a quiet corner and cover up. Dude, that is not an invitation to visit me! Dude, especially if you are a drunk, older, male relative. Just saying. :/

And that's my rant for tonight. Peace out.

Etcetera.