Guys! Breastfeeding in public is now legal in ALL 50 STATES! That may shock some of you — to think that it’s 2018 and nursing in public wasn’t legally protected in all US states. But sadly that was the case in Idaho and Utah.
Not any more, hoes. We good. Titties in the air like you just don’t care. Kidding. Kidding. Really though, this is huge for us breastfeeding women. Hell, for women in general. It shows a sense of respect to us and our choices as females. I’ve nursed 4 children now with my youngest being the one that I’ve nursed the longest. She’s had 5 bottles of milk her entire life (she’s almost 13 months old). Nursing in public is a constant way of life for us and i was so grateful for my legal right to nurse in public covered or uncovered any place that i was authorized to be. As a women and a mother i am a major advocate for normalizing breastfeeding. It’s a passion for me. I plan to keep nursing Eilee until she weans herself and i hope to tandem nurse her and baby #5. If you’ve raised babies you know how often they eat. For the first several months of my kids lives they ate every hour or so. With my oldest i introduced a bottle way too soon simply because i was scared to nurse in public which made things very hard because we were always going places. With my others i got more comfortable with each child but i didn’t fully embrace my right to nurse in public until i had my 4th child. By that time i simply had way too much other shit to worry about than offending a stranger. I was raising 4 children 5 and under. I knew from personal experience that introducing a bottle too early jeopardizes your nursing journey and i wasn’t about to risk it. My journey was too important to me since i was unable to nurse my other children as long as i wanted to. I say unable but sadly with one of them i just gave up too easily. A lot of women do that I’ve learned from what other moms have told me. They make excuses and justify it to themselves but the truth is that they just didn’t want to stick it out. Sadly I’ve been there. It could have probably made it work with my oldest. It was crucial to me that my 4th baby was a successful breastfeeding situation. As i mentioned, she is almost 13 months old now and nurses regularly throughout the day. She isn’t reliant on my milk for her food source and she uses me for comfort more than anything else but i do not see her self weaning anytime soon. She is very much attached to that bond and so am i. It only intensifies as she grows because she becomes more and more aware of it. If i could give expectant or new moms one heartfelt piece of advice it would be to STICK IT OUT! Fight with everything in you to breastfeed. Even if you’re iffy on it, give it a fair shot. I can honestly (and uncomfortably) say that the bond that it builds isn’t like anything else. It does not compare to bottle feeding. I cringe at the thought that i didn’t get to lock this in with all of my babies. It hurts me. Of course, we are all bonded. I’m a mom. Their mom. They are my heart and soul. The reason that i breath. But we were undeniably robbed of that one of a kind gift by not nursing longer.
It’s hard. I get it. I have had to balance breastfeeding full time with raising 4 young children, being a wife, doctors appointments, cleaning, cooking, party planning, errands, school functions, field trips, snack days, cheerleading, t-ball, taking care of our pets, sick kids, a sick husband, being sick myself, deaths in the family, vacations, clogged milk ducts, mastitis, sleep overs, grocery shopping, bill paying, tongue tie, a baby nursing every 30 minutes for the first 7 weeks of her life, and so so much more. I get as well as anyone how much easier a bottle would have been. Formula would have been. However, I’m still going to scream ‘DON’T GIVE UP’ to you. Maybe it’s latch issues. Maybe it’s medication that you are required to take. Maybe it’s a production issue. Maybe it’s nipple confusion. Maybe it’s exhaustion. Whatever it maybe there’s almost always a solution. Find the cause of the latch issue. Ask for different medication opinions. We are lucky to live in a country where doctors and medications are over abundant. There are resources and nursing friendly alternatives. Fight out the nipple confusion and discontinue a bottle or binki until you’ve established a solid nursing relationship. Stay strong through the exhaustion. We’ve all been there. We get it. That’s motherhood though. It sucks. I so know. I thought i was going to lose my mind, i was so sleep deprived. But it’s worth it. I promise it’s worth it. It gets better. If any of you ever need an ear to listen while you rant or advice to help you through your journey, please feel free to contact me. I’m not a professional but i do have a lot of experience and knowledge. I’ve educated myself SO MUCH through consultants, doulas, and online medical sites. I was desperate to make my breastfeeding journey a success. Very desperate. I obsessed over educating myself on it so that i could achieve that success. It’s not failed me yet.
And of course, on the flip side if you truly can not nurse do not beat yourself up over it. I stuck nursing out with my 2nd child so long despite her throwing up all of her feedings until it landed her in the hospital with failure to thrive. I changed my diet a million times, dropping everything from it that could be causing the vomiting. We put her on reflux medication. Did testing on her to make sure it wasn’t an intestinal issue that needed surgery. It was a lot of fight on my part to not give up breastfeeding but ultimately i knew that i had no choice. My baby wasn’t thriving. She was starving. I had exhausted all options. She was overly sensitive to the proteins in my milk and needed a special formula. There was almost instant improvement. My son has the same sensitivity and so did my husband. It’s hereditary. So with that being said, i understand that sometimes we can’t nurse. And i understand the burden of that outcome. Stay strong and know that if you can’t do it, it’s going to be okay. But sure give it all that you’ve got or you’ll regret it.
Also one more quick piece of advice if you do breastfeed for any length of time, TAKE PICTURES. Even if you never share them with anyone else you will want to look back on those one of a kind moments with your baby. I deeply regret not saving any nursing photos with my older 3 children. As i mentioned above, i was insecure about nursing openly so i simply didn’t take many breastfeeding pictures and what i did take were lost on the cell phones that they were taken on because i did not save them to a back up outlet or print them off. Now i have more nursing photos than most people have of their kids in totality ha. I captured every week, every quirk, every special moment, ect of Eilee. I will be able to look back at those images and go right back to that place with her forever.
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