Today's reading: http://codenamemama.com/2010/06/01/gentle-parenting-meals/
What do you think?
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Oh, what a Beautiful Sight: Nursing in Public
Welcome to the July 2010 Carnival of Nursing in Public
This post was written for inclusion in the Carnival of Nursing in Public hosted by Dionna and Paige at NursingFreedom.org. All week, July 5-9, we will be featuring articles and posts about nursing in public ("NIP"). See the bottom of this post for more information.
Everyday I hear stories about women discriminated against for nursing in public. It makes my blood boil. These stories remind me of everything wrong with our society.
These stories are not my stories though.
Sometimes I wonder what sort of strange cosmic joke it is that someone so geared up to be confronted while nursing in public is never confronted. Not only am I not confronted, I'm praised.
I should clarify something. I generally don't "cover-up" when I nurse in public. I may throw the tail of my sling up to encourage Connected Daughter to sleep or place a blanket over her body, but I don't own a cover. That said I don't let it all hang out, but that's mostly in an effort to hide my stretch marks, or as I prefer to call them mommy stripes. I just nurse in the easiest way possible for whatever I'm wearing.
So what has my experience nursing in public been? A really, really positive one. People help me out, smile at me, offer kind words. Apart from flabbergasting a teenage waitress once and confusing a 4 year-old at the mall, no one has ever said anything negative. I was stopped three times in one week while nursing Connected Daughter in her sling by women wanting to tell me that they were proud of me. Complete strangers are proud of me. It's sort of mind-blowing.
My favorite nursing in public experience involved a woman at the grocery store. She stopped me to tell me it was awesome to see me nursing, adding in a hushed voice that she would have never had the guts when she was nursing her children and she's so proud of women who do. Then she asked if I would ever participate in one of those nurse-in's. When I responded yes, she agreed that she would at this point in her life too.
I walked away from this encounter and realized something. She'd given me something she hadn't been given, Support. A stranger had taken the time to be encouraging so that I could have a good experience nursing in public.
I don't have anything provocative to say here. It took me several days to write this and in that time I had several more positive public experiences. A woman smiled as we took the picture in the park above. Families and children continued playing in the spraygrounds. People walked their dogs. We were all there just living our lives and enjoying ourselves. I happened to be nursing. My point is pretty simple. It's easy not to appreciate all the wonderful, supportive people there are out there. If you never nurse in public, you'll never know. If you do, look around, make eye contact, and see what happens. People might surprise you. And if you see a nursing mom out and about, take the time to smile and share a kind word. Share your positive nursing stories. Together we can make it the norm to have good breastfeeding experiences.
Welcome to the Carnival of Nursing in Public
Please join us all week, July 5-9, as we celebrate and support breastfeeding mothers. And visit NursingFreedom.org any time to connect with other breastfeeding supporters, learn more about your legal right to nurse in public, and read (and contribute!) articles about breastfeeding and N.I.P.
Do you support breastfeeding in public? Grab this badge for your blog or website to show your support and encourage others to educate themselves about the benefits of breastfeeding and the rights of breastfeeding mothers and children.
This post is just one of many being featured as part of the Carnival of Nursing in Public. Please visit our other writers each day of the Carnival. Click on the links below to see each day’s posts - new articles will be posted on the following days:
July 5 - Making Breastfeeding the Norm: Creating a Culture of Breastfeeding in a Hyper-Sexualized World
July 6 – Supporting Breastfeeding Mothers: the New, the Experienced, and the Mothers of More Than One Nursing Child
July 7 – Creating a Supportive Network: Your Stories and Celebrations of N.I.P.
July 8 – Breastfeeding: International and Religious Perspectives
July 9 – Your Legal Right to Nurse in Public, and How to Respond to Anyone Who Questions It
This post was written for inclusion in the Carnival of Nursing in Public hosted by Dionna and Paige at NursingFreedom.org. All week, July 5-9, we will be featuring articles and posts about nursing in public ("NIP"). See the bottom of this post for more information.
These stories are not my stories though.
Sometimes I wonder what sort of strange cosmic joke it is that someone so geared up to be confronted while nursing in public is never confronted. Not only am I not confronted, I'm praised.
I should clarify something. I generally don't "cover-up" when I nurse in public. I may throw the tail of my sling up to encourage Connected Daughter to sleep or place a blanket over her body, but I don't own a cover. That said I don't let it all hang out, but that's mostly in an effort to hide my stretch marks, or as I prefer to call them mommy stripes. I just nurse in the easiest way possible for whatever I'm wearing.
So what has my experience nursing in public been? A really, really positive one. People help me out, smile at me, offer kind words. Apart from flabbergasting a teenage waitress once and confusing a 4 year-old at the mall, no one has ever said anything negative. I was stopped three times in one week while nursing Connected Daughter in her sling by women wanting to tell me that they were proud of me. Complete strangers are proud of me. It's sort of mind-blowing.
My favorite nursing in public experience involved a woman at the grocery store. She stopped me to tell me it was awesome to see me nursing, adding in a hushed voice that she would have never had the guts when she was nursing her children and she's so proud of women who do. Then she asked if I would ever participate in one of those nurse-in's. When I responded yes, she agreed that she would at this point in her life too.
I walked away from this encounter and realized something. She'd given me something she hadn't been given, Support. A stranger had taken the time to be encouraging so that I could have a good experience nursing in public.
I don't have anything provocative to say here. It took me several days to write this and in that time I had several more positive public experiences. A woman smiled as we took the picture in the park above. Families and children continued playing in the spraygrounds. People walked their dogs. We were all there just living our lives and enjoying ourselves. I happened to be nursing. My point is pretty simple. It's easy not to appreciate all the wonderful, supportive people there are out there. If you never nurse in public, you'll never know. If you do, look around, make eye contact, and see what happens. People might surprise you. And if you see a nursing mom out and about, take the time to smile and share a kind word. Share your positive nursing stories. Together we can make it the norm to have good breastfeeding experiences.
Welcome to the Carnival of Nursing in Public
Please join us all week, July 5-9, as we celebrate and support breastfeeding mothers. And visit NursingFreedom.org any time to connect with other breastfeeding supporters, learn more about your legal right to nurse in public, and read (and contribute!) articles about breastfeeding and N.I.P.
Do you support breastfeeding in public? Grab this badge for your blog or website to show your support and encourage others to educate themselves about the benefits of breastfeeding and the rights of breastfeeding mothers and children.
This post is just one of many being featured as part of the Carnival of Nursing in Public. Please visit our other writers each day of the Carnival. Click on the links below to see each day’s posts - new articles will be posted on the following days:
July 5 - Making Breastfeeding the Norm: Creating a Culture of Breastfeeding in a Hyper-Sexualized World
July 6 – Supporting Breastfeeding Mothers: the New, the Experienced, and the Mothers of More Than One Nursing Child
July 7 – Creating a Supportive Network: Your Stories and Celebrations of N.I.P.
July 8 – Breastfeeding: International and Religious Perspectives
July 9 – Your Legal Right to Nurse in Public, and How to Respond to Anyone Who Questions It
Monday, July 5, 2010
Reading Group: Emotional IQ and Marriage
The first article on marriage for reading group. I know I can spend so much time thinking about parenting, I can lose perspective on my marriage.
Today's reading: http://www.marriedromance.com/articles/marriage-iq.htm
What do you think?
Today's reading: http://www.marriedromance.com/articles/marriage-iq.htm
What do you think?
My Birth Art
Recently I discovered wordle.com and quite accidentally composed this word art (click to see full size).
The site asked for me to enter my blog address to choose words and as luck would have it that day I posted about labor induction. The site randomly chose the words, sizes, and placement, and when I saw it I had that peculiar knocked-on-your-ass feeling. The words it emphasized reflected so much of what I feel about birth as well as what I want from it. In many ways, this art represents my birth journey thus far - my cesareans, my desire for normal birth, my unfailing belief that I can achieve it.
This picture is who I am as a birth advocate, but I felt compelled to make one more when I saw it. So I made this picture.
It's the birth story I posted when this blog was in its infancy. I wanted to get it in writing. I thought seeing it would be hard, devastating even. I imagined the words c-section, failure, epidural - everything horrible and unwanted about that birth - would take center stage. And I was surprised.
I was surprised because it just looked like birth. And strangely for the first time I really realized that I birthed my babies. Not in the way I had hoped and I pray this is not how future births look, but look at those words - contractions, pain, cervix, hours. I gave birth to my children.
Words hold power to me. The labels we use to describe ourselves. The notes on our charts, margins, scraps of paper. The stories in our books. I love words. I love the stories they tell. These are my birth stories - my birth art.
In the future I will add these words - joy, power, vagina, trust - and all the words that come with them.
This picture is who I am as a birth advocate, but I felt compelled to make one more when I saw it. So I made this picture.
It's the birth story I posted when this blog was in its infancy. I wanted to get it in writing. I thought seeing it would be hard, devastating even. I imagined the words c-section, failure, epidural - everything horrible and unwanted about that birth - would take center stage. And I was surprised.
I was surprised because it just looked like birth. And strangely for the first time I really realized that I birthed my babies. Not in the way I had hoped and I pray this is not how future births look, but look at those words - contractions, pain, cervix, hours. I gave birth to my children.
Words hold power to me. The labels we use to describe ourselves. The notes on our charts, margins, scraps of paper. The stories in our books. I love words. I love the stories they tell. These are my birth stories - my birth art.
In the future I will add these words - joy, power, vagina, trust - and all the words that come with them.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Reading Group: Sunday Surf and Weekly Wrap-Up Edition
I thought today, after sleeping in an appropriate amount of time, I would put together a Sunday Surf edition of the best posts I saw on the web this week. I read a lot of blogs in a week and I'm in the process of setting up a reader with a link, so you can check out what I'm reading at your leisure. That said, I'm trying to limit the number of posts I link to on Sunday, because we reads together every day of the week, right? So here's a couple you should peruse today between firecrackers.
This Week on Connected Mom:
Over here on Connected Mom, I was hopping this week! I unveiled our new cloth diaper guide, CD 101 , as well as my July edition of magazine style posts devoted to cloth diapering. I also announced my next giveaway, Bummas cloth wipes. I started a daily reading group, posted 5-7 times a week in the morning designed to help you start the day with a new perspective on your parenting relationship. I'd love to hear if you are enjoying it. I was inspired to write A Call to Labor after a friend was induced for big baby this week, days shy of her due date. Look forward to some tips on parenting siblings, moms and body image, and some more cloth diaper tips!
Toddler Storytelling Activities and Keepsakes - Code Name: Mama
I love the Toddler Activities series on CN:M, because it gives me ideas for things to do with Connected Son. With a new baby in the house, my brain is a little overwhelmed. Thankfully there are resources like this to give me ideas or we'd all just sit and twiddle our thumbs.Tips to help parents assume the best intentions - Hobo Mama guest post
Ok, another post by Dionna of CN:M, hosted on one of my favorite new blogs, Hobo Mama. I don't know any parent of a toddler who couldn't use this post. Eventually when you are the parent of a toddler you will begin to suspect your toddler is an evil genius secretly subjecting you to psych experiments, this post will assure you its not true.Your natural, awesome power - Surfacing After Silence
I was humbled by this post by Alexis of Surfacing after Silence. Alexis, who is not a mom herself, read my post on labor induction this week and found it spoke to her own battle with an eating disorder and self image. Alexis's post has given me a lot to think about in regards to my own body image and I how I approach it.This Week on Connected Mom:
Over here on Connected Mom, I was hopping this week! I unveiled our new cloth diaper guide, CD 101 , as well as my July edition of magazine style posts devoted to cloth diapering. I also announced my next giveaway, Bummas cloth wipes. I started a daily reading group, posted 5-7 times a week in the morning designed to help you start the day with a new perspective on your parenting relationship. I'd love to hear if you are enjoying it. I was inspired to write A Call to Labor after a friend was induced for big baby this week, days shy of her due date. Look forward to some tips on parenting siblings, moms and body image, and some more cloth diaper tips!
Friday, July 2, 2010
Full of Fashion Winners
What an incredibly close contest! There were so many adorable entries that I can't wait to do another one (hint: start thinking about your best breastfeeding shot :) All 72 entries proved how cute cloth can be!
::::::::drum roll:::::::::
::::::::drum roll:::::::::
3rd place
Submitted by Tara Gross
2nd
Submitted by Heidi Cullman Johnson
1st
and the winner of a pair of Buddha Bunz
Submitted by Jamie Wiseman
Great pictures everyone!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
