The Badass Breastfeeder

I have never had a negative NIP experience. I have never even gotten a funny look. I figure it’s because I live in a big city where we are confronted with so many people doing various strange things on a daily basis. But today I went to the Post Office, the Post Office in the big city of Chicago, and …

Good lord, Jack cries a lot. When we get up in the morning and make breakfast he cries, when I try to put clothes on so we can go outside he cries, when we come back inside and take a nap he cries, waiting for dinner to cook he cries, when it’s time for bed he cries. Sometimes I feel …

During the first 2 to 3 months of Jack’s life I struggled with the contradiction of wanting to hold Jack close and all of the fancy things that I was supposed to put him in or on. He had a bassinette that we put him in when he fell asleep. Generally it took several tries to get him in there …

Today on our way to the park, Jack sees a truck down the street and says “duck!” This is what he always says when he hears, sees or even senses a truck nearby. Today there’s a whole construction scene going on, as is typical in Chicago anytime it is not –20 degrees. I say, “Oh yeah, there’s a truck!” and …

Jack is 15 months now. He no longer nurses for hours at a time. I no longer get stuck underneath him when he dozes off into a boobie nap—husband at work, water and food just out of reach, full bladder and a determination not to wake up the baby. He is mobile and able to express his wants and needs …

I never knew poop could make me so happy, relieved, anxious, scared and confused. Poop has always been pretty straightforward to me. As with so many things, Jack has taken poop to a whole ‘nother level. I think about his poop multiple times a day; I wait for it; I am excited when I see him stop in his tracks …

Before I began breastfeeding, I heard about babies biting their mother’s nipples. I found this to be quite disturbing. I had no idea how to handle it but figured it would be something that would end our breastfeeding relationship. However, after an induced labor and episiotomy I no longer seriously feared that sort of pain. And after a difficult time …

My husband recently told me about an article he read on how Facebook users were found to be more depressed than non-Facebook users. The conclusion was that people on Facebook only post the “good times”: the vacations, the smiling photos, the funny status updates. The article explained that this makes people feel alone in their negative experiences because they feel …