World Breastfeeding Week 2011

This is my second year to be able to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) with you on my blog! Everyone enjoyed last year's posts so much, and I felt like we created a nice little breastfeeding support group right here on Blogger and Facebook.  I enjoyed the e-mails and messages with your breastfeeding concerns and questions.  It was fun!  I also enjoyed your encouraging feedback regarding my struggles with nursing my first baby.  It was so nice to know that I'm not alone. 

Last year, all I could do was write about it, but this year, we have a six month old, so I get to celebrate WBW in the best way possible, by actually nursing my little guy.

I'm going to celebrate WBW in a more unusual way too.  I'm not going to feed my baby solids this week!  I'd considered introducing solids this week or sometime in the next month, but once I discovered that this is WBW, there was no way I could introduce solids.  Introducing solids is the beginning of weaning, and it seems so contradictory to begin weaning during World Breastfeeding Week.  I'm also still on the fence about the method of weaning.  I'd really like to try Baby-Led Weaning, but I need more information.  Looks like a trip to the bookstore is in order before I can introduce solid foods!

And of course, I'll celebrate WBW by sharing our latest nursing experiences with you.  All week, you can look forward to posts about nursing, one of the sweetest things I've been blessed to be able to do as a mother.

I'll share with you my nursing experience with baby #2, which was quite different than the first time.  I'll also tell you how I was able to maintain milk supply and continue exclusively nursing my baby during his very serious hospital stay, when he was unable to eat and then on a feeding tube for several days.  Did you know that a baby can lose his feeding cues?  After almost a week of IV fluids and a feeding tube, Andrew was completely unable to tell me when he was hungry.

I'll tell also you about the one teaspoon of formula that my son had, much to my disappointment.  And I'll share with you my little rebellious streak, when I felt the need to go AMA (against medical advice) with nursing my son. 

I look at this week as a wonderful opportunity to open up a dialogue once more on one of the best gifts you can give your babies, the gift of good health.  One of the biggest factors in successful breastfeeding is a good support community, which is the primary reason why I'm blogging on such a personal issue.  I feel very passionate about breastfeeding.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let me know.  I'm not an expert at nursing, but I can at least sympathize with you, direct you to good help, or look up the information in one of my nursing books.  And I do have experience.  So far, I have spent nearly two years of my life breastfeeding my children! 
 
The Rules:  I would like to lay some ground rules before this week's discussion on nursing. 

1. Please make comments or ask questions through my blog, and not through my Facebook wall. Some folks don't care to hear about nursing, and if they wanted to read about breastfeeding, they'd click onto the blog.   
2. Let's keep the comments on here G-Rated and as modest as possible.  Don't make me blush!
3. Feel free to e-mail me personally or message me on Facebook with any personal questions or comments.
4. If you're a guy friend of ours who occasionally stops by my blog, please do us a favor and click the X at the top of your screen. Let's keep the discussion limited to women. Thanks!
5. Let's also keep our comments encouraging and not put down anyone who either nurses or bottle feeds their children. There are many things I said I'd never do prior to having kids, and later I had to eat my words (like I would never nurse my child after a year!).

On that note, I'd like to say that it is never my intention to make anyone feel guilty for not nursing their baby or for switching to formula.  I completely understand where you're coming from.  Nursing my first child was quite a struggle and there were many times when we nearly quit.  With Isabelle, I truly took it one day at a time.  And how you feed your child does not determine how good of a mother you are.  At the end of the day, we're all moms doing the best we can.

Thanks!

Gabby