One Thing I Can Do Right.

This is a Draft I began in October 

I may not be able to stay pregnant very easily. And I may have to be watched carefully because I am high risk.

BUT the one thing I can do really well is....breastfeed.

In the beginning 6 weeks, where I was exclusively pumping, every 2 hours because Matthew wouldn't latch...you could have asked me then and I would have said even I couldn't do that right.

I persevered and now Matthew is 11 months old without any signs of him wanting to stop any time soon. I am planning on nursing for at least 7 more months.

People may think I am crazy. They find it gross when you breastfeed into toddlerhood. Yet, this is in the US only. The place with the lowest breastfeeding rates. The CDC recommends 6 months of exclusively breastfeeding your child. The WHO recommends at least 2 YEARS of breastfeeding, and further if mom and children wish.

I started out covering up in public. Thinking it was the Christian thing to do, to be modest and all that jazz. Then came the summer when there was NO WAY I was going to cover Matthew up while he nursed, and to be frank he would refuse and you were more likely to see nipple if I tried to cover him up.

Now, I do not cover up but I do my best to maintain modesty. I always wear a cami to cover up my stomach, and then I pull up my top shirt while pulling down my cami. I want to help make breastfeeding the norm, encourage women to at the very least TRY to breastfeed and if possible break our cultural view of breastfeeding being seen as weird or gross. Or better yet increase the number of mom's that make it past 6 months or a year.

Matthew is now 14 months old and is still nursing regularly. I hope to nurse til he self weans. Which I am hoping will be around 2 years. I would love to tandem feed if God chooses to bless us with another healthy pregnancy soon.  With our 8th loss recently my guess would be that it isn't going to happen as I would hope. 

I cannot stay pregnant very well but I am a nursing champion!  :-)