Silver Medals And Half Birthdays

One of my favorite things to do when I’m having trouble sleeping is go online to various mom discussion forums and participate in the crazy that is super hormonal post-partem females. For the most part, the topics are pretty tame and are stuff like “Help! My Baby Hasn’t Pooped In 4 Days!” or “OMG My Baby Just Rolled Over For The First Time **PICS** LOLZ!!!” But I don’t care about these posts because I mainly go on to read about controversial topics like vaccines, formula vs. breastmilk, circumcision, ear-piercing, letting babies cry to sleep, spanking and a hand full of others. I mean its like Christmas if someone posts something like “God Hates Formula So I Choose Not To Vaccinate My Daughter Unless She Gets Her Ears Pierced.” Women go bat-shit crazy online about these issues and it’s prime entertainment. Anyway, finally to my point, the mom board is also where I learned about Boobie Medals. The Boobie Medals are basically virtual accolades for the length of time you continue breastfeeding. So at three months you get bronze, 6 months silver, 12 months gold and 18 months platinum. Congrats to me because I recently earned my Silver Boobie Medal. Oh and I guess equally as important, Everett is now half a year old! Here we are celebrating:

Back to breastfeeding, because I know its a titillating subject (Ba Dum Tsh). Now that Everett is six months old, folks are asking how much longer I plan on nursing. I get the feeling that it would be totally acceptable if I said “Actually, we’re stopping today!” But it wouldn’t be acceptable to me because my breast milk is awesome and magical and I’m not ready to take that away from Everett quite yet. (Dropping Game Of Thrones reference in 3, 2, 1). Now am I going to be like Lady Stark’s weirdo sister, Lysa, who was breastfeeding her man child in a very creepy way?

Of course not! Nevertheless, my breast milk continues to be Everett’s main source of nutrition and he still benefits greatly from the antibodies, especially now that he crawls around and sticks everything in his mouth. A few fun facts about breast milk: breast milk changes all the time to meet the exact needs of your baby month to month, day to day, even hour to hour. Furthermore, extended breast feeding protects against diabetes, asthma, obesity and high cholesterol during adulthood. It also makes smarter babies!

I may nurse for a year, maybe two or maybe until Everett self weans. Everett is growing up so fast and most of the time he doesn’t want to be held, he wants to chase the dog or pull himself up on furniture. It’s really only during our nursing sessions that he will be still and let me hold him as long as I want. And maybe it’s all the oxytocin in my body talking, but even when I’m frustrated as hell with nursing, as soon as Everett latches on I realize that in the scheme of things, my time to be this close to him is limited. It’s then that my breast feeding commitment doesn’t seem so laborious.

Enjoy pictures of E-man!

Messy Eater!