The Boob Group
Breastfeeding Expectations: The Eleventh Month
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Please be advised, this transcription was performed by a company independent of New Mommy Media, LLC. As such, translation was required which may alter the accuracy of the transcription.
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Robin Kaplan: A mother’s breastfeeding experience changes drastically over time, starting from her child’s birth throughout the month of her baby’s life. Today we continue our conversation in our series called Breastfeeding Expectations. Over 12 months we will be following three new mothers along their breastfeeding journeys, learning how they cope with breastfeeding challenges and settle in to the breastfeeding rhythm with their babies. This is the Boob Group, Episode 55.
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Robin Kaplan: Welcome to The Boob Group, Broadcasting from the Birth Education Centre of San Diego. The Boob Group is your weekly online on-the-go support group for all things related to breastfeeding. I am your host Robin Kaplan. I am also an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and owner of the San Diego Breastfeeding Center. Thanks to all of our loyal listeners who have joined the Boob Group Club. Our members get all of our archived episodes, bonus content after each new show, special giveaways and discounts. Subscribe to our monthly news letter for a chance to win a membership to our club each month. Another way for you to stay connected is by downloading our free App available in the Android and iTunes marketplace.
We also has something cool going now right now, it’s a mothers’ gift giveaway. If you go to our website theboobgroup.com and go under the giveaway section, you have to chance to be entered for one of these fantastic three prizes. So, the first one is the Safety First Advance Solutions Collection. It has lots of great items such as the no-touch thermometer which is awesome in our house, the nasal aspirator which is my kid’s least favorite thing in the cupboard and some oral care and hair brushing comb and nail clippers and things like that. Nip clippers! Nail clippers no nip clippers. Another thing you could be entered for is the new Mobigo carrier which is perfect for older babies on the go as well as the Peek Away 4-in-1 Essentials Nursing Kit. So, this is a cute little bag that holds a nursing pillow, a built-in changing pad with removable wipes and a nursing cover that ensures privacy even in public. So, go ahead to our website and enter the Rafflecopter giveaway and you could be entered for one of these three fantastic prizes. So, today Jen is actually on vacation with her families so we have our other two lovely panelists in the studio, would you like to introduce yourselves, please?
Cherri Christiansen: Sure! Hi I am Cherri Christiansen, I’m 32 and I work in consumer research and I have one daughter, her name is Kelly and she is 10 months old.
Anney Hall: And I am Anney Hall, I am 36 years old, almost 37 but still younger Ms. Robin Kaplan. And I have a daughter who’s almost 12 months Ele and that’s it.
Robin Kaplan: All right. And I was telling my husband yesterday on the way home from driving somewhat, I’m going to be 37 in two weeks like that seems really, really old to me and he said it’s not, like I feel young, I can’t believe I’ve been alive, 37 years. I know, but when you say 37 it just seem so old. So, I apologize for anything listening who is over 37. I swear you’re not old but I just I’m totally old at 37.
Anney Hall: I feel like I was just 16, that’s why 37 have made me feel like holy cow that’s two decades to go.
Robin Kaplan: I know, I know, crazy. All right, we’ll be right back.
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Robin Kaplan: So, here’s a question that we received on our Facebook page. This is from Adrian and it says, “Hi Robin, I came to this page with a question I had about weaning a toddler and came across this podcast, so helpful. With my oldest son, I’ve been told by a lactation consultant and attachment parenting specialist that if I didn’t wean him by 18 months it could become a child-led weaning issue. She said that if I chose to wean after 18 months, it will be very hard for him both cognitively and emotionally. This caused me a lot of stress because I didn’t want a nursing four-year-old, so I wean him right before he turned 18 months. Luckily it was an easy process and turn out to be very mutual. Ashton is now 15 months and my goal is to make it to two years. But I was worried about traumatizing him if I was ready to wean and he wasn’t. From listening to this broadcast I now feel that it’s not so much the age of the child, but rather that the child does gently weaned over a period of time. Sorry for the lengthy post but I just have been thinking about this a lot and I wanted your thoughts, thanks”.
Andrea Blanco: Hi Adrian, this in Andrea Blanco, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. Ashton sounds like a very lucky toddler to have a mom who is so concerns with his well being. As you mentioned weaning at any age should be done gently if possible. I've helped many mothers wean their toddlers at different ages and haven’t notice that any one age is necessarily easier or more difficult than the other. The children who show the most resistance are also the ones who have the strongest personalities. As long as the process is done with love and patience and understanding Ashton will follow your lead. When you’re ready consistency is key and understanding that sometimes you and him may take three steps forward only to take two back. Best of luck to you.
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Robin Kaplan: So, today on the Boob Group we are discussing with Anney, and Cherri their breastfeeding experiences and what they’ve been like during their babies tenth and eleventh month. I realize we’re kind of Cherri said in the last episode that we’re quite of – she doesn’t want a round up, that her babies in her eleventh but --
Cherri Christiansen: So, she’ll be 11 months in a week, by the time this air, she will be 11.
Robin Kaplan: Okay, and Anney’s will be just cutting it into the 11 month because he’s going to be a year, I can’t believe it. So, Ladies, what is it been like to breastfeed in almost or in 11 month old, what does your breastfeeding relationship look like right now? Cherri, you want to go first?
Cherri Christiansen: Active, it is. I remember when she was first born and I would see all these picture on the internet of sort of nursing toddlers and getting into all this weird positions, and things like that and now I truly, truly can understand and relate to that. Because she can’t sit still to nurse, sometimes, I mean it’s early, early in the morning or late at night are still my favorites just because that’s when it got it most peaceful. But the positions that she will get into and now that she’s standing, we may be laying on the couch but she wants to stand and nurse and sort of in the left to the right, to the left, to the right, not, I’m not exaggerating this speed at which that happens and then her newest thing was, I think I may mentioned this last month but I’m not sure, but she likes to hold onto the nipple that she’s not nursing.
Robin Kaplan: It’s the volume control, you don’t know that?
Cherri Christiansen: So, that’s actually exactly how she’s treating, she would grab it between her thumb and her little pincer, that little pincer grasp and she’s holding on to the nipple and she will sort of dial it like it’s like she’s adjusting the radio station or something.
Anney Hall: And she’s adjusting this feeling which --
Robin Kaplan: I would not be able to handle that.
Cherri Christiansen: That has been every single nursing session for the last week or two, we were on vacation which we’re going talk about. So, I’ll save that but thankfully when we’re kind of out and about on vacation she actually didn’t do that much. But I do sleep without a shirt most night just because it’s been so much easier with nursing because then I don’t have to worry if she can't find it and she’s fussing and then I don’t have to wake as fully. But then the downside is at night she has such easy access to that radio dial that she can just grab hold and so, when she’s doing that left-right, left right she will switch too. So, she’s nursing on the left, she’s holding on the right, then she’s nursing on the right and she’s holding on to the left and I have to share a funny story. Because the other night I mean –
Robin Kaplan: I thought that was funny.
Cherri Christiansen: Well, I have to share another funny story and that I decided that my husband needed to experience a bust, so I – obviously he was not nursing on my husband, but I said to him, I say just, I just want you to imagine this and so I simulated with one hand, I was just kind of like cupping one side and I was like tweaking his nipple on the other side and he’s like, oh my God, that’s so irritating stop. And I was like, no wait, it’s just been two seconds hold on and then I switched onto the other side and then he was laughing, he was like, oh my God this is ticklish, it’s irritating, that’s annoying, whatever.
Robin Kaplan: It’s so much stimulation.
Cherri Christiansen: And I was like this has been like one minute, are you joking? Like this is my life all day. So, yeah so it’s been definitely been very entertaining and she’s still not doing solids so this is what we do all day long but it’s all good, we’re having a good time.
Robin Kaplan: That’s awesome! How about you Anney?
Anney Hall: I just think this is so interesting because it’s so opposite. My experience is so opposite of yours. Ele is, well I think I’m in transition of just breastfeeding her twice a day and stopping the pump at work which is really nice. But it’s and - I remember feeling like how am I going to do that? How am I going to stop and now it just feels like it’s the energy in me, it feels like it’s ready to stop and so it’s just sort of happening and the energy for me to like keep working or I don’t feel stressed out about that needing to pump. So, I recognize that and know that I’m ready to stop pumping at work which is great. So, I’m a little nervous about sort of now that I’m not pumping and then transitioning to not breastfeeding so, then I’m going to have to take care of all the food for her and making sure I have the right foods in the house and then making sure I have food made so when I get home from work, and so that’s I’m a little stressed out about that. But as far as breastfeeding, now I’m sort of looking forward to just breastfeeding her in the morning and at night and cherishing those two times and Jessie asked me what I wanted to do tomorrow for mothers’ day and I said I just want her on me. I just want to wear, so I am feeling maybe that sort of through that transition that I’m wanting to hold her close as much as possible and she’s walking all over the place.
Robin Kaplan: She walked across my kitchen a couple of days ago, holy cow, oh my gosh!
Anney Hall: You know she’s never as far as breastfeeding, she’s never switched positions or stood or – she does all those things on her own but like she nestles in and she just stays on one side and then she pulls off when she gets frustrated, I put her back on and that’s just the way it’s been and when we breastfed it’s usually me going to get her to bring her on. She never has crawled up or walked up. So, it’s very interesting, because it’s a totally different experience.
Cherri Christiansen: Cali will tell me she still eye sign milk with her every single day, multiple times a day. She will not sign milk, but when she wants it, she will crawl over to me and start grabbing at my clothes, she’ll pull my clothes off, sometimes if as she can’t get the shirt off, she’ll just try to latch on anyway. Yeah, so she knows what she wants when she wants it.
Robin Kaplan: I love how different it is, that’s so cool. So, what’s the easiest part of breastfeeding right now and kind of what’s the most challenging would you say, Cherri how about you first?
Cherri Christiansen: Easy, well I was actually just at a La Leche League meeting two days ago and I think sometimes you forget, well actually it’s a good thing we forget right, because otherwise we won’t do this all over again. But I was just watching a mom with a sort of brand new little squish that was only a couple of weeks old, struggling with getting the baby to latch and I think I take that for granted. So, that’s the first thing that come into my mind, it’s like I don’t have to worry about latch. So, anyone out there that’s listening, that’s struggling with the latch right now with a little iti-biti baby, it won’t last forever, so I think that’s easy, just I don’t have to worry so much about her cues anymore although that’s been, that’s not unique to 10 or 11 months it’s been for a while. But we’re just really in sync with one another everything kind of feels a lot easier these days so.
Robin Kaplan: Cool, anything challenging?
Cherri Christiansen: Anything challenging –
Robin Kaplan: Besides the nipple tweak?
Cherri Christiansen: The nipple tweaking probably much, much challenging.
Robin Kaplan: If there is nothing you don’t have to say, I think.
Cherri Christiansen: I think what I mentioned before about the signing and we took sign language classes from when she was only about 10 or 11 weeks old, I started signing with her from the day she was born. Like she should be speaking fluent sign language at the rate we’re going. All I want is milk, that’s all I want and that to me I wish that I could get her to communicate a little bit better. I certainly know when she wants it, but like sometimes if my husband is holding her, she’ll start having like a little tantrum, crawling all over me, the pulling at my shirt it’d would be so much easier if she could just do that. And I’m doing a little mock sign for milk right now. That’s challenging. It’s not deal-breaker and we’ll keep trying that that would just make things a little easier, she can just be like hey I want some milk and then we’d have to – we can skip the whole like fussing part.
Robin Kaplan: Absolutely! How about you Annie, what’s the easiest, what’s the most challenging?
Anney Hall: I think that maybe I don’t know what’s easiest because it’s easy. So her transferring to bottle to other people is been so easy. I haven’t had to worry about that from the beginning. So, I’m really grateful that I can work and not worry about what she’s doing during the day and what she’s talking as she just takes the bottle so, great. And so I think my challenge coming up is just translating to coconut milk and going – weaning that’s my challenge because I’m a little nervous about just making sure she has the right food and it’s a new thing to obsess about.
Robin Kaplan: So, Cherri you just got back from a vacation with your family and I know Anney has a big trip up on the horizon, what was it like traveling with an almost 11-month-old and any travel tips for parents with their crawling baby?
Cherri Christiansen: Yeah, it was actually great. I never traveled with her earlier not on a plane anyway. And so, I really didn’t know what to expect and we were originally this trip was supposed to be something that we did when she was about three months old and due to some like postpartum complications with, there was no way we were traveling. And in hindsight I think, oh gosh, that would have been so much easier I would just sort of had this sort of chill sleeping baby. But it was great, she was wonderful I would say, babywearing was key, standing at the airport in the airport parking lot, looking at all these different carriers that I brought with me trying to decide which one and I was like, oh, screw it I’ll just bring all of them and so I ended up taking about four different wraps or carriers or slings with me. I used every single one of them at some point on the trip. And then on that actual flying part, Anney you’re going to be flying on your trip or driving?
Anney Hall: We will be flying. Well both.
Cherri Christiansen: So, both for it, so on the actual flying part, I wore her on the plane, I wore her throughout the whole airport, we don’t own a stroller so that was when everyone said go and take the stroller and I’m like, oh, we don’t even have one. So, I’m glad we didn’t. I wore her through the whole airport, I was a little bit worried about wanting to give her time to kind of crawl around, but then also kind of being little eeky of the airport. And I actually just wore her the whole time and when her free time and sort of being quiet was taking her out of the carrier and letting her sort of play around on our laps I didn’t really let her actually crawl around the airport. But it was actually fairly easy and I think babywearing and breastfeeding were the two things that really got us through. We had four flights to till our destination and then two back and on the third flight which was actually red-eye, which was the one that I was like the most petrified about because if you have a screaming baby at two in the afternoon people are going to be annoyed but no one is really got this expectation of having good night sleep, although people shouldn’t have an expectation of good night sleep on the red eye either. But on the red-eye, you know, the lights are dim people are expecting you to be quiet and she slept from about 10 minutes after takeoff and she was still asleep when we got off the plane in Los Angeles.
Robin Kaplan: Nice!
Cherri Christiansen: And I, of course, did not sleep. I slept may be an hour or two because she kept waking up and every time she would sort of like wake-up I would just shove a boob in and just kept her asleep. And then a guy in a row, one or two rows in front of me turn around to me as we were sort of getting off the plane and he’s like, oh my god, he’s like I did not hear your baby once like, what did you give your baby and I think he was thinking like --
Robin Kaplan: Dramamine or something like that –
Cherri Christiansen: Yeah, that I had her drugged her or something and I was so like I was so out of it at that time it’s 6:00 o’clock in the morning we haven’t sleep in like two days that I just kind of smile and I said oh, I’m just grateful and he’s like no, I’m really grateful. But then after that I was like why didn’t I tell him like milk, mommy’s milk, that’s what I gave her, you know, baby ambiance. But, yeah so it was really great. So, those would be my tips to you Anney, it definitely has like a good carrier if you have one, borrow one from someone for the plane and that kind of keeps baby close and sort of eliminates especially if she walking now because she might want to be running up and down the aisle, so if she is walking then I would say let her do that at the airport. Find a little sort of quiet secluded place where you can let her run around and get that energy out maybe before the plane.
Robin Kaplan: Yeah, good tip, good tip. And Cherri also one other question before we get to our break. You had mentioned that before the show you and I had spoken that you hadn’t pumped while you’re vacation because you were together, and then when you got back, you notice your pumping output had gone down. So, has it gotten better since you’ve been at work?
Cherri Christiansen: It has, it has gotten better so much better that when I actually woke up this and I was brushing my teeth and all of a sudden my leg felt wet and I looked down and I was totally leaking those, oh my God! I can’t wait to tell her all of this. Because yes, we weren’t gone for that long but there was a weekend before on either end so I actually ended up not pumping for going on 10 or 11 days and I’ve always had an oversupply and I think that on this trip was the first time that I didn’t. It was, you know it’s been a long time since I have been exclusively breastfeeding with no pumping. And I think just that in those 10 days miraculously for the first time ever we just got into total rhythm and sync with sort of our demand and supply. And there was just no excess and so when I came back to work and I pumped the first time, I don’t want to make people feel bad, I would say my output and someone would be like that’s more than I ever get. But for me it was less about 50% less than I normally pumped and I kind of freaked out. I was sitting there in the nursing room, texting Robin oh, my God. And the next day was just a little bit better and then on Thursday which was kind of day three it was like a slight, it was like maybe half an ounce more. But each day it was just going up and up until yesterday was pretty much back at my normal. And there is no normal, I mean, my variance can really depend from day to day. But it was more in line with my average and it was the first day that I went into the pumping room feeling like I need to pump. Because I hadn’t had that feeling but every other session that I had on this past week was more just me looking at the clock and it’d be like alright it’s been three hours I should go. And I feel, yeah, I feel a lot of relief and so, it was definitely a day of worry and I definitely dipped into my freezer for the first time which was a new experience but everything is better.
Robin Kaplan: Very cool. All right when we come back Anney and Cherri will discuss how much they plan to continue to pump at work, I know Anney has kind of touch on that already and what they feel most proud about as they’re approaching their babies first birthdays. We’ll be right back.
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Robin Kaplan: Welcome back! Today we’re talking with Anney and Cherri about breastfeeding during their babies eleventh month and so, Anney now that Ele is eating so much solid food, you had mentioned that you’re thinking about cutting out that pumping session at work. Do you think you’ll drop it in the near future? Have you already started?
Anney Hall: Well, I didn’t do it yesterday.
Robin Kaplan: How did your boobs feel? Are they okay?
Anney Hall: They were fine but I fed her when I got home so earlier than and then I didn’t feed before she went to sleep, but that was because we went out. So, I probably would have done a couple of times so at dinner and then before she went to sleep. And I’ve been talking with her care provider, she told me that she wasn’t just was not interested in the bottle as much so I cut that down to one bottle. Which it’s sort of still the same amount of milk but I just put it in one bottle, maybe it’s a little bit less. And so, that’s kind of my goals is to just have her supplement during the day with like I think I’m going to start with coconut milk. And then yeah, I mean it was fine. So, I might try that this week. What I think I’m trying to do is wean before I go on that two week trip or at least I don’t know. Because there is something else which is coming up in July that we’re going to be gone for and I don’t want her to have to have breast milk during that weekend. So, I think that’s the end of July is my goal to be completely done.
Robin Kaplan: Have you switched her to a Sippy cup yet? I knew that my kid does – yeah, as soon as my kids started getting something other than breast milk in a bottle, they were I don’t want this bottle anymore and so we just switched straight to Sippy cup which was nice and easy.
Anney Hall: So, that was that she has cup with straws and cups with Sippy so I haven’t put milk in yet though. So, that was – I was going to do that next.
Robin Kaplan: Very cool! Cherri, since Kellie is still mostly on breast milk and not too many solids, how often are you pumping at work?
Cherri Christiansen: I’m still pumping twice at work. I am gone usually it depends but on average from sort of nine to six-ish, so I usually will try and pump sometime between in 11:00 and 12: 00 and then again between 2:00 and 4:00 depending on when the first one was. But every now and then I would just pumped once a day like if I didn’t get it at 11:00 and all of sudden it was 1:00 o’clock then it would seem stupid at 4:30 to be pumping when I’m like I could just stick it out an hour I can just go home.
So, I’m still pumping, twice a day and I had this realization especially at La Leche League meeting that I was at where I was chatting with one or two other moms who had gone through similar experiences that I will be pumping at work for a while. Because my initial plan was, well not plan but I came to this realization a couple of weeks into pumping at work when I was hating and that I was like I can breastfeed for a really long time and not have to pump for a really long time like those two things don’t have to be equal. But because she’s not taking any solids, I have to pump, I don’t really have a choice about that.
So, we’ll see, I’m not pushing the food things, she’s not interested. I kind of offer a very sort of low key about it. We’d kind of make another try in another months or two or three, we’ll see but she’s growing, she’s growing and she’s great and she’s healthy and she’s gaining weight like a champion and she’s almost triple to her birth weight and she’s only 10 months. So, I’m not worried, if she wasn’t growing I’ll probably be a little bit more freaked out about it, other people are more freaked out about it like way, there are way more weird reactions from other people like she’s not eating anything and like – have you ever met an adult that doesn’t eat? Like everyone will eventually right? You know, someone said that to me the other and I was like, of course. She’s like I’ve never met a child that didn’t eat at some point.
So, yeah, and we have no food allergies in my family I was always an adventurous eater when I was a kid and my parents really encourage that. So, I’m like what we’ll wait till we get there, in the meantime I’ll just enjoy this. Because I have those days and those moments when it’s really frustrating but then I think to myself, oh my gosh, I can just fast forward a couple of years and just remember this, it would be like oh I missed that. So, I try and be in the moment and just enjoy and it and not obsessed too much about what’s happening but at the same time just be comfortable and accept the fact that I will probably be pumping twice a day at work the least another couple of months.
Robin Kaplan: Yeah, absolutely! Anney, now that you are coming up upon Ele’s first birthday which totally make me cry. Are you starting to think about this weaning completely you had just mentioned, you’re kind of aiming for July? So, have you thought about how you’re going to do that?
Anney Hall: No.
Robin Kaplan: You want some help?
Anney Hall: I do. Help!
Robin Kaplan: Well, I was going to say actually the way that you’re doing it is perfectly appropriate. You just start dropping either pumping session or you drop a feeding very casually. And just do it slowly so the way that you’ve been doing is actually, you followed your intuition and it’s been perfect so.
Cherri Christiansen: I have a question, if someone wants to do that would they drop and let’s say, there was normally – I’m just making this up, a 2:00 o’clock feed or 2:00 o’clock pumping session, would you drop that 2:00 o’clock consistently everyday or would it be like maybe on Wednesday you do it and Tuesday you don’t, Thursday and sort of slow gradual so, at first you’re doing at every day then it’s very other day, then maybe every third day like how much of a transition do you need to drop it completely?
Robin Kaplan: Great question. To be honest, there is no straight way to do it, it really is just kind of tuning into your body. So, if a mom dropped it say Monday, she dropped it a pumping session, for example, those ones are lovely to get rid off. The pumping session at work on Monday and Tuesday she went – she was planning on dropping it too, but she felt like she was getting a plugged duct or felt really, really full, much more full than the day before. Then maybe she pumps Tuesday and then she takes off Wednesday, typically I recommend just dropping it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday along, but at the same time I’ll find moms like four days into it feeling like I just need to release the pressure at that time and then we’ll go back into it.
So, it really is just a matter of following your intuition, following your body, making sure that your breast are never getting too uncomfortable, so that way it ends up causing plugged duct, mastitis, milk blisters things like that. So, but and also choosing ones that are – most moms I find save the wake, right when the baby wakes up, right when the baby goes to bed, or as a child, who knows how old they are when they’re feeding them so, wake up in the morning, going down to bed and then maybe a nap one as well. Those are the hardest ones to get rid off, because they are the most squishy then. And so like, there is nothing better than pulling a baby into bed with you, nursing them and then you guys get to snuggle or actually go to sleep for another hour or two, I mean that’s fantastic or nursing them to sleep and then they fall asleep on you, and Anney you said too like Ele will pull of and then just pop her thumb into our mouth. It’s like okay, I’m done. Then she falls asleep in your arms or she’s so snugly in your arms. And so, those ones were the hardest ones to get, to end on and so really getting rid of the middle of the night ones as well as the middle of the days ones are kind of the easiest transition and then you choose which one is your absolute most favorite time and you save that one for the last. And then you just kind of ease your way out of it.
But there are some moms who will keep those beginning of the day and end of the night for months because they’re just mom and baby are just enjoying those so much and they worked so well in their lives that they actually just don’t even get rid of those. I’ve had moms also whose babies have been, I think Ele will be about 14 months when you go away, who’ve had a couple of breastfeeding sessions, they have to go out of town for a couple of days, they end up not pumping, and they come back and they actually keep nursing after that. So, they just kind of jumped back into it, babies probably not getting a full feeding for those mornings or evening ones. But that cuddle time was so important that they just jumped right back into it too or they don’t. I have seen both ways but it really, it’s whatever works best for the family. So, but just paying attention to your breast and making sure that they’re not ready to explode because you’re getting rid of, you know dropping feedings and maybe that’s not the best when to drop.
Cherri Christiansen: So, then when you drop those feedings, do you then supplement with like a milk? Do you have to?
Robin Kaplan: It depends, no, you don’t have to. That’s the thing. We’re all very focused on calcium and transitioning over to diary, I’m going to this because the dairy industry and is so prevalent. And so to be honest, no. Baby's normal weaning age in the world is, you know about four to seven and so they’re getting mom’s milk, they’re not getting as much as they are getting in that first year. But that’s your nutrition as well they are liquid, but you can switch to water, you can switch to coconut milk, you can switch to a little bit of even juice and water mixed together. But that doesn’t have to a milk substance. So, you can choose whichever, whatever you want to put in there so if it’s going do coconut milk, hemp milk, almond milk anything like that is totally fine at that one-year mark. So, I know right, lots of things are there. All right ladies, looking back over this past 11 months, what are you most proud about when it comes to breastfeeding and we’re most proud about, just being a mom, we’re coming on mothers’ day so, talking about this transition into motherhood.
Cherri Christiansen: I think in terms of just being most proud about coming to breastfeeding it’s just that I didn’t give up. I kind of went into it when I was pregnant saying that I will make this work, no matter what, which I think is like just probably the number one contributing factor to my success in addition to just a huge bunch of resources and people and support. But I think, I just was determined to make it and so sitting here when you asked a question at the beginning of the show about what’s easy and I said kind of everything is easy. There was definitely a time where I was sitting in my bedroom at 3:00 o’clock in the morning crying my eyes and praying being like, oh my God, like this is how it’s going be like forever because in that moment you feel like it is. But I think that’s what I’m really proud of, I just, I didn’t give up and I got to this easy point. Even if I have to have my nipples tweaked every time I feed her that this too shall past.
What am I most proud of with becoming a mother, I think you asked this actually a couple of months ago and I think my answers probably will be the same which was that, I’ve just tapped in to this inner voice that I just didn’t know that was there and just found this confidence in myself and then in trusting my own decisions. Because with breastfeeding, with parenting, with sleep, with food, with everything, everyone has an opinion, everyone has multiple opinions and to just be able to kind of tune all of that out, not to say that I don’t ever ask for advice or listen to people’s advice, but just to be able to really just trust in myself and just know what’s right for my family without feeling influenced by other people. So even if I, what I’m doing is completely different like the food for example, the fact that I have a baby that doesn’t eat and she’s almost a year, doesn’t bother me at all and it bothers everybody else but, well that’s their problem.
Robin Kaplan: They may not have made the creamy goodness that you make.
Cherri Christiansen: Hopefully, it’s not keeping them up at night but it’s not worrying me. So, I think the only sad part about that is we’re probably not going to have any cool smash the cake photos. We’ll do, we will but they’ll probably be when she’s three. So, that’s okay but yes so I think just having that sort of like faith in myself is probably what I’m most proud of.
Robin Kaplan: Awesome! How about you Anney?
Anney Hall: I would say the same thing that I made it through the full year, because you don’t know when you’re pregnant that it’s going to be hard to breastfeed. You just think it’s just, they’ll just latch on, they’ll just get on and it’s just what happens. Because this is natural and it’s the way it works. You don’t really realize that you have to work at it and that there is always different things that can happen. Because, and nobody talks about it because it doesn’t necessarily happen to them and what I’m saying is this whether it’s mastitis or bruises or cuts or whatever is happening that gets through that first few months and then you get through that place and something new happens or whatever but just sort of going through the rollercoaster of the first year of all this first.
So, I’m proud of being on that other side like I’m proud of getting through delivery and being a year now and going, oh my gosh, I want to go back. I do, I kind of want to do it again but not really. But, I just want to be with Elle on that day. Now, that I know where, I just want to just sit there and just maybe be a fly on the wall that day. And then I think I don’t know if it’s being proud of from a mom’s side but just that it’s just, it’s settled into just be so natural. And I didn’t know, I think people talked about this, but I didn’t know that it would just feel like she’s me. Of course, she is you when she was inside of you like but I just didn’t know what that would feel like and falling in love with her and I didn’t know that I was going to fall in love. I think people talk about but I didn’t hear, I didn’t feel it. So, is that so sweet so, that’s what I feel proud of is just feeling so natural and complete with being a mom. That there are rule set in and that’s exactly what it’s supposed to be, I'm exactly where I’m supposed to be.
Robin Kaplan: Well, thank you so much Anney and Cherri for chatting with us about breastfeeding your baby during her eleventh month and for our Boob Club members our conversation will continue after the end of the show as Anney and Cherri will be discussing how their perspectives have changed about breastfeeding over this past 11 months.
For more information about our Boob Group Club please visit our website at theboobgroup.com.
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Robin Kaplan: Before we wrap things up today, here is Denise Altman with some nursing basics for the new mom.
Denise Altman: Hey there! Boob Group, my name is Denise Altman and I’m a private practice IBLC, otherwise known as the Registered Lactation Consultant. Private practice means I have my own business and I specialized in prenatal education and breastfeeding support.
This session is about pre-natal prep to breastfeeding. Something I definitely have an opinion about. In addition, this session is for grandma and daddy and other support persons helping the breastfeeding mama. Daddies in particular can really make a break at the breastfeeding experience. Oftentimes, that important partner is mom’s greatest advocate. When the partner is the daddy and then the dad is attending the class most men think differently than women think. Daddies are great for remembering diaper count, times and duration of feeding that sort of thing. And will start taking notes about that, mental notes about those facts and topics during the class itself.
When mom is in that emotional tailspin of being a new mother, all wrapped up in that baby and that feeding experience, oftentimes it’s dad, who’s the one that can kind of pull out those facts from his memory and use male analytical thinking to help, be supportive, that helps her figure her way through in the difficulties or challenges. Grandmas are a great resource in breastfeeding classes especially. Many grandmas in my experience are very interested in breastfeeding. They’ve heard enough through the media to know that this is how things are being done in this day and age. But often grandma herself did not breastfeed or didn’t have a positive breastfeeding experience. If grandma is educated prenatally it’s far more likely that she will be a help and advocate for mamas. I love it when I see grandmas coming to feeding consultations or sitting in class because often they have lot of good common sense, suggestions about baby care, which just helps mama as well. I hope that the information in this session can get you started on exploring your options. For additional tips on choosing a breastfeeding class, please visit my website at www.feedyourbaby.com and keep listening to The Boob Group.
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Robin Kaplan: All right, well this wraps up our show today. We appreciate you listening to The Boob Group. Don’t forget to check out our sister show, Preggie Pals’ for Expecting Parents and our show Parent Savers for Moms and Dads with Newborns, Infants and Toddlers. Coming up next week we have Rose deVigne Jackiewicz discussing breastfeeding a baby with jaundice. Thanks for listening to The Boob Group; Your Judgment Free Breastfeeding Resource.
[Disclaimer]
This has been a New Mommy Media production. Information and material contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Statements and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of New Mommy Media and should not be considered facts. Though information in which areas are believed to be accurate, it is not intended to replace or substitute for professional, Medical or advisor care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating health care problem or disease or prescribing any medications. If you have questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified health care provider.
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