Maybe La Leche League??

I went to my LLL meeting last night. I haven't been in forever. It's not that I don't want to go or anything. I just get busy and well, if I'm being honest, sometimes my couch is beckoning to my butt in the evening after doing daycare all day long! ;) However, I've really been wanting to go back for several reasons. One, the leader is super nice and down to earth and we have similar thoughts on a lot of parenting, breastfeeding, birthing type issues.

The other reason is that I remember being so upset when Boo was first born when I was having problems with breastfeeding. It was hard to get going and there's soooo much misinformation out there. Thank goodness I didn't listen to the hospital nurses who told me he NEEDED formula because he was jaundiced. And also Boo's pedi at the time who said that he probably would need to be supplemented with formula due to weight gain issues. Not to mention that I was pretty much told I was "doing it wrong." Boo took a LONG time to nurse when he was little and I was told that I had to cut him off on each side after 15 minutes. I was told not to allow non-nutritive sucking. Hmmm....I would think if a LO is having a weight gain issue more time at the breast would be BETTER and less time would be WORSE. So...I didn't listen to them. I got advice from a local Attachment Parenting International group that has a bulletin board online. I ended up nursing him a lot more often. So for awhile I fed him every hour and a half. And he continued to take about 45 minutes to nurse. Do the math. Pretty much half of my day was spent on the couch. So he nursed about 12 times a day. But...guess what? It worked. He got what he needed. He's a happy, healthy toddler who's growing as he should! Anyways, I say all that to say this. Without the advice and support I received from this Attachment Parenting group who knows what would have happened to our nursing relationship. Would I have given up completely? Would I have supplemented, which ultimately does lead to early weaning for a lot of women and babies?

I didn't discover LLL until several months after all of this crisis! But, having gone through that, it makes me want to give back. I think more women would breastfeed if they had proper information and support. Anyways, for this reason, I missed American Idol last night - yes, this was very hard for me...lol! I went to LLL, enjoyed visiting with the leader there, and she actually presented me with a pamphlet about becoming a leader myself someday. The idea appeals to me and I'm mulling it over. I'm NOT an expert in any way, shape, or form...so the idea is a bit intimidating to me. But in the same way, I'm a mom who nurses my child. I'm a mom who knows how important that breastfeeding relationship is. I'm a mom who was in tears the first week home from the hospital because my child REFUSED to nurse. And I guess I hope that because of all that I can be a mom who can come alongside someone else and support another mom that's frustrated, provide information when a pediatrician attempts to tell a mom that a baby NEEDS formula, and give a pep talk when one is needed.