Love Can Come in Bottles, Too.
How can we be all those things?
Well, we believe that breastfeeding our babies is an incredible gift, but that sometimes it simply doesn't happen the way we planned.
We are not here to encourage or discourage any particular choice parents make on how to nourish their babies. We are here to support the ones who struggled or are struggling to breastfeed and are facing the guilt that often comes along with deciding to stop breastfeeding.
We have both experienced this personally, and have gone through all the guilt alone, so we wanted to start this tumblr to post encouragement and to answer your questions and concerns as you make this sometimes difficult and traumatic transition.
We want you to bottle-feed without fear of judgement, and without guilt. You are doing the best that you can do for your baby given your particular circumstances. Be assured that the love and care you take in making this sometimes agonizing decision shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that love can come in bottles, too.
“This is Ellie. She was born with hydrocephalus, a cleft palate and a myriad of other issues. Because of her condition, she was never able to naturally breast feed. But that didn’t stop Ellie’s mom, who wanted to give her all she could. You see, Teresa pumped her breast milk … every day.. for EVERY feed… for over a year to give to her daughter. Although Ellie could not suckle at the breast, she was still able to receive the best her mother had to offer.”
“Personally I think the mommy wars were created by the media as a way to pit women against each other and gain ratings and I just don’t want to be a part of that. I am soooo over it. Who cares if some moms choose to homeschool vs. use public schools or if some moms breastfeed and others don’t or if some moms let their kids watch more TV than others? The only choices we have control over are our own. What another mom chooses is her decision – who are we to judge that? And when you really think about it – what’s the point? It feels so much better to treat people kindly with loving intentions than to go straight to a place of judgment. We should be supporting women’s decisions instead of critiquing them and making snap judgments based off our limited knowledge of other people’s situations.”
I am neither pro breastfeeding nor pro formula feeding. I am pro feeding your baby however you see fit and however works best for you.
As long as you’re not feeding it a McDonald’s as soon as it’s born. At like 3 days old though, McDonald’s is probably okay.
(Side note: I’m guessing the last part is satire, but ya know… Yeah, don’t feed your newborn McDs. Haha.)
(via livebreathegrow)
“Having a low milk supply has been extremely tough emotionally. I felt like I was failing my baby, not being able to do what is ‘supposed’ to come naturally. Having a sick baby, trying to pump around the clock and still try and breast feed was very stressful and often made my supply issues worse. I will be forever grateful to the wonderful women who donated their precious milk. They gave me the gift of having one less thing to worry about. It took pressure off me in times of very high stress and they have given the greatest gift of nutrition to my son. I wish milk sharing was more widely accepted as the norm.I still struggle with supply so still express (once daily these days) as well as take prescription medication and natural galactologues. With the help of these things we are still breast feeding at 19 months and I hope to continue until we are both ready to stop.”
“I think all middle-class mainstream moms have gotten the message: Breastfeeding is excellent for babies, and you should do it if you can. And if you can’t — know that you can still be an excellent parent anyway. Know that you can still raise a healthy, intelligent, loving child. Not being able to breastfeed is not going to break you as a mother. It’s just one of many aspects of parenting, and you’re going to excel at some of those other things in ways that maybe your lactation-fountain friends won’t.”
“At the end of the day, we all just want to do the best job we can as parents; be the greatest mom or dad we’re capable of being. But with these incredibly irritating “mommy wars” that seem to always be raging on, it doesn’t always feel quite that simple. We can be made to feel inadequate or like we’re not parenting our child like we should. And that’s not cool. But here’s the thing: Being a good mom isn’t as hard (or as controversial) as it seems. It actually is quite simple.”
“What I learned from the early days of mothering my son is that using every ounce of energy I had to do things “the right way” simply didn’t work for my baby or for my family’s situation at the time. Trying out the same things that failed miserably with my firstborn worked like a charm with baby #2. Every baby is different. Every family is different. There is no “right way” to mother that works for every child and every family.”
