Bring Breastfeeding Back to Sesame Street

My little guy has been sick lately, we have been doing lots of cuddles, usually reading books or doing puzzels. We definitely have been watching Sesame Street as well. I found these great Classic Sesame Street video's that I thought I would share. I love Classic Sesame Street.


I wish they would redo this scene for the current series! Maybe with a Celeb. It would help normalize breastfeeding to a culture that has completely sexualized breastfeeding. It look's like we need 1999 version, and a 2010 version. Well maybe we will get lucky and by 2020 it will be the norm and they will redo it then!!! These scenes are beautiful!

Most Viewed NPN Blogger Posts of 2011

I am proud and honored to be volunteer with the Natural Parents Network (NPN), a community of natural-minded parents and parents-to-be where you will be informed, empowered, and inspired. When you visit the NPN’s website you can find articles and posts about Activism, Balance, Consistent Care, Ecological Responsibility, Family Safety, Feeding With Love, Gentle Discipline, Healthy Living, Holistic Health, Natural Learning, Nurturing Touch, Parenting Philosophies, Practical Home Help, Preparing for Parenting, Responding With Sensitivity, Safe Sleep, and so much more!

The volunteers who dedicate their time and energy to make NPN the outstanding resource it is also spend countless hours informing and inspiring others on their personal blogs. To close out 2011, the NPN volunteers have come together to provide you with some valuable reading material. Each volunteer has selected either their most viewed post of 2011 or their favorite post and shared the link here. Please take a few moments to visit each post. Our intention is to expand our reach as bloggers and informed parents and parents-to-be who are still growing as we move through our own journeys. Each volunteer has provided links to other social media sites where you can follow them as well.

We hope you enjoy reading these posts as much as we enjoyed writing them. We are always looking for new volunteers so please, contact us if you are interested. Just a few hours per month can help other mamas in a huge way!

Donating Breast Milk

As I mentioned in my last post Pumping...A Love ~ Hate Relationship. I was able to store up about 5000+ ounces and we bought a deep freezer to store it all. When my son turned nine months old I realized there was no way we would use all of of this milk... Yes, I could give it to him in a bottle or a cup, use it for cereal, but our BFing relationship was going strong and I saw no immediate future need for all of it. I tried to make Breast Milk Butter out of it (I wasn't successful), even looked into Breast Milk Recipes. I didn't see a need for that.

What I really wanted was the milk to be used for babies who need it. I looked into donating it to a Milk Bank, but everywhere I looked someone was profiting from my free breast milk. That just didn't sit well with me. I wanted it to go to babies in need at no expense to the parents. I could not find a place like that. After countless hours scouring the Internet I started reading more and more about mom to mom milk sharing. Really this idea isn't new. Women have used wet nurses and crossed nursed since the dawn of time. How else did babies survive before formula when a mom was unable to nurse?

Pumping... A Love - Hate Relationship!

Like I said before I had a huge fear of not being able to feed my son. So I searched and searched the Internet, read everything I possibly could about BFing... and I also talked and talked to everyone who I knew that was BFing and/or pumping... One day when I was big and round I was at a friends house ~E~. We were talking about  BFing and Pumping and she showed me her amazing stash!!! Seriously the girl was my BFing Idol! Her freezer was full of 8oz bags! I was drooling! lol... I wanted that! I wanted to be able to never worry about having milk for my boy... I begged her for her secret! And hoped it wasn't just genetics, because we weren't related... But at that moment I was hoping she was my long lost milk sister...

Sooo she explained to my how she started pumping as soon she had her son... That she tricked her body to thinking that it need to produce more milk then he needed... That she would pump in the morning and then nurse her son.  It's all supply and demand, so the more you take the more you make...  Sound easy enough right... but here's the thing... pumping isn't that easy, a babies suck is so much more effective!!! So she also explained that she would do breast compressions and try to get every last drop... So I need more information on what exactly I needed to do to produce the most milk possible!

~B's~ Birth Story!

So it's been a crazy Fall and Winter and I haven't Blogged at all... :(  I want to change that from this point forward I really want remember these days because time is just flying by way to quickly...  I have been lucky to be able to stay home with my son this first year of his life... It truly has been the most rewarding and best year... Before I know it my son will be turning 1 year old in May and I wanted to write his birth story before I forget all the details...


I had some difficulties getting pregnant, which included me having to have surgery. Two months later I was pregnant... I had always wanted a natural childbirth (my mother had four natural childbirths and I see that as awe-inspiring, I wanted to be able to do that)... I loved the idea of a home-birth, but due to the previous surgery, I was considered high risk for uterine rupture... I decided to go with a birthing center that was separate from a hospital, but after meeting with them I was told that I was to high risk and they recommended a birthing center within the hospital with a midwife. I went and saw them and I was told that I really should be followed by OB... After much disappointment I chose to stay with my OB (who I loved... but I just wanted it to be very natural)... So I explained to my OB what I wanted... Natural with no intervention... She was fine with that, but she was going to consult with the specialist who did my surgery just a few months earlier...Well knowing that this is what all the other birthing professionals had done previously, I had a bad feeling about this... After a meeting and reviewing my medical record it was decided that the best way to proceed was with a c-section... I was high risk for uterine rupture and that was life threatening...