Mama Speaks

My wonderful friend Amanda of Wife. Mama. Educator. is guest posting for this week's Phenomenal Mom Friday.  Her post comes just in time for World Breastfeeding Week , August 1st-7th.  Amanda is a breastfeeding champ and lactivist.  She shares her perspective below... I breastfeed my son, Ezra. He’s two.   When I was pregnant I knew I’d breastfeed. I just knew breastfeeding was normal—what moms did with babies. I was breastfed for 9 months. My sister breastfed her kids. My closest friends breastfed their children. Even my cousin, who had a baby at 18, attempted breastfeeding. I guess you could say I had a strong foundation laid for me. Friends I could count on and ask for advice, who bought me nursing pads and nipple cream even when they weren’t on my registry. I took a breastfeeding class. My husband happily accompanied me. He supported me, because even though he wasn’t breastfed, he saw the value. Simply put, I had a pro-breastfeeding support system. ...

1. If your baby isn't sleeping through the night (STTN) by 6 weeks, its a good time to start sleep training.  Becky Bailey has a lot to say on this topic.  While I agree that sleep training is a personal choice, its not for me.  I don't think that my 6-week old daughter was manipulating me when she cried in the night.  I think that if she was dry and her tummy was full, then the need I was fulfilling was a baby's (and any human's) need for physical touch and affection.  I may have spent the first year of Ayla's life exhausted, but I know that I was meeting her needs in a way that felt right to me.  Mother's instinct, right? 2. Rice cereal will help your baby STTN.  Research proves that this is a myth or, at best, an old wives' tale.  To sum it up, when babies are being offered rice cereal, it is often around that age that some babies (not mine!) start sleeping through the night naturally anyway.  Not to mention that rice cereal can be asp...