on boobs

Since becoming a mom I've learned a lot about myself...

For example, I can be a fully functioning and mostly-pleasant individual on only two hours of sleep. 

I can also change a diaper in under ten seconds. 

I make up great songs about mundane tasks and I am pretty much an expert at putting a onesie on over a squiggly baby who hates wearing clothes.

One thing i didn't know (nor had any way of knowing) was that I am full-on, obsessively passionate about breastfeeding. 

Seriously, I'm really, really into it. 

Breastfeeding was something that used to freak me out. I wasn't raised in a breastfeeding culture, it just wasn't something that happened in my family. But I am a researcher and every time something new happens in my life I hop online and skip over to the bookstore and I read as much as I can about it. This was true when I got pregnant, i became obsessed with learning what was going on in there and how my baby was developing. And then when it came time to figure out how I would care for that little life in my tummy, i researched the heck out of that as well. 

And my research showed me inconclusively that breastfeeding was, for me, the ONLY option. 

Now, let's be clear, I'm not writing this to start any debates. I know that this can be a fairly hot-button issue with some people. People get super-duper defensive about the subject and feel very attacked if they choose not to/couldn't breastfeed their child. I'm not even going to discuss that here though, that's not what I'm writing this about. I'm just writing to say: breastfeeding, for me, was the only choice. 

The unexpected thing was that it turns out that making that choice has been pretty much one of the top five best things to ever happen to me. 

I love it. I love it so much that I consider myself passionate about it. I read about it, i discuss it with people, i breastfeed anytime, any place and i don't feel embarrassed or apologetic at all. It's just not something I think i SHOULD feel weird about. 

But again, I don't want to get all political here. I'm sure i'll save that for a different post. 

The thing i DO want to write about is how weird our culture (and by that i mean mainstream American suburban/urban) is towards breastfeeding. It's weird that in our culture breasts are these giant (no pun intended) sexualized beings and that it's perfectly acceptable for women to flaunt them around in skimpy attire but that a sweet and loving mother can't feel comfortable nourishing her little baby while sitting on a park bench or in the mall. That's WEIRD, guys, it's weird. 

Not only that but then i go on to think about other things associated with breastfeeding and I guess with women's issues in general.

Freud said that women have "Penis Envy" and it's one of our fundamental issues that we need to overcome or something like that. Not to go too far on a tangent but I've never once thought to myself, "oh man, i wish i had something dangling around down there, making most of my decisions for me." 

If anything, I've reached the conclusion that if anyone should have any envy (which is a belief i don't ascribe to), that men should (and verywell probably DO) have breast envy. 

Seriously. Breasts are awesome. 

I was aware of the awesomeness of my breasts a long time ago. In fact, they've been something that I have been fond of and knew how to utilize since I got them at an early age. I've always known that breasts = fabulous. 

But it wasn't until becoming a mother that I found out just HOW amazing they really are. I mean, sure, can boobs be exploited and allow you certain advantages in our weird-o society? Yes, they definitely can. Can they make you feel lovely and feminine and attractive? Yup, they can do that to. 

That was where my previous knowledge of the greatness of boobs stopped. Usher in motherhood though and it's like a whole new door has been opened up to me about the fantasticness of the female body and specifically of breasts. 

Boobs are amazing. Do you realize that my son has been alive for 133 days and the ONLY thing he has ever eaten is milk that has been produced for him by my breasts? That's SO incredible. He has been kept alive exclusively by my body. How phenomenal is that? 

and not only that but he LOVES when I nurse him. He loves it. My breasts are able to soothe and comfort, to put him to sleep, heck they even provide a pillow for him to rest his little head on when he falls asleep. 

It just astonishes me that my body is such a miracle. Not only was it able to grow and sustain his life while he was developing during my pregnancy but it is continuing to grow and sustain his life well after he has left my womb. How amazing is that? 

How amazing are women?

It's easy as women to get down on ourselves for our physical appearance if we aren't stick thin with beachballs glued on top of our chests (again, thanks weird culture) but now whenever I am lamenting the fact that it's taking me much longer than i expected to lose the last 15 pounds of pregnancy weight, all i have to do is think about the fact that my body is a miracle. My body takes care of and nourishes my son. It soothes him, it comforts him, it keeps him alive. 

and that is pretty freakin' fantastic if you ask me. 

Which puts a whole new spin to Elaine's "They're real and they're fantastic" quote, dont you think?

it's Friday!

Amazon sent me an email letting me know that Kindle covers are on sale. They then proceeded to link me to the ones that are on sale and the first row of them are all designer covers and they are on sale for $85.00.

LOL

sorry but who has/spends $85 on a kindle cover? even if it IS some kind of uber trendy sparkly animal print cover?(which by the way, i kinda think are getting overrated...animal print has seriously lost it's appeal to me)

here, look:



and hahah omg this one is even MORE expensive:


$165.00?? for a kindle cover? That's more than my kindle cost! ahh! hahah

so yea, that was amusing.

another thing that I found funny was this little gem from thebump.com....

so every Friday they send me an email announcing what week I am in my pregnancy. Typically i delete those emails because, as you know, I do my own little weekly thing and find all the information that way and whatever.

this time i clicked the email and it took me to my checklist of stuff that has to be done before the baby gets here. I don't know which of you guys are familiar with thebump but it's just like theknot but for baby stuff. So anyway, they have a whole countdown/checklist for me to go by and typically the stuff is pretty helpful overall i would say.

But then today I was looking through the upcoming things for this checklist and i saw the following item and i just had to LOL



Get an easy to maintain haircut?? like that is SO important that it is one of three things on the checklist for week 32? hahaha and i enjoy the assumption that we can't figure out how we want our hair on our own or that we can't come to the conclusion that we might want to change our hair or something without this list telling us to? it's so funny/bizarre to me!

like who was the editor writing this that thought, "okay, so in week 31 we'll discuss the signs of preterm labor and then in week 32 we MUST remember to remind these moms to get an easy to maintain haircut. Who knows what chaos and mayhem might ensue if we leave that off the list!"

lol so funny and SO WEIRD to me!

also, as a note while we're on the subject, i am not planning to get an easy to maintain haircut. I am super obsessed with my hair being long and it's a big part of how i identify as myself, i think it's important for me to still feel like ME once the baby is here and not completely give myself over to this role that i made up of "mom" that includes a haircut and Lee jeans or whatever. I really want to let the mom thing just organically become a part of me, not something that i try to put upon myself.

And not only that but i LIKE having long me hair. I like how it looks when i actually take the time to do it. I know that the odds are that typically my hair will be a scraggly mess for a while (like how it often is now) but that's fine. I'm sure once a month i will be able to pull out the straightener and still feel like myself. And to me, feeling like myself means having hair at least to my shoulders or longer.

so there annoying checklist, i will not follow you!

okay, i'm gonna go. I want to finish writing a few more thousand words and then i have things to do (including making my 29 week update! Emma has already reminded me haha) aaaaand tonight is super exciting because me and Ryan are going on an ice cream and movie date tonight!!! it doesn't get much better than that, i don't think! YAY! We hardly ever have the time or money to go out together on dates so I'm reallllllly excited and looking forward to it! hooray!

what are you guys doing tonight/this weekend?

Starting to Show

so i think it's officially official: I'm starting to show.

Yesterday was a big milestone for me, I wore a total maternity outfit!  And i think i definitely looked pregnant although i might be in that stage even still where strangers don't know whether i'm fat or not. That's not my favorite stage to be in but that's okay.

I snapped some photos of my "starting to show" belly so i'll share them with you guys here:

(please note, these were taken late last night with a webcam so the quality is not the best!) (PS i would like to also point out the stacks of boxes in the background! we have made much progress with our packing!! hooray!)

and then a close up just for kicks:

i think my husband is afraid to admit that i'm starting to show. Yesterday when i put this outfit on i said, "wow i really look pregnant don't i?" and he was like "i dunno, it still looks pretty hidden to me!"

i think he thinks this is the same as the "do i look fat in this?" trap but it's not! I WANT to look pregnant, I AM pregnant. I know i look different than i used to and if i finally look pregnant that would be GREAT to me because people would know i wasn't actually just letting myself get huge lol

oh men. maybe someday they'll learn.

maybe not, though.

:)

Garage Sales are Love

I've gotta get Ryan on board with going Garage Saling with me. I've been told enough times now (and have witnessed first hand!) just how great it is to get "Baby Stuff" at garage sales and now I'm sold and want to go scour the neighborhood for good deals.

Specifically on my list: a glider.

Don't know what a glider is? That's okay, I didn't either until recently when I was at Babies R Us and was exhausted because my purse is so heavy and my back hurts because I haven't been able to get my lower back adjusted since getting pregnant.  Tangent aside, i discovered a glider in these circumstances while looking frantically around the store for somewhere to sit. And not to be dramatic or anything but seriously, my life has never been the same since sitting in that glider.  It was THAT comfortable.

This is a glider:

found here at Babies R Us for $199 lol

it's a regular-enough looking chair with a footstool, right? Wrong! That's where the magic fools you! The best part of a glider is that it does what it's name suggests: it glides. and get this part: THE FOOTSTOOL GLIDES TOO! 

If you haven't had the amazingly amazing experience of sitting in a glidey glider than i totally pity you and I assign you the task of heading out to a baby furniture store right now and climbing into one of these chairs. And I suggest you bring some coffee and a snack because you won't want to leave for quite a while. 

here i am at 11 and a half weeks pregnant hanging out in a glider and yes, me and my friend found this noteworthy and photo-worthy enough to document because gliders are awesome

It is soooo relaxing. And I must have one. 

And therein lies the problem. 

See, not surprisingly because this is the culture that we live in, these chairs are priced ridiculously high even though their amazingness IS amazing. As you can see, the one I posted above is $199. That's insane (especially when you take into consideration that for a first baby you have to buy/acquire everything that a baby needs. This list includes but is not at all limited to: a crib, a carseat, a stroller, a swing, a changing table, a dresser, toys, diapers, creams, diaper bags, all kinds of things! Adding another $200 to that bill (even if it is in the form of a glider) is not something to scoff at and it's not something to do without really thinking about it! Most of those big ticket items are over $200 themselves! So given all of that and despite their wonderfulness, these gliders seem just out-of-their-minds expensive to me). And even worse is that when i saw the price for the one i linked you just now and i actually thought to myself, "hmm $199...that's not so bad!" because I've seen worse! Way worse! 

When I was sitting in the gliders the last time I went (this is now a ritual for me and i've done this several times), I tried them all out and discovered that my favorite one (aka the most comfortable one in the store) was priced at $349. 

$349 for a chair and a footstool. Now that really IS bad.

and yet, there is a large part of me that's like "oh but it's sooooo worth it." because I am conned by the comfort and the way my feet glide at the same time as my butt. (but don't worry, i tell that part to STFU when it starts trying to convince me that absurdly expensive things aren't absurd. (I will let it get away with talking me into a Coach diaper bag but i put the breaks on when it's going all pro-$350 glider. (i know, the logic there might seem a little wonky but what can you do? I'm a sucker for stylish bags, I'm powerless.)). 

So ANYWAY back on track, this is where garage sales come in!

Last night we were hanging out with Ryan's brother and his wife and they were showing us the awesome things they had scored for their son that day at a garage sale.  And they mentioned seeing a glider as well!

For $35!!!  INCLUDING the footstool!

Obviously I had a minor conniption in my head. I was like SO EXCITED about this! Is it possible to get a glider for such a good price? Could I ever be so lucky?

And so I've made it my mission to do so.  I am going to find an awesome and comfortable glider and footstool and I am going to pay $50 or less for it. And I am going to do it soon! I just have to wait until after Ryan and I move at the end of the month and we finally have somewhere to PUT the darn thing!

I encourage you all to join me on my quest. It will be a long, perilous and dangerous road ahead but we shall reap rewards aplenty and will henceforth be known as Those Who Bought a Glider at a Bargain Price! And the world shall never be the same again.