Welcome to The Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival!This post was written as part of The Breastfeeding Cafe's Carnival. For more info on the Breastfeeding Cafe, go to www.breastfeedingcafe.wordpress.com. For more info on the Carnival or if you want to participate, contact Claire at clindstrom2 {at} gmail {dot} com. Today's post is things we’d like to share with our nurslings about what it means for us to breastfeed. Please read the other blogs in today's carnival listed below and check back for more posts July 18th through the 31st!
If you could tell your little one just one extraordinary or ordinary thing about what it means for you to nurse, what would you share?
ONE THING? You want me to share just ONE THING? Here, how about some "short" letters to my girls.
Oh my sweet daughters, I write you letters all the time. I do not know that you will ever understand all the sweetness that I hold in my arms each night as you drift off to sleep. One in my right arm, the other in my left. One of your nursing, the other cuddling me.
Alani, you are my first daughter. You taught me how to be a mother. . . you taught me that who I was, is not who I would always be. I nursed you, because I always knew that I would. What I did not know is that through nursing you, through holding you tightly, close to me for SO many hours of each day, that I would fall so in love, with you, with ALL OF IT. With watching your tiny body grow into a big chunky baby, knowing that your life was sustained by what my body gave you. Knowing that my body was doing exactly what it was meant to do as a mother. And you grew, fat and beautiful, like a little dollop of frosting! You needed me, and you continue to need me in different ways. And because we shared this special bond, this special part of our relationship, I have learned who you are. Like me in many ways, but SO different too. You want me to hold you close, but at the same time let you go. . .and we will learn how to dance that dance a little differently each day!
Airi, you are my second daughter. You taught me that with more children comes exponentially more love. You have taught me that I can make it through tough times, that sometimes I need a break more than I know. . .but you know. . . and you remind me when it is time to just sit, quietly, and do nothing, but nurse you, and hold you, and stop worrying about all that pesky clutter! You've taught me that there are more important things, like holding a sleeping baby. You too have grown beautifully on only your mama's milk, for more months than your sister even. I love your rubberband wrists and your baby cankles, two chins ARE better than one! At almost a year old, I still find you quite a mystery, because you are SO very different from your sister. But together we are figuring one another out, and I know that our relationship will be a beautiful lifetime of learning from one another.
Thank you my daughters for giving me the gift of being your mommy and making my job sort of easy by loving to just nurse and nurse and nurse and eat and eat and eat and pretty much be happy as long as you are next to my exposed chest :) You are making my life EXTRAordinary every day, by sharing with me in this breastfeeding journey that is just such a ho-hum ordinary part of our every day lives! A non-decision in it's simplest form.
Here are more posts by the Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival participants! Check back because more will be added throughout the day.
I think Brayden is 16 months old in these photos. Megan heard about our fundraiser and emailed me to say she'd be there. We tried some very "little boy" photos and then did a second round later when he was a little more willing to nurse that were more "studio." This is a look easily provided for with the amazing window light of my friend Renee.
I guess Leah and her kiddos have been in Music Together with my kiddos and I for the past two or three sessions now, maybe since January. Our friendship has built slowly over time, actually sort of through a third party mom in our class who Leah was already friends with. Through conversations I found out that she knew people I know because she regularly attends another local La Leche League meeting. When I decided to do the fundraiser, I passed the information on to her, since I knew she was still nursing 16 month old Jane, attended LLL meetings and seemed to be a breastfeeding supporter. What fun to photograph these two, plus this afternoon we did the photos at my GOOD friend (and fellow La Leche League leader)'s house. It was so much fun to have a gathering of like-minded mamas there to support a good cause, nurse our babies together and watch our kiddos play and have a good time.
Sweet Big Boy hugs while sister nurses
And OH those eyes Jane!!! 
Oct 06. . . first Trip to the US. . . 4 months
June 07 (My sister carrying my daughter, day after her first birthday). . . Gardner Village 
July 07. . . Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Book Release Party
March 08 FINALLY got my mei tai. . .21 months 
Tried it out in OK
July 08. . . 25 months. . . Steve Miller Band Concert (awesome to be wearing her especially after dark) 
November 08. . . .UH YEAH. . .NKOTB concert 
November 08 Seattle. . . Just shy of 2.5 years. . . totally asleep
There was pregnant baby wearing in between
at the Zoo same trip. . .
Who says the Moby has a suggested weight limit? October 09. . . 3 years 3 months and 34lbs 
Special Ladybug Mei Tai made by my friend Heather . . . custom for my halloween costume
January 10. . . .Water "moby" 
January 10. . . Two Girls. . . two mei tais. . . 50lbs of pure L-O-V-E (3.5 years and 5months) 
And the babywearing rubs off. . .
