As I am sitting here nursing my newly minted one-year-old son who is draped under a beautiful cover up, I scrolled past the most amazing post on Facebook that I thought I would really want to share with y’all.
“I am too busy growing my own grass to be worried about whether or not your (fake) grass is greener.”
So. Much. Truth.
My history with breast-feeding is very complicated and hard earned. My first child only nursed for three months exclusively and supplemented until six months before fully transitioning to formula. She had colic and GERD (which we later realized it was something much more than GERD). I felt like I failed her when the formula seem to soothe her in a way that I never could. I was determined to figure it out with my second child.
He was different right from the start. Nursing him hurt a lot more than it ever did with her. It turns out he was tongue-tied (but that is another post for another day). Once that was resolved we had another pretty big hurdle.
When he was about six weeks old I thought I had a clogged duct but it turns out that it was actually a metastasize tumor in my breast. Spearing everyone the crazy details I ended up having a lump back to me on my breast as well as a radical neck dissection on my neck to remove many tumors. After that I had 36 rounds of radiation on my neck. All of which was within his first six months of life. Despite having a pretty gnarly milk fistula from the incision on my breast (again a post for another day), we nursed on. Turns out we developed a pretty tight nursing bond because of all the issues and how hard I fought to nurse him. He did not completely ween until I was pregnant with my third child.
Now as I am nursing my third, I see that there are so many differences between the three of them and our separate breast-feeding journeys. I was so proud to nurse my second child because of all of our complications that I would’ve never thought of covering up. But with my third there are simply too many distractions to consider not covering up. It is not necessarily a modesty issue (because with three kids traditional modesty goes out of the window). I remember seeing people cover up when I was in the deepest parts of my breast-feeding journey with my second and thinking that I couldn’t understand it (especially in Florida). I also now understand that every child is different and every situation is different. We are all trying to do our best. I am just trying to worry about my grass, on my lawn, and what is takes to keep it healthy and strong. I had no idea what to look for in a cover up. Luckily for me a friend of mine turned me on to these awesome nursing scarves.
Like I said, I live in Florida and it is crazy hot so whether not you want to use a cover-up it is not always practical. This scarf is so lightweight and soft that it reminds me of that “buttery soft” material that certain leggings have become popular for. It also can be used for many different things. The material is so thin that it is easy to fold up and put in a bag. I also plan to keep it after I’m done nursing because it works well to wear as an accessory.
If you were interested in finding them online, here’s a link to the Amazon store where I bought mine. It is not an affiliate link, I just wanted to share product that I genuinely have found and loved. Click here!
For more information on medication and breastmilk interaction, please check out Dr. Hale’s Infant Risk hotline website here. It was an invaluable resource while I went through surgeries and cancer treatments while nursing my second child.
And for more information and resources about breast-feeding, please reference the La Leche League website early and often (click here).