My Breastfeeding Yo-Yo

By Monica Cravotta  |  Published: Wednesday, August 18, 2010

With 100% sincerity I am about to attempt to promote the annual Breastfeeding Celebration event at City Hall taking place this Friday and share my current waning desire to continue nursing.

What?! Attachment Mama wants to wean?  INCONCEIVABLE!

Hey — it is what it is.  Some women highly committed to Attachment Parenting will breastfeed until their child chooses to wean and I applaud this choice.

And despite fully appreciating how honoring this is of the child’s emotional needs and my own strong desire to maintain whatever level of secure attachment I can while being away from my children so much now that I’m working full-time,  over the last few weeks I’ve been hearing myself thinking and even occasionally saying out loud, “I want my boob back.”

Yes, it’s singular. One boob. Both my girls rejected my left side within the first six months of nursing. Or maybe I was more comfortable with them positioned on the right side and the rejection evolved from me unconsciously putting them there more often. Either way, they both eventually refused the left side and I’ve been lopsided ever since.

For the last three and 1/2 years I’ve looked in the mirror to see a Picasso painting version of my former self. So that I didn’t get too angst-ridden about my post-motherhood body which includes lumpy ass, permanently pregnant looking belly, and lopsided chest, I wrote a little ditty to add some levity to my situation. This is three years old now and many of my friends have already heard it. Many of you have not.

I will share it here now and hope not to lose some of you with my foul language which — outside of my Home VBAC story, I’ve been careful to omit from this blog.

My little song is called My Left Tit and you sing it to the tune of Three Blind Mice.

Ready?  Here we go:

My left tit.

My left tit.

Oh what a sight.

So much smaller than the right.

My baby stopped nursing it months ago.

It shrunk like a dick in a cold water you know.

Now I feel like a walking Picasso.

My left tit.

There you have it.

The irony is that my shrunken side is likely to ultimately be the better looking side — because when the day finally comes for me to actually say “sorry honey, no more” my Mighty Righty may turn into a little shriveled-up tea bag.

AND NOW — let’s talk about Friday’s Breastfeeding Party in Austin!!!

Friday, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm at City Hall (301 W. 2nd Street)

Hosted by Central Texas Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition and City of Austin WIC, the “Austin Hero of Breastfeeding” award will be presented in the council chambers at 12:30 pm.

I am going on my lunch break — sadly sans my babies because it will be too difficult to coordinate with preschool. Hanging with my fellow AP peeps, I may be inspired to extend my current plan to wean my Littlest nugget when she turns 2 (first week in October!).  We’ll see…..

Regardless of how long I personally choose to continue, I will forever be an advocate of breastfeeding and do my best to support programs and efforts that help to educate and inform our community and beyond — all with the goal of normalizing it.

Hope to see some of you there!

Posted in Attachment Parenting, Breastfeeding, Mama Self Expression | 2 Comments

Believe Breastfeeding Past 2 years is Healthy? Speak up!

By Monica Cravotta  |  Published: Thursday, April 1, 2010

Hey Mamas –

There’s an article today in the Huffington Post about Rielle Hunter (John Edward’s Mistress) nursing their 2 year-old toddler.  They’ve incorporated a survey:

• Good for her! It’s healthy.

• Fits with all the other weird things we know about her.

• None of my business.

I wish that a woman nursing her two-year-old wasn’t news. And I am disappointed in the juxtaposition of an important topic that could benefit from media coverage with a high-profile controversial woman that “people love to hate”.  How does that not influence a negatively slanted view on the subject?  Thankfully Huffington quickly followed what appeared to be an eye-brow raising take on extended breastfeeding with endorsing statements from the World Health Organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

To be clear, I am not standing on some Queen Bee breastfeeder be-like-me soap box here. I hold no records for nursing my babies.  I weaned my first angel when she was 17 months while pregnant with my second.  I am still nursing my second baby at 18 months and intend to nurse until she’s 2, maybe longer depending on how I feel in six months. But I applaud women that choose to nurse longer and ultimately think it’s their life, their child, their family. Each to her  own!

Whether you personally choose to breastfeed past two years or not yourself — if you agree with me that it’s normal, healthy and ultimately each woman’s business, you can “speak up” about it with your vote on Huffington Post.

I’d like to see the vote percentage for “Good for her, it’s healthy” and “It’s none of my business” sky-rocket in comparison to the “fits with all all the other weird things we know about her.”

Takes 5 seconds.  Come on y’all.

And if you feel like reading more on the subject.  KellyMom’s page on extended breastfeeding benefits rocks.

Posted in Breastfeeding | 2 Comments

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