Sleep!

Pretty ironic that I was planning on writing this today then right as I sit down Daniel starts protesting his nap.

Sleep has finally gotten better!  It only took 14 months.  We are still at 2 naps a day, one of which I hold him, but that time he is in the crib is usually about 1.5 hours.  Me time!!

Nights are improving A LOT.  We were at a consistent schedule where he would go down at 8, wake up at 4am to eat, go back down until 8.  We are better, even though there is still some work to do.  Now he goes down at 8, tries to open the door for 20 minutes, then falls asleep and usually doesn't wake up until 6:30am.  The problem here is he won't go back to sleep after 6:30.  So right now we're working on trying to get him down earlier so he can get closer to 10 hours or he will get super cranky at about 8:30.

We will get the hang of it eventually!

Sleeping pictures:

Normalizing Breastfeeding

I have already posted a few times about my views on breastfeeding so I'll try to make this one short.

After thinking about why I'm so passionate about the subject, I have come up with a few reasons but the following is probably the biggest: I'm good at it.  There are so many things involved in being a wife and mother and I will readily admit that I am not good at many things that others are pros at.  Breastfeeding is one area that I feel like I am doing 100% right.  That makes me incredibly proud of my relationship with Daniel.

If you read my previous post(s) about my struggles with breastfeeding you know this was not an easy journey for us at first.  4 very trying months passed before I was able to get in a groove.  I'm so glad we pushed through together.

For that reason I love to help other women prepare and get through the rough times.

I also find it necessary to make sure mothers are not shamed for nursing in public (NIP).  Our society has become way too sexual that individuals are no longer capable of compartmentalizing the nourishing act of breastfeeding from some form of nudity.  It is absolutely possible!  To go on without being too revealing, David has been able to do an excellent job at it.  Our relationship is so strong because he supports my goals with breastfeeding without wondering when its going to stop because there is a relationship we have outside of breastfeeding that keeps both of us very happy.

I no longer NIP with a cover.  First of all its summer and I'm not about to put Daniel under more layers when he doesn't need to be.  Second, I do believe that more people need to see it in order to be more comfortable with it.  It is not something immoral, immodest, gross, etc that needs to be hidden.  It is entirely possible to do it without flashing everyone.

So I challenge you to look past what you might see as something immodest or along the lines of nudity and realize just what is really going on.  It is simply a mother feeding a child and she is being a great mother by doing so.

Can someone honestly think these photos are bad?