... of a new found freedom

Up until this moment in the lives of Anaka and Abram, there has been a two hour leash connecting us to our house. He eats about every three hours and takes about an hour to eat and burp, etc. So if we had to go anywhere, we had about a two hour window. Now that wasn't bothersome if all we needed to do was go to Target (which we do much too often...) or to the driver's license office (which we did twice yesterday...) But, it was a little annoying if we, say, wanted to go to a friend's house and hang out and talk, or have dinner with the community group girls, or go to church. These things tend to take longer than two hours, minus travel time, and kept us from going to (or staying at) those things.

Now, you might be asking: "Well, why don't you just get a nursing cover and nurse him at those places?" "Fair question," I might respond. And then I might answer with some fairly detailed breastfeeding facts that you might not want to read if you are not: a woman, a very good friend, or family... I might suggest stopping right here if you don't want to know some of the "interesting" facts about breastfeeding...

Now...

For those of you who have stayed: It's not all that bad. I will try to be vague. But I wanted to share the greatness that I have recently discovered.

One of the reasons why I don't like to breastfeed anywhere other than my own home is because I can't bring my huge and cumbersome nursing pillow (the "My Brest Friend") with me on those outings. Or, I guess I could, but I am already bringing: a diaper bag, a baby carrier, a baby bjorn, and a baby to everything. I didn't really want to add a large foam donut to the mix. Now, this nursing pillow is absolutely necessary because: I am not well endowed. Yes, it's true. I am one of those lucky(?) mothers who went from a 32A before baby to a 34A after baby. It's great in some ways and very annoying in others. Most mom's can lay their baby on their lap and maybe lean forward just a little and get the goodness right to their baby's sweet mouth with no trouble. Yeah, not so much. My ribs would have to be able to collapse on themselves for my goodness to be able to reach a baby on my lap. Hence the absolute necessity of a nursing pillow.When he was really new, I could hold him up with my arms, but at 10 lbs, it's no longer an option.

This worried me a lot when I thought about trips. Car trips were okay, I could bring the two square foot foam pillow with us. But what about plane trips? Would I put it in a trash bag and check it? Should it be my carry on? Did I need to buy a new one at every new destination?

While worrying my pretty little head about this the other day as we planned our trip to Boise in three weeks, I thought: "Man, it's too bad there aren't inflatable nursing pillows. Oooo! I should invent one!" But, before I started working on the prototype, I thought I would google it just to see if someone else had already been as brilliant as myself. And I discovered the inflatable My Brest Friend (or "Travel My Brest Friend") and bought one. It came today and it's fantastic.

They claim that it takes two minutes to inflate; well, it's more like one. It's the same size as the foam one (so I can switch out the covers to wash them) and it deflates and folds up to about five square inches.

I don't even know why they make the foam ones, honestly. Babies spit up while they are eating. It's inevitable. Hopefully they make it to your shoulder and onto the burp cloth, but they probably won't. Most likely they will spit up on the pillow while they are lying down, or all over their clothes and yours. With the foam one, you can wash the cover, but you can't wash the foam. So ours smells like sour milk. Which is a GREAT smell. With the inflatable one, you can just wipe it off! Love it.

Also, it's cheaper than the foam pillow. Go figure.

So, now I can have a nursing pillow in the diaper bag and if I happen to be at a friend's house for more than an hour, I won't have to run out with a screaming baby. This occurred last night at community group. I bolted early with Abram and listened to him scream, literally scream the entire 15 minute ride home. It was torture. If I had had a nursing pillow, I probably would have just found a room and nursed him there. Oh well.

But now, the future looks bright for Anaka and Abram. The leash is cut! Or at least lengthened, I guess.