One Year...Or More!

A belated post, but I wanted to share my breastfeeding certificate with everyone. As many of you know, I was attending a weekly breastfeeding support group at the local hospital ever since we moved to Hillsboro. The group is an informal setting for moms with babies under one year of age to meet, check in with each other about life, and get help if needed from the fabulous group leader, a certified lactation consultant and RN. Alton and I visited week after week and were always bummed out when we had to miss "group" due to travel or illness. I met a lot of good friends in this group (Hi Shelly! I know you are reading!) and really valued this setting for allowing me to get in touch with people around whom I felt comfortable and felt that we had parenting philosophies in common. When we first started attending, Alton was by far the littlest baby--a curled up little bean in comparison to the walking, shoe-wearing toddlers of the veteran members. But by the time he turned one year old we were the geezers sharing our tales with the young 'uns: "Why, when Alton was six weeks old, he went on a nursing strike that lasted for at least a month, uphill, in the snow, both ways, with just a potato in his pocket to keep him warm."

The policy of the support group is to "graduate" at one year old, and give a certificate to Mama and baby in recognition of their hard work at a one-year breastfeeding relationship. Which means...we can't go to group any more! Sob! Alton made lots of his own little friends in this group and it was amazing to watch him grow to the point that wow, now that he can sit up he can actually play and interact with the other kids. It was through this group that I was introduced to the Nursing Mothers Counsel of Oregon, the nonprofit group that I have joined to support, promote, and protect the mother/baby nursing relationship for families in Portland. I think that support groups are infinitely helpful even for the most non-social of mothers because it can be very easy to forget when you are nursing your baby that there are other moms out there doing the exact same thing you are. You are not just one woman, an island, alone in your quest to nourish your baby in the most healthful way possible. So to all of my mom friends who are nursing their babies or have nursed them, I stick my figurative fist in the air in a victory salute with you and share my certificate in proud recognition of our achievement. And though Alton and I are not finished with our nursing relationship (sure, sure, "when they're old enough to ask for it, they are too old" is what I used to think, too, but we love nursing, he is an incredibly healthy child, he is still getting benefits and immunities from my milk, and I have changed my view now to "every family needs to do what works best for their individual situation."), this certificate marks a significant milestone that we are ecstatic to share with those nearest and dearest to us. Woohoo!