Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Creative Memories Give away, Kids Eat Free- Tuesday Night Special!

Here at The Leaky Boob, we're hoping to have Kids Eat Free Tuesday Night Specials each week. A different give away, sometimes related to breastfeed or parenting, sometimes not, will be up for lottery. This week we have some Creative Memories Scrapbooking items.

Scrapbooking
Winners choice: a discontinued Creative Memories 12x12 album in either burgandy or cotton candy pink.

family
A discontinued Creative Memories 12x12 family tree page.

Give-away
Two discontinued Creative Memories Title Pages

baby scrapbooking
refill pagesWinners choice: discontinued 12x12 It's A Girl refill pack or discontinued Creative Memories 12x12 black refill pages.

To enter the lottery:
  • Post a comment below with your e-mail address or link to your blog so we can notify you if you win.
  • Vote for us on Top Mommy Blogs and Top Baby Blogs (click the banners on the right).
  • Follow us or let us know that you already do.
  • For an extra two entries, link to us from your blog and share the link here in the comments.
Kids Eat Free runs from Tuesday to Monday! If you are interested in offering a product for one of our Kids Eat Free Tuesday Night Specials, please e-mail us, comment or post on our fan-page wall on Facebook. Thanks!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Let me tell ya...

This humorous look back on breastfeeding was written by my friend Sue Potts. Sue shares some aspects of breastfeeding she never realized until she was into it, things she never knew she'd need to know. I read this while laying my toddler down for a nap and had to stifle my laughter several times, hope you enjoy!

Image from yahoo images.

I am a mother of 4, my youngest just weaned on her third birthday a few months ago. I am fortunate to have breastfed all four for more than a year each. I worked full time as a nurse, and pumped like mad at work so my hubby could give the babies my "sweet nectar of life." And I'm so glad I did. Should I need one of their kidneys someday, I can remind them how I gave of myself, from my own body, so it's only fair that they return the favor. (Bonus of having lots of kids--multiple spare kidneys!)
I'm going to share a few things about breastfeeding that no one told me- I hope you enjoy!
  • When baby pulls off the breast while nursing (because she got distracted or whatever) your milk can squirt out several feet, like a spray bottle. Completely took me by surprise when it first happened.
  • Milk can let down and pour out like crazy while you're having sex. Seriously. SO SEXY
  • I'm convinced that having mastitis could be more torturous than waterboarding. If we could only induce it in terrorists, we'd totally have Bin Laden in custody.
  • Peculiar compliments from my midwife and lactation chick like, "You have great nipples!" Just kind of odd, really.
  • Nurses as a whole are curiously uneducated about breastfeeding, as evidenced by questions like "Do you feel really weak after you pump?"
  • When getting my newborns to latch on, I basically had to smoosh the baby against the breast (sort of quick and forcefully), causing my husband to ask if I was trying to smother them.

So in addition to all the advantages research studies uncover about breasfeeding, you may have a few funny/odd anecdotes to share in the future! Happy breastfeeding, all!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

An intro and a short adventure in accidental breast feeding education.

My name's Jessi and you'll probably see me around quite a bit as a regular contributor for The Leaky Boob.  The world needs more laughter and smiles when it comes to boobs and the babies who claim them for months or even years at a time as their own personal all-you-can-eat buffet.  You can find me over at Talk Less, Dance More usually, although, lately I've been slacking majorly in the blog department.  Forgive me, I've got a lot on my plate these days.  Stop by and read one day if you're bored or curious what life in China is like for the American mother of a 2 year old expecting twins.




Living in China and being the natural/crunchy mama that I am, I find a lot of impromptu moments to educate young women here about breastfeeding, natural parenting and birth.  A week or two ago I was having a conversation about the impending birth of our twins and the adventures in breastfeeding that I am sure we'll encounter with a 20something year old Chinese girl friend.  A very strange look came over her face and she asked,"Oh my gosh!  How will you breast feed TWO babies at the same time?!"


I looked down at my chest, pointed to one boob, then the other and counted to two.  I looked up, gave her a wink and a grin and said, "With my two boobs...?"

She immediately dissolved into a fit of laughter and then hugged me and said, "You are so wise... and brave, and I think maybe a little crazy.  Good thing it is not 3 babies!"

Sunday Sweeties? Sweet Sundays? Sunday special? Short and Sweet Sunday?

breastfeeding photo nursing baby
We'd like to start having a Sunday feature but we're not sure what to call it. It would be just a short sweet story about boobie milk. Our readers would submit stories directly to us or through the FB page and we'd pick one each week to share here on the blog. Please help us pick a title for this weekly feature! Post your suggestions in the comments below. There are a few on the FB page right now but I don't have permission from anyone to use them yet so I'll start us off with one of my own.

My second daughter had trouble nursing. She vomited every time she got the tiniest amount of colostrum in her tummy and started to turn away when I'd put her to the breast and in the first 48 hours of her life we became very concerned. After having extracted the contents of her tiny tummy with a tube down her throat, the midwife (under the advice of the pediatrician) did a gravity feed of a bit of my colostrum. There was a collective sigh of relief when that didn't come back up. We struggled for weeks after that with latch problems and just a general disinterest in the breast. The breastfeeding attempts usually left one or both of us in tears and often our then 2.5 year old would accompany us in our tearful ballad. Finally, after weeks of struggle we had a break-through. She latched without issue. The Piano Man (my Mr. Right) walked in and I looked up and smiled saying "She's nursing!" Piano Man came over, looked down on our little triumph and said "And nobody's crying! I knew you could do it!" And it totally wasn't as patronizing as it sounds.

Make Over- blog make-up?

So we're new, very, very new. But we need a make-over. Because we're boring. Not the content, no, we are, after all, a breastfeeding pub. What could be boring about a breastfeeding pub? Nothing. Obviously. Except the look of our blog. These walls are bare, our sign doesn't flash and the tables are super blah. There aren't even any table clothes for gosh sakes! Oh yeah, we are a pub, table clothes are optional. But we still need a make-over. Extreme style.

So I want to win this!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Tit Zit

I'm sitting here typing one handed and no, not because I'm NAK (nursing at the keyboard), which sounds hilariously dirty. But I'm not NAK, rather I'm holding a hot, wet cloth to my nipple. This is not some bizzare way for me to get off, thanks. It is The Leaky Boob treatment for a milk blister. There's a photo of a milk blister in that link there and mine looks very much like that. I considered taking a pic to share here but I don't want to get into blogger trouble so no full on nip shots, mmmkay? With no pic of my milk blister, also called a bleb, nipple blister, or blocked nipple pore (BNP?) just the on-going story of my tit zit.

The milk blister hurts. It didn't at first. Now it does. I had one with the baby before this and it wasn't painful and eventually just cleared up on its own after I did the hot compress a couple of times. This time has been a different story. I've had it come and go over the last 10 weeks. When it first appeared this time it was like a little stinging sensation when nursing, I checked it out and figured it would be no big deal. I re-read the info on kellymom.com and gave it a go. No luck. Instead, the pain increased. People, that sucked. Pun intended. I hate pain when nursing, so does not help the bonding experience. The darn thing stuck around for about 2 weeks before clearing up the first time and I thought that would be it. Oh the things we dream. Within 3 days it was back! And it has been like this ever since. We're going on three weeks this time and it hasn't cleared up. It has gotten smaller only to grow in size. I've tried everything. Manual expression, hot compresses, nursing, nursing in the shower, and swearing up a storm. None of them have worked. So I decided to try scraping it with my finger nail. First a hot compress, then a hot shower, then the finger nail to the boob. Now, when one is desperate for relief it can be easy to loose all sensible reasoning skills. Sure, the website suggested it as a way to clear up a milk blister but seriously, STOOOOOOOOOOOPID! I tried once, nothing happened. Hmmmmmm, maybe I didn't scrape hard enough. If only I had thought about those words before proceeding. I'm not scraping my nipple hard enough. It is already painful and sensitive but let's this again, shall we? Maybe, if we're lucky, I won't pass out! And if that doesn't work, we can just take sand paper or a needle to it next, won't that be fun?! Ugh. Anyway, so I tried again. I yelped. Nothing happened other than my yelp that brought my 11 year old to the bathroom door to ask if I was ok. Try explaining that one. But I wasn't done. Oh no, not going to give up, I want the pain to stop even if I have to cause more! Yay me! Examining my little blister in the mirror I decide that it looks like it is going to blow like a 15 year old's white head with just the slightest pressure. When I try some manual expression it bulges forward like a cartoon eyeball on Looney Toones. Since it looks like a pimple I decide to treat it like a pimple. After all, it may be called a milk blister but it is the same basic idea as a zit anyway. Deciding that I have a milk zit on my tit (oooh, I rhymed!) I revert to my teenage self and decide to pop that sucker. I decide to try and pop a pimple on my nipple. O.M.G. No, I didn't yelp again, I didn't even scream. Nope. I gasped. For about 10 seconds I couldn't breath. My eyes watered, my nose ran, my neck and face became molted shades of pink, red, white and green, and I clutched the sink nipple zit still intact. I shuddered and sat down on the closed toilet. This was way worse than a pimple in your nose, no, this was like needle nose pliers on, well, ON MY BOOB! Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad idea.

I'm back to hot compresses. Hopefully this thing will release soon but my fingers aren't going anywhere near that thing now.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

The Measure of Indecency

This post was originally posted here.


Hello! Up here! My eyes. You’ve been so busy staring elsewhere that you probably haven’t even noticed I have eyes let alone looked in them long enough to tell me what color they are. I admit, the color of my eyes can be hard to nail down, it really depends on what I’m wearing or the color of the frames on my glasses provided I’m wearing any. Glasses! I always wear socks with sneakers, I was talking about glasses. Ugh, why must you only see me for that? As though that’s all I’m good for. It’s not like they are new, they’ve been around as long as humans have and most everyone has them.

Excuse me, it bothers you when I walk? You do realize that the primary function of my ankles is to help me walk on my feet, don’t you? I see, seeing them used in a different way is gross. Uh-huh. Would you rather I just sit around with my feet up, my ankles hidden discretely beneath my pants or skirt until they are to be viewed and touched for pleasure? Hmmmm, this could complicate things, like my life. And caring for my children. So it makes other people uncomfortable to see a woman’s ankles when she’s chasing her children around, keeping them safe, providing them with the best opportunities and using her ankles as, oh, I don’t know, how they are intended to be used? I should be worried about offending other people? Interesting. I’m really far more concerned about doing the best I can for my children. Research shows that mothers that are able to should let their children run and be active and for that to happen best a mother needs her ankles to chase after them. Saving them only for her partner’s pleasure would get in the way of her children’s health! Oh, I can use them, you just want me to cover them up. With a blanket. Or one of those fashionable things made just for that.

Wow. That really makes it difficult not to mention, uncomfortable and likely dangerous. What exactly would be adequate coverage? Adequate and safe? When I’m using them to care for my children, how much can you actually see anyway? I know socks that reveal more and ankles are plastered all over magazines, billboards, TV, and movies to sell everything from sports drinks to cars to furniture. Honestly. I’m not showing any more than what you’d see watching a sitcom. Probably less, actually. And if you think that’s shocking, what about flip-flops and open toe shoes that reveal ankles AND toe cleavage? Nobody is insisting those be covered up. But a mother running around caring for her children, now that is disgusting. Please tell me, what is the measure of indecency we hold as standard? But another man seeing my ankles while I run after kids could be a turn on? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. A woman doing the best she can caring for her children, using her body as it is intended is going to be an indecent turn on? Now who is disgusting? But there could be a slip and they might SEE something! Gasp! Oh dear, what will we do! Mothers around the world are seducing men left and right using their ankles as they take care of their children! What is the world coming to?!

Now you’re saying that it is ok to use them but not only do you not want to see them used “that way” but it should stop once the child is one? How exactly does that make sense? Excuse me, but my child still needs me and it is encouraged by the experts that mothers continue to chase after their children as long as it is mutually beneficial and both parties are comfortable with it. Seriously, I don’t see how there is a magic switch that is flipped when a child turns one that she would no longer need me to walk after her. She may not even be ready to walk herself yet at that point! No, there is nothing inappropriate about me continuing to care for my child that way and I’m offended that you would say there is. It doesn’t excite me sexually, I’m not that one-dimensional, thanks. I may run around and use my ankles in a fashion only appropriate with my husband in our private times along but trust me, I couldn’t even begin to compare caring for my children to making love with my husband! I am not abusing my child by continuing to trot after them. My ankles have more than one purpose and I can differentiate between their functions, it isn’t that difficult actually and I already do it with other areas of my body so why should this be any different?


Honestly, I am sorry it makes you uncomfortable but I really can’t help but wonder if that reflects more on your issues than my ankles and my mothering. Your issues don’t have much weight in my caring for my children, sorry. If other women feel uncomfortable with their ankles so exposed while they care for their children, fine. It doesn’t bother me and if they can figure out how to gallop around after kids while hiding under a blanket then more power to them. In fact, I’m impressed, I just can’t get it to work. So I’m going to continue doing what is best for my children and while I’m not going to parade around with my ankles just hanging out there all the time for the world to see, I’m not going to hide me or my children just to make you feel better. There is nothing wrong with what I’m doing, I’m not ashamed of my ankles or using them to race around after my children. Not every woman can, I’m blessed to be able to. And no, I’m not going to cover to protect your sensibilities. Maybe your sensibilities aren’t that sensible. It is, after all, only natural for a mother to hasten to protect and give her children her best. This is my best. If you don’t like it then put a blanket over your head!


Once upon a time in a bygone era, ankles were considered a sexually indecent part of the body for a woman to show, a flamboyant display of indecency if they were revealed. Other era’s featured fashion that regularly revealed the breast mostly bare including the nipples showing while covering most every other part of the body with clothing. What we consider indecent now was at one time the height of fashion and accepted by the majority of society. Likewise, what has been considered inappropriate and immodest exposure in the past are now considered commonplace even in most of the extremely conservative circles. This post was inspired by some recent online conversations I was able to read (thanks to Woman Uncensored for sharing them) and by this article. It is intended as satire regarding nursing and "extended breastfeeding." Not that I need to explain but for the record my husband completely supports me breastfeeding our children. Also, no ankle or foot fetish here. But aren't these shoes amazing? I love them. Well, love to look at them. Wearing them, not so much. Seriously, what could be more sexy that a woman scurrying after her children in a pair of smokin' hot, deadly heels?

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