World Breastfeeding Week- Wednesday!

Color pencil drawing by Shallanee, age 6.

It's Wednesday, hump day. There is no possible way on earth that I can say "hump day" and really only think "oh hump, as in the middle of the week... just going down to the weekend from here!" No. Say "hump day" and I giggle like a jr. high boy thinking of the time I saw the bears getting it on at the zoo. I am not the only one that thinks this, I know I'm not.

This particular hump day is half way through World Breastfeeding Week. The shear volume of blogs, articles, news-debacles out there for WBW is astounding. It's like lactivist are going to take over the world or something. It's kind of cool.

But there is something else extra special about this hump day though too. It is The Piano Man's birthday today. Which means it probably really is "hump day" if you know what I mean. *jr. high boy giggling goes here.* If my mom is reading this, she probably just died a little reading that I put not so thinly veiled innuendos on the internet and some of my real life friends are not going to look me in the eye the next time I see them. Or laugh like a jr. high boy. *HI SUE!*

ANYWAY...

It's The Piano Man's birthday, which is nice. But back to World Breastfeeding Week and our fantastic blog carnival (if I do say so myself- which I do because I can since I haven't written the carnival submissions myself).

Our beautiful art work in this post today are submissions to our Children's Art Project "Perspectives, Breastfeeding Through Children's Eyes." All these drawings are making my heart go pitter-patter. Aren't they beautiful? I just love them. We really need more though, please, please, please send us your child's art work depicting breastfeeding.

Mom's Milk Is The B(r)e(a)st!- More art for this week is coming from Lisa Crigger with a new digital embroidery downloadable design every day for World Breastfeeding Week. Cute and fun designs for free every day this week!

And the bloggers are really bringing it, once again.

How It's Supposed To Be- Natural doesn't always mean easy. In this post Rachel shares the path she has traveled in breastfeeding her children full of difficulties and triumphs and always love. Rachel is a busy mom to five. When she's not nursing her youngest child (and sometimes when she is), Rachel blogs at A Reservation For Six.

Postpartum OCD, A Retroactive Self-diagnosis: Part 1 of 2- "Then it all went to hell." Dou-la-la joins TLB blog carnival today with a painfully honest look back at her postpartum days and breastfeeding challenges with her newborn including a video of a stressful feed. Dou-la-la is written by Anne, doula-in-training, birth advocate and a moderately crunchy mother.

Don't Muddy Your Milk: Shame and Breastfeeding- Returning with The Leaky B@@b carnival, NursingFreedom.org takes a look at how shame impacts breastfeeding. NursingFreedom.org was cofounded by Dionna of Code Name: Mama and Paige of Baby Dust Diaries. NursingFreedom.org is dedicated to normalizing breastfeeding and advocating for breastfeeding rights. Please follow NursingFreedom.org on its Facebook page to connect with other mamas who are passionate about breastfeeding advocacy.

Nursing The Divine- I can't give a little intro for this one. You simply HAVE to read it. Whatever your faith, you will love it. GO READ IT NOW. Kate Hansen is an artist, mother and breastfeeding advocate from BC, Canada. After reading her post you should also go browse her artwork. Oh yeah... and be looking for a give away of one of her prints.

Our guests posts are once again really wonderful. Don't Ever Want To Forget comes from the heart of Alex on her daughter weaning when she was ready at 3.5 years old. A poem and reflections, you will probably cry. Our second guest post I am ridiculously proud of as it is from Earth Baby. She writes as an 11 year old girl going through puberty, big sister to 4 sisters, sharing her thoughts on breastfeeding and her future as a breastfeeding mother some day. I even hunted down some old school photos to scan in for her post.

I slacked on give-aways yesterday, the girls and I needed to get out of the house and be busy but I will try, admist The Piano Man's birthday celebrations, to get the give-aways up and going. Thanks for your patience and, er, enjoy your hump day. I know I will. *snort*

Color Pencil drawing by Daisha, age 11