I Make Milk, Whats Your SuPerPoWer!?

When I first decided to breastfeed my first child, it was very new to me and most of my friends and family didn't agree with the idea. Being so young and nursing seemed to be a bit selfish they thought. I was 20 at the time and a few friends made comments like "those are my boyfriends property only" or "ugh, your going to sag after", and "girl, its going to hurt, I could never do it".

I began questioning my reasons why I continued to even think about nursing at such a young age...but then the most important thought came to mind... my Child! I knew that I had to take on major responsibilities as a mother and breastfeeding was the most important one I decided to begin with. I also knew that it would benefit my baby to the extreme and I wanted to give it a shot. Aye, dios mio... It was the best decision I had ever made in my life!

But Wait....

it wasn't easy to begin with. The doctor didnt see much milk come out and basically gave me options. At this point, I was lying in the hospital bed trying to nurse my child and he comes in telling me she that my daughter has lost a certain amount of weight and will need to be treated for jaundice due to lack of nutrition. (food intake of some sort) Imagine that... any woman in their right mind would stop what they were doing and feed their baby formula to increase her/his food intake... um... not me. The nurses are all about breastfeeding, so I waited it out leaving my daughter at the hospital while she layed tanning for one night. That night was a looooong night. Since I had chosen to breastfeed, I had to drive to the hospital every two-three hours to feed her. (I live 15 mins away and apparently once released I could not stay)

Eventually, my milk came in and VIOLA... she was breastfeeding and I was able to take her home! I was not going to give up that easy although that week was the toughest. Waking up every two hours to feed, breasts were engorged like Pamela Anderson and my nipples were the size of a peanut. I was in total pain, but decided again to not give up and wait it out! My husband and parents always gave me words of encouragment. And after that week passed, I couldn't feel my nipples... but it was done, I became one of those mothers who wore a HoOter Hider at public places until she turned 1 1/2. Now I breasfeed my baby boy and i'm trying to determine when to stop. He will be 1 in a week so i'm contemplating whether or not I should wean him or continue to meet his sisters length?

I found this study of mothers and breastfed babies and it made me smile because it is totally true! My daughter is one of the brightest crayons in the box and I am so proud to say it was because of me!

Study links breastfeeding to high grades, college entry...

Breastfed babies seem more likely to do well at high school and to go on to attend college than infants raised on a bottle, according to a new U.S. study.

Professors Joseph Sabia from the American University and Daniel Rees from the University of Colorado Denver based their research on 126 children from 59 families, comparing siblings who were breastfed as infants to others who were not.

By comparing siblings, the study was able to account for the influence of a variety of difficult-to-measure factors such as maternal intelligence and the quality of the home environment.

The study, published in the Journal of Human Capital, found that an additional month of breastfeeding was associated with an increase in high school grade point averages of 0.019 points and an increase in the probability of college attendance of 0.014.

“The results of our study suggest that the cognitive and health benefits of breastfeeding may lead to important long-run educational benefits for children,” Sabia, a professor of public policy who focuses on health economics, said in a statement.

“But this is just a start. Much work remains to be done to establish a definitive causal link.”

Sabia said the study, using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, was the first to use sibling data in order to examine the effect of breastfeeding on high school completion and college attendance.

“By focusing on differences between siblings, we can rule out the possibility that family-level factors such as socioeconomic status are driving the relationship between having been breastfed and educational attainment,” said Rees, an economics professor.