Sophie is 7 months old!

Well, she's 7 months and 3 days old. :) This picture is from a few weeks ago but I just love it, we were at Rathtrevor beach and she was having such a good time!

At 7 months (and 3 days), Sophie:

~ has two bottom teeth. (and she has a bottom and a top tooth juuuuust about to pop through as well)

~ army crawls everywhere. This girl is speedy!

~ has started pulling herself up to standing onto furniture.

~ lifts arms up to when she wants up.

~ has started eating solids. We offered her some pieces of food when she turned 6 months but she wasn't too interested so we held off. ABout two weeks ago she started actually eating what was being offered. No baby food here!

~ loves to sleep with mama. She's been nursing more frequently at night but since we cosleep, I can't tell you how many times actually and I don't feel too affected since her waking up only requires me latching her on before drifting back to sleep. Cosleeping and breastfeeding rocks!

~ is still not interested in napping independantly. Naps are hard around here. Uusally her morning nap is a struggle, she wants to sleep with me but Parker's still up so that doesn't work. Often I'll either wear her, take her out for a walk or drive or if she's really tired she'll fall asleep while I nurse her and I can lay her on the sofa for a short whle. The afternoon naps are much easier as she naps with her brother. Sometimes she'll nap for just 1/2 hour but once in a blue moon she'll nap for two hours.

~ is much more vocal. When she's sad she says "dada" or "mum" over and over again.

~ loves to play. She often growls at me when she's feeling playful. Funny little girl!

Breastfeeding Ignorance

When Sophie was born, I joined a moms meet up group hoping to meet other moms in my city, get us out of the house and for Parker to meet some other little friends. The first meet up I went to was great: We went on a toddler style hike and I met two other moms with children as close in age as my two. And out of the 5 of us, 3 are/have breastfed past 1 year.  I was happy.
Then the second meetup I went to was specifically for babies (plus older siblings) at a mom's house. I was thinking it would be nice and relaxing but it was nothing like I hoped for. The mom who hosted swore constantly (I'm talking F-bombs), smacked her kid and the two hours we were there she only held her baby for 5 minutes. Ugh....not what I was looking for at all!
I thought I'd give it one more shot so today I went to another mom/baby playdate. The host was great, she even cloth diapered (yay!) and there was another mom that I liked too but the same mom who hosted last time was there along with another mom I hadn't met. Within 5 minutes of being there the two moms started bashing breastfeeding and were upset that the nutritionist at the health unit where baby group is held was recommending exclusive breastfeeding for at least 6 months and then breastfeeding up until 2 (me, I'm THRILLED that our healthcare system is doing this!!). They were upset because they felt it wasn't fair to the formula feeding moms and breastfeeding is talked about at the hospital so it shouldn't be brought up at baby groups (!!). This whole time I'm biting my tongue and seconds away from taking my kids and leaving but then the one mom goes on to say how gross it is to breastfeed past 6 months let alone two years! That's when I mentioned the WHO recommendation of breastfeeding for 2 years and beyond. The mom tells me that is for women in third world countries who don't have enough food and breastfeeding is all they have (sigh) and that breastfeeding that long will turn their child into a social outcast. I flat out said that's not true... and told them I still breastfed Parker (2) and had no intentions of stopping anytime soon. That he was in control of when he decided to be done breastfeeding, whether that be tomorrow or several years from now. Well, didn't that just shut them up! Of course, they didn't say much to me after that but that's okay I was busy loving up the babies and talking to the two moms who had a clue!
Anyhoo... all this got me thinking of how educated women view and understand breastfeeding. I was really shocked that people felt and thought this way. The one mom honestly thought that the only reason the WHO recommended breastfeeding until 2 and beyond was so that children in third world countries wouldn't starve to death.
So while I don't plan on going back to another meet up, I thought I'd do up a post on breastfeeding resources so that you all (because I have so many readers, ha!) could educate yourselves and others.

• Breastfeeding Committee of Canada
• Kelly Mom
• La Leche League Canada
• Health Canada's Nutriction for Healthy Term Infants Summary
• Moving to Mongolia (great bf article in Mothering Magazine Aug 09)
• Newman Breastfeeding Clinic
• Four Friends (for adoptive breastfeeding mothers)
• BC Women's Milk Bank
• Breastfeeding Law in British Columbia and Ontario

There are so many great resources out there with fantastic breastfeeding information. Why is there still so much ignorance about breastfeeding out there?!

My experience with Placentophagy

As most of you know, I had my placenta encapsulated (dried, ground up and put into capsules) during my first few days postpartum. I decided to take them to avoid PPD but I got so much more out of it than that! For me the benefits were noticeable right away which surprised me.. I was thinking it would take a week or so to kick in.
Benefits of placentophagy for me were:

• increase in energy. This was huge for me because with my first two children, I was so tired for the first few months. This time I was going for walks and feeling good about it at 4 days pp.
• increase in mental clarity. I felt awake after only a few days of taking my pills. There was no "mommy fog" that I had with my first two. And you'd think with 3 children in the house, I'd be feeling foggy more so this time around!
• no major mood swings. My mood and my emotions have been pretty consistent, no major ups or downs like during pregnancy or postpartem after my first 2.
• milk came in earlier. With my first two, my milk didn't come in until day 5 an 6. This time it started coming in at the end of day 2.
• faster recovery. I think because my body was more nourished from the placenta, I was able to heal faster, I wasn't as sore and my stitches healed faster.
• shorter postpartem bleed. The other two times I had very heavy bleeding the first two weeks and bleeding didn't stop until around 6 weeks in. This time, it slowed down within days and fully stopped by week 4.
• increase in libido/quick return of desire. This is a bit tmi but it's an unexpected benefit for me and I know lack of desire is a huge stress for most new moms. I don't know if it's the hormones or because of all the other benefits and I just feel more like my old self faster that this increase and return of libido has returned quicker.

I was taking two capsules a day bit on "rough" days I took two more later om in the day. I stopped taking it at 6 weeks as I felt 100% healed for a few weeks but within a few days I was no longer feeling as great. I was tired and irritable and feeling down. So started taking them again but only 1 per day now and will do so until they run out.
All in all, I am SO impressed and thankful for this amazing healing organ my body grew to grow Sophie and to heal me.