My Farrah God Mother

My friend Farrah has done a lot for me. She has provided Westley with a wonderful carseat, bugaboo stroller & bumbo. She gave me an entire wardrobe of pregnancy clothes that kept me from having to drop a ton of money on them myself. She recently drove all the way to my house and dropped off some nursing shirts so that I didn't have to wear the same two shirts I owned that worked for nursing over and over again. And now she has written a guest post for me.

This is why I call her Farrah God Mother. She is giving, and kind and pretty just like a Farrah God Mother should be.

Thank you Farrah, I love this post and I am bookmarking every website you reference here. I hope someday I can repay all your kindness and generosity.

*********************************************************


Hello!  I’m Candis’ friend, Farrah, and I’m doing my part to keep this blog lively while she soaks in the wonderful presence of Westley.  Ahhh, that wonderful new baby smell is just the best, right?  This is me with my 2nd daughter, Millicent.  She’s not so fresh and new anymore but even a year later I still love to take her baby scent in.

I run a little family blog (http://chrstosfamily.blogspot.com) that I selfishly think is quite lovely because it’s simply a written record of the day to day lives of my kid’s, ages 1 and 3.  I imagine, however, that others consider it dreadfully boring.  I mean, who wants to read about someone else’s kids?  Well, perhaps no one, but perhaps a lot of people.  You see when you’re a mom and your free time becomes limited, you turn to other people’s blogs out of necessity.  It’s a quick way, in your own time and often at 3:00 AM, to keep up to date with those friends you wish you had time to call but don’t, a way to get fresh ideas about parenting or a way to feel better about yourself when you read that someone else’s child has been acting crazy too.
 
Helpful blogs don’t need to be high traffic or fancy, just a run of the mill family blog will do.  I overheard a friend say to someone recently, “Oh now that you’re pregnant your blog is going to turn into a mom blog.”  As if having a “mom blog” is a bad thing.  I encouraged our pregnant friend to make her blog mommy central if she wanted to.  If it helps a mom to vent and stay connected while at the same time helping others who may be reading, then blog away about poop, pee and vomit!  So please Candis, do post pictures and stories of Mr. Man and maybe along the way you can help a reader who needs to hear just what you have to say in that moment.

I have a lot of blogs I follow, some fancy and some “mom blogs”, but I thought today I’d share a few blogs and websites with Candis that I’ve referenced a lot over the years for breastfeeding support.  I will take a wild guess that the sheer fact that Miss Lady Lee is a very new mom *might* mean she has some breastfeeding questions or may just need some encouragement in the coming months.  My children have never had a drop of formula, and in order to do this I’ve had to fall back on these sites quite a bit.  I honestly didn’t intend to become that “crazy nursing lady”, it just happened.  The more research I did the more I knew I had to.  And at some point I just decided, “Come hell or high water, I will do this.”  I guess this is where I should mention I tend to be a bit stubborn and am a control freak out of necessity to keep my sanity with a baby and toddler.
 
I should note that while I chose to breastfeed and want to encourage others to do so, I do not want to be in your face about it and judge women who don’t.  That is not my intention in writing this for Candis.   Everyone’s lifestyles require different things and for some women, especially working moms, breastfeeding and pumping just become too much.  So if you’re a new mom reading this and breastfeeding isn’t working out for you, relax and give yourself a break.  Your baby will be fine and those who make you feel bad can go take a hike.

So here are a few sites that I like to reference.  Most of them were referred to me by other moms so please spread the word!

http://breastfeeding.blog.motherwear.com – I found this blog one day while surfing around to purchase a few breastfeeding tops so I could actually go out in public again.  The woman who writes it presents wonderful information and is a great writer.

http://thebreastfeedingblog.com – I believe a woman in the U.K. writes this blog.  Of course since the U.S. is so behind other countries when it comes to nursing, a lot of useful sites come from Europe.  And since I can’t read French, Italian or Spanish, I tend to look for them in the U.K.
www.kellymom.com – The mother of all breastfeeding reference sites.

http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?LACT – My friend Susan told me about this blog and I don’t know how I could live without it.  LactMed is a database you can search for medicines that are not good to take, or OK to take, while nursing.  This is a big help when you have a cold or other ailment!
http://www.mothering.com/community - A wonderful community of natural living mommas.

Please stay encouraged to breastfeed, Candis, and know that in those tiring, fussy, confusing moments you’ll get through it and it will all be worth it for you and Westley.  Maybe you too will unexpectedly become a crazy nursing lady.  And if it doesn’t work out, he’ll still live to be a happy, healthy beautiful boy….and you’ll be more rested because someone else can get up with him – ha ha.
So what are some of your favorite mom blogs?  Please share them with Candis in a comment!