Sorry, I tried to leave this alone, but...

First, my comment on the absolutely ridiculous reaction some people are having to the sight of a boobie on a magazine cover. Grow Up! If you can`t stand the sight of something that you have on your own body, then look away. If you`re just freaking out because a boobie was so upsetting as it was used for its ORIGINAL purpose, then go to therapy. I have no patience with this at all. Most people, including me, nurse in a way where you see nothing, yet the thought of a baby nursing breaks some folks out in a cold sweat. Its the original plan for babies, breastmilk has gotten humanity this far, and if a woman is not comfortable nursing in public her whole breastfeeding relationship will suffer. She will put off nursing or pump & bring bottles with her, or bring formula, all of which are either a pain in the butt or can hurt supply. One lady in the article was worried that her husband would get upset if he saw the magazine. What the hell? I have no words for such discomfort about the human body. We are mammals because we have mammaries & like Angelina Jolie says, " If God meant for women to be modest he wouldn`t have saddled us with childbirth."

Breast isn't best: readers tell US parenting magazine by Jocelyne Zablit
Fri Aug 4, 4:38 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Readers of a US parenting magazine are crying foul over the publication's latest cover depicting a woman breastfeeding, with some calling the photo offensive and disgusting.

"I was SHOCKED to see a giant breast on the cover of your magazine," one woman from Kansas wrote in reaction to the picture in Babytalk, a free magazine that caters to young mothers. "I was offended and it made my husband very uncomfortable when I left the magazine on the coffee table."

Her reaction was part of some 5,000 letters the magazine has received in response to a poll to gage reader sentiment about Babytalk's August cover photo, which shows a baby nursing.

Several readers said they were "embarrassed" or "offended" by the Babytalk photo and one woman from Nevada said she "immediately turned the magazine face down" when she saw the photo.

"Gross, I am sick of seeing a baby attached to a boob," the mother of a four-month-old said.

Another reader said she was "horrified" when she received the magazine and hoped that her husband hadn't laid eyes on it.

"I had to rip off the cover since I didn't want it laying around the house," she said.

A national television program also ran a segment on the controversy, interviewing several people in New York who expressed disgust over the cover photo.

The picture in Babytalk was aimed at illustrating the controversy surrounding breastfeeding in the United States, where a national survey by the American Dietetic Association found that 57 percent of those polled are opposed to women breastfeeding in public and 72 percent think it is inappropriate to show a woman breastfeeding on television programs.

Babytalk executive editor Lisa Moran said though most of those who responded to the poll about the cover photo gave the magazine a thumbs up, she was surprised that some 25 percent expressed outrage.

"There is a real puritanical streak in America," Moran told AFP. "You see celebrities practically baring their breasts all the time and no one seems to mind in this sort of sexual context.

"But in this very natural context of feeding your child, a lot of Americans are very uncomfortable with it."

She said the controversy is all the more surprising in light of concerted efforts by the US government and health professionals to encourage women to breastfeed.

"Everyone is saying that breastfeeding is best for baby but there is so little support for it in public," Moran said.

She said the Babytalk cover photo marks the first time a major parenting magazine in the United States dares to break the taboo about showing a woman's breast and the outrage it has prompted is not about to discourage editors from doing it again.

"This hasn't scared us off at all," Moran said. "We're thrilled and hopefully this will help women get more support for nursing."

More for World Breastfeeding Week

This was on the yahoo news today:

Breast-feeding reduces anxiety into childhood By Patricia Reaney
Thu Aug 3, 8:11 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Breast-feeding's calming effects seem to be long-lasting.

Years after being weaned, breast-fed children cope better with stressful situations like their parents' divorce than their bottle-fed peers, researchers said on Thursday.

"In children who are breast-fed, there is less of an association between parental divorce and separation and childhood anxiety," Dr Scott Montgomery, an epidemiologist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, said in an interview.

Breast milk is full of nutrients, hormones, enzymes, growth factors and antibodies that are passed from mother to child.

Research has shown breast-feeding reduces infections, respiratory illness and diarrhoea in the child and cuts the risk of after-birth bleeding in the mother.

In an observation study published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, Montgomery and his team studied how breast- and bottle-fed 10-year-olds coped with the stress of their parents' marital problems.

The children were among 9,000 youngsters who had been monitored from birth for a major British study. Their teachers were asked to rate their anxiety level on a scale of 0-50.

There was a higher level of stress in all the children but the breast-fed youngsters coped better.

"The anxiety was much less obvious in children who were breast-fed," Montgomery said.

The researchers do not know why breast-fed babies were less anxious. They suggested breast-feeding could be an indicator of other parental factors or the physical contact between the mother and the child may have helped to reduce anxiety.

Breast-feeding could also influence the development of pathways in the body linked with its response to stress.

"The more we look at breast-feeding, the more benefits we see. As this is something that is, in evolutionary terms, normal it is likely to be important in normal human development," Montgomery said.


The researchers don`t know why breastfed babies were less anxious? I think if you can never be fully dependent when you need to be, as an infant and toddler, then how can you be fully independent? Or secure? I think a bottle fed baby who is held closely while eating, and responded to quickly when crying, has probably the same possibility of being less anxious. Its all about helping an infant feel safe and secure, and breastfeeding makes that happen easily because a nursing mom really learns to read the cues well, since its such an intimate relationship. Forcing a baby to sleep by leaving them crying in their crib can make them more anxious in my opinion, imagine being so small, with absolutely no clue how to do anything or get anything & then realizing nobody is coming to help you. Unfortunately, our culture still is focused on making a baby "independent" as aoon as possible, but that`s slowly changing.

Its World Breastfeeding Week...

so I`ll put one picture from this month`s Vogue showing how normal it can be to sit and nurse a big baby in couture. Then, here`s a re-post of my wild toddler before he weaned. I`m hoping to get excited about nursing a little guy again, I have been nursing for 6 years straight with only 6 months off, so I was enjoying having my personal space back. Too bad that`s over soon!

It`s finally August...

which means my birthday & my littlest boy`s birthday are coming soon!

Thank you Friendly Neighbor

I was starting to feel sorry for myself for a minute because of my lack of husband (working nights, sleeping days), large & cumbersome size & lack of air to breathe & a wild toddler who screams to be taken outside for hours of fun, where it is HOT. And, my helpful and sweet 6 year old is on his first trip alone with his grandparents. Believe me, I`ve had much worse problems, but this weekend was looking a little challenging. And then... my friendly neighbor and great friend sent me a festival of flavor from the farmers market! What a great way to start my Saturday.

I had to steal this from the Post today because the reviewer, Stephen Hunter, really describes the utter awesomeness of the original stars of Miami Vice. I LOVE Miami Vice & I`m not that excited about the new movie. It seems like its an updated version of the most perfect show ever, but with some music from nowadays and not the fabulous Smugglers` Blues Glenn Frye & Don Henley type of stuff that I like so much.

"But the worst news about "Miami Vice" is that Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx, replacing Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas in the key roles, don't hold a candle, a flashlight, a freakin' match to the original guys. Though they seem so two-decades-ago, Crockett in his pastels and sockless white loafers and Tubbs with his surly mumbling and ever-buttoned double-breasted jacket and tie -- no matter the weather or the incoming -- the boys were at once McQueen-chilled, hipster-chic and existential-exotic. They were uranium-depleted cool. Johnson's Crockett had a fallen Southern prince aspect to him as a former Florida wide receiver ruined by two years in Nam, a failed marriage, a weakness for women and booze, but underneath it: good-old-boy true grit. Tubbs, by contrast, was a black New Yorker with dead eyes and a drop-dead smile and a kind of musical sensibility. He represented the Afro-Caribbean presence that came to dominate Miami in the '80s and turn it into the American Casablanca. He could mix with the homeboys, the Haitians, the wraiths of color that brought their potions to a city on a bay that is never confused with Baltimore."

Off to the lake

My firstborn son is going on vacation with his grandparents, without us. I miss him already and he leaves this afternoon. I know he will have a wonderful time and I wish we were going too, but alas, I am way too big and scarily pregnant for a 15 hour drive! He will swim, help with cooking, play with his uncle, and explore in the dark with his flashlight, among many other great things.

Very Grateful Wednesday

I am extremely grateful today for my 2 friendly neighbors (and very good friends) who threw a beautiful baby shower for me on Sunday. It was on the top floor of an Arlington apt building, with gorgeous flowers and great food. I was so happy & so was the dear husband. Kids made a fun space for themselves, games were played and it was such a super group of people, mostly our neighborhood cocktail hour crew. It hasn`t been easy for me to even attend baby showers in the last 4 years, but it was healing and wonderful to celebrate this new little person arriving in 3 weeks(!!!!). To the ladies that planned this party, THANK YOU!

Don`t give your child a blackberry protein shake and then leave the room to talk to your other child...

or this could happen to you too!

Trying to be grateful

OK, not feeling very motivated right now. I`m way bigger than I hoped to be and I`m not dealing with it very well & I just feel so out of breath. Let`s still find things to be grateful for:

1. I`m grateful to my husband for having the patience that he does and having many mad skillz to do all kinds of things, like helping a man in the middle of a grand mal seizure yesterday. I hope that guy is Ok today.

2. I`m grateful to God that I`ve gotten this far with little Joaquin and he grows and moves well. I may be big, but so is he and I have to be substantial to support him, now & when I make milk for him. I`m also pretty thankful for the new experience of great skin, hair & nails this time.

3. I`m grateful this week that we had another good LLL meeting and lots of mamas were there asking tough questions. It was exhausting but those ladies are inspiring.

The most beautiful desert in the world, in Saudi Arabia

I spent a lot of time here when I was a kid and I love this landscape. It was like the calm before the storm in the Middle East when we lived there in the late 70`s.

Warning, mature themes

One of the scariest movies I`ve ever seen is "Candyman" and what makes it scary to me is that the Candyman can kill you anywhere no matter how many people are around you. Nobody can help you. Losing a baby to shoulder dystocia is just like that. Everybody was tested and everybody failed, nobody could save my son and lots of people tried. It looked to me like there were more than 30 people in the ER alone and none of them could help Alistair in time. This little boy I`m carrying now feels big like his brother and every day I feel more Ok with the choice (or lack thereof) to have him born surgically.

With the urge to organize the house kicking in, where should I start? Oh, maybe I`ll make my dear husband a Mojito station in the kitchen so the counters aren`t covered in mint & lime. Priorities!

A photo of a 6 year old`s favorite spot next to his house, taken by the 6 year old himself

and both boys dressed alike by Papi, complete with Pirates of the Caribbean hats on.

The mighty Luna Hibiscus on my deck

I`m so proud!

A hot day in the park.

Tiny Boy # 4 has a delivery date!

OK, so teeny will arrive on August 16th at 12 noon!

The boyz, happy & handsome on a Sunday morning.
Father & son hanging out on the floor.

mama!

My deck in the Shire, just pretty & then cleaned up & prettier