Things You Don't Say/Ask to a Breastfeeding Mama

Yes, in case you have missed it, my darling daughter is now 19 months and still breastfeeding. :) It's one of the best choices we have made as first-time parents. We know we are providing the best for our daughter.

I remember when I first watched the movie Grownups, we weren't married yet. It was the scene when the group reunited for the first time at the coach's funeral. They were seating in a gazebo chatting when Kevin James' son walked up to the mom and asked to breastfeed. The group was taken aback, someone asked how old the boy was and Kevin James responded, 48 months, trying to downplay the age. Then the couple went defensive and explained that they're trying to wean him already.

That was a funny scene, or back then I thought it was.

Fast-forward to today, I am now a Mama to my beautiful daughter, and we are breastfeeding. I have learned a lot about the importance of breastfeeding not only during the first 6 months of a baby's life but also extended breastfeeding for a toddler. Anyway you look at it, breast milk is still superior to any other kind of milk being offered in the market.

See, here in our country, it is just recently that breastfeeding is really breaking through. Years before, milk formula companies together with their marketing ploys and ads did a great job at making people think that formula milk is as good as breast milk. Packed with vitamins and nutrients that they have studied that are supposed to be similar to what a child gets from breast milk. Before I got pregnant, I didn't know formula milk was all that bad, we even tried giving Ava formula milk before when I was about to go back to work just in case I don't get to meet her daily milk requirements by pumping. She was around 3 months then, and that was the only thing I regret doing as a parent. I was so misinformed.

Summer Time is Travel Time

It's summer time and it goes without saying that family trips are also here. For first time parents like us, travelling with a toddler could be a great challenge. Not that we have been travelling, but I've been thinking about it and thought about ways of how we'll manage when the time comes.

Just recently, we were able to travel and visit my parents in Nueva Ecija. It's usually a 3-4-hour-drive from Manila via NLEX, but it seemed like everybody was headed the same way. It took as 6 hours. Our fambam's first time to travel with Ava the toddler that long.

Luckily, our little happy belle didn't seem to bother the long drive. And it also helped that we brought some stuff that kept her busy.


Here's my take on what you can do while travelling with your toddler:

Carseats

The use of carseats in our country is not as strict compared to others. I am also guilty of this, most of the time, we're good with Ava just sitting on my lap either in the front passenger seat or at the back. But I think we should all practice safe travelling especially when we are with our children. Make sure they are all buckled up comfortable and secured. Unlucky for us, we just realized that our darling daughter already outgrew her infant car seat. So we had to take her out from it and just settle at the backseat while Mr. T drove carefully. That's why we're already looking at getting front-facing carseats so the next time we go for a long drive, Ava is already safely buckled up. :)

Left: Ava in her infant car seat. Right: Britax Front-Facing Car Seat.

#100HappyDays

About a month ago I decided to join this on-going campaign called 100happydays. Basically, what you do is post one photo that made you happy - everyday for 100 days in a row. According to the website, 71% of people who tried this challenge failed due to lack of time. How can that be? Posting a photo a day shouldn't be that hard.

Yes, posting one photo a day is really not that hard. BUT, posting one photo of what made you happy for the day, for 100 consecutive days is a challenge. Trust me, I know because on my 28th day, I almost gave up on this. But I'm glad I didn't. :D