More Legend than Myth

Mythbuster: Breastfeeding Will Keep you from Getting Pregnant

Under Inspection

Breastfeeding is a means of birth control

Background:

In case you have never heard the phrase "you can't get pregnant if you're breastfeeding," now you have. And usually you hear someone respond to that statement by saying "Oh, so... I'll be expecting your next announcement in about a month." Here in America, it is common practice to put women on some form of birth control before they are cleared by their doctors to resume intercourse (usually at the 6 week checkup after birth). On the other hand, many medical organizations such as the World Health Organization teach the Lactational Amenorrhea Method (LAM) as a viable and reliable method of family planning. If you want a full description, read the link, otherwise, the synopsis is that full breastfeeding day and night with no bottles, formula, or solids has a 99+ success rate in preventing ovulation (and therefore pregnancy) as long as the mother's periods have not returned AND her baby is less than 6 months old. Please don't take sentence as a complete guide to LAM... :-)

Factual Experience:

Disingenuous, I know, given how much success we have at not getting pregnant on our own anyway. However, I was really interested to see what effects breastfeeding would have on the return of my "fertility," since I now have several years experience keeping track of it! Obviously (I hope), we didn't judge the results based on lack of positive pregnancy tests. Rather, I charted my fertility signs to see if I was ovulating or not. I don't even own a bottle, and while Hannah did end up taking a pacifier and not sleeping skin to skin with me, I got my 6 months and more. I was able to successfully identify my first ovulation and predict my first post-partum period 10 months after she was born. Yeah charting!

Conclusion that breastfeeding can keep you from getting pregnant according to the medically established LAM guidelines (and maybe longer): True!

<You may mentally insert a picture of a negative pregnancy test, but I never took one, because I never had reason to believe I might be pregnant.>

Fairy Princess

12 Month checkup, stats, and "Christmas" pictures

We went to the doctor today for Hannah's 12 month checkup and shots. She is 17.5 lbs, and 28in, and has made it up to the 25th percentile! Woohoo! I kind of thought she might have had a growth spurt when we discovered she could eat an entire chicken breast + veggies + fruit for dinner every night on the cruise. She did well with her shots, not even getting a fever this time, and we were happy because our favorite nurse came and did them while Hannah sat on my lap. I hate lying her on the table when I know it's perfectly possible to give shots to a baby in its parent's lap instead.

 Here are two pictures in front of the Christmas tree:

The Miracle is One and Gets a Smash Cake

Happy Birthday Hannah!!!

Today, my baby turned one year old. I know every parent says this, but I can't even hardly believe it. We weren't going to have any kind of big deal thing for her, until everyone we work with at the ministry started asking us what "we (them included)" were doing for her birthday. I tell you, this girl is loved.

So, we ordered a cake:

And a smash cake:

 Lots of friend came and stared at Hannah and the cake, so she stared back at them. The Cake was suspicious looking anyway.

Then she found out it was squishy! 

 And fun!

 And delicious! She LOVES cake, Mommy!

Bonus deliciousness:

She got a little cake drunk.

 Hehe... who wants more cake? (Oh, oh, oh, oh... pick me!)

Christmas is coming! Birthday is coming!

...And I still don't have internet at home. This is a very short post to say that in the last few months Hannah has:

-Started saying Mama, but is still working on Dada. At least she's not calling Daddy "Mama" anymore.
-Gotten very good at getting on her tiptoes to pull the phone off of the table.
-Made a habit of giving kisses.
-Started waving "bye-bye," but only to inanimate objects. People just get stared at.
-Perfected her "I'm so cute" face
-Developed a decided preference for chicken.
-Received enough bigger cloth diapers to get us through her next year of growing (thanks to the great Black Friday Deals listed on http://allaboutclothdiapers.com).
-Not taken her first steps despite having been cruising on furniture since 6 months. I guess a watched pot never does boil.

My baby is so big. And when I say that, she throws her hands in the air as if to show how tall she's gotten. I wish I could share a picture!

A Tale of Two Babies

My best friend and I have been good friends since elementary school. We graduated high school as co-valedictorians, stood up at each other's weddings, compared notes through medical training (me as a nurse, her as a doctor), and generally did everything together. Through all this, I was the calm one. She was the one on Ritalin. She would want to run around in circles and I would be the one holding the video camera. She would study by talking and obsessively cramming between study breaks; I would read my books in my room and the quiz myself in my head.

Somehow, by the grace of God, we also became moms at basically the same time, and we both had girls! So, whenever we can, we get the girls together. I knew something was funny when I visited her for a week after her daughter was born, and little baby B actually slept for more than 45 minutes at a time, and "cried" by saying "meh" (and only when she was hungry). The irony became much more obvious the last time they saw each other. I could describe it, but you can see it best in picture form... guess who got the calm child and who got the hyperactive one?