Well. Another circle around our beloved sun today for my daughter. And perhaps when I'm feeling less emotional I might post more about it. And when I get some photos from the amazing Billie I will definitely tell you about the AMAZING Very Hungry Caterpillar themed 2nd birthday party I had today.
But a little bit of reflection. Today was the 2nd anniversary of birthing my babe, at home, into my own hands. It's like an annual refresher in how amazing that journey was, how amazing the experience was and how amazing a person I am.
Be warned - I am in it, naked and birthing and then swearing. And you may need tissues. I do *sniff*.
I also want to acknowledge and own the fact that I am now mama to what is becoming known as a "WHO baby" - one who is breastfed exclusively to 6 months, and then to 2 years (and beyond if we both want it which we seem to).
I have breastfed for 2 years.
Me. Who had a whole slew of challenges and nearly gave up in the first few weeks. Who cried more times than I care to think about over something that I'd assumed would come easily.
That is what is the biggest achievement in my head. My beginning breastfeeding was so tenuous in my head. The advice, to just "take each feed as the only one you have to get through" is really good advice when one is developing a major anxiety complex around breastfeeding. But it lead me to feel that the whole experience was tenuous, that any some stage someone (my midwife, my husband, someone close to me) would take my babe away and feed her something else. Wished for it at times, with cracked bleeding nipples and the most amazing pain. But I got through it and damn I'm proud of myself for that too.
In other news from today, I also planted this:
My daughter now has roots in our home in a way that I hope make her even more aware of where she came from.
2 comments:
Thanks for such a lovely day today. So lovely to see your little pickle celebrate 2 years.
Congratulations to you on 2 years of breastfeeding. You have done a great job ♥♥.
Birdie
Hi there,
I've followed your blog for a while, but never commented. I just had to come out of hiding and say that your placenta (your daughter's placenta?) is just amazing. When I had my son (my first child) 3 years ago I was still pretty icked out by the idea of keeping the placenta for anything (I did look at it after the birth, though). My thoughts have really changed, and after my next baby (I'm due next month) I plan on having it encapsulated. What a difference a few years (and a lot of exposure!) makes.
Anyway, I never thought I'd say a placenta was beautiful before, but I'm just amazed by yours. I know many look like trees, but yours has the whole tree and root system and earth below!
I found this really neat placenta-based art as I've been looking for a practitioner to encapsulate my placenta, and I thought you might be interested. There is a woman in the Seattle, WA, USA area (so shipping might be kind of expensive for you, but maybe you could find someone local that does it?) that makes both digital art and jewelry from placentas. Here are the links:
For digital prints: http://www.seattleplacenta.com/placentaprints.html
For Jewelry (which also starts w/ a digital file):
http://www.seattleplacenta.com/placentajewelry.html
Congrats on your two years of motherhood, and of nursing!
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