SUNDAY SURF: Organize your Home

I'm joining Authentic Parenting and Hobo Mama for Sunday Surf. Share your best reading of the week, and link up your post at either blog!
For more great reading, visit Hobo Mama or Authentic Parenting for the latest Sunday Surf and linky.
Happy Surfing!
I've been a little preoccupied with organizing this week because I'm doing the 29 Day Organizational Challenge at Orgjunkie.com. So I've been digging around for unique organizing ideas. I didn't think I did much of anything else, but apparently I did. Here's my favorite reading of the week.

Organizing/DIY Home Decor Ideas
Dressers Make Excellent Storage Containers -  I'm more of a bookcase person myself, but dressers make sense because they hide clutter. Plus, you can customize them with your own hardware. Hmmm.... something to think about...

DIY Clipboards Out of IKEA Panels - Too bad I don't have an IKEA near me. I love the idea of clipping photos and other inspiration to clipboards instead of keeping static frames. My tastes change often, and I get bored with what's on my walls. This is an easy way to switch it out.

Life
Manifesting Lessons - Rachel at Clean talks about the law of attraction. I have always had amazing experiences with this. It's what led me to believe that energy is tangible, and when you put your energy out into the universe, other energy comes to meet it. Rachel talks about how just focusing on what you want can lead to positive results. This has always been the case for me. I went through a spell where I didn't paint or create art for 2 years. I was in a rut, and I was uninspired. As soon as I began creating again, I began getting random emails from people who found my art on sites I had put it on years before. They told me how amazing my art was. Other people reached out to me and asked to buy my work. I wasn't even actively doing anything; I was just thinking about my art. This is an amazing concept and really emphasizes to me that we are so much more than our material world. Read it. Practice it. Enjoy it.

Quick Tips - How to use less conditioner, ways to reuse plastic storage bags, and how to (not) clean up cheerio crumbs. It's the little things that help us find our groove as moms every day!

Love is in the Air, Keeping the Spark Alive - Stylin Momma gives a really good tip: After a long day with the kids, take some time for yourself, and then find time to reconnect. If I had an hour of alone time, I would be glad to give it up!

Poop? What Poop? - Yes, poop is a big part of my life right now. This article describes how Osocozy Bioliners changed my life. I swear, I don't work for the company and I'm not compensated by Osocozy. This explains how much I am addicted to Bioliners for cloth diapering a solid-eating toddler though.

Breastfeeding and Birth
Breastfeeding as Birth Control Clarified - This article by Marah at Happiness Redefined clarifies how effective breastfeeding is for birth control. Basically, the more often you breastfeed and the more time you spend with your baby, the more effective it is. But every woman varies, and the list sounds exhausting, even for the most attached mama.

Nipple Stimulation for Labor - One of the students who recently attended a Tmuffin childbirth education class was asking about ways to encourage her baby to come out. Since I don't think standing outside her vagina with a dog biscuit would work, I gave her the link to the website. Nipple stimulation for labor releases oxytocin, which can help bring on contractions. If her body is ready, maybe it will give her that extra "push."

Pins of the Week:

Squirrel Sorting Activity Source: toadallytots.blogspot.com	Art Armoire Source: theembellishednest.wordpress.com	Flaxseed Pillow Source: etsy.com
DIY Mason Jar Labels Source: thepaintedhive.blogspot.com	File Cabinet Upgrade Source: salvagelove.net	Art Supply Shelves Source: apartmenttherapy.com

Tips for Breastfeeding a Toddler

This post was written as part of the weekly Breastfeeding Blog Hop hosted by Slacker Mom and cohosted by The Gnome’s Mom and Happiness Redefined. Visit the links below and link up your own story or leave a comment!

In last week's post, I wrote about my breastfeeding goals for the new year. This week's theme is Tips and Tricks to Breastfeeding an Older Child or Toddler.

Breastfeeding a toddler can be challenging. You and your baby were on a roll: he snuggled in your arms, nursed to sleep, and nursing was a special quiet time for the two of you. Then, your baby began to crawl and walk. He began to get coordinated, to talk, and to explore. The sweet little sack of potatoes in your arms became a circus tiger, a shark swimming frantic circles around its meal, an octopus with its tentacles everywhere. Your nipples turned into taffy. Or perhaps not, but your toddler certainly thought they did. Nursing to sleep became a thing of the past as your baby popped off every few moments to tell you something.

Nursing a toddler or an older child isn't the calming gratification that is nursing a newborn, but it has its own set of sweet benefits. If you expect it to be the same as it always was, you may get irritated or impatient. Instead--and this is usually my advice for every parenting obstacle, although I often need to be reminded of it myself--throw out all of your expectations and go with the flow.

Tips for Breastfeeding a Toddler or an Older Child:

1. Accept that things are changing - If you don't accept the new patterns or routines, you'll begin to feel like you're forcing your child to do something he or she doesn't want to do. This could make your breastfeeding relationship strained. It is hard to accept change, but doing so is your first step into throwing away your expectations.
2. Be willing to establish new routines - Let's say you could always count on your baby to nurse to sleep. All of a sudden, he nurses next to you in bed, then pops up and pokes your eyes, honks your nose, and tries to crawl off the bed. (Can you tell I've had some experience with this?) It may be time to change up the routine. Instead of nursing in bed, can you nurse in a rocker? What about nursing in a quiet room and then wearing your baby down in a baby carrier before bed? It may not be as easy as lying next to your baby and dozing off, but avoiding a struggle will make both of you happier in the end.
3. Think about your NIP (nursing in public) MO - I am not shy about nursing in public. I've shocked a few people by pulling out my huge nipples wherever and whenever and latching my baby on. Most recently, the nurse in the ER said, "Whoa!" when she walked into the room and saw me nursing Little M. It doesn't bother me. My kids were never able to nurse under a blanket or nursing cover, and they certainly aren't going to start now. I use my hand to cover myself up. When Little M gets distracted and pulls off over and over and over again, I just cover my boob with my hand. I think the trick to being discreet is to be nonchalant about it. Maybe you change positions: let your toddler nurse standing up while you sit on the floor instead of cradling him. That may be easier for him to come and go without it feeling like a struggle.
4. If all else fails and your child won't stop doing acrobatics while nursing, try a distraction - Baby T stretched out all of my camisoles when he was a nursing toddler. He would stick his foot in the strap. Even if I was wearing a shirt, he would stick his foot in the neck and push it out the sleeve. That's what breastfeeding toddlers do. They try to go about their daily life while continuing to nurse. If it's driving you crazy, gently remind them that you don't like it. Toddlers can understand "like" and "dislike" pretty early on. If they continue and you really can't stand it, try moving on to a different activity. Snuggle and read a book together, or have a snack. Sometimes there is nothing you can do...I resigned myself to letting Baby T stick his feet in my shirt, because I'm lazy and prefer to avoid tantrums, but that's just me.

Having said all that, I never found nursing a toddler particularly terrible. In fact, there were many more benefits to nursing a toddler than their were drawbacks.

Benefits to breastfeeding a toddler:

1. Breastfeeding is an instant tantrum tamer - Your toddler is writhing around on the floor, won't settle down, or is exceptionally needy? A good session of snuggly breastfeeding can stop this behavior in its track, comfort your child, and return him or her to his regular, sweet self.
2. Breastfeeding provides antibodies and nutrients - If you toddler is a picky eater or gets sick, breastfeeding can ease your worries. Even though Baby T would go without eating much of anything for a day or two, I always felt better knowing he was nursing. I knew he was getting a lot of the fat and nutrients he needed, not to mention live antibodies that could help him kick all the boogers he was getting at daycare.
3. Breastfeeding gives you a chance to relax - Even though breastfeeding a toddler isn't quite as relaxing as breastfeeding a baby, it still gives you a chance to sit back and relax. During the whirlwind day that is wrangling a toddler, this was often a welcome break.

I often heard that it was necessary to limit a toddler's nursing sessions. Even my La Leche League leaders talked about limiting sessions in duration, in number of sessions per day, or when nursing in public. What I found in my experience is that limiting a toddler's nursing sessions is only necessary if it's something you need. Nursing a toddler never really bothered me. (It was tandem nursing that got under my skin).It didn't feel right to limit Baby T, but I did because I thought I was supposed to. That ended up being detrimental to our nursing relationship (and to my sanity) in the end.

So I'll leave you with this: When it comes to nursing your toddler, just do what feels right. 

The Breast Resolution Ever

This post was written as part of the weekly Breastfeeding Blog Hop hosted by Slacker Mom and cohosted by The Gnome’s Mom and Happiness Redefined. Visit the links below and link up your own story or leave a comment!

I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry for using that pun. I'm bad at titles, and I just couldn't help myself. Now I'm stuck with it.

Anyway, last week's post for the breastfeeding blog hop was about how the past year of breastfeeding went down. This week's theme is Breastfeeding Goals for the New Year.

Breastfeeding has become such a part of my life that it's almost a non-issue. It's what I do. I couldn't picture my life without it. I've let go of expectations, stereotypes, and challenges. I take each day as it comes (can you believe I accidentally just typoed "as tit comes"? Seriously. What's with me and the puns tonight?).

So when I thought about writing down my breastfeeding goals, my first thought was, I don't have any. I expect that I'll probably nurse Little M throughout 2012. There's a slight chance he might wean because he's a feisty little devil and can be fiercely independent. But there's also a chance that he might nurse well past this year, because he is the snuggliest little mama-lover in the world.

And then I realized: weaning is my challenge. It was my insecurity with Baby T, and was my biggest challenge when it comes to breastfeeding and parenting in general. It is the one part of parenting that I will always wonder whether I did it right. I've posted before about how I lost confidence in my own decisions because I listened to everyone else.

My breastfeeding goal for 2012 is to listen to myself. I'm more confident this time around, but I also care a lot less about what others think. I'm ready to take this year on doing what's right for me. Granted, I can be wishy-washy, and I have had times when I've forgotten exactly what is right for me. But instead of looking for advice first, I'm going to look inside myself.

It's cliche, I know. But the answers are all there.



Be sure to check out the first year of The Breastfeeding Blog Hop archived at Life with Levi!

Out With the Old

I used to get seriously nostalgic at the change from the old year to the new. I was strangely superstitious; I thought whatever I was doing at the time the clock struck midnight would kind of forecast the next year. I was usually sleeping. I still am usually sleeping.

But the past few years, I've looked excitedly toward the future and put the past in a special little pocket in my heart. Although picturing my boys as 16-year-olds who are taller than me still brings me to hysterics, picturing the next year brings me giddy excitement.

But before I get to the exciting things awaiting Tmuffin in the next year, let's look back on the past year. I started the year working full time in an office, hugely pregnant and excited for my baby to be born while nervously and guiltily wondering what would become of my relationship with Baby T. After Little M was born in January, February and March were ridiculously hard. And then things slowly started getting better. I had a few low moments where I questioned everything about motherhood, but I'm ending the year feeling like I have learned a lot. I have learned to go with the flow a little better. I have learned how to manage my ever-changing time a little better. I have learned that I am completely self-motivated as long as I'm following my passions. And I have learned that this is truly the path on which I belong. This crazy, meandering, sometimes unpredictable path has led me to a really meaningful place in my life.

Looking back on this blog, which started out haphazardly in 2009 and has grown to be a place where I can consistently share how I have fallen into the all-encompassing title that is motherhood, it's interesting to see what posts attracted the most attention.


It seems like my readers are really looking for something to keep their kids occupied while they are dealing with nursing challenges and battling their sweet tooth, doesn't it?

1. WORDLESS WEDNESDAY: Quiet Book Ideas

2. The Pros and Cons of Weaning a Toddler

3. Preventing Tantrums Through Play

4. Oreo Bon Bon Halloween Eyeballs

5. The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

6. The Tandem Nursing Rollercoaster

7. Upcycled Contest- Cloth Quiet Books

8. A Breastfeeding Challenge: Excess Lipase in Breastmilk

9. Making a Quiet Book

10. Homemade Granola Recipe with Clusters

In this next year, I'm really going to be fine-tuning what Tmuffin is and connecting with the local community of parents as well as moms all over the internet. If you haven't already, sign up for my newsletter so you can stay abreast (had to use that word, seeing as how popular breasts are on my blog) of everything going on with Tmuffin!

Subscribe to Tidbits by Tmuffin below. We're going to get into a groove together in 2012!

A Breastfeeding Year in Review

This post is part of the Breastfeeding Blog Hop hosted by Life with Levi, and co-hosted by The Slacker Mom, and Diary of a Devil Dog Wife. Visit the links below and link up your own story or leave a comment!

Last week's theme was about passing the torch. I wrote about my wish that mothers really embrace motherhood and breastfeeding and realize that they can truly accomplish anything in life. This week's theme is about milestones.

So many moms set breastfeeding milestones: They will breastfeed for six months, one year, two years... Like most things in life, I didn't have any plans when it came to breastfeeding. I just knew I was going to do it. Because of that, I didn't really have any expectations, either. I guess I expected it to feel natural and be easy. I expected my kids to nurse for about two years. I didn't expect to ever nurse two kids at a time or for breastfeeding to be such an emotional experience.

Nursing and working full time with Baby T was challenging at times. I had an oversupply and a forceful letdown. Baby T had terrible gas. He woke up every 20 minutes to nurse sometimes, and he went through a few nursing strikes when he was sick and teething.I had excess lipase in my breastmilk, and I had to scald all of the milk I pumped before storing it.

But this post isn't about my first year breastfeeding; it's about this past year.

In 2011, I:

• Nursed a brand-new baby--Little M was born!
• Coslept comfortably while nursing, getting much more sleep than I had with Baby T. (Even in the hospital, not cosleeping was never an option. I was just too tired to consider anything else. The nurses kept asking to put him back into his bassinet. They never asked me not to cosleep, but they acted as though it was strange for me not to want him in his bassinet.)
• Tandem nursed a toddler and a newborn.
• Nursed a toddler as much as if he was a newborn.
• Went through weaning my toddler. It was a roller coaster. I often questioned the decision to wean. I never thought that I would want to initiate the weaning process, but nursing a toddler and a newborn was challenging. Not nursing a toddler and nursing a newborn was challenging too.
• Dealt with a forceful letdown but no oversupply issues.
• Worked on improving Little M's poor latch for the first three months of his life. His mouth was small and he had a severe overbite, so he often lost suction when nursing unless I was holding my breast with my hand and squeezing it into a flat shape so it would fit in his mouth better.
• Dealt with (and am still dealing with) a baby biting while nursing. Little M is a little more precocious than Baby T was in that area, and he often bites when he doesn't feel like nursing or when he just wants to be playful. He usually only does it once, because my surprised reaction tends to startle him into stopping.
• Had a few moments when I questioned my supply. I trust my body to make the right amount of milk, and I know it does, but compared with the oversupply I had with Baby T, sometimes I felt like I barely had any milk for Little M. And Little M is much smaller than Baby T was... it's hard not to compare. Whenever I questioned my supply, I would nurse Little M more often.
• Spent a lot of time nursing in a wrap or sling.
• Nursed at a breastfeeding cafe put on by the Port City Breastfeeding Project every month.
• Became a childbirth educator and guided moms through the process of breastfeeding.

Little M will turn one next month, and his nursing is still going strong. He nurses at least five times a day and at least twice during the night. Some nights he latches on for an hour while we both sleep. I don't expect him to stop nursing any time soon, but he is a much more distracted nurser than Baby T ever was, and he eats a lot of solid food, so I am afraid that he will stop nursing sometime during this next year. Maybe I'll be ready for him to stop. I don't think so, but I really don't know.

That's the beauty of breastfeeding--because I never had any expectations, it's the one time in parenting that I'm more or less comfortable going with the flow. If only the coming years of parenting could be so easy.

A Holiday Wish

This post is part of the Breastfeeding Blog Hop hosted by Life with Levi, and co-hosted by The Slacker Mom, and Diary of a Devil Dog Wife. Visit the links below and link up your own story or leave a comment!

Last week's topic was breaking the rules. This week's is about passing the torch. What does passing the torch mean to you when it comes to breastfeeding?

SUNDAY SURF: Some Crafts and Some Other Stuff

I'm going to take some time off of the drama that is my bedtime saga so you can do some surfing. At first, I thought, "I've been so busy with Christmas Crafts and everything that I haven't even had a second to read my regular blogs." And then I checked out the history on my computer, and it turns out, I have done a little surfing this week. (That's what a couple of homemade Irish creams on the rocks in the evenings will do to you).

This is what I checked out this week. Go ahead, check em out too!

And the Bedtime Saga Continues...

This is us. We're tired.

Last week, we were dealing with Baby T's transition out of the crib. It turns out it was no big deal. He is now sleeping happily in his mattress on the floor. There's just one problem. My toddler now has free will, and he knows it.

Maybe this is more of my problem than his. Maybe I liked the fact that I could keep him contained before. Maybe I liked being able to stay in bed until 6 A.M. without being woken up by a pitter-patter of feet and tiny little hands.

When I Say "Feed Your Baby," Do You See a Bottle?

This post is part of the Breastfeeding Blog Hop hosted by Life with Levi, and co-hosted by The Slacker Mom, and Diary of a Devil Dog Wife. Visit the links below and link up your own story or leave a comment!

This week’s theme is unkind words or hurtful comments about breastfeeding. In Marah’s post at Diary of a Devil Dog Wife, she asks why can’t breastfeeding just be normal? That’s my gripe with the whole feeding-your-baby thing too. I’ve never really had any hurtful comments, but when I say “feed your baby,” do you picture bottles or do you picture a woman nursing? Honestly, even for me it’s 50/50. I would love to say that as a self-proclaimed lactivist who has breastfed two children, I don’t picture a bottle when someone mentions feeding a baby. But that’s not always the case. Bottles have become a symbol that represents everything baby. How many logos, signs, and ads have you seen for baby products or services that use a bottle?

Tandem Nursing: What Got Me Through the Early Days

This post is part of the Breastfeeding Blog Hop. Visit the links below and link up your own story to tell us about breastfeeding with an older child or leave a comment!

When I had Little M last January, Baby T was still nursing. I knew I wasn't going to wean him right away--it seemed cruel to do that right after shaking up his life by bringing home a newborn. But deciding whether to actually nurse them at the same time and scheduling the nursings was a roller coaster. There were pros and cons to tandem nursing, but the pros definitely outweighed the cons.

This is how I made it through the early days of tandem nursing a toddler and newborn.

Weaning a Toddler: It's not Black and White

This post is part of the Breastfeeding Blog Hop. Visit the links below and link up your own story to tell us where you are with breastfeeding or leave a comment!

I've talked about the weaning roller coaster on my blog in the past. And Baby T is still weaned.

But he still asks to nurse. Almost every day.

Breastfeeding: Relaxing or Multitasking?

The reality of a nursing corner: More work, less play

When I had Baby T, I had this vision of breastfeeding that entailed a breastfeeding “corner,” complete with a pitcher of water, books, comfy pillows, and someone feeding me grapes. And then I brought Baby T home and reality hit. Baby T was a puker. When I sat down to nurse him, I inevitably ended up covered in vomit. And I had to get up at least three times to get burp cloths, towels, and other equally absorbent items.

I vascillated between trying to get things done and wanting to be on a babymoon. I felt guilty turning on the TV and accosting Baby T’s innocent ears with inane babble. But I wanted to keep in touch with friends and work, so I would post on facebook one-handed at 3 A.M. I wanted to prove I could do it all, and I didn’t ask for help very often.

THE PROS AND CONS OF WEANING A TODDLER

This is my story, and I'm sticking to it. I guess.

Weaning my 2-year-old has been a roller coaster. When I thought he had weaned while I was pregnant, I was an emotional wreck. Then I had Little M and decided I wasn’t sure if I wanted to tandem nurse. I did tandem nurse for a while, but then I started to become irritable every time I nursed him. And he seemed to be asking out of half-hearted habit, not out of true desire. So I distracted him when he asked. And he was easily distracted. So he stopped nursing.

And then he started again, and then I decided to wean him for good.

Here’s why:

My First Mistake: Losing Confidence in Myself as a Parent