I quit Facebook.

And apparently I'm not quite as important as I think I am, because I did it over a week ago and people are just now noticing. :)

I've been decluttering my life, physically and mentally.  I realized that my perception of life was totally skewed because of Facebook.  When you have 400 friends and 15 of them are pregnant, suddently everyone is pregnant.  But if I stepped back and looked at it, I would only know that three of those people were pregnant if I was forced to get the news by interacting with them in person.  Suddently everyone is taking great vacations, or buying new cars, or whatever.  Not normal, and not healthy.

I read this post today, and it hit home.  I especially love the "best life snapshot" comment.  Totally true.

Just something to think about.

(Dragging out Soapbox)

I have two things I want to vent on today- and it's my blog, so I can do that.

1. This story about Michelle Obama's cheeseburger/fry/milk shake/diet coke lunch.

I have two issues with this. First, it's not news.  Facebook, the reigning king of "Things People Broadcast that Isn't Really News" doesn't even have this type of nitpicky detail about people.  There are lots of people in the world who don't have clean water.  Or places to sleep.  Write about that.  I know the idea is Michelle Obama has this "healthy living" campaign, and that is why this lunch is newsworthy.  Which brings me to my second point.  Perhaps she has one cheat day a week/month/year.  Perhaps she just ran a marathon on the White House treadmill.  Perhaps the First Family was planning a 7 mile walk that evening to catch up.  I don't know.  Let the lady eat her lunch.

That bugs me almost as much as this story, where Mrs. Obama was criticized for wearing modest shorts.  On family vacation. To the Grand Canyon.  Because one should wear what to the Grand Canyon?

2. This story about a restaurant who no longer allows children under 6 in the dining room.

This comes after kids are kicked out of first class on certain airlines.  I can't say I blame the restaurateur- I know I've seen unruly kids in restaurants.  A few lacks parents can ruin it for all of us, and I suppose it's easier to spot the six and under crowd than the "I don't care to discipline my kids" crowd.

I'll put my soapbox up now.

Breastfeeding, a PSA

Normally I wouldn't post about such topics, but I know I have several friends who are currently pregnant who read this blog.  Plus, after you give birth and spend 3 days in the hospital, your body is no longer your own, so why not post about it on the internet?

I have seen a ton of baby items that use this statement:

(Experts Agree) Breastfeeding is Best.

I have to respectfully disagree with the experts.  FEEDING YOUR BABY is best.  Breastfeeding may be ideal, but you have to feed the baby.

I take the "Breastfeeding is Best" slogan really hard because breastfeeding (at least in it's natural form) didn't work for me.  I have tried- I really did.  I went to a breastfeeding class before he was born.  I read up on issues.  But when we went to the doctor 5 days after he was born, he had lost 14% of his body weight.  That is too much, and they told me I needed to start supplementing with formula.

Supplementing was a pretty easy adjustment to make on the fly, because I wanted my child to be happy and healthy and well fed.  But when I sat back and thought about it, I was frustrated.  I wanted to do what the experts said was "the best."  I wanted to be able to say "yes" to the doctors and nurses when they asked if we were breastfeeding.  But both Drew and I have some small problems that would make breastfeeding hard, and I'm only producing about 1/2 the milk he needs at each feeding.  My child literally couldn't survive with just breastmilk.

So now I pump and give him what I can, and supplement in formula.  And I'm trying not to beat myself up over the breastfeeding not working.  I was a formula-fed baby, and I turned out ok.  I'm doing every possible thing that I can to produce more milk and give him as much breastmilk as I can.

I still think breastfeeding is worth it and I hope that every mother would give it a try.  But each mom can only do what is best for her child, even if the experts don't agree.