Baby Talk: Breast Feeding

Excuse my rant:

It's annoying. The amount of people that want to know whether or not I will breast feed my baby. While my main concern is whether or not it will be painful, I really don't think you should be giving me advice that you received from your grandmother, especially if I just met you in the waiting room.

This doesn't mean I haven't weighed the pros and cons.

In the article,"Ten Reasons Why Breastfeeding Rocks for Mamas" they justify breast feeding by saying that it's cheaper, releases feel good hormones, and reduces risk of breast cancer. All helpful. But I won't be breast feeding for long.

Being a poor college graduate, I need money and that means I need to work. Sure, I'll breast feed for the first four weeks. I'll even try pumping for a while, but truth be told, I'm likely to switch to formula. Bonding time with a baby doesn't have to involve breast feeding. If it did, my boyfriend would be out of luck since I'm sure he can't lactate.

Bonding can happen during play, by talking to the baby while working at home, and even during baths.

Now, about money. Many people might dislike this, but I'm planning on being a working mom. Not only that, but I plan on getting back as soon as I can, be that two weeks or six weeks. I plan on exercise and dieting. I plan on furthering my career.

This all depends on how I feel physically, of course, and I've heard that leaving your brand new baby can be hard but I've got to overcome those hormones so my baby can have diapers. Besides, people who know me, also know how much I hate staying home. I like getting out of the house and seeing people. This means work is perfect. I get out of the house (away from a screaming poopy baby) and still make money.

My mom knows I'm not a home-maker/family-time/bake a dozen cookies type of girl. And I just hope that when I explain this to people next time in the waiting room, they won't make faces at me and tell me, "Well, my mom didn't work..."