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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

I'm Famous!

Last week I received a phone call from Suzanne. I swear it sounded like she was calling me from a toilet stall in a public bathroom. After asking her to repeat what she had just said, I realized that she was in fact calling me from Barnes and Nobles. She had picked up a copy of Does This Pregnancy Make Me Look Fat? The Essential Guide to Loving Your Body Before and After Baby by Claire Mysko and Magali Amadei. Yours truly is in it as is my blog!

I have to say that the timing was ironic. It's rare at this point in my life that I think back to what it was like to not be able to breastfeed. It used to be that anytime the word breast was mentioned, immediately I would start thinking about breastfeeding and the fact that I wasn't doing it. There was no separation in my mind between breasts and babies.

The past couple months have brought a couple doctor's appointments where breast cancer prevention has been discussed. I also have lost more weight in the past couple months and now am in need of new bras. However, breastfeeding again did not come into my mind.

Yet I was at a child's birthday hanging out with my younger son (YS) when I had a brief but deep glimpse into that period of my life. YS and I were sitting in a chair on the deck while the other kids were participating in the birthday party activity. We were the only ones and there were plenty of chairs on the deck. Two lactation consultants were talking about breastfeeding. Fine. Then they came and sat next to me and continued their conversation. I'm not sure why out of all the available chairs there that they chose those ones, but they did.

Have you ever had one of those moments were time rewinds itself in a blink of an eye? That's how I felt. For the briefest moment I was 27 again and a first time mom with a newborn in my lap. But yet, 6 years have passed and as much as I may have felt like that mom for that moment, reality kicked in. YS and I moved somewhere else. It was the next day that I got Suzanne's call.

I have to say that I really enjoyed reading this book and as mentioned above my kids are a little bit older now. Last year Claire interviewed me for this book. She emailed me what she was going to write and then I didn't hear about it so it slipped to the back burner of my mind where many things are filed these days!
I'm in there several times. My story is on page 173.

These days my mind is occupied with wonderment over when my oldest became a little boy instead of a toddler boy and why my youngest turned down a friend's graham crackers to eat hay on a hayride followed later by goat food. I was recently telling my husband that just like how having a newborn was a big change and required an adjustment, so does having a child in school full time. We have our first parent teacher conferences with the boys' teachers in two weeks. It's funny how something like formula feeding was such a big part of my life but then just as quickly was gone. I'm not sure what the boys' teachers will have to say about them, but I think it's safe to say that formula won't come up in the conversation!

Labels: Formula

posted by Alex Elliot @ 10:41 AM 3 comments

3 Comments:

At 10/15/2009 9:44 AM, Heather said…

Congrats on your fame!
At 10/21/2009 2:52 PM, The Fearless Formula Feeder said…

Alex, you are such an inspiration to me... I love reading your blog and wish I had found it 10 months ago when I felt so alone and afraid about my inability to breastfeed... it is nice to know that someday (soon, I hope) I will be able to look at this issue with a bit less emotional involvement!

I would be so honored if you would check out my blog sometime... I had no idea yours existed when I started it, but now that I do, I feel like you're an unknowing "big sister" to us formula feeders...

http://www.fearlessformulafeeder.blogspot.com
At 10/25/2009 11:12 PM, Suzanne said…

Actually, the teachers will probably ask you if you formula fed since your kids are so clearly behind.

Ha.

And I swear I am not making this up, but my word verification is "sperms." Seriously.

My Profile

Name:	Alex Elliot
Home:	MA, United States
About Me:	Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 5 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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