Momzelle Breastfeeding Apparel {$25 Giveaway}

Momzelle Features Gorgeous Nursing wear for all seasons that is elegant, yet Simple and functional.
They have styles to suit any Style and Occasion. From the elegant (yet comfy) Flamenco Syled Dresses to the simple Witty T-shirt ("Milk Bar", "I make Milk, whats your superpower?" & "Milk Shake") your sure to find something to suite your nursing needs!

Momzelle also offers free shipping on orders over $79!

Momzelle Supports Breastfeeding moms!
"... We are proud to be encouraging and helping breastfeeding moms as much as we can. We have sponsored breastfeeding events accross North America: the yearly breastfeeding challenge, breastfeeding coalitions' activities, La Leche League events, etc. We have also donated nursing tops to women centres like the June Calwood Centre for women and families that help teenage mothers bring out the best in them and discover their great mothering potential..."








Winner of the...
" best nursing wear of 2008 by Mama Speaks."
" Desjardins Best Young Entrepreneurs"
"Best Socially-Minded Business - CYBF Chairman's Award"

Momzelle was ALSO ....
~Featured on CBC's Dragon's Den
~ Named one of the 100 most powerful women in Canada and featured in the Financial Post magazine in December 2010 (Vivian Prokov)
~ Official Canadian delegates at the G-20 Summit in Toronto in 2010 Were they represented young French-Canadian Entrepreneurs (Co-Founders Chistine and Vincent)






Connect With Momzelle

Website; Momzelle.com
Shopping from the US? momzelle.com (US edition)
Facebook; Momzelle Breastfeeding apparel
Twitter; @momzelle
Blog; Mblog

Milkbank Callback!

Back in November, My Mother mentioned a milk bank commercial she had seen during the news, saying they were in desperate need.  I called around to get more info on donating, and  found out that My Town has a Milk Bank Drop-off location 

I called the office and left  message and a brief message about myself. I was very nervous about my eligibility, because Diabetics aren't able to donate blood or organs (two things I really was hoping to do in life and, subsequently, death ) Come December, I called again, and, again, left a message. I had all but given up, Discouraged and assuming they simply hadn't bothered calling back an ineligible Diabetic. A few days ago, I got a CALLBACK! How exciting. They asked me a few questions; 

• Do you Drink?
• Smoke?
• Use street drugs?
• How old is your baby?
• Are you on any medications? (Apparently Synthetic Insulin is on the safe list!)

After answering the questions, the lady on the phone informed me that I was 'Their kind of Mama' ...Great to hear after convincing myself I wouldn't be able to.It won't be easy At the moment, Baby K drinks between 6-8 oz of milk while I am at school, After every feeding I pump (I usually end up pumping 3x / day to a total of 6-8 oz ...which is JUST covering what Baby K is taking from our stash... Meaning I'm going to need to pump twice as long to Cover What Baby K is eating plus Donation Milk. ((We can do This!!))

How the Milk banking process works is ;
Donors 'save up' 100oz of milk prior to the screening process (because of the high cost of the screening process - I'm guessing to ensure that interested parties are able to produce enough to make it worthwhile)
The potential Donor undergoes some blood-tests including but not limited to; HIV-1, HIV-2, HTLV-1, HTVV-2, Syphilis, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C.
The milk is pasteurized
then distributed to carefully selected and prioritized mothers and babies.

 So far, Kairi and I have Approximately 40oz in the freezer.

"Got milk? The BC Women's Milk Bank is accepting deposits.
Canada's only breast milk bank collects, pasteurizes, stores and dispenses milk to mothers who are ill, on medication or who have undergone surgery and are unable to breastfeed.
And for the tiny recipients the difference human milk makes is one of life and death. "They've tried formula and just don't tolerate it," due to allergies, gut surgery, cardiac surgery or kidney problems, said Frances Jones, coordinator of the B.C. Women's Milk Bank."

If you want to learn how to Donate, Either milk or Funds, to the BC milk bank, Alberta Milk Bank or Other Canadian Milk banks, or to become a recipient Go HERE 

Photo From HMBANA.org

If you are Located in the USA, you can contact the BC Woman's milk bank, to be put on their list of recipients, however, Americans are not able to donate (Milk) to Canadian Milk Banks, as it is not possible to verify the Blood Test Reults

If you are in the USA Visit the HMBANA (Human Milk Bank Association of North America) HERE to See if there is a Location near you !

Photo From HMBANA.org

 
If you would like to make a small monetary contribution to our baby-saving efforts, please Don't hesitate to donate --- The Milk Storage bags are not paid for, and, unlike the USA, Canadians aren't compensated for Breast Milk (Please make sure to put into the notes section what the donation is for - Thank you!!) Any funds donated will go directly to Milk Storage bags.

Normalizing Breastfeeding.

You have probably seen (Or heard) of the Sesame street & Breastfeeding clips that have recently been going viral on Facebook & the Blogspere.((If you haven't ...or even if you have; Read on!))
I first saw it on a FB Breastfeeding support group I'm a fan of (I believe it was The Leaky B@@b)
Had posted a video of a 70s episode of Sesame Street Featuring The Character Buffy Sainte Marie, a Popular Singer/Songwriter  who was featured on the Show for many years, Breastfeeding her son Cody. 
NOW, if you had told me two years ago ... that someone was BREASTFEEDING ON SESAME STREET!?! I honestly DON'T know what I would have thought (The Image that  probably would  have come to mind is somewhat similar to 'GirlsGoneWild' featuring the residents of Sesame Street staring and panting)

 *pantpantpant*

I believe that to be a very Typical reaction of North American Culture, considering almost EVERYONE with the exception of Direct relatives of Breast-fed babies sees breasts as sexual objects as opposed to the best  source of nutrition available to babies, as nature intended. 
 I am a much more mature person that I was 2 years ago ... (Obviously)
and, being a breastfeeding mother, I Believe naturalizing our culture to Breastfeeding and the god-given intention of Breasts is VITAL. I FELL IN LOVE with this video, It is SOOO tasteful and was very Reminiscent of when Big T first saw me breast feeding. Big bird's reaction and questions seem a very Typical reaction of a child ...and is almost a mirror image of our Dialouge.

 Here it is; 1977 - Buffy Nurses Cody (Thanks for Sharing  NantoVision1 )






Then, sometime in the 80's (Judging by her hair) we have Maria Nursing Gabriella
(VERY similar to the Big Bird / Cody / Buffy Clip) 






For Whatever reason, there was never one filmed in the 90's or since.
The clips were never pulled from TV and there were no complaints.
I would LOVE to see a breastfeeding clip on modern Children's shows... such as sesame street. It could not possiby do any harm, as Children don't understand sex... They Don't need to. I think if Nursing / Breastfeeding was portrayed in the Media (Sesame Street even ;) ) if Children were to be exposed to breastfeeding, it  would be a step in the right direction for naturalizing our culture to breastfeeding. I think it's pretty much too late for our generation, but we can consider ourselves pioneers,  Nursing Mothers should not be confined to Dirty washrooms (or clean ones for that matter) and Lonely bedrooms to keep our children happy or healthy.

I am very passionate about this subject (If you couldn't tell from the wall-of-text above) and am trying to take action (Despite my own personal phobia of public 'exposure' ) as much as possible so that in the future, Breastfeeding mothers need not feel the terror I currently experience when I feed my Child.

There is a petition on Bringing breastfeeding back to Sesame Street,
HERE in which (SO FAR) 80% of people have voted 'YES' ...
Please go and Place your vote ... I'm certain that though this petitaion has no legal standing,
it will give sesame street producers an idea ... an Idea that I would LOVE to see come to fruition.

 

Peace, Love and Happy Nursing,

Traveling with the babes {Christmas Edition}

Travelling With Kids... Breastfeeding & Cloth Diapers.
NOT  a pretty combination of words...

Over the holidays, My family and I (Accompanied by my lovely In-Laws)
Embarked on a 8 hour+ Road Trip, From our home in the Fraser valley, to theirs in the Kootenays, for a real Small-town Country Christmas. The days Leading up to the trip it's self were completely
full of anxiety. I had never been there before so I really didn't know what to expect.. I could NOT seem to prepare enough and the morning of the trip I felt nauseous. (Though maybe it was the 4am Wakeup time?) 
would Big T be bored on the trip? How would the kids ears be through the mountains? How and when would I feed the baby?

Honestly. the trip wasn't bad at all... as many times as 'Dad' has made the trip he is only human and knows his passengers to be as such too, meaning Pitstops!  Though she was (Surprisingly) awake for most of the trip, Baby K made due with only being fed during our Scheduled pit stops ( The first one was about 3 hours after we hit the road ... )
Since I fed her right as we left, this was feeding time for her anyways, I changed K and used the restroom while daddy stood in line and got our lunch...I ate most of my lunch,  went back out to the car (being sure to give myself enough time to feed her without holding up the show ) and gave baby K her lunch... I can eat the rest of my lunch on the road... She can't.

During the trip we went through Manning Park ...which is known for it's wildlife... squirrels, chipmunks, marmots, pika, coyotes, beaver, muskrat, deer, bear, moose and most members of the cat family reside in this protected provincial park as well as more than 200 bird species that  have been spotted there. Through the entire expanse of Manning park (58km) Big T watched Vigilantly for any Sign of wildlife... and though we didn't see any (I was on the lookout as well) he was elated to see the 'Manning Park' Signs ... one with a huge carving of a marmot and one of a bear.

I am happy to say that Big T was not bored at all during the trip ... his Grandma & Papa on his Mommy's side got him a V-tech Tablet which was AWESOME, it has an Alphabet App as well as a drawing one (Similar to a high-tech Etch-a-sketch) My favorite feature though ... the VOLUME setting :)
it kept him very entertained and independent. Other helpful sources of entertainment we packed were;

• I-spy book - he needed help as he can't *quite* read yet, so Nanny Read him the pages, but he was able to find *most* of the items
• Math flash cards... again he needed help, ...and some extra fingers to count on, but he was doing pretty well. 
• His gameboy - This, surprisingly was left untouched, Big T voted for the more educational options.

 We stopped again for a potty-break and some Drinks at a 7-11 in Osoyoos... in retrospect, I probably should have Changed K... But Didn't ... though she didn't fuss I still felt it to be a 'MomfailMoment'
this was about an hour and 45 mins later, So she didn't need to eat.

Our next pit stop was another 3 hours after our first (again, lining up PERFECTLY with K's feeding Schedule...) We stopped at Extra Foods in Grand forks to get gas, some groceries, and of course EXTRA BATTERIES! for my camera...it IS baby's first Christmas afterall! ... 


We got in about 7 pm, I set up our room, fed baby, and we all had some dinner.
All-in-all we arrived. we survived. we thrived (Ok, that doesn't really makes sense, but it rhymes... just gimme this one 'kay?  We got here in one piece, and I.LOVE.IT.HERE. Love the snow, love the beautiful home, love the dogs and LOVE the small-town feel.

*** I should also note, I have a 'stash' of frozen breast milk, and brought a 4oz bottle (Since I usually feed on-demand and knew that WOULD NOT be the case, ... I just fed it to her in little increments when she started getting fussy ***
... I wonder how the return trip will be?


Peace, Love & Happy and safe Travels