As we went through the parks, I was amazed to see so many toddlers and babies.  When our kids were that age I think I was too tired to have enjoyed the trip.  But maybe I should just embraced the exhaustion.  In fact, the Disney parks seem designed with new parents in mind.  Well located bathrooms, plenty of benches and food at every turn.  But it’s not just that.  The parks also have designated Baby Care Centers.  I have a Flickr album with photos from each of the parks that you might want to look at.

You can of course breastfeed anywhere you’d like in the parks. But if you’re looking for a quiet, designated space, with soft lighting, the Baby Care Centers are a good choice. Some of the rooms even have signs welcoming breastfeeding moms.  The only thing I didn’t entirely like, was that the Disney website indicates that the Baby Care Centers are sponsored by Carnation formula.  This information isn’t anywhere in the parks.  Nevertheless, as with just about everything Disney, you’ll find what you need at the Baby Care Centers, and move on to the next adventure.

As for the kids, they only have one question of course… when can we go back?!

Disclosure:  Disney gave me some tickets for park entrance.

“People do think if a doctor gives something it must be good for you,” Merewood said.

Written by: AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

Welcome to newborn land. Your days and nights blend together. You can’t remember the last time you washed your hair. And you’re going a little stir crazy. We know. We’ve been there.

So, guess what. It’s time to put on some clean sweatpants and go for a walk.  Take that baby and get out of the house.  Sure, you may have to feed her while you’re out and about.  But breastfeeding in public… in other words, anywhere other than your own sofa… isn’t as hard as you may think.  Here are some tips for taking the show on the road.

Click here to keep reading.

Everyone tells you that having a baby can change the dynamic in your relationship. How can it not? You have a mess, noisy and demanding new roommate. She’ll start to cry just as you’re about to get intimate for the first time in months. She’ll need to eat at 6 am, dashing your visions of a Sunday morning snuggled in bed.

So here’s the deal– you have to adapt.  And if you’re breastfeeding, there are ways, believe it or not, your partner can get in on the act.  You may be the one with the equipment, but you don’t have to go it alone. So here are some tips for spouses.  They apply whether you’re married or in a committed relationship, and whether your partner is a man or woman.

To read the rest click here.

Just past dawn she woke up moaning, lower back on fire and iron bands clenching and releasing in her core. Like an action-adventure movie, the telephone lit up and a control center was established: husband would take both oldest and youngest daughter on the much-anticipated, end-of-the-year field trip where his mother would meet them, freeing up husband to return to his wife. In the meanwhile, supermodel-friend and her nursing toddler would come stay with the laboring woman until the midwife came. The children came to kiss her goodbye. The three-year-old threw herself on her mother and clenched her fiercely, burying her sweet round face in the woman’s aching breasts as if laying claim to them for the last time. The five-year-old hung back shyly, feeling her mother’s discomfort but not understanding her place in it. When she kissed her, the woman saw the worry in the child’s almond eyes and cried for the first time since the pain began. Then they were gone, husband promising a swift return, and the woman was alone with the dog in the bright, hot, morning light. The sunlight was the type that burns into your memory, clear and bright and perfect like truth. The woman lay on the sun-drenched bed and gave in to the pain, feeling sorry for herself on this path she had chosen. Lying across her feet, the dog held her and reproached her with silent eyes.

I’ve often heard people claim that breastfeeding moms get the least amount of sleep because they have to wake up to breastfeed.  But that just didn’t ring true with my experience.  If I had been bottle feeding, I would have had to get up anyway.  I would have had to get out of bed, make the formula, stumble back to the bedroom… all with a screaming child.  Yes, my husband could have done some feedings, but there was little chance I was going to sleep through that.

So I wasn’t surprised to see the results of a new study which found that moms who breastfeed are not losing any more sleep than moms who formula feed.  Here’s a link to the study in the journal Pediatrics. And from Reuters:

Contradicting the suspicion that breastfeeding moms get less sleep, the results represent “good information to be able to tell women, (that) ‘not breastfeeding is not going to help you get better sleep,’” study author Dr. Hawley Montgomery-Downs of West Virginia University told Reuters Health. “And the benefits (of breastfeeding) for both mom and baby are tremendous.”…

There has been an “urban myth” that women who breastfeed get less sleep, Montgomery-Downs noted, which may cause some to hesitate to do so. Caring for a newborn is challenging enough, without being sleep-deprived, and some research has even suggested poor sleep after childbirth may increase the risk of postpartum depression…

When Montgomery-Downs and her colleagues asked 80 new mothers to report how often they woke up and how rested they felt, and to wear sensors that measured how long and efficiently they slept, they found no significant differences between those who relied on breastfeeding, formula, or both. They report their findings in the journal Pediatrics…This suggests that “there may be some kind of compensation” for breastfeeding mothers, Montgomery-Downs said in an interview.

For instance, babies who breastfeed may wake up more (and wake up their parents more), but those nighttime feedings may have less of an impact than if they were drinking formula, she suggested. In order to prepare a bottle, women often have to get up, turn on the lights, and move around quite a bit, all of which may make it harder for them to go back to sleep.

Alternatively, when breastfeeding, women may be awake for shorter intervals, and be less active, which makes it easier for them to go back to sleep. Women who breastfeed also have higher levels of the hormone prolactin, which facilitates sleep, Montgomery-Downs noted. And if the babies are sleeping next to the mothers, they may feed while the mother is sleeping, she added.

The designer Sara says:

This is a completely hand-made by me, crocheted infant hat made to look like a breast when worn by a baby/toddler/child, while nursing! It’s made of 100% organic cotton, and is very soft and warm. You have the option of a pink nipple or a brown one and I can also make it in a different skin tone, or size, if you’d like.