From the category archives:

Inducing lactation

The first drops of milk and a brief update

by Gail May 1, 2009

In anticipation of our earlier-than-expected arrival, I decided to accelerate my schedule for inducing lactation. Tuesday night I took my last birth control pill and last night, for the first time in almost two years, I used my old friend the breast pump. After pumping for 5-10 minutes I was able to produce a couple [...]

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Facing the Costs of Nursing

by Gail March 25, 2009

Many other folks have weighed in on Hanna Rosin’s article The Case Against Breastfeeding, including both Amy and Marc at Equally Shared Parenting and Lisa Belkin at Motherlode, so I’m a little late to the party. But I can’t let the article go by without making some comment, because it is an important issue that [...]

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Couvade: My Pregnancy Symptoms

by Gail February 16, 2009

Here’s your new word of the day: Couvade, otherwise known as sympathetic pregnancy. All of the material around it calls it a condition of expectant fathers, ignoring those of us non-gestational parents who happen to be women. But whatever — I think I may have it. Of course, in my case it’s complicated by the [...]

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In which we answer all your questions

by Gail January 18, 2009

As I surfed through our stats earlier today, I became worried that we here at FTST aren’t giving people what they really want. Many of you get here via google searches, and I don’t want you to leave empty-handed, without your questions answered. So I’m going to try to address some of the searches I’ve [...]

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Decisions around nursing the first time

by Lyn January 5, 2009

Giggleblue left the following question about our decisions to try to both lactate with this pregnancy vs. with the first pregnancy (when I would have been doing the pill-popping). “It’s interesting to hear how this situation plays out in both the first pregnancy as compared to the second. so i have a question. was co-nursing [...]

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2 moms, 4 breasts, 1 baby

by Lyn December 31, 2008

On Gail’s post about gearing up to lactate again, Lex made a really interesting comment (and thanks to Lex for the clever post title). A somewhat condensed version of her comment: “I’m quite curious as to what your plan is…for how to balance who nurses the baby when. Being able to nurse our baby is [...]

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Start your Engines

by Gail December 24, 2008

Today I start taking the pill. I haven’t taken the pill since I was 17 and still having sex with boys. It makes be nervous for a few reasons. First, I stay away from medications like the plague. I don’t even really like to take Advil. Yet I’m about to take some powerful hormones, and [...]

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