Homegrown Texan

Yesterday I received a box of formula samples in the mail. Yes, baby formula. Yes, my *youngest* son is 6. I guess they aren't exactly doing focus marketing.

Not because my son is way too old. That didn't piss me off, that just made me laugh at their stupidity. It just make me angry that there is very little support for moms who want to breastfeed, or to encourage moms to breastfeed. I was recently at a party that happened to have a lot of members from La Leche League present.  One of the ladies just lost her job as a lactation consultant at the local hospital (where I delivered Michael) because her entire department got cut.  This made me sad, but it also made me mad as I thought about it more, because I remembered back to when I had Michael, and not once did anyone mention that there was any kind of help at all with breastfeeding.  I had all sorts of formula cans dumped on me, unsolicited mind you, but even though I made it very clear that I very much wanted to breastfeed, not once did anyone say "if you run into any problems there is a lactation team you can talk to".  I *do*  remember being told that if I chose not to breastfeed, there was a little class I could go to where I could learn how to dry myself up with minimal pain and discomfort.  Gee, thanks.

Anyway, receiving these samples just brought it all back to me.  I understand that there is no money to be made in promoting breastfeeding, and all sorts of money to be made in promoting formula feeding.  And as a big fan of the free market, I get that.  And I'm not debating the formula companies' rights to market the way they do. I just think it's unethical, and I hate that.  It's not like they wouldn't have a market if they didn't.  I mean, WTF, how much money do they need to make?

So, I wrote "return to Sender" on the box.  And in big black magic marker I wrote things like "Breastfeeding promotes growth and minimizes illness", "Human milk for human babies", "Support breastfeeding moms".  I also responded to comments on the box: "Motherhood rocks, and so do you" (response: "I sure do, I make my own milk!").  "A free gift of nutrition for you baby...inside" (response: "Yep, unlimited supply free, right inside my body!")

I don't feel like there are many people I can tell about it, because most people I know formula fed.  And you know, I don't judge them for it.  For some people it probably really was the best decision, and for many of them, they just don't have the support and encouragement that they need.  I was pretty much a lone island, following the example of my mom who breastfed both my brother and I (something I consider just short of miraculous, especially in my case considering with me she was a 17 year old mom in 1972...the times were certainly not on her side).  For whatever reason it's something I've felt very strongly about since I was a child, and it's something that just makes sense to me.  I don't believe everyone has that same sense of "what the hell else would you do?" as I do.  And that's cool.  It just seems that every effort is made as soon as possible to undermine the chance that moms will make that choice.  And I hate that.

I know what I did won't do a damn bit of good, but it made me feel better.  Rather than send it back, I may even decide to take the formula out of the box and donate it to a local shelter, since that would probably do more good.  I did tell my mom about it.  She laughed when I told her what I wrote, and then when I started ranting about it she said (sarcastically) "wow, I guess you feel kind of strongly about that".  Haha...yeah, I guess I do.

So many moons ago, in the hills near Loch Modan, my husband and I met a lady (who looked like a man-elf, but a very handsome man-elf).  After a little talking we decided to join forces and slay the evil beasts that roamed the country there.  As time went on, we went on many quests together, combating the forces of evil together as our alliance grew into a friendship.

I am, of course, talking about a game.  An online game.  World of Warcraft, to be exact.  The lady's name is Dawn, but she played a male elf character.  We met in-game and enjoyed playing together, so added each other to one another's "friends" list.  And as we played we chatted (online) and learned that we have a lot of common interests.  We're near the same age.  We have similar senses of humor.  Sometimes we would log onto the game and just chat without really playing at all.  Eventually we exchanged phone numbers and addresses, and from that texts and Christmas gifts.  A friendship born out of a silly online game.

And next month, Dawn and her family (husband and son) are coming all the way from Canada to visit us for a week.  It started out in a chat conversation between her and I, where we referred vaguely to "if we get to meet each other some day".  Next thing we know, she's checking out airline ticket prices and hoping her husband is game.  Turned out he was, she found some deals, and we're set to have visitors!

Now we just have to get the house ready.  I'm excited because our add-on family room has been unusable for a while (read: full of junk).  The A/C ventilation in there doesn't work very well, so we stopped using the room.  But since we don't have a guest room, we want Dawn & Henry to at least be able to have a little privacy; if this room is ready they will be at the back of the house and we can hang up a curtain to give them some privacy.  And we'll have more room to hang out, too, since the living room in the front we've been using gets crowded pretty quickly.  So Jim is working on getting it ready.  Which means, not only do we get to have a really fun visit, but when it's over we'll have more house.  How cool is that?

I'm totally stoked about this visit.  I seriously cannot wait.  I little bitty tiny part of me is worried that things will be weird.  What if we don't click?  What if it's awkward?  But you know, I really, really don't think it's going to be that way.  I mean, I'd be absolutely amazed if it did.  I think we're going to get to the end of the week and wonder how the time went by so quickly.  So I guess we'll just have to plan our own trip.