Today I took the kids to a place called Mockingbird Hill Farm. Its a great place to go with young children. There are goats, pigs, horses, cows, a friendly dog and it’s small enough to not be overwhelming to the kids. It was a short visit, but both my kids enjoyed it and were quite tired out afterwards. Also it was great practice walking for my 18 month old. I forget he’s not still a baby sometimes, and that he can and should be walking, especially to learn how to walk on different terrains. It is also budget friendly, which makes for a good morning or afternoon outing (whenever your nap time schedule allows for an outing).
As we were leaving the petting barn, I noticed an adorable brown calf laying down, and very easy to miss entirely. As I do with all things baby, I was almost instantly in love and reached down to touch the sweet calf. As I pet the soft head, the calf began to licking my fingers and then sucking on them. I could feel teeth, but the calf was so gentle and it made me start thinking about my own nursing journey, as well as some of the things I have been learning during my Breastfeeding Educator Course.
One of the things we had just been talking about was positioning of the newborn, and how you want the baby to be chin up, not chin down. After doing a few funny exercises to help demonstrate how chin down does not work really at all, the instructors mentioned to also use nature as an example of head position. If you think about a calf, or any baby animal nursing, they are a lot of the time standing up, and reaching up for the milk. This calf sucking on my fingers did not get up or try to smoosh itself against me to suck on my fingers. All it did was reach up with its head and suck. If I had been this baby’s momma, the milk would have been flowing into the mouths and right into the throat.
I always find it a little funny how we seem to forget what nature remembers when it comes to birth and feeding our babies. There are so many new things and different styles of parenting out there as well that make decisions of how to parent so hard. Whether you’re sleep training, or bed-sharing, nursing on demand or scheduled, or breast or formula ect. there are always risks and pro and cons. All we can do is find the best thing that works for us and our babies.
My daughter did great on a 3 hour feeding schedule right away, in fact I would say I was technically feeding on demand, but her demand was every 3 hours. Where my son wanted to stay latched to me all day, every day, and if I did convince him off, he was back on less than 2 hours later. Same parents, two different kids, two different needs and styles. Some of the things that stay the same are things like position. The chin up position is very important. Think about how you would drink a glass of water, you tip it up and lift your chin. We do it naturally, and instinctively, but when it comes to nursing we sometimes forget or don’t even think about it. Especially if baby is not your first, and nursing sessions aren’t as calm, and quiet as they were the first time around.
So, if you’re having some trouble with positioning, think about nature, think about a calf reaching up to its mother for milk, and even think about how you would drink and swallow. You got this momma, and you’re doing an amazing job for your baby, not matter what decisions you have made.
If you want more information on the Mockingbird Hill Farm click Here
Flynn wasn’t to sure about the pigs. 
Despite the lack of smiles, they had a great time!
*Beyond Measure Doula Services believes that FED is BEST and that sometimes breast feeding is not a possibility for many different reasons. However, I do have 2 plus years experience with exclusively breastfeeding my own babies and do think its a beautiful, but hard, was to feed babies. If you have more questions about Breastfeeding or Formula feeding please do not hesitate to reach out. *
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