The Big Latch On

On Saturday morning, Miles and I headed on the road towards Leola to participate in an event to set a record for the largest number of women nursing their babies at one time. I was hesitant to go to The Big Latch On because I thought it was going to be awkward, but I wanted to show my support for breastfeeding, and it gave me a chance to tour the new birthing center my doula, Wendy, just opened. Family Trees Birth Place is wonderful. It's so great to have a warm and welcoming place for mothers and families to come together to learn to care for their babies and support each other. And construction just started on the birthing suites. I hope to birth our next baby there! But back to the event.

We were all sitting in one large room waiting for the clock to strike 10:30am so we could all nurse our babes at the same time. Once the organizers' announced the time, we all put our babies to our breasts to eat. But of course in awesome Miles style, he was too distracted to eat. He heard all the noises and wasn't motivated enough to stay latched for the full minute. But we did our best and were counted as one of the 25 women at the local event.

It really wasn't as weird as I was anticipating it to be. I swear that babies are the greatest icebreaker. They make is so much easier to make conversation and meet people. I even made a new friend at the event who lives near me and just moved to Lancaster after being a missionary in Africa. Her and her husband might even visit our church.

Feeding Miles for the first few weeks and months was exceptionally difficult due to oversupply problems and an overactive letdown. But I'm so glad that we worked through our issues and have now been exclusively breastfeeding for six plus months. It's by the grace of God and the support of a lactation consultant and my husband that we've made it this far. I'm constantly amazed at how awesome God designed our bodies to work. It's the best feeling to be able to nourish my baby and to watch him become a chubby baby because of nursing.

The 2013 Big Latch On event did break the record with 14,536 nursing mothers, beating last year's record of 8,862.

Here are a few photos from the event by Glimpse in Time Photography.