I can't believe it. Speechless.

Due to lack of time and news, I have nothing to report for today. So instead, check out some of the fun links on the right and waste some time. Orrrrrr, check out this CUTE CUTE CUTE adoption story!!! The pictures won't fit and I'm not sure how to get them to fit, so you'll have to use the link. Believe me, you won't be disappointed :-) especially those of you interested in adoptive breast feeding ;-)

BOOBIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As you may know, if you've been following our adventure, being able to do anything without Charlie right there has been somewhat impossible. Today, in the shower, I discovered something VERY INTERESTING....


SOMEONE HAS BEEN BREASTFEEDING MY BABY!


Dun-dun-dahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

No wonder she's so healthy and huge!

Here's how I found out.

First shower attempt (with Pack and Play in the bathroom doorway): BIG FAILURE.

Second shower attempt (with highchair in the bathroom with me): BIG FAILURE.

Third shower attempt (with Charlie free and crawling around bathroom): SUCCESS. Somewhat. She crawled right in the shower with me, diaper and onesie and all. So I undressed her and took a shower with her. She's such a slippery, soapy baby! Anyway, back to the story...

As soon as she saw my boobs, her eyes got HUGE and she looked STUNNED. She was mesmerized by them. She was not looking anywhere else on my body but at my boobs. She reached out with BOTH HANDS and CHOMPED down on one of them! With her teeth! OUCH!

Since she was dropped off at the orphanage at 15 days, I believe this means someone was breastfeeding her at the orphanage. There's no way she would remember her first 15 days with her birth mother to that extent. So there are wet nurses at the orphanage, and nobody told us PAPs. It's fine with me (as long as they are healthy and don't have Hepatitis or something else that can be transmitted through breast milk), and even a really great gift for Charlie really. If she didn't have teeth already, I might even try and continue, but after that bite there is NO WAY.

On another note, check out these blackberries from my garden! They are HUGE! I got three store blackberries with which to compare them. The photos really don't do them justice. They are the size of half my finger! They will make fabulous blackberry jam :-)

So what do you all think about the breastfeeding? Was your child breastfed at their orphange? Did you know about it? There are so many things I'll never know about Charlie's first 10 months..... that's kind of sad really.

To bottle feed or not to bottle feed, THAT is the question.

According to what I've been reading, there are a myriad of reasons to not only allow, but encourage Charlie to continue feeding from a bottle even at her ripe old age of 10 months...

Apparently, in the U.S. there is a lot of focus on early development and the further ahead one's child is, the better. This is not true in many other areas around the world.

Here are some comments I've read on the subject from moms of adopted Ethiopian babies:

"Pediatricians like to see bottles go away at 1 year old. I know that there is concern about bottles and teeth decay but I personally think that 1 year is an arbitrary number and that some kids are ready at a year and some kids aren't. My son came home at 9 months, (he's almost 11 months now), and I have no plans to get rid of the bottle any time soon. I think he needs the sucking for mouth muscle development and I also don't want to force a major transition when he's been home such a short time. "

"I'm actually disappointed that I followed the pediatrician's recommendation to drop the baby-bottle when Nettie was a year old. She had only been home a month, and now I've realized that she never had much chance to develop her sucking skills -- important not just for feeding but for speech, etc. -- because she went from orphanage (cup) to one month of baby bottle to sippy. I think her chewing/eating delays have to do with this."

I'm in no rush to get Charlie off the bottle. I hear news from the care center that they have already started her on cereal and a sippy cup. But many attachment experts suggest "going back a step" and allowing your adotped child to "be babied". Use the bottle time to concentrate on developing eye contact...foster bonding...enjoy togetherness and cuddling...allow baby to feel safe and nurtured...whether or not they can already hold a sippy cup. It will not stunt their development to do this.

"In addition, adoption experts often suggest that newly adopted children be given the opportunity to be bottle-fed (an artificial substitute for breastfeeding) at least once a day, regardless of the age of the child (Hopkins-Best 1998). This is because the emotional age of a child may be very different from their chronological age. It is often suggested that the emotional age of a child be gauged by how long he or she has been in his or her adoptive family." - From Adoptive Breastfeeding Beyond Infancy cited below.

Also, I have to say that the more time passes, the more *annoyed* (for lack of a better word) I get with thinking I am missing all Charlie's "early" stages. Breast feeding is not an activity I will ever get to experience, so don't take away bottle feeding as well! (I don't know who I'm talking to here...)

I don't think I'm going to attempt breast feeding as I'm not really excited about taking hormones and supplements, but many adoptive moms do. I've written about it before in this blog (search sidebar for "adotpive breast feeding"). I do feel sad about missing that stage with Charlie and missing out on the bonding that naturally occurs with breast feeding. If someone can talk me into it, I might try it. I'm open to considering it.

"If a mother decides to try to breastfeed her older adopted child, it is probably a good idea to approach it with the goal of doing the best she can and determine that she will enjoy any amount of success she has along the way. At the same time, she should be prepared to grieve if her desire for breastfeeding is not fully met; loss of the breastfeeding relationship she desired is a very real loss." - From Adoptive Breastfeeding Beyond Infancy cited below.

For those of you who are interested in breast feeding an adoptive child who is older than newborn, here are some articles (there aren't many articles out there on this topic, but it is possible to do)

Adoptive Breastfeeding Beyond Infancy

Nursing Julia: My Supreme Challenge

Back to bottle feeding: I don't think I'd continue the bottle feeding post sippy-cup-stage if there was evidence it would stunt her development. The evidence seems to be the opposite: the safety abd security they feel in one stage allows them to venture into the next with more confidence.

Moms, is that selfish?

Did you know adoptive mothers can breast feed?!?!?!

Wow! I had no idea!

There's a whole community of women breastfeeding their adopted children.

OK, so who has breast fed an adoptive child?

What was it like?

I'm sure it's good for the baby's immune system, especially coming to a country where all the germs and viruses are different from their birth country.

I think I might like to have the experience, it seems like a great way to bond.... especially if I never have a biological child, I would hate to miss out on the experience entirely.

I wonder though, if a child has been bottle fed for the first 6 to 8 months of their life, would they even be interested in breast feeding? Wouldn't it be too late to learn that?

OK readers:

Do you think it's "weird"?

Do you think it's "natural"?

I suppose in a way, it is natural... Thoughout the ages, there has been a need for surrogate breast feeding. Sometimes even wolves took the job.

Here's another website devoted to the topic. They have a wealth of information, including milk calculators, using supplementation, herbs to stimulate milk production, and tons more.

And here is a blog on a personal adoptive nursing journal, following mom and child as they "develop their nursing relationship."