How I Birthed and Fed My Babies, Judge Me NOT

I’ve read MANY posts on this topic or ones related to it since I’ve been blogging.

But I don’t think I’ve ever put mine out there.

Lately I’ve felt like I’ve been “judged” by the way I brought my children into this world and the way I’ve nourished their bodies. Not necessarily here but in other facets of my life.

So I’m just going to put this out there… here are my stats:

3 babies

1 Vaginal birth after induction and with an epidural

2 C-sections

1 baby nursed until 15 months

2 babies pumped for until 2-4 months and then fed exclusively formula.

So what do YOU think?

How did I do?

Well, by today’s standards and things I read here on the internet, and from other mothers around me?

Not so good.

I should have had all my babies naturally (totally fine for anyone who wants to or has done so, but that’s just not how I did it).

I should have nursed them all until they were at least 2 (totally fine for anyone who does so or even beyond that, but unfortunately it didn’t work out that way for me).

And, I probably should have them all potty-trained by now. Including the 9-month old (not gonna happen here but if YOU can make it happen, more power to you).

So here’s the thing.

What I don’t understand is WHY.

WHY do we always have to be judging each other? Can’t we all just understand that many people have different ways of doing things and even though they may not be OUR way, they are fine? That’s the beauty of it all is that we have options and can make our own choices. I wish ALL of us mothers could just be FOR each other no matter what, instead of what seems to be AGAINST each other, if we didn’t do it the way that others think we should have.

And on the subject of breastfeeding specifically, I just want to put this out there.

I TRIED. I CRIED. I WEPT. Because my first and third babies WOULD NOT LATCH. I tried everything in my power to make it work and it DID NOT. I had to stop trying for emotional and physical reasons. I am blessed and happy to say that it did work with one of my babies. But PLEASE don’t judge me because I gave my other babies formula so they could SURVIVE. Is it the “best” thing? Probably not, but I pumped for each of them and gave them the best start I could. And then I was done.

And would I have birthed my babies in a different way?

Perhaps. Perhaps if I’d had a different doctor or read different things or had them at a different time. Who knows. But the fact is I had a HARD birth with my first and I didn’t want to go through the same physical things that I did that time so I opted to have subsequent C-Sections. And my c-section babies and me? Well, all three of us are healthy and fine.

Do I wish I’d gone into labor at least once? Sure, but I did not and that’s okay. It has to be.

So there you have it. Those are my stories in a nutshell.

All I ask is that you don’t judge me.

And I promise not to do the same to you…

And now,

I feel better. 🙂

*For whatever reason most of the comments on this post are not showing up. But please continue to leave them because they are coming to my email and they are GOOD! I’m so sorry this is happening and I do NOT know how to fix it. Apparently it’s an issue with Blogger…