Rekindled Friendships and Breastfeeding Baskets

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine had a baby shower. I doubt any of you read back this long and honestly I don’t want to even re-read it myself, but I once wrote a post about this friend and a big argument we had about breastfeeding. She thought I was being brash about a private subject. I thought she was being oppressive about an important part of being a mother. After not speaking for many months, we decided to put it all behind us. I’m very happy that we did and I was happily invited to her baby shower. Peanut went with me and we had a ball (even though we had to leave early because it was way past Little Miss’s nap time). I, of course, made a her a breastfeeding basket.

Since I was silly enough to forget to take a picture (it was a very long week, so I ended up actually putting the basket together the day before in a rush, thanking the world that I already had most of the supplies ready from my previous breastfeeding-basket-stock-up trips). Luckily, she took a picture and posted it to her blog, so I’m borrowing it, hopefully without offending her.

This basket included breast pads (disposables), lanolin, Mother’s Milk tea, a bottle of water, granola bars, La Leche League meeting schedule and brochure for our area, and of course info packets from La Leche League about breastfeeding in general and a bunch of possible scenarios that need extra help (e.g. breastfeeding after cesarean, producing enough milk, nipple pain, etc.) that I deemed possible enough to include (which is, as I’ve found out making these baskets, really hard to decide).

By the by, this mom-to-be also has a fantastic little blog that I’d like to point you all to. It’s worth it to follow her blog just for the cute belly pictures, but she’s also crafty and a great writer. Happy reading everyone!

Another Breastfeeding Basket

These things have become my go-to baby shower gift. It makes me so happy to spread information about breastfeeding to mommies-to-be! This one I made for a baby shower last weekend that was thrown for my stand partner in orchestra from high school (I play the cello–bet you didn’t know that!). I’m happy to say that I know she’s interested in natural parenting, so I sprung for some cloth pads to put in the basket!

This is essentially the basket I wanted to make from the get-go. I wanted this type of cute basket to put it in (which since it’s Easter time, I can actually find in the stores now) and I wanted to make the cut outs with little explanations for things. I would have liked to include some nicer things (like The Baby Book or The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding) or upgraded some things (like a Kleen Kanteen rather than a plastic water bottle), but you make do with what you have. I’ll include what the notes said in the list.

This basket included:

• A big water bottle (Nursing moms need to keep hydrated!)
• Granola bars (Oats are good for establishing supply!)
• Lanolin sample attached to an info sheet about sore nipples (A life saver!)
• 10 disposable breast pads (For those early extra-leaking days)
• 4 cloth breast pads (Nicer in the long run)
• A flyer for an infant massage class (Peanut loved this!)
• A business card for a local breastfeeding supply store/lactation consultant that runs the store (My favorite breastfeeding supply store)
• Tear-off sheets about breastfeeding: Breastfeeding, The Importance of Breastfeeding, Breastfeeding Tips, Establishing Your Milk Supply (Breastfeeding info)
• Tear-off sheets about possible issues: If Your Breasts Become Engorged, Tips For Rousing a Sleepy Newborn, Newborn Jaundice, Is My Breastfed Baby Geting Enough Milk?, Treating Thrush (Just in case)
• Tear-off sheets about other stuff: Breast is Best – How Dad Can Help, Safe Sleep, Tips For Handling the Baby Blues, Manual Expression of Breast Milk(Other useful info)

These baskets are super easy to make and I love giving them. I love making the assumption that moms breastfeed rather than thinking “Oh I don’t know if I should give this to her because I don’t know if she’ll use it.” I love sending a huge message about breastfeeding being natural when everyone else is giving bottles. I love that I feel like I’m normalizing breastfeeding for these new moms. I’m giving them the information that they need to succeed. Whether or not they breastfeed, I feel like I am giving them the information they need to make an educated decision.