“Rules and regulations have no place in the mother-baby relationship. Each mother and baby dyad is different and what works well for one mother and baby may not work well for another mother and baby. The important thing to do is to look at the mother and baby as individuals.”– Andrea Eastman, MA, CCE, IBCLC in The Mother-Baby Dance

After breastfeeding all four of my children as long as 4 years so far, I’ve developed quite a relationship with breastfeeding. I’ve weaned too early,worried about making enough milk, tandem fed twins, had clogged ducts, mastitis, and nursed all night long, and all day. I *love* to talk with other moms about their problems and success with breastfeeding. I’ve heard lots of stories over the years and I’ve found that many of the same questions come up over and over. Here are some of the most common breastfeeding concerns addressed.

Enough Milk-  One of the first worries moms have is whether their babies are getting enough milk or even milk at all. For a first time mom it’s not always obvious if milk has come in and hospital staff can be quick to offer some “just in case” formula. Problems with milk coming in is rare but an easy way to check is simply by monitoring wet diapers. What goes in must come out! Nursing babies should have around six wet diapers in twenty-four hours. Milk should have replaced colostrum by five days postpartum.

Frequent Nursing-  Something that many people don’t realize is that yes, babies nurse all the time. Ever heard the health benefits of eating small, nutrient dense, and frequent meals? Well babies know how to stay healthy! Fussing to nurse often means your baby knows what he needs: food and comfort. Growth spurts can also add to already frequent nursing, don’t worry, it won’t last forever!

Schedules-  Along the same lines, throw all the schedules out the window. The bodies of mother and baby are made to function naturally. If babies are fed when they show hunger cues they will be physically and mentally healthier. This also prevents many breastfeeding issues for mom. Moms body will automatically make the right amount of milk when feeding on demand. This means less risk of clogged ducts or mastitis and less worrying about making enough.

Spoiling-  Letting babies eat when they are hungry does not spoil them, in fact it teaches them to eat when they’re hungry and stop when they’re full. They won’t over eat in fear of having to wait, instead they will associate nursing with comfort and trust.

How does mom get sleep?-   Sleep is different for every family but there is something to be said about the fact that traditionally and still in many cultures babies and children co-sleep with their parents. It seems that like breastfeeding, our bodies were designed for co-sleeping. Moms and babies get better sleep when they don’t have to get up to nurse. Sleeping with baby has many other uses besides helping  mom sleep better though. It prevents SIDS, keeps moms cycle from coming back, and night time milk even contains amino acids that aid in sleep for baby.

Supplements-  When babies are around two months old, moms breasts start to stabilize production. They don’t feel as full, and many moms start to worry that they aren’t making enough milk and turn to supplemental formula. Supplementing can become a vicious circle though. The more formula is used the less the baby nurses and as result less breast milk is made. The same can be said about introducing cereals at a young age. Even though many doctors recommended cereal at 3-4 months there is much evidence that it is hard to digest and unhealthy for babies. And of course, it lowers the amount of breast milk ingested and made by mom. Six to twelve months, or when baby shows signs of interest in food is a much better time to introduce solids.

Cereals-  Sometimes cereals or medications are recommended for babies who spit up. While there are instances when medications can help, most of the time babies just need time to adjust their brand new bodies and spitting up is a natural part of that. I am a firm believer that cereals only complicate things.

NIP-  Nursing in public or NIP as it is fondly shortened, is something that may take practice and time to get used to but there are many tips and tricks to make it easier without having to hide while nursing. One easy way to breastfeed discreetly is by babywearing. Many moms can nurse while wearing their baby without anyone even realizing. Some moms like to use nursing blankets but babies tend to dislike having something over them while eating. Wearing nursing friendly clothing helps. Loose fitting shirts, scarves, and layers all work well.

Pain-  Almost all moms experience some kind of soreness in their breasts or nipples while breastfeeding. This is always a source of questions because there are many things that can cause pain and make breastfeeding difficult. Engorgement, cracks, and general pain from incorrect latch are common in the first few weeks. All breast issues benefit from rest and ventilation. Wear loose fitting cloths, no bra, or breathable pads if needed.

Engorgement- Engorgement is when breasts are too full. It’s sometimes necessary to pump to relief the pain but too much will result in more milk which worsens the problem. Engorgement usually will subside after a day or two of nursing on demand. For relief a cold compress may be used on the irritated breast and massage may help also. If milk is excessive and too fast for the baby it can be hand expressed before nursing until it slows down a bit.

Latch-  When nipples are cracked from latch issues it can make it very difficult to nurse. Natural oils can help cracks stay moist and heal faster. If uncomfortable nursing continues and incorrect latch is suspect a lactation consultant or local La Leche League members can often help things clear up quickly. Once a good latch is established there should be no pain from normal breastfeeding.

Thrush-  Anyone who has experienced thrush in their breasts knows it is a whole different kind of pain. It is described as a burning or shooting pain through the ducts. It makes nursing horribly uncomfortable. Thrush can be treated with natural or conventional antibiotics. Either way a good probiotic is recommended. If nipples are cracked and sore, coconut oil topically is very soothing and antibacterial.

Plugged Duct-  Duct issues have a similar feel to engorgement. A plugged duct occurs when the milk duct is blocked with dried milk and it is backing up inside the duct. Plugs can occur from not nursing enough, stress, or from restricting bras and shirts. They feel like a hard lump, can be very sore, and can sometimes cause low-grade fever. Plugged ducts can be treated with massage, compresses, and most important, lots of nursing. It’s crucial for the baby to nurse on the affected duct. To do this, position the baby so that the chin is pointed to the sore spot the breast.

Mastitis-  If a clogged duct is not properly treated it can become infected and is then called mastitis. Mastitis is much more serious and seeing a health practitioner can be necessary. It includes fever, aches, and pain. Mastitis can also be caused when infection enters cracked nipples or even from too much stress on the mother. Like plugged ducts, mastitis requires rest and lots of nursing. The infection can be treated naturally but if it doesn’t improve after about two days you may need to see a doctor.

Self-weaning-  Something often questioned with older babies is self-weaning. When babies get old enough to start moving and exploring they often become less interested in nursing. Many moms take this as a sign that baby is ready to wean when actually they need to nurse just as much as ever. At this age babies have a natural curiousity that compels them to keep moving. During this time babies will nurse more at night or nurse longer sessions to make up for nursing less often. Patient mamas will see that like many things this is but a phase that will pass quickly and nursing will pick back up to its normal level. The World  Health Organization recommends breastfeeding until at least two and many children will happily continue until around four years old.

Are there any other burning nursing questions you have or problems you hear frequently from other moms? Let us know here or chat with us on Twitter, @Boba. We love to help!

With so much in the news and on social media these days about phones and parenting, technology and the science of kindness, and the impact of a mother’s love on the size and structures of her child’s brain, it is good to have a peek at some of the researching behind the buzz of neuroplasticity. It is also an opportunity for us to get real about the variety of interactions that many of us share in each day and what is really nurturing our relationships and in turn our biological capacity for intimacy.

Barbara L. Fredrickson, an author and professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, wrote Your Phone vs. Your Heart for the New York Times in March 2013. In the piece, she asks the readers this, “How much time do you typically spend with others? And when you do, how connected and attuned to them do you feel? Your answers to these simple questions may well reveal your biological capacity to connect.”

Fredrickson shares, “New parents may need to worry less about genetic testing and more about how their own actions — like texting while breast-feeding or otherwise paying more attention to their phone than their child — leave life-limiting fingerprints on their and their children’s gene expression.”

And with the recent flurry of “Dear Mom on the iPhone” letters, and confessions of tech-addicted adults and children struggling with the same, Fredrickson’s work and that of Richard J. Davidson, professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Founder and Chair of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center, is at once an insight into the emerging field of neuroscience and reminder to parents that quality of time that we spend with our children really counts.

Your Phone vs. Your Heart, By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSON for The New York Times, March 23, 2013

CAN you remember the last time you were in a public space in America and didn’t notice that half the people around you were bent over a digital screen, thumbing a connection to somewhere else?

Most of us are well aware of the convenience that instant electronic access provides. Less has been said about the costs. Research that my colleagues and I have just completed, to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science, suggests that one measurable toll may be on our biological capacity to connect with other people.

Our ingrained habits change us. Neurons that fire together, wire together, neuroscientists like to say, reflecting the increasing evidence that experiences leave imprints on our neural pathways, a phenomenon called neuroplasticity. Any habit molds the very structure of your brain in ways that strengthen your proclivity for that habit.

Plasticity, the propensity to be shaped by experience, isn’t limited to the brain. You already know that when you lead a sedentary life, your muscles atrophy to diminish your physical strength. What you may not know is that your habits of social connection also leave their own physical imprint on you.

How much time do you typically spend with others? And when you do, how connected and attuned to them do you feel? Your answers to these simple questions may well reveal your biological capacity to connect.

My research team and I conducted a longitudinal field experiment on the effects of learning skills for cultivating warmer interpersonal connections in daily life. Half the participants, chosen at random, attended a six-week workshop on an ancient mind-training practice known as metta, or “lovingkindness,” that teaches participants to develop more warmth and tenderness toward themselves and others.

We discovered that the meditators not only felt more upbeat and socially connected; but they also altered a key part of their cardiovascular system called vagal tone. Scientists used to think vagal tone was largely stable, like your height in adulthood. Our data show that this part of you is plastic, too, and altered by your social habits.

To appreciate why this matters, here’s a quick anatomy lesson. Your brain is tied to your heart by your vagus nerve. Subtle variations in your heart rate reveal the strength of this brain-heart connection, and as such, heart-rate variability provides an index of your vagal tone.

By and large, the higher your vagal tone the better. It means your body is better able to regulate the internal systems that keep you healthy, like your cardiovascular, glucose and immune responses.

Beyond these health effects, the behavioral neuroscientist Stephen Porges has shown that vagal tone is central to things like facial expressivity and the ability to tune in to the frequency of the human voice. By increasing people’s vagal tone, we increase their capacity for connection, friendship and empathy.

In short, the more attuned to others you become, the healthier you become, and vice versa. This mutual influence also explains how a lack of positive social contact diminishes people. Your heart’s capacity for friendship also obeys the biological law of “use it or lose it.” If you don’t regularly exercise your ability to connect face to face, you’ll eventually find yourself lacking some of the basic biological capacity to do so.

The human body — and thereby our human potential — is far more plastic or amenable to change than most of us realize. The new field of social genomics, made possible by the sequencing of the human genome, tells us that the ways our and our children’s genes are expressed at the cellular level is plastic, too, responsive to habitual experiences and actions.

Work in social genomics reveals that our personal histories of social connection or loneliness, for instance, alter how our genes are expressed within the cells of our immune system. New parents may need to worry less about genetic testing and more about how their own actions — like texting while breast-feeding or otherwise paying more attention to their phone than their child — leave life-limiting fingerprints on their and their children’s gene expression.

When you share a smile or laugh with someone face to face, a discernible synchrony emerges between you, as your gestures and biochemistries, even your respective neural firings, come to mirror each other. It’s micro-moments like these, in which a wave of good feeling rolls through two brains and bodies at once, that build your capacity to empathize as well as to improve your health.

If you don’t regularly exercise this capacity, it withers. Lucky for us, connecting with others does good and feels good, and opportunities to do so abound.

So the next time you see a friend, or a child, spending too much of their day facing a screen, extend a hand and invite him back to the world of real social encounters. You’ll not only build up his health and empathic skills, but yours as well. Friends don’t let friends lose their capacity for humanity.

I am pleased to introduce the Hibble family: Geoff and Robin, along with their children, Connor, Ethan and Stella. The Hibbles are the next family to be featured in our series of Traveling Family interviews. Having just completed a year of RV travel throughout the USA and Canada, they have just begun another year of homesteading and travel in Australia, Geoff’s home country. You can follow their on-the-road adventures in their blog, Switching Gears.

Here is the interview that Robin Hibble did with Boba Family in January 2013, just after landing in Australia, and at the start of their second consecutive year of traveling together. Get ready to be inspired while also learning some tricks that have helped this family live out their dreams. Please enjoy!

1. Was there a defining moment (or moments) in your pre-trip lives when you and your family realized that long-term travel would serve your highest goals for your life?

A few months prior to our departure, while parked in a cul-de-sac, my husband, Geoff and I were having a fairly common discussion which included topics like, “We are not getting ahead; Life is stagnant; Work has lacked excitement and vigor for years for years now; 4 more years and our oldest son, Connor leaves for college – the beginning of his own life apart from us; If we are going to break the cycle, change it up, expand the experiences, then it is now or never [at least for us with Connor].

2. Why do you think so many families think a traveling lifestyle is out of reach for them?

We would break this into a few reasons.

F.U.D. – Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt of course play a huge role in this.  I think it is difficult for a lot of people to comprehend and except that one is going to pile his family into a vehicle and travel aimlessly around the country and “all will be ok”.   I think all the “What ifs” flood the mind and it mentally becomes exhausting trying to figure out what one would do to pre-solve all of the “what ifs”.

Cost -  “How can I afford to quit my job and pay all the expenses of travel for a whole year?  The mortgage, the bills, on top of travel expenses…”

Relationships – The thought of leaving one’s family and friends can be emotionally heart wrenching.  I am sure the thought of being cooped up with immediate family members is just hard to contemplate too. In addition, the thought of leaving clubs, sports, traditional life and other roles and responsibilities is difficult for many.

Career – We believe there is a strong thought that if you leave your job and travel for a year you will loose your spot in the “Career” you have been building.  And that you might disappoint the business or people you have been working for.

However, I will also reserve that a traveling lifestyle is just not for everyone.  There are people that outwardly state that they just prefer to stay still, not travel, not be cooped up, and despite being happy for us it is just not something they want to do.  Most found it very inspirational too.

3. Opening yourself up to travel means opening yourself up to the unexpected. Please share one unexpected reward and one unexpected challenge that you and your family have met in your many years together on the road. How have each added richness of your travels and your lives?

One unexpected reward is the immensity of the family bonding that occurs when you travel as a lifestyle.  We had been on plenty of vacations, but there is nothing like living in a confined space and seeing amazing things every few days. The boys, Connor (15) Ethan (11), due to age & interests, had quite different lifestyles when living at home. They rarely spent time together.  Our traveling lifestyle, since they only had each other, grew to a much stronger “brotherhood.”

The unexpected challenge was the lack of personal space and the dynamics that it imposes.  Living shoulder to shoulder with no escape means rebuilding you expectation, tolerance, judgement, and response systems.  You just can’t have it your way, you have it have it “everyone’s” way if you are going to co-exist.  Ultimately though, this has made us all far better people and definitely contributed back to the family bonding.

4. Many families begin preparing for long-term travel by selling off their homes and possessions. You and your family went another route; please share with our readers what your master plan was and how it has paid of in spades.  

A personal bias here, we think selling a bunch of your personal possessions is a great idea.  Lightening the load, as we call it, be it commitments, possessions, financial responsibilities, etc. is all very liberating!  It is often difficult to let go of personal possessions but “less is more” in all sense of the word in our opinion so do it.  We decided that we needed to “downsize” the volume of clutter in our life, so we did a full review and purge of everything on our whole property.  Things either went a) to the motor home b) to craigslist c) to the curb d) Good Will, e) to the waste bin or f) to the shed (our version of a storage unit).  I’d recommend starting this process with the shed.

But from the very start we knew we never wanted to sell our home.  We committed to be on the road for one year and we equally looked forward to moving back into our home at the end of the trip.  We could not afford to pay the mortgage and leave it empty so we had two choices if we were going to keep our house: long term rental or short term rental (vacation rental). Long term has the attraction you don’t need to “manage” the property on a day-to-day basis and a lot lower risk in the sense you can expect a monthly rent deposit.  Short term has the attraction of potentially higher rental income, plus but it comes at a huge cost.   You have to leave the house furnished (accepting it may be damaged), you have a rolling set of customers you have to please, you have to pay the difference between the rents and mortgage on slow months, your home needs to be in a location supportive of short term/vacation rental, and you or someone else needs to “manage” the property on a day to day basis.  For us, it worked best to doVRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner). I then staged, setting up, and managing the property whilst we traveled.  We were never fully covered our monthly home expenses but we were able to come close.

5. What is the one thing that you would share with other parents who are wanting to make this leap with their own families?

Reach out to multiple families who have done this and draw upon their experiences and suggestions.  Ultimately everyone does it a little bit differently, none right or wrong, but the experience they share might enable you to significantly enhance your own experience (both in preparing and on the road), and keep “F.U.D” at bay too!

Each year, an estimated 15 million babies are born preterm, that is before 37 weeks of pregnancy are completed. Of those 15 millions, 1.1 million will die within their first year of life due to complications related to their preterm birth.

Many think of preterm birth as being an issue exclusive to developing nations, but it is also a significant problem for developed countries. The United States has one of the highest prematurity rates in the world. Dr. Craig Rubens, executive director of the Global Alliance to Prevent Prematurity and Stillbirth (GAPPS), an initiative of Seattle Children’s Hospital, and a study author, says that, “Getting people and funders and policymakers to understand that is a huge burden.”  The U.S. has half a million preterm babies each year, and in its annual “premature birth report card,” the March of Dimes gave the U.S. a “C” for its efforts in reducing prematurity.

Researches also agree that we still have a lot to learn when it comes to the causes of preterm births. Chris Howson, vice president for global programs at the March of Dimes and a preterm birth researcher and study author, shares that “We don’t know the cause of 50% of all preterm births, and we still don’t fully understand the causes and mechanisms behind the other half.”

What research does  show is that there are five interventions that have been shown to reduce the preterm birth rates.

1. Discouraging elective C-sections and labor inductions unless there’s a compelling medical reason.
2. Reducing the number of embryos transferred during fertility treatment.
3. Supporting pregnant women to give up smoking.
4. Providing women with high-risk pregnancies with progesterone supplementation.
5. Performing cervical cerclage, a minor surgical procedure, on pregnant women with short cervixes.

In 2012, WHO and its partners published the Lancet report, Born Too Soon: The Global Action Report on Preterm Birth, which presents the first country-by-country estimates of preterm birth. This report is a joint effort of nearly 50 international, regional and national organizations, led by the March of Dimes, The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, Save the Children and the World Health Organization in support of the Every Woman Every Child effort, led by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The report details more than 30 new and expanded commitments to prevention of preterm birth and to the care of preterm babies. (You can see the more than 200 commitments here: www.everywomaneverychild.org.)

Based upon these findings of this report, the  WHO has also committed to the following specific actions:

• to work with countries to improve the availability and quality of data on preterm births;
• to provide updated analyses of global preterm birth levels and trends every 3 to 5 years;
• to work with partners to research the causes of preterm birth, and test effectiveness and delivery approaches for interventions to prevent preterm birth and treat babies that are born preterm;
• to regularly update clinical guidelines for the management of pregnancy and mothers with preterm labour or at risk of preterm birth, and those on the care of preterm babies, including Kangaroo Mother Care, feeding babies with low birth weight, treating infections and respiratory problems, and home-based follow-up care; and
• to develop tools to improve health workers’ skills and assess the quality of care provided to preterm babies.

So while global NGOs and researchers continue their dedicated work in the discovery of the causes of preterm birth, as well as creating preventative interventions, companies like Boba Family continue their grassroots efforts in the communities where we live and raise our families. Like the WHO, Boba Family advocates for research-based Kangaroo Mother Care as an incredibly effective, life-saving arm of preterm baby care. Kangaroo Mother Care keeps preterm babies and mothers together, so that a mother can be the primary source of physical and emotional comfort for her baby within the extended care of the medical system.

For both preterm and full-term babies, Kangaroo Mother Care:

For my husband and me, it is great to be home for long stretches of time, but it is also terrific to have a trip on the horizon. We began traveling together in 2005 on our honeymoon. We circled the globe, hitting 18 countries and four continents in less than six months. As a boy, my husband traveled quite a bit with his family due to his father’s work as a research scientist; while I was rooted to an equally wonderful childhood, growing up on a 500-acre working farm in Michigan. The nature of farms and it’s high demands meant that my family took few vacations when I was growing up and lengthy international travel was out of the question. I got my first passport for our honeymoon and I was transformed by my first travels. I became deeply, irreversibly connected to the nomadic side of myself.

My sweetheart and I made a pledge that we would do our very best to leave the country at least once a year for the rest of our lives. And so far, we have. We have planned our travels to accommodate the changes in our lives—traveling to Colombia during my second trimester of pregnancy before heading home to get nesty and prepare for the birth of our son. The next year, we traveled to the Mexican central highlands to celebrate my birthday and our son’s first. This year, we head to Guatemala to celebrate our birthdays again.

It has been almost a year since we last packed our bags, and while the homesteader in me is glad for the chance to garden and to live the easy life at home close to family and friends, the gypsy in me aches for unfamiliar people and far away lands. Here are few ways that my family and I keep our family’s travel spark alive and burning between trips, or at least until the next tickets are booked.

1. The Visual Traveler
We get the colors and sights of our favorite far-away places through travel documentaries, movies and YouTube videos that have been shared by other travelers. Our favorite countries to travel to are India, Mexico, Turkey and Tibet, so we look for everything and anything featuring these countries. The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) have produced some terrific travel documentaries and series, like the Story of India hosted by Michael Woods and Himalaya hosted by Michael Palin.

For localized fixes, or special spots off the beaten path, search for videos that fellow travelers may have shared on YouTube. The odds are good that what you are looking for will have been shared here by others who have been to the same area. As an example, there is a wonderful foot bridge in Rishikesh, North India, that I absolutely love and when I need a peek at the happy hullabaloo of passing cows, tourists and saris, I go to YouTube and search out Laxman Jhula bridge. Search out your own favorites when you need a mini-trip.

2. Books
There are so many incredible books ranging from travel memoirs and historical fiction, to spiritual and religious routes and pilgrimages. Check out your local library and book sellers to soak up these printed adventures. For women who dream of traveling there is a wonderful memoir entitle, Tales of a Female Nomad, by Rita Golden Gelman. There is also the world-wide best-seller, Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert. Another excellent book is, Exotic Travel Destinations for Families, by Jennifer and Bill Nichols that showcases 23 exciting countries in six different regions: Europe, Africa, Asia, Central America, South America and French Polynesia.

Also look for travel-minded reading groups at your local library. Your library may already host a travelers’ book club that highlights books that you and fellow wanderlusters would love to read and discuss together. If one is not already organized, ask if you can post a flyer about starting one to gauge community interest and build it from there. It takes just one person to start it up, so be open to that one person being you.

3. Local Travel Shops
Visiting your local travel shop to prepare for your upcoming adventures is a great way to get what you need while putting money back into your own community. This is also where you will find solid recommendations from people whose business is travel. Most shops will carry guidebooks and maps, as well as travel supplies and comforts that make those long, hard travel days a little easier.

I like to browse through my local shops to see what is new and useful, and also to talk to other travelers about their upcoming adventures. A cool thing that our local shop does, is host community slide shows and trip presentations events. You don’t need to be a professional storyteller or photographer; they just ask that you put together a sample of your favorites photos and stories to share. These events are always packed with people who are wanting to go to a particular destination, and others who like me, may need a little touch of the places they love. As with the book groups, if your local shop doesn’t already host these community presentation events, ask if you can give one a try to build interest and encourage others to offer their own. It is a win-win for travel lovers and the hosting store owners who will likely get new customers from the event.

4. Online Travel Communities
There are many excellent family travel blogs that chronicle the lives of families living out their dreams of travel. Familiesontheroad.com is a blog roll of some incredible and resourceful families who are traveling together by land, air and sea. There are also online travel communities to inspire you and where you can ask and answer questions. Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree is a free travel forum that gets heavy participation and top-notch replies from travelers in the know.

Boba Family is another great family travel resource, so be sure to check out our travel-centered blogs. Included are interviews with families who do extended travel or “live on the road,” loads of tips from seasoned travelers and many how-tos—all free and available to you at BobaFamily.com.

5. Cooking
For me and my family, one of the best parts of traveling abroad is enjoying the local food. We look for cooking classes in the cities and villages where we are staying. Most classes will include a guided trip to traditional, neighborhood markets where farmers and other artisans bring their meat, cheese, fruits and spices to sell and trade. These tours help you discover how a particular dish gets that unique flavor and which kitchen tools help produce the most traditional results. When we travel, we always try to bring home indigenous honeys and specialty spices. Check your home country’s regulations on any possible restriction for what you can bring back with you.

Once home and missing our favorite flavors, we head to our own kitchen to recreate (As best as we can!) the dishes that take us back with each bite. My husband is also a master packer and has been able to bring home several pieces of specialty pottery from our travels around the world. My most treasured pieces are a black Chambra soup pot from Colombia and a comal from Mexico that offers the most authentic flavors when toasting spices and chiles.

Hopefully, these tips will carry you between your travels. And until your next journey, I wish you happy homesteading and lovely reminders of your travels past and dreams of travels to come. Remember, your love of travel is a wonderful thing to share, so take part in your community at home and encourage everyone to dream of travel. The world is big and beautiful and just waiting for you to discover yourself in it.

My first bite of this amazing cake was soon after my son was born. My mother-in-law brought over a few pieces for my husband and me in those early days when a meal delivery was an incredible gift. It was love at first bite and I shamelessly asked her to make us several more cakes over the next few months. It is a wonderful not-too-sweet bite to have after a meal or for a breakfast. It also is great to gobble down after a 3:00am nursing—I have put this to the test repeatedly.

My in-laws discovered the cake while they were living in Australia on sabbatical. It is an old British recipe that has several variations, such as using meyer lemons instead of oranges, or adding grated ginger, but I like the almond and orange version that I was first served best.

Ayurvedically, this cake is a perfect treat for new mothers, with ojas building almond meal and pasture-raised eggs that can add to your breastmilk’s flavor and boost production. It is also a grounding. stabilizing food, which most mother’s need after laboring and delivering their baby or babies. Many new mothers avoid citrus during the first six weeks as their milk is established with concerns of it being off-putting to their newborn’s belly, but because the oranges for this recipe are boiled, the acidity is reduced greatly and I have not heard of any mother or baby having trouble with this cake.

It is also a naturally gluten-free cake, so if gluten is an issue for you or for the ones you are sharing it with, be sure to also substitute a gluten-free flour to dust the pan with.

I have adapted the ingredients lists from a few different recipes and offered the step-by-step instructions that I use myself. If my recipe works for you, then wonderful, but if it needs to be tweaked to make it perfect for you, adapt my recipe or look for variations online that might please you more.

I have made this for every blessingway, baby shower, and meal-share for new families since this cake was first shared with me. Each and every time, is has been a huge hit and also sending out the recipe to friends who are eager to make it themselves.

When I am making this cake, especially for mothers-to-be and new mothers, I know they are nurturing their own bodies with it, as well as their baby’s, so I like to first get myself centered before I begin the recipe. I settle into washing my hands and tying my apron, keeping the mother of honor in my mind and wishing her a blessed good birth and a joyful, healing postpartum. I send up a prayer that this cake will nourish her and her baby and serve their bellies well. I put on uplifting music or sing myself while I prepare the ingredients. Like the recipe, make this ritual your own, with your own prayers and wishes and meditation as you feel drawn to do. Allow your heart’s goodness to fill you and carry over to all who will share in the cake.

Almond Orange Cake Batter
• 2 large navel oranges, (choose oranges with unblemished skins as the entire fruit (minus the seeds). yup, that includes peel, pith and membranes too!
• 2.5 cups of finely ground almond flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 5-6 eggs, depending on size
• 1 cup or sugar
• 1 tsp of vanilla

Drizzle
• Juice of one lime
• 1/8 cup of water
• 1/8 cup sugar

Boil whole oranges for 1 hour. Allow to cool and deseed if needed. Put oranges into a food processor until broken down.

Set oven to 350° and butter a 9-inch spring-form pan adding a parchment paper round to the butter bottom, then butter the paper as well. Follow up with a dusting of finely ground unbleached white flour.

Add vanilla, sugar and eggs to the oranges and use the food processor to incorporate completely.

In a separate bowl, combine the almond flour and baking powder.

Then slowly add the dry mixture to the wet, scrapping the sides as needed while, batter is well mixed.

Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until toothpicks come out clean. It is moist cake, but toothpicks should not be wet.

Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool in it’s pan.

To begin the drizzle, add it’s 3 ingredients in a heavy-bottom pot over med-high heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Depending on how you like it, you cooking it here, or you can let it reduce even further to make more of a syrup.

Using a toothpick, poke holes around the top of the cake and begin spooning the drizzle over the entire top of the cake while it both are still hot.

Allow the cake to cool at least 30 minutes before running a knife along the inner edge and removing your spring-form ring and placing it on a plate or stand.

Share and Enjoy!

There are his words, and his dance moves that are so perfectly in cue with the beat, there is his love of running as quickly as he can, and jumping in place while hooting with glee. He is enjoying his body and all the ways he can move and express himself with it all. As his momma, all of it is so incredible to watch emerge and take shape. This little person, so perfectly complete and whole in the ways that truly matter in this life, just as he is now, at 22 months, and just as he was a birth.

My son will be turning two in just a few more months. And what an incredible journey it has been for my husband and me, to be growing right along side our first child. Since his birth, our boy’s voice has been a joyful constant in our home. And over the last year, his thoughts and wants and needs are being shared through words that have in recent months become sentences. Each day there is more to share, as his words and excitement give way to being recognized and responded to within our own family, and by the adults and older children we spend our time with. Even our neighbor’s dog, a funny little Schnauzer named Pickle, responds to him when he is called over, much to my son’s delight.

My husband and I are avid readers ourselves, and have followed our son’s lead and his own love of books from early on. Our local library hosts fantastic cruisers-and-crawlers, toddler and children’s story time hours and sing-alongs that are free to the community and that are scheduled throughout the week. Each group meets separately and focuses on developing early literacy skills and supporting a child’s natural curiosity and love of books. The groups are facilitated by a librarian who focuses on books and activities that are developmental appropriate and that are also incredibly fun.

In cruisers-and-crawlers, we sang songs together and played with the sounds of individual letters, vowels and built them up into words. We were introduced to wide range of vocabulary and illustrations through the carefully chosen books. Books, which our lovely librarian pointed out, are an ideal way to bring an unlimited variety of words, ideas and sounds into a family’s playful learning. She introduced to us books that featured animals, people and situations that were uncommon for most people’s daily life, but that introduced us to some wonderful fundamentals of the wider world; that chicks emerge from eggs and that there is indeed an animal named “hippopotamus” that can walk on land and swim underwater.

In this youngest group, our babies would intently watch our mouths as we sounded out new words and sang songs together. There was so much learn packed into these hours of fun. And outside of being a relatively easy outing for my son and I when we were still getting the hang of leaving the house together, we were also spending time playing and learning with other families and building our community.

Look to your own community library for programs and activities that they may offer. Libraries are eager to have families searching their shelves for books to check out and to enjoy at home.  And if your local library does not currently host family programs, ask if they can meet your requests for story times that are led either by librarians or community volunteers. If you run up against tight budgets or scheduling issues, ask if your family, and others who are interested, can meet within the library and create your own story time. Each family can then take turns choosing books and leading to the group.

Here is a link to my local library. You will see that there are many different groups and weekly events for various ages, as well as educational support for teachers and parents, as well as home-schooling and no-schooling families. There is even a “Read to a Dog” event when young readers can develop their out-loud reading skills while keeping a certified therapy dog happily entertained.

My husband and I have enjoyed bringing home our own childhood favorites to share with our son and looking for new books to read together. In recent years, the publication of children’s books has skyrocketed, with topics reaching far and wide. Your own family’s favorites are on a shelf just waiting to be enjoyed together.

Where do you go if you want to rent books? The library.  So why can’t the same principle be applied to baby carriers? Well, it can!

What is a lending library?

Quite simply, it is a place to rent baby carriers.

Some people rent lots of different carriers in their pursuit of the right one before buying their own; others come because they can’t get the carrier they own to work for them.  Others come because they have a special event such as a wedding or baptism.  All I know is that there is no particular group of people who use my lending library – each session brings a different set of moms, dads and even grandparents.

I set up the North East Sling Library in Durham, United Kingdom in July 2011 because there was a big gap. We had no babywearing groups local to us and the only carriers available to actually ‘look at’ were in mainstream high street shops, and Durham with its Norman Castle and Cathedral and cobbled streets is not very stroller friendly. It had taken me a long time to find carriers that worked for us; I wanted to be able to help others find the one right for them.

Can anyone set up a lending library? How do you do it?

Yes! A lending library can be as big or small as you want it to be. It can meet when and where you want it to. You choose how long to hire carriers out for, whether you want to charge hire fees, take deposits etc. It is your library; there are no set rules.  I charge a small hire fee and ask for a refundable deposit equivalent to buying a replacement in the event of damage but other libraries charge a standard deposit or you pay to join the library and then can hire for free or reduced rates. The simple rule is do what works for you and your library.

The NE Sling Library now has a stock of 60 carriers and it continues to grow. I reinvest the hire fees to buy more slings for the library and try to match user requests to the carriers we buy.  We have carriers suitable for carrying premature babies to pre-schooler.

When I first set the library up it did cost me a lot of money and we started with just 4 carriers from my own stash. I approached as many vendors and distributors as I could possibly think of; some donated slings, others offered reduced prices and some did not reply. In the early days the knock backs were hard because I knew there was no way I could finance it all by myself, but when someone says yes it makes it worth the time spent writing letters and emails. I made a website using a free service and I add all donations to a ‘thanks and contributors’ page on there. I also use Facebook and Twitter to interact with different people and groups.  I also try to follow and ‘like’ them too and provide updates on when carriers have been hired.  I also made the decision to invest in some business cards and postcards which I have on me whenever I am using a carrier and try to advertise wherever I can think of. I put posters up in children’s centers, day nurseries etc. I have found word of mouth plays a big part in getting people to come to the library.

To run a lending library you do not need any specific training or insurance (I am in the UK) and this fits with the tradition of babywearing being passed from mom to daughter, person to person and so on. It is a skill which has been dying but which lending libraries and the internet are helping to continue.  I decided that I wanted to also have some form of qualification so I decided to take a Babywearing Consultants Course.  I trained with Trageschule UK  and joined the British Association of Babywearing Instructors (BABI). There are other schools in the UK, Europe and the USA. I joined BABI as it allowed me to buy insurance through them but this is not necessary. Most lending libraries have their own Terms and Conditions which we ask users to say they have read and signed.  It is also important to remember that you may need to declare your income for tax. We are not for profit but still needed to make a tax return.

Since starting the North East Sling Library I have helped over 120 families to carry their children. It does take up a lot of my time but I do it because I enjoy it. I love “helping the North East Carry their babies big and small”.

TOP TIPS.

• Get a website or Facebook page
• Like or follow other libraries and related pages
• Have a selection of carriers suitable for all age groups
• Remember you are mostly running as a hobby and that sometimes you have to say no. Your family come first and you physically can’t do everything for everybody.

Finally, good luck and enjoy.

Editors Note: This is a guest post written by Boba Ambassador Rachel. She operates a successful babywearing lending library in the UK. Boba happily supports babywearing lending libraries.

It has been almost two years since our son was newly born, but I can still remember how loved and supported my husband and I felt by our community during that incredibly precious window. Those of you with children know that having a newborn come into your life is a real game changer. No longer are days split between daytime and nighttime, work and sleep, off and on. Instead, you began to operate on a 24-hour clock and sleeping at noon makes perfect sense, as does online banking and eating a hurried meal at 3:00am.

The lack of sleep and the amount of care that our newborns need are challenges that we all meet as new parents. And we do manage to do it, with grace or with muscle, or a lot of both. This is also the perfect time in our life to accept offers of support, as well as to ask for a helping hand when we need it. For some of us, accepting the help of others is challenging because we feel like we should be able to do it all on our own. If this thought pops into your mind, I want to encourage you to remember something really, really important: As a family with a newborn, you and your baby are a vital part of your family and larger community. Your community needs good families and it benefits from being able to share themselves with you during this precious time, so let them pitch in and lighten your load.

Here are five ways that my family and friends supported, loved and carried my family and me during our first year together.

1. Food
Sharing a meal with a new family can mean the world to them. It means one less trip out for groceries. It also means that the time saved by not having to prep, cook and clean can be spent instead on showering, sleeping or family time. We had many meals brought to our home and shared with us during the first three months with our son. I think I can name every dinner and every friend who supported us in this way. Yup, it means that much to have a hot meal delivered and friends to share it with at the end of a long day.

There are so many ways to feed a new family. Before the baby comes, you can help prep meals that will go into the freezer that can be warmed whenever needed. You can also help to organize a meal registry so that friends and family can sign up for a day when they will deliver a meal to the new family. Meal Baby is one free service that can help you with that.

If you do not live near the new family, ask them for a restaurant that they enjoy and give them a gift card so they can grab some healthy take-out when they need it most. You can also Google your loved one’s area to see if there are postpartum doulas who offer mother-baby specific meal services or personal chefs who will deliver a meal at your request.

2. Laundry
During those first few months with my son, it seemed like our washer and dryer were spinning constantly, day and night. One afternoon, I had no less than 5 girlfriends come to our home with food so we could share a potluck lunch, they could play with my son and help me fold ALL of my laundry. Having your own “laundry folding luncheon” means you get time to chat it up with friends, you can eat (yes, chew and swallow!) while your friends love-on your baby and buy you hours of time spent doing something other than folding laundry all by yourself.

If you have a new family in your life, offer to come to by and fold laundry while you visit together and dote on the little one. If you coming by for another reason, then don’t leave without folding a load that is ready to go. It helps new parents so much, plus, you can get your hands on all those cute little clothes and socks!

3. Cleaning
Like with any help given in service to a new family, cleaning is a biggie. If cleaning is your thing then jump right in with two hands and bucket. And if it is not your thing, wiping off the counters and sweeping the floor is quick way to help your loved ones out. You can always gift the family with a few hours from a cleaning service too, if you are far away or faint at the sight of dishpan hands.

Remember, new parents (mothers especially) are spending most of their time at home as they care for their baby and get their feet underneath themselves. Doing all of that in a clean house makes a big, positive impact on a momma’s well being and her family’s life.

4. Shopping
I remember times when I would manage a shower,  then dress myself and my son, get my wallet and our coats, only to need to change his pants or nurse or another one of a million things that would happen while trying to get us out the door. So, if you are going to the market, offer to pick up something and drop it by. If you have more time, offer to drive along with a new mother and her baby so that you can divide and conquer her to-do list. This was always such a big help for me, because if my son fell asleep, then my friend could wait in the car with him and play Angry Birds while I ran into a shop to do my thing.

5. Heart-Centered Availability
Less tangible than the other four, but so incredibly important. New parents need acknowledgment and cheering on. For most of us, we have never tried so hard at something as important as raising our babies well. We are giving them and our families everything we have–body, mind and heart.

When you are exhausted and caked in spit-up, having someone tell you that you are doing great job is a bright ray of sunshine. It can quickly turn a tough day around and it can set you right again. When you are with new mothers and fathers, make time for deep listening as they share their struggles and joys with you. Give them a place to speak without judgement and help them create their own solutions for their families. Encourage parents to listen and explore what their hearts and personal insights are pointing them to. Share what has worked for you as a parent, but leave room for them to see it as a good fit for them, or to pass on it.  Hearing what had worked for a friend, partnered with their loving support, allows us all to find our way in life. It helps us develop and hear our own inner wisdom as parents, which will always serve us and our families in both the short and long run.

When I found out I was pregnant, I knew I would breastfeed. My mother had breastfed me, and my husband’s mother breastfed him. I knew of the benefits, and more importantly, I knew it was the natural choice. I was all for natural “attachment parenting”- I wanted to give birth all naturally, cloth diaper, babywear, leave my son intact, and generally give my son the best start in life. I didn’t buy bottles, and since I was going to be a stay-at-home mom, I laughed at the idea of dropping $200 on a breast pump.

Of course, parenting is not as simple as we anticipate. Sometimes life throws us a curve ball, as I found out. Although I was able to give birth to my son Lucas all-naturally on September 15, 2011 with the help of my amazing doula, I immediately began struggling with breastfeeding. After 3 weeks of nursing exclusively (through bloodied nipples and nonstop tears/meltdowns), another 3.5 weeks of pumping exclusively (still painful), and countless tries to remedy the pain I was feeling, my doula and I came to the conclusion that I had Raynaud’s phenomenon of the nipples. Even though I had dealt with this condition in my hands and feet for all my life, I was still shocked that it could affect my breastfeeding relationship. And on top of all this, I was struggling with severe postpartum depression. My son was 7 weeks old when he got his first bottle of organic formula- and I mourned the loss of the nursing relationship I so longed for.

Although I was still giving my son 6-12 ounces of breast milk per day from my own frozen stash, I knew that wouldn’t last for very long. The nearest breastmilk bank was 4.5 hours away, required a prescription from an OB/pediatrician, gave precedence to severely ill/premature babies, and costs $3 an ounce (not including shipping). So on my doula’s urging, I decided to check out two informal milk-sharing sites called Human Milk 4 Human Babies (HM4HB) and Eats on Feets (EoF). I nervously contacted two mothers in my city who were offering up their extra breastmilk, completely free, out of the goodness of their hearts. My own heart bruised from my own feelings of regret, I prayed they would not judge my inability to continue nursing/pumping. Not only that, but many people I had talked to about donor breast milk seemed very wary of the idea- how do you know that this milk is safe, that the mothers aren’t sick or doing drugs?

Instead of judgment, I found kindness from these donor milk moms who were just trying to help out, who had the same belief as me- breast milk is the normal, natural, perfect food for our babies. In fact, one of these first two moms is now a very close friend, and despite her daughter being over a year old, she continues to nurse her and pump about 6 ounces a day for my son! (I also told her about the Boba 3G, and she’s now a regular babywearing momma!)

Since the end of October/early November, my son has had 10 donors, and at 24 weeks old, he stopped needing any supplementary formula. I got to know these women, saw them pumping and/or feeding their children, and many of them offered up copies of their blood work and medical history. One of them was an elementary school friend of mine, another went to school with my husband since they were just kids, and a third was my sister-in-law’s high school buddy. All of them did it out of generosity, not for profit (which both HM4HB and EoF strictly prohibit). Through their donations, I have made many amazing momma friends from all over California, and even two from Oregon and Colorado.

I learned that it is possible to practice “attachment parenting” while bottle-feeding. I hold my son in my arms as I feed him (instead of propping his bottle or making him hold it on his own) and try to emulate the nursing relationship. Whenever we are out, I avoid using our stroller and instead opt to carry him close in the Boba 3G. I respond to his cries and avoid rigid feeding/sleeping schedules.

I never thought, in a million years, that I wouldn’t be able to breastfeed my son. However, I am so thankful that I have made friends with so many selfless women. Every new donor momma that I meet, I take a photo of them with my son. One day I hope to share these photos and the story of his milky mommas with my son.