For many years, I was always an animal lover. My goal in life was to have a career with animals. My areas of interest were animal behavior and animal husbandry. I pursued a college degree in Zoology and wanted to transfer from my local state college to the University of Florida. My plan was to transfer after I had earned my Associate's Degree. But does anything in life ever go according to plan? Not always!
In the middle of my final year of the local state college, my high school sweetheart decided to join the military. At this time we had been together for almost five years, so we knew we wanted to get married. I had to prepare myself for a whole new life! After he proposed, we had 11 weeks to plan a wedding, 9 weeks to finish my final classes for my AA degree, and plan for a move all the way from the sunny beaches of Florida to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. We said our "I do's" in December and moved to Colorado shortly after Christmas.
Shortly after we got settled in, we decided to try to start a family. In February, I read the word "pregnant" on the pregnancy test! I decided to put my school/career plans on hold until after the baby was born. Towards the end of my pregnancy, I was always asked the same question at the beginning of my doctor appointments. "Do you intend to breastfeed or formula feed your baby?" I didn't know much about breastfeeding. All I knew was that it was good for the baby and my husband and his siblings were all breastfed babies. So, I said that I wanted to try. I did not read about it or attend the classes because I was still not 100% sure that I would be successful at it.
After 12 hours of active labor, an occurrence of my water breaking at Denny's (No Lie!!), and 3 (Yes, 3!!) hours of pushing we welcomed our baby boy into the world with loving arms. We initiated breastfeeding within the first hour after his birth and he latched right away! I knew then that I was going to commit to this. I loved the bond my son and I developed. I set a goal to breastfeed him for the whole first year.
After many latch issues and some plugged ducts we mastered breastfeeding. And now my son is 10 months old and going strong. I plan to start the weaning process around his first birthday.
When I had friends asking me about breastfeeding, I realized that I really enjoyed spreading the knowledge based off of what I had learned and based off of my experiences. It dawned on me that I should consider becoming a Lactation Consultant. I am now attending a school to help me prepare for the IBCLE exam. I am majoring in Maternal Child Health: Lactation Consulting. I have also earned a certificate as a Certified Lactation Counselor.
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