Family Photographer Seattle | Meet Krystal
For those who do not know I have been working with families for free to get their portraits in the park breastfeeding, in honor of Breastfeeding Awareness Month. I have been doing a FLASH ALERT on my Facebook Page – I post a date and time and those who can make it message me, the first 2 to message me get the spot! It has been a fun and rewarding experience as a photographer.
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Krystal’s Journey Breastfeeding
“We were like two puzzle pieces.
I had no idea what to expect when it came to breastfeeding my son after he was born. The first time I had ever seen a woman breastfeeding was on the 132 in South Park on the way to Downtown Seattle in 2007. I was 26 years old and she was a Latino woman with a newborn son hidden in a soft blanket. I smiled at her and she smiled back. I thought it was a beautiful thing and that she had real guts to be feeding her baby on the bus.
No one in my family had ever breastfed. The only woman I knew who did in my family was highly criticized – especially since she chose to breastfeed her daughter until she was three. My family thought it was a path to spoiling your child, just like holding a baby or picking them up too quickly if they were crying. Everything spoils a child. To me it seemed like love spoils a child – and if that’s the case, I love spoiling my son.
When Jorian was born after an intense, long labor that spanned a weekend – I held him to my chest after crying out for him in a raw and roaring way. Where is my baby! My husband still gets chills thinking about the way I cried out for my son. No one told me that I had a son even and the surprise was magical. Prior to my birth, I had watched the famous “Infant Crawl” video; the one where a tiny newborn crawls up his mother’s chest minutes after being born and begins to suckle out of pure instinct. I was determined that my baby would have this chance to try it out on his own. And he did. He knew exactly what to do. With a small bit of help from our Doula after that first tiny latch – we were doing it!
I was lucky. I had no idea what I was doing, but nature simply took over. And being too tired to be neurotic about it helped I am sure. I tend to overthink – but in those moments it was easy. It was relief from such a hard birth. It was magical and he was my new baby.
Things got a little harder from there. It was toe-curlingly painful until my milk came in. And when my milk came in… HA… that was a weird feeling. For days I felt like I had a giant inflatable pool tube around my chest. I went on to “suffer” from oversupply until about 5 months. I leaked milk everywhere and constantly water-boarded my son. He would gasp for breath and spit and choke every time he nursed. Then we learned how to nurse lying down and everything changed.
I count myself fortunate that my son and I have been able to tackle breastfeeding with ease. We are both determined and strong-willed, so if we had had problems I know we would have overcome them. At 8 months old we are still going strong and at 17 months since his conception – we are still puzzle pieces.”
More on Tilly Goble – Seattle Family Photographer click here.