Her Story.

Episode 24       Mary Larsen is an author of Tallmomtinybaby.com She is married to Blake she is a musician, educator, TV personality, podcaster and mom to a rambunctious toddler boy and a 6 month old baby girl. Mary was a teacher, turned host, turned podcaster.

Mary starts off by explaining to us how she came up with the name for her business. It all has to do with, believe it or not, how tall she is compared to the rest of Rhode Island. Mary is a middle child. Her mom breastfed all 3 children and at age 40 was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had a mastectomy and is doing well. She had a loving childhood and tells us that having an older sister who is severely mentally and physically handicapped has taught her to be a strong person and to be grateful for every experience she has and to be a patient person. Mary reveals that she met her husband on match.com back in the days when it was kind of “racy.” She knew as a youngster that she would always want to be around kids and music. She is grateful that she has built her career around her family and music and what makes her happy each day. Mary shares with us that she had a very easy time with breastfeeding from the beginning with her baby crawling up to the breast right after birth and she says that it was one of the coolest things that ever happened to her. She realized she had an abundant supply, so much milk that it was spraying all over the place. This actually became a problem for her because it caused her breast pain and the need to pump frequently. Her lactation consultant suggested a care plan to lower her supply so her son could have more comfortable feedings. She went through dealing with oversupply issues and then colic and dealt with it, but realizes now that she was not taking good care of herself and she just did not know any different. She felt this is what life was like with a newborn. Mary was quite transparent and talked about suffering from postpartum depression, which was diagnosed at about 1 year postpartum. Her postpartum reaction was severe and she needed an inpatient program to recover and take care of herself. Listen to her story as she shares from the heart as she had to make some very hard choices. Mary tells us about how she got into blogging and podcasting. She started blogging because she wanted to share stories about her role as a parent and have fun with it. She shares the microphone with her husband Blake on Parentpodcast where she talks about topics that she wanted to learn more information about.

Quote – “I just want to feel normal and I wanted to feel like I can feed my child and I am not in pain and I am not hooked up to a pump all the time.” I really didn’t enjoy pumping.”

Lesson learned: I am very concerned about postpartum depression with my new baby. So I have taken several precautions to help myself. I have had my placenta encapsulated so that I can have this available for when my daughter begins to wean. I plan on taking these capsules when my daughter begins solids. I continue to check in with my physician. My loved ones know what to look out for. They know that I am susceptible to ppd and I want their eyes on me. If they notice anything, they will tell me and I will seek professional help immediately. I do worry that I might have postpartum depression, however, I am confident that with my new found knowledge, it does not have to ever get to be as bad as it was.

Tales from the breast: I love breastfeeding on the go. It is here, something special, it is free. I just love that her food source is available wherever I go and at just the right temperature.

Funny stuff: Her oversupply caused her to have some upsetting experiences as well as some funny experiences. She went out in a dress one day and was devastated when she realized she leaked so much that her heart shaped breast pads got soaked and showed up through her dress.

Heartfelt breastfeeding moment: I had an interesting experience with my son who weaned at 1 years old. He was 2 years old when I was naked and changing and pregnant and in the third trimester and he was on my bed and he looked up at my breast and he said milk and he signed milk. It was like some switch went off in his mind. He had not nursed in a very long time and I was not reading books with him about it. I thought how cool it was that he acknowledged something that he knew instinctually. He saw his mothers breasts and he remembered. He smiled. It was a really really cool moment. It really made me feel good and it took me aback. I just did not think he could remember back that far so long ago.

Confessions of a Breastfeeding Mother: I was Christmas shopping with my daughter. I now have this babywearing and nursing thing down to a “T”. When she is hungry, I don’t need to stop what I am doing. All I do is lift this flap in my shirt and she is eating. I am shopping, drinking my coffee, and I am happy as I can be and I have such little chuckles to myself and I am thinking noone really knows but I am nursing while I am shopping, picking out presents, picking out bows. I am nursing my baby on the go. this is really fast food for my baby.. I don’t need my boppy or anything else, I just feed her on the go.

Words of Wisdom to a new mother: Even if you are scared about breast cancer, you can still do it. Breastfeeding reduces your risk factor for getting breast cancer. And now that I am breastfeeding my daughter, it may be something little, but knowing that I am actively doing something that will reduce my risk of getting breast cancer, and I am also doing this same thing for my daughter. This makes me feel really good.

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