​OK, first off, I am not a fan of the term “geriatric pregnancy”. It has negative connotations and I don’t think anyone aged 35 (or over) is geriatric anything. In fact, I am not a huge fan of the term “geriatric” in general even for our advanced aged friends. What I will tell you is that despite the recent article about Joanna Gaines feeling younger now that she’s had her 5th baby at age 40, I most definitely do NOT feel younger with a young infant at 44! So, friends, I present to you the top 10 signs you *may* be experiencing a geriatric pregnancy or *may* be a geriatric parent. This ..read more

Prenatal nutrition is critical to establishing a strong foundation for overall pregnancy outcomes. Eating healthfully can impact risk factors for gestational diabetes, anemia, and other vitamin deficiencies.  ​ I received a copy of REAL FOOD for PREGNANCY during my most recent pregnancy. When I looked through this book I noticed that it recommended a diet similar to the one that I was already following after having bloodwork done and realizing I needed extra nutritional support. Now that baby is here, this book has resonated with me even more having experienced some complications du ..read more

A sweet 3 month old Amelie. It only feels fair to share my 2nd born's breastfeeding story on the day of her birth also. Amelie was born in Belgium on 5/15  weighing in at 5# 15oz at 38 weeks. I felt so confident in breastfeeding since I had breastfed her sister for 2 years. I felt like a subject matter expert! And, in the hospital, everything went really well with feeding. I had no pain when she latched, no significant weight loss. She was ever so slightly jaundiced, but having 2 risk factors for jaundice (being part Asian and having a sibling who was jaundiced), I wasn’t surprised, and n ..read more

sweet Clara at her first Easter (about 10 days old) ​Happy Easter and Happy Birthday to my first born! I have been wanting to revive the blog for a while now and was inspired by Easter also being Clara’s birthday. Without her, I don’t know that I would’ve changed career fields to become a lactation consultant.   During my pregnancy, I actually hadn’t thought much about breastfeeding at all. I did not take a breastfeeding class other than the session in my childbirth education series when we discussed breastfeeding. When people would ask if I planned to breastfeed, my response was always t ..read more

Olympia Lactation is expanding its services! We are excited to announce office visits will now be available.  AND, the best part about these office visits is that we can accept most insurance! What this means is that the same care you receive in your home will be offered in a home-like office setting.  These appointments will be up to 90 minutes in length, thorough, and you will leave with a plan to help meet your breastfeeding goals. Follow-up visits will be available so that we can continue to track your progress.    These visits will be overseen by a physician so ..read more

It's summer time! Many people take trips or family vacations during this time. If you are traveling with a newborn or infant/toddler, here's a few tips that may be helpful. Having lived overseas for the entire time my children were little (under 3), we have flown and traveled a lot with them and I'm hoping I can pass on a few tips that may help: if you have a newborn, you may be tempted to stay close to home and not go anywhere. Don't! If this is your first baby, NOW (less than 6 months old) is the time to get your travel on! Babies are soooo much easier to travel with than an antsy toddler ..read more

I am so excited to announce that Olympia Lactation will be offering a weekly breastfeeding support group! Some of my closest friends are those that I met who had babies similar in age to mine and who were also deep in the trenches of parenting. Weekly, we'd come together for coffee, chat, and to breastfeed. I have been wanting to offer this since moving to the area because I feel it's such an important piece of parenting - to have a safe place to go and feel supported OR to just have some adult conversations that didn't necessarily revolve around babies, breastfeeding or being tired. These we ..read more

Here in the PNW, we have been catching glimpses of summer – with (finally!) warm temps and beautiful sunny days! With the warmer temps parents often wonder if baby needs extra water to stay hydrated. The short answer is no. Breastmilk will keep your baby hydrated. Breastmilk is 88% water! Breastmilk is designed to meet baby’s nutritional requirements for both hunger *AND* thirst.  Sometimes babies want to feed, not because they are hungry, but because they are thirsty. Allowing baby unlimited access to feeds will ensure he or she is getting adequate amount of milk to quench his or her th ..read more

IBCLC is not a term that everyone is familiar with. So if you happened to see “Happy IBCLC Day!” somewhere on social media recently and thought to yourself: what the heck is that and why is it happy? I am here to explain.  IBCLC is an acronym that stands for International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. It’s a credential that is awarded after years of clinical training, lactation education, and successful completion of a board exam. The cool thing about IBCLCs is that we are internationally recognized so that if someone is an IBCLC, it means regardless of the country we are in, we ..read more

​Last night, my entire neighborhood lost power for no apparent reason.  No storm, no planned outage - it just flickered once and then went out in the middle of dinner.  I talked to my kiddos about what it means when the power is out and what all is impacted (they are 4 and 7). Since we were eating, I explained that we couldn't heat up any more food in the microwave because it's run on power (don't judge  - it was leftover night and we are fancy!).  I also talked about how I didn't want them opening the refrigerator and just standing there - I don't really know anyone's chi ..read more