TC birth photographer

09/07/2026

😴🥰💞

Research tells us that babies who co-sleep in infancy, especially in those early years get around 13,000 extra hours of touch.

Thirteen thousand.

Because when you keep your baby close, day and night, they’re getting 10 to 12 extra hours a day of your skin, your warmth, your presence.

That’s not spoiling.
That’s wiring.

Touch is brain food.
It releases oxytocin, serotonin…
It lowers cortisol.

It teaches your baby’s body how to feel safe.
How to come back to calm.

We actually have studies showing
co -sleeping babies have lower stress reactivity meaning their little bodies bounce back from stress faster.

That’s not dependence.
That’s coregulation.
That’s safety being built from the inside out.

So the next time you’re contact napping,
bed sharing, doing whatever gets you both some rest and someone tells you you’re creating bad habits, remember this ~

You’re not creating a clingy baby.
You’re creating a resilient one 🖤

The Breastmilk Queen - Amy McGlade

09/07/2026

What do you think Traverse City?

09/07/2026

Women are amazing ❤️

09/07/2026

This ♥️

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FFLWDgMtu/

“I support breastfeeding, BUT…”

I’m gonna stop you right there.

Because apparently breastfeeding is beautiful, natural, and worthy of support… right up until a child reaches whatever completely arbitrary age makes someone else uncomfortable.

The other day I commented on a post of a mother breastfeeding her school aged daughter.

Someone said they “support breastfeeding,” BUT there should be a stopping point and after two is old enough.

I replied that you really can’t say you support breastfeeding and then immediately follow it with a “but” and a list of conditions.

Then somehow my own aunt found the post. 😭

She mad reacted to my comment and started liking comments saying breastfeeding mothers are “attention seekers,” that mothers should get affection from their significant others instead of their children, and that once a child can drink from a cup, mom should pump because they don’t “need” to nurse directly anymore.

And THAT is exactly why we still need to normalize breastfeeding beyond infancy.

Somewhere along the way society decided breastfeeding has an expiration date.

Newborn nursing? Beautiful. 🥹
Six month old nursing? Amazing.
One year old nursing? Still acceptable.
Toddler walks over and ASKS to nurse?

Suddenly everybody loses their damn minds.

My daughter turns two in less than two weeks.

Yes, she walks.

Yes, she talks.

Yes, she can ask for her “boobies.”

And no, that does not magically make breastfeeding inappropriate.

She is still little.

She is still learning how to navigate a huge world with a tiny nervous system. She still comes to me for comfort, connection, safety, nourishment and reassurance.

And I am not going to force her to give that up because a grown adult decided she crossed some imaginary line.

Maybe she'll wean in a few months.

Maybe it'll be another year.

I don't know.

Because our breastfeeding relationship belongs to HER and ME.

Not my aunt.

Not Facebook.

Not the woman in the grocery store.

Not the stranger typing “that's disgusting” from behind a phone.

And honestly?

I wish we didn't even need labels like “extended breastfeeding.”

It's just breastfeeding.

A mother nursing her child doesn't suddenly become sexual, inappropriate, attention seeking, or weird because that child had another birthday.

If seeing an older child breastfeed makes you uncomfortable, you are allowed to feel uncomfortable.

But your discomfort does not automatically mean someone else is doing something wrong.

You don't have to breastfeed that long.

You don't even have to understand it.

But you can keep scrolling without degrading mothers who do.

Because women tearing apart other women for nurturing their own children will never be the kind of “support” breastfeeding mothers need.

Normalize letting breastfeeding families decide when their journey is finished.

Not society.

Not strangers.

Them. ❤️

08/09/2026