Nah, urban population surpassed rural sometime before 1920. [link]

This is what happens when I start telling lies.

Pants on fire!

JZ, your breasts can supply it fine. They just prefer real baby doing the milking, rather than a machine. It's completely normal and really, it's way more natural. Of course Matilda's going to be better at getting milk from you. You're at work. There is no shame in supplementing with formula if you have to, and it's not going to harm her. She'll still be getting the benefits of breast milk at home.

It's so hard to be a new mother. Please don't beat yourself up because a natural process performed by your body functions better when it receives natural stimulation. That's like getting mad at yourself because a vibrator doesn't take you out to dinner.

Cindy, let it be known that I choked on my Diet Pepsi.

Also, that I *really* wish someone had told me that, in those words, back when I was flipping like a mammal about my production issues with the pump.

It's not their fault that we don't have maternity leave that allows for the recommended nursing time in the US.

Ah, that old familiar rant. Family leave policies in the US and how often, how profoundly they conflict with family care recommendations in the US, are best not thought on too long as it leads to 'splodey heads.

That's like getting mad at yourself because a vibrator doesn't take you out to dinner.

I'm still bitter, but, heh. This is lovely.

And I choked and snorfled my Diet Coke. If that's not COMM-able, I don't know what is.

Cindy hits it right out of the park.

Aw, I'm sorry, Plei. I was never a very successful nurser, although I gave it the old school try with all three children, so I don't like to say too much about it, too often.

In theory, I think breast feeding is the only way to fly. In practice, something always kept me from succeeding much or for too long. I never want to discourage anyone. because I didn't get great support. Dh's family thought I was nuts for trying. My mother nursed me, but her support amounted to her saying she never had a problem and that I'd get the hang of it (in all fairness to my mum, she doesn't know I feel that way, and I know in my heart she wasn't trying to undermine me, she just didn't understand what kind of support I needed, and her attempts to make it less intimdating just backfired).

What Cindy and Plei said. Also, I never was much good at the pump thing, but found that I could fill bags on one side while the baby was on the other side. I am so very grateful that I was able to take the boys to work with me. Bobby's first day at the office was when he was 7 days old. That freedom was a blessing for being able to nurse, but also note I had no excuse not to be back at work after a whole 1 week off.

Parents, all we can do is the best we can.

Ach, Cindy, I'm sorry. How frustrating that must have been all the way around, the not-what-you-needed support and the active unsupport and your own difficulties. In talking with friends on and offline, I've come to the conclusion that it's almost always fraught, even when it's going well.

I have a several cookbooks from the 40s/50s and there are recipes for "City Chicken" where chunks of meat are cut in different sizes, skewered and rolled in crumbs to look like a chicken leg and then fried.

The mock chicken leg! A staple of grade school cafeterias everywhere.