I met Jamie in 2009 when her son Aram was just 6 months old & I was pregnant with my daughter Ashlynn. We were both in a cloth diapering/baby wearing mommy group & I was doing pictures for several of the girls. When I saw her facebook I knew that she was going to be a fascinating person. She had a Serval/Savannah cat posted in her photos & since I am absolutely IN LOVE & intrigued with these cats. I was so excited to meet someone who had one. We got in touch and she asked me to take some artistic nudes of her. Not the kind that show everything but the implied nudes kind. I was totally thrilled because she said she was willing to let me use the images on my website, and lets face it, most women are not confident to let me do that! Even though the session was 3 years ago it is STILL my absolute favorite boudoir session to date! You can for your self why I love it see it here.
She had told me that she was looking into adopting a baby or child from Ethiopia. In 2010 that dream came true for her & her husband. She’s made a couple of amazing videos that seriously brought tears to my eyes. As we all know from the cover of Time Magazine Jamie is pro breastfeeding to what some consider an extreme. What you don’t know is that Jamie is an amazingly sweet & unjudging person. I have trouble nursing my children. I have something called IGT Even taking about 100 pills/supplements a day & nursing/pumping like crazy I couldn’t produce more than 1 oz of milk for my baby. When I was heart broken about this & looked to other mom’s for advice and support almost ALL of them were so hurtful & judgmental. They called me a bad mother who was just being lazy & didn’t care about my child. These women are considered Lactivist or lactation activists. Although they are extremely educated in the benefits of nursing, many are also very uneducated about women who physically cannot nurse. Out of all of them women I talked to there was only one group of women who were there for me. It was my cloth diapering group! The amazing woman who created the group Mandi, is an awesome Doula & Birth educator who owns Peachy Keen. In the group I met a handful of completely non-judgmental, open, helpful & completely supportive people. Jamie was among those people. Even with how pro breastfeeding she is, she NEVER once judged me for not being able to. A while back she even started posting on her awesome blog about women’s breastfeeding stories. She even included my story as well as others who had trouble nursing or just didn’t want to nurse at all. It was refreshing to see someone who was an extended nurser who was so open to learning about other people. That in and of itself to me speaks worlds about Jamie & her family. I hear so many negative things that last few days about Jamie & her nursing her son. To that I really just shake my head & my heart goes out to her. Even though so many people are judging her, she doesn’t judge them. She is open to talking about different ways of raising a child and will be the first one to tell you that there is no way better than another. Every parent has to do what is right for their individual family dynamics. I look forward to seeing what comes from Jamie in the future & how she can get the word out about Attachment Parenting. Take a minute to see her interview on the Today show http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/47385461#47385461 and read her interview with Time Magazine . I hope that everyone can at the least be kind, regardless of whether this is something you would do or not, I hope people start to realize there is no ONE right way to parent a child. Best wishes to Jamie!
