The wonderful Christian Peachey Travis, mother to 4 - bonus children Alexis (20) and Grant (12) and bio kids Liam (7) and Bianca "Bee" (2).
Christian says that the odds were against her when it came to having a family and she has struggled with loving her body due to her journey. She has a congenital heart defect and was told by a former cardiologist after going into cardiac arrest at 15 that she most likely wouldn’t live to graduate from high school. Having a family wasn’t even something that she thought about but she says she lives every single day of her life to prove him wrong.
After giving birth to her son, Christian was shocked at the changes that had happened to her body. Her birth hadn't gone as planned and she felt like giving up struggling with postpartum depression and then not being able to breast feed him after he was 11 days old.
Her pregnancy with Bianca was so different and she had hopes of an unmedicated delivery, which she knew would be very difficult with her medical issues, and also hoped to breast feed longer than she had with Liam. Christian read every book she could find, hired a doula, met with her OB and cardiologist about delivery, and set what she thought was an obtainable goal to breastfeed for 12 days (just one day more than Liam).
Christian says that Bianca's birth was perfect, her delivery was everything she had hoped for, she latched immediately and didn’t lose any weight in the hospital. They went home a happy family but within 2 days of being home Bianca lost almost a pound and was continuing to lose weight. Christian developed postpartum anxiety and says that she will never forget the months of not sleeping because of constantly nursing, using an SNS to supplement, attempting bottle feedings, pumping, and trying to get their baby girl healthy.
Two days after coming home from the hospital Christian went to a breastfeeding support group and continued to go, sometimes twice a week, along with weight checks at the pediatrician.
Scrolling through Facebook during a middle of the night feeding she found 4 th Trimester Bodies, and sobbed looking through the pictures and reading the stories, knowing she wasn't alone. Christian made it 12 days breastfeeding and kept going, soon after, she became friends with some other mom’s and a lactation consultant at the support group who were also struggling. Their friendship quickly grew into a small group of lifelong friends who would raise their babies side by side through tears and joy. "We began calling ourselves the Boobcrew, our husbands were our bras because they were so very supportive. Thanks to the Boobcrew, we found out that most of the issues we were having were from a tongue and lip tie that had been missed for 6 months. We quickly had it fixed, it was the best decision we made."
Since having Bee, Christian has gone through another heart surgery and an emergency appendectomy. They continued to breastfeed through these and she says her husband fought like hell to make it happen. Through breastfeeding and the people Christian has met along the way, she says she has learned that her body is perfect, not only did it carry her babies, but it has nourished them.
"This body is me, would I love to have my old ripped to the bone body back, sure why not, but I am ok with every stretch mark, every scar, every ounce of imperfection. This is my perfection."