Jessica Simpson posted a photo of "what success feels like," and it doesn't have anything to do with her owning her own companies or topping music charts. Nope, for Jessica, success these days feels like pumping a bottle full of breast milk.
Jessica just gave birth to her third child, baby girl Birdie, in March. She wasn't shy about sharing the harder parts of her pregnancy, from swollen feet to acid reflux, with fans on social media. And now she's not shy about celebrating the small victories of mothering a newborn.
The singer and designer posted a photo on Instagram of a bottle filled to the brim with pumped breast milk.
"This is what success feels like," she captioned the photo.
Some moms completely understood why Jessica felt so proud. That's a lot of milk, and pumping ain't easy!!! Other moms, though, took issue with Jessica's use of the word "success." Many women can't or don't want to breastfeed, and that doesn't make them any less successful.
Jessica Simpson just gave birth to her youngest child, Birdie, on March 19. She and her husband Eric Johnson also share two older children: Ace, 5, and Maxi, almost 7.
Jessica has been incredibly open on social media about her motherhood journey. Her fans are well aware that her pregnancy with Birdie was quite the roller coaster.
Jessica experienced VERY swollen feet, which she begged her fans to please help her with. She ended up using cupping to reduce the swelling a bit.
She also had bronchitis twice during the pregnancy.
"Sending love and prayers to all the mothers who are going or have gone through this. OUCH," she wrote on Instagram.
Plus, her acid reflux got so bad that she had to sleep in a reclining chair. Also, there was that one time she broke the toilet seat by sitting on it while pregs. Fun times!
And then baby Birdie finally arrived via C-section. Jessica "had the best attitude about her recovery," per People, and everyone in the family was ecstatic about the new addition to the family.
But Jessica's days of posting relatable and all-too-real mom content are far from over. The other day, she shared a photo of a bottle full of her pumped breast milk.
Alongside the photo was the caption, "This is what success feels like," plus a cow emoji for good measure.
As any mom knows, it can be challenging to pump that much milk, which is probably why Jessica felt the need to celebrate!
In the comments, some other moms celebrated right along with her.
"Dang girl! Get ittt," wrote Hilary Duff, who also has an infant at home.
Other moms, though, were really not into Jessica's caption. The idea that a full bottle of milk = "success" can be hurtful to moms who can't or don't want to breastfeed.
Other moms admitted that, yeah, the photo and caption made them feel pretty jealous.
"What I wouldn’t have giveeeen for such a successful pump!" one mom wrote.
A few moms even asked Jessica for her tips and tricks for getting so much milk from pumping.
Some commenters reassured other moms that breastfeeding is different for everyone, and not getting as much milk doesn't mean you're doing something wrong!
Fans also jumped in to defend Jessica from the critics. They pointed out that she was just trying to celebrate a personal accomplishment, not to define success or failure for all moms everywhere.
Because the meaning of success is different for everyone, and a happy baby is a happy baby.
