Baby Petey seems to have radar for two things. He can always sense when I sit down with a hot plate of food or when I open up the laptop. I have started and stopped this blog three times to nurse him. I guess this is my sign to write about nursing.
I have nursed all four of my boys and have fond and very funny memories of every one. Each time is different and each time is the same.
It starts off in the hospital with the always energetic and passionate lactation consultants. They are concerned with one thing and one thing only… breasts. You learn lots of new vocabulary like latch, let down and colostrum. You also learn an array of positions like the football and cradle hold. Lactation consultants are not shy and hopefully you aren’t either. If your modesty isn’t gone yet from the recent birth it will disappear in the coming months.
When you leave the hospital, you may as well leave topless because for the next few months you are going to be nothing more than a one woman dairy farm. If you must return to work you will soon be introduced to the breast pump. If you didn’t feel like part of a dairy farm before, I guarantee this will do the trick especially if you get the industrial strength double pump. It even comes with an adaptor for the cigarette lighter in the car. Although not recommended, I have been known to pump and drive. Imagine pulling up next to me at the stoplight. You quickly fill your freezer with tiny bags of milk. You learn to save even the smallest amounts. Your milk becomes a precious commodity. I can remember being furious with an airport once when they made me throw out a bottle of breast milk at a security check point. I decided to punish them by sitting just past the checkpoint and nursing my baby without the appropriate coverage. I think this probably went unnoticed by airport staff, but I felt better.
Speaking of appropriate coverage, with the birth of my third I purchased a great invention called the Hooter Hider. It’s really called this. It’s basically a blanket with a neck strap. This allows you to nurse the baby without having to hold your blanket in place. I no longer care about my own modesty but I do have a little sympathy for the general public and don’t enjoy embarrassing my own children when we are out. After the birth of baby Petey, on one of our first outings, my four year old Tommy begged me, “Mommy, please don’t get your breasts out at the YMCA.”
When you decide to nurse you open the door to lots and lots of advice. I tend to ignore most of this however, I do believe in the super healing powers of breast milk. None of my children were ever on antibiotics while nursing. My favorite piece of advice was when Finn, my number three child, was a newborn with a little eye infection. The doctor offered antibiotics but then ask if I was nursing. When I told him I was, he suggested I put a drop of breast milk in his eye every hour until the infection disappears. He told me milk was more powerful than any antibiotic. He was right. This leads up to my most recent and favorite nursing memory. Finn recently woke up with what looked like the dreaded pink eye. It was Memorial Day and I wasn’t getting him in to see the doctor any time soon. I quickly remembered the breast milk remedy and it just so happened that I seem to have an endless supply. Scott, my very cooperative husband, chased Finn down and pried his little eyelids open. It’s hard to produce milk on command, but the thought of dragging all four of the children to the doctor with weeping pink eyes gave me the inspiration. For the first few doses we tried to be discrete but for his third dose we happened to trap him in the living room. We proceeded as we had previously but his time we had an audience. Finn probably won’t remember this but his older brothers who were fascinated and full of giggles probably will. Gavin is six and will no doubt remember me doing this to his little brother. It was harmless now however it may come up later in therapy or a toast by the best man at Finn’s wedding.
Nursing my boys has been a great experience. I am not sure how much they will ever appreciate it but I am glad that it worked out for us. It gave me the chance to form inseparable bonds with each of them, kept them all healthy and created some very funny family memories for us. I would love to share some more nursing anecdotes but it has been fifteen minutes since Petey last ate so as you can imagine he is starving again and it’s time to nurse.
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