Breastfeeding Week

In honour of breastfeeding week I thought I should post a little something about my experience breastfeeding.
Just as soon as I can put this BFing/wiggly baby down and type with two hands.

[next day]

It all began with Abi.  She latched on straight away at home.  Even when we were in the NICU (she had fluid in her lungs) and she had tubes in her nose, she nursed.  And nursed.

We'd nurse on the go in the sling. We'd nurse at the cafe. We'd nurse in bed (co-sleeping).  We'd nurse upside down - the little monkey.  Here she was, above, being a goof at a year and some months old.  We did a lot of diaper free time that summer as she was very good at walking herself over to the potty and we'd been practicing Elimination Communication since she was three months old.  (Doing it with the twins too.)

Abi nursed for three and half years. She told me she'd be done at three, and then all of a sudden she didn't want to be three anymore... I love nursing and we were mostly cuddle-nursing once a day by that point. However, when the babies (or, as I thought at the time, baby - singular) were conceived, I jumped on the opportunity/excuse.  One morning I told Abi she couldn't nurse anymore because mommy needed that energy to grow a baby.  She accepted that reason and that was the end of that. I think she asked twice more if she might nurse but didn't fight it.  She did have the idea that she could nurse again after the baby was born - when the baby nurses.  I figured we'd cross that bridge when we got to it because I was quite certain that after nine months she wouldn't be asking again so there wasn't much point in arguing with her. Having twins made that argument mute. Two babies and two breasts = no room for Abi.

Simulation of TAAT nursing - while knitting. They were nursing until they fell asleep.

And then there were twins.  They latched on right away as well.  I did, however, have cracked and bleeding nipples at first - but we persevered.  In retrospect I realized I had not been giving enough attention to their latch, which was further complicated by the babies being tongue-tied.  I'd forgotten what it was like to nurse a newborn after three years of nursing a kiddo. I took it for granted that babies can get a good latch and wasn't watching positioning very well. Mea culpa.  (It certainly would have been more useful if the hospital's lactation consultant visited moms on the first day rather than minutes before they leave the hospital - we even had to wait on her. If I'd been able to have a midwife again, it would not have been an issue.  But I digress.)  We also had to do some bottle feeding of Lucy (with formula, so she'd gain weight/ get her blood sugar up so we could leave the hospital) and a little with Claire as my milk was coming in and the piglet was hungry and in need of a top up after nursing.

After the frenectomy things went much more smoothly, latch was corrected, nipples healed. We're still going strong with nursing. Sometimes two at a time. More often each in turn.  They don't like bottles any more; Abi never took a bottle, neither.

Yes I spend a lot of time nursing, but it's not more time consuming than bottle-feeding (which would involve extra steps of bottle preparation). Breastfeeding is so much more portable too.

It needs to be said, in addition, that Robin makes this much easier.  He feeds me. He changes a diaper while I'm nursing. He brings babies over. He burps a baby.  He keeps Abi occupied.  He feeds us. (Did I mention that already? Well it's vitally important.)  My parents are a great help right now too!

I'm so immersed in breastfeeding again that I can't imagine an end. Oh, I know it will come and that when it does that will be it. No more future babies [knock on wood] to nurse. It will be sad.

As a final note, I've known friends who breastfed large babies and I wondered how the babies got so huge. Abi was always so petite.  Then I had Claire!  She's up in the 80th percentile while her identical twin is down in the 10th percentile - all on the same breastmilk.