I had never given birth or lost clumps of my hair or cried over a Dawn commercial (oh wait, I did do that...). I had never stayed up for the better part of a 24 hour-day....6 weeks in a row, or bartered with a wild animal or iced a hemorrhoid.
Back in those days, I thought breast feeding looked easy. Easy. Natural.
It wasn't until a good friend of mine had a baby, years before I even contemplated children, that I considered the difficulties of breast feeding.
We were discussing every detail of her birth and postpartum period and I finally asked "how is breastfeeding going", quite casually.
"Well", she said "it's the most unnatural natural thing you'll ever do".
Hmmmm, really? I wasn't even sure what, exactly, that meant?
Until the day came when I was doubled over in pain, trying to feed a baby from scabbed, candida laden nipples, of course. Then I understood. Oh, yes. Natural. Unnatural. Natural? Unnatural?
Just a few weeks ago I was talking with a friend about her recent experience breastfeeding her second newborn and I loved what she said....
Breastfeeding is ridiculously air-brushed. I think well-meaning people don't want to discourage women from attempting it, but it's a bad strategy. I keep having these hysterical moments when I'm sitting in a chair with a feeding tube taped to my nipple and a bag of milk clipped to my shirt, and I tell [her partner], "Breastfeeding. It's the most natural thing in the world."
Hysterical. And completely heartbreaking.
I've struggled through two difficult breastfeeding periods. With my first, things never really got "easy". After 14 months, I let the weaning happen.....with mixed feelings of sorrow and relief.
This time around, things were so tough again! Unbelievable. Hadn't I done this before? Well sure, I had, but my little babe hadn't. It was a completely new experience. Thankfully, she got the hang of things fairly quickly and I got the hang of things not too long after and, by the looks of these legs, things are going pretty well.
I finally feel those pure rushes of joy and contentment I expected from nursing. Breastfeeding feels calm and beautiful and easy and...dare I say, natural.
Chubby legs = happiness.
Anyway, I just wanted to give a shout out to all those super-moms out there who've made the attempt. Because it's hard. It's so, so hard and whether you've breastfed for one day or 3 years, you deserve a round of applause!
Just a few weeks ago I was talking with a friend about her recent experience breastfeeding her second newborn and I loved what she said....
Breastfeeding is ridiculously air-brushed. I think well-meaning people don't want to discourage women from attempting it, but it's a bad strategy. I keep having these hysterical moments when I'm sitting in a chair with a feeding tube taped to my nipple and a bag of milk clipped to my shirt, and I tell [her partner], "Breastfeeding. It's the most natural thing in the world."
Hysterical. And completely heartbreaking.
I've struggled through two difficult breastfeeding periods. With my first, things never really got "easy". After 14 months, I let the weaning happen.....with mixed feelings of sorrow and relief.
This time around, things were so tough again! Unbelievable. Hadn't I done this before? Well sure, I had, but my little babe hadn't. It was a completely new experience. Thankfully, she got the hang of things fairly quickly and I got the hang of things not too long after and, by the looks of these legs, things are going pretty well.
I finally feel those pure rushes of joy and contentment I expected from nursing. Breastfeeding feels calm and beautiful and easy and...dare I say, natural.
Chubby legs = happiness.
Anyway, I just wanted to give a shout out to all those super-moms out there who've made the attempt. Because it's hard. It's so, so hard and whether you've breastfed for one day or 3 years, you deserve a round of applause!
[All the fun breastfeeding pics were nabbed off of Pinterest!]
I loved breastfeeding. I was a lucky one - just came easy and I had no problems. But that was the only thing that came easy for me with having infants! At least we have choice which is a good thing!
ReplyDeleteBreastfeeding my first baby was a constant struggle... Feeding tubes, pumping, nipple shields, low supply, etc, not very natural at all! If you're interested you can read about my breastfeeding journey here:
ReplyDeletehttp://welcometonathalieland.blogspot.com/2010/08/memory-lane-my-breastfeeding-journey.html
Miraculously I've had no problems with my second girl (knock on wood!) other than a bit of nipple soreness/cracking at the start. It's been a huge blessing!
I had it all ... yeast, vasospasms, mastitis 5 times ... tried all Dr Newman's suggestions ... nothing worked ...
ReplyDeleteFinally after 3 months of advil and tears ...I finally found homeopathy. I am so happy I stuck it out. I now look forward to breastfeeding my little guy ... it is our cuddle time. :)
Stumbled across this post - thanks for posting! I had some major struggles with R; shields, SNS system (tube taped to my boob), latch troubles, small nipples, low supply, etc. Thankfully we figured it out over time but without my midwives I would have thrown in the towel a few times. And even at 8 months I almost threw in the towel again when we entered the 'gymnastic' nursing phase (and biting!), but got help from the local LLL ladies. Now he's 9 months and I'm so happy I've continued. It is INDEED the most unnatural natural thing ever!
ReplyDelete