Sunday, January 31, 2010

Breastfeeding Issues...

From day one, Adrienne was never a good nurser. She had so many latch issues a newborn and it's been so odd parenting her as opposed to Brooke because she is not a comfort nurser like her big sister was. For Brooke, nursing fixed everything and Adrienne could seriously take it or leave it.

Lately I have to fight with Adrienne to get her to nurse and she is so much more interested in eating REAL food than breastfeeding. I know that a lot of that is her age and that she has a growing awareness of the world around her, also. I rarely feed her out of the house anymore because she is just NOT into it and it turns into a game of her pulling peek-a-boo with my nursing cover. It's just a tad bit challenging when I'm trying to be modest!

I feel sad when I think about the strong possibility of Adrienne self-weening in the foreseeable future. Brooke nursed for 23 months (which is something that I'm proud of!) and I loved the relationship we shared as she snuggled in my bed every morning. I have been planning on letting Adrienne nurse until her heart's content, also, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if I had to push her to that one year mark... Which is non-negotiable, if you ask me.

Breastfeeding is such an amazing thing. I love how I can be nursing my baby and she just looks up at me and coos. My heart just melts in those moments. I love that she is so dependent on ME and that I give her something that nobody else can give her. It is a bond like none other... Even if Adrienne uses the time more for recreation and less for eating!

2 comments:

Tiff said...

I've been feeling the same way about Molly. She would never comfort nurse, and throws a fit if I try to feed her and she isn't hungry. I still plan to nurse her to sleep for naps and bedtime for as long as she'll let me, but I have a feeling we'll be transitioning to milk sooner than I had hoped (after the year mark of course!)

rccalyn said...

She's 8 months, right? Arianna had a phase around then where she acted like she wanted to be done nursing and I got all worried! Maybe this is just a phase for Adrienne too? I hope so for your sake! Arianna still doesn't really comfort nurse as much as Marissa used to, but she definitely still likes doing it. I nursed Marissa for 19 months, and I hope to nurse Arianna for at least that long! (I only stopped nursing Marissa because I had a D&C for a miscarriage and then they wanted to give me some weird antibiotic that they weren't comfortable with going through my milk...but Marissa was pretty close to ready anyways.)