I have a super power...

...I can make milk!

I'm sure there are many of you out there who are rolling your eyes at me right now. Frankly I just don't give a damn. I have nothing against formula or the mothers who choose to feed it to their babies. Breastfeeding is hard work even when it's easy and now I know why the women who stick with it are so proud of it. 

When Miranda was born I breastfed her exclusively for only 3 short weeks. After that we slowly introduced formula bottles and things just went downhill from there. With the environment I was in, the emotional trauma I had recently experienced and the lack of support system I had things were almost doomed from the start. The blame ultimately falls on me though. I just gave up. It was 'to hard'. It all turned out fine though. I became a happier mother to my baby and she is healthy, intelligent and wonderful. She is the reason that I take no issues with mothers who feed formula, no matter their reason.



When Elliott came along I was bound and determined to give nursing another try, a better try. I remember how much formula smells, how disgusting it gets, the hassle of making, cleaning and traveling with bottles. I wanted to nurse longer this time to avoid all of that. We had a bit of a rocky start but it slowly became easier and easier. I am extremely thankful for the NICU nurse who made our first few attempts a priority. She helped him to 'reset' his brain by doing lots of skin-to-skin and making sure I kept at it even though he wouldn't latch on at first. I am thankful for my friends and family who are supporting me through this journey and making me feel comfortable with nursing in front of people. I am thankful that I am living in Connecticut where nursing is much more accepted than it is down in South Carolina. I am thankful for all the strangers who barely bat an eye at me while I nurse and who never make any comments or judgements (out loud at least).

Now that he's almost six weeks old and we're getting over the difficult hump of the first few weeks I can see now that breastfeeding can be easy. It's extremely portable. It's always ready to go. It takes no time to prepare, it just is. Elliott certainly prefers it as well. He's been offered a handful of bottles of breast milk  and he is never very enthused by the option. When offered the breast again after the bottle he attacks it like a little piranha. It's kind of cute. I love that I always have an excuse for him to be with me. I love the bonding time that nursing provides. I am very willing to share him with friends and family who want to hold him because I know he'll cry to be fed and he has to come back to me.



And for now that's the way I like it.