Breastfeeding Awareness

In honor of Breastfeeding Awareness Week I've been meaning to get a blog post up about how rewarding, yet challenging, breastfeeding has been/is for me.  If you asked me about nursing Sophia I would tell you it was an amazing experience.  What my mind seems to forget is that we struggled so very hard with a sleepy newborn, sore nipples, and supply issues for the first month and then continued to fight to keep my supply going for the entire year-plus I nursed her.  To say it was hard work would be an understatement, yet I still feel it was one of the most rewarding things I have done and we had some of our most meaningful bonding moments while she was quietly nursing.  One of the biggest things I was looking forward to with having a second baby was enjoying those moments again.  Once again, we started off with some challenges.  The soreness wasn't as bad as it was with Sophia, but it was still there.  And once again we had a slow gainer on our hands, but thankfully both have passed.  I'm now to that stage where I can start to enjoy breastfeeding again.  So much so that I have nursed in public almost daily this week!

I know its not for everyone, but I'm a strong advocate for a woman's right to nurse in public (NIP) if she is comfortable doing so.  I myself try to be respectful of those around me and usually toss a blanket over my shoulder or nurse in the Moby, but that's not always possible.  I'm definitely expanding my comfort of NIP this week, though!  So far I have nursed at the pediatricians office with a blanket, at our town's National Night Out event at the big city park with no blanket (oops, forgot it at home), walking along a busy street in town with no blanket, at Burger King with a blanket, and at a smaller park with Collin in the Moby.  By the time the summer is over I feel I'm going to be a pro at this!  I haven't had any negative responses, although one gentleman did move seats at Burger King today from facing us to having his back to us.  I'm not sure if that was because I was nursing Collin or because he wanted to move seats to see the TV and get the paper from that table.

So, if you are a nursing mother, be proud of what you are doing.  If you are still in that struggling stage, believe me that it does get better and you really do forget about the struggles.  Enjoy those quiet moments while they last because they are gone in the blink of an eye.