The Joy Of Nursing

When we found out that we were pregnant with Cooper, I committed myself to giving my best effort to nursing, with the goal of making it a full year.  With Cade, I only nursed for 3 months- primarily because I went back to work and wasn’t able to feed on demand and my milk dried up.  With Carter, my body was so taxed after getting pregnant only 7 months after giving birth to Cade that I didn’t produce much milk at all.  I made it only 2 months with Carter.  The third time, I hoped, would be the charm.  And it was!

Cooper was a superb nurser, even in the recovery room just after his birth.  He seemed to know exactly what to do.  We never had any issues with his latch or his suck.  Cooper was a textbook nurser!  I figured out early on that in order to keep my milk supply up, I would have to pump in the middle of the night…every night.  So, for 8.5 months, that’s exactly what I did.  I woke up, came downstairs, sat at the counter and pumped.  I would check my email or facebook just to pass the time, but let me assure you that it was not easy waking up every night.  Cooper slept like a champ from day 1, but I was up like clockwork. 

The downside is that I was sick more this winter/spring than I have been since my first year of teaching.  I suppose that must be common for the sleep deprived.  I, simply, was not expecting it.  So, I suffered, unmedicated (for fear of contaminating my milk), for months on end with hideous sinus and upper respiratory infections.  Finally, in April, during our visit to Florida to see my parents, I gave myself permission to sleep through the night.  And that was the beginning of the end of nursing. 

Today is May 10, 2012 and it is also the day when Cooper decided that nursing was not for him anymore.  He’s not interested and he weaned himself.  Although I am sad in one sense, I am grateful that he is the one who made the choice to stop nursing.  He wasn’t forced to stop due to lack of milk supply (although the supply has decreased significantly since his infancy).  He just wants to drink a greater volume at a faster speed than I can deliver.  So, there you go.  Done. 

This has been quite a journey.  Who knew that breastfeeding was so difficult and emotional?  Naive as I was, I assumed that it was this natural thing that mothers did for their babies and that it would just happen without effort.  I couldn’t have been more mistaken.  I am very grateful that I finally figured out how my body works and little Coop benefited from my efforts.  He was able to nurse for as long as he wanted and I can’t ask for more than that.  

Our sweet baby Cooper at 9.5 months.