The Big Latch On 2011

I have had my moments with breastfeeding.  For sure Erin, our new parent support person and lactation consultant, on the base knows all about it as I think I saw her 8 times when we first brought Emma home.  Let's not even mention the 1500 phone calls I've made to her some of which I was crying when she answered the phone.  Although I had always told people I planned to breastfeed a year I wasn't convinced myself that it would actually occur. 

When I was gritting my teeth in excruciating pain because Emma had a terrible latch I was pretty sure we were going to get nowhere close to a year.  God bless Janice the LC from my nursing mom's group for getting me through that.

When I first started breastfeeding I never would have pictured myself breastfeeding in public and now I do it with hardly another thought about it.  I don't even use the cover anymore unless I'm at a restaurant or something equally as public.  I did breastfeed at the Buffalo Zoo without the cover because it was just too darn hot and let me just say that no one even noticed me sitting there with my nipple hanging out.  I do try to be discreet and covered as much as possible even without the dreaded cover. 

And I for sure never would have pictured myself attending an event like The Big Latch On to help try and break the world record for most women breastfeeding simultaneously. 

But that is just what I did today.  Stinky and I picked up our friend's Liz and Caleb and headed to Isis Parenting to get our latch on.  There was a very diverse group of women there and a diverse age range of children including some toddlers.  I started to think that it might be okay to breastfeed a little longer than one year. 

Obviously Stinky had a good time playing with Caleb.

We weren't doing anything!

Hey, whatcha doin over there?

Ok, I'm gonna play with this and you watch me.

Here Caleb.  You can have this one, too.

I do love the cuddle time I get with Stinky when she is nursing.  For example, today she actually took an afternoon nap in her crib and I used that opportunity to lay down, too.  Of course she still doesn't sleep very long and it seemed like I was more tired when she was ready to get up.  I brought her in bed with me and let her side nurse and before I knew it I had fallen asleep and was waking up an hour later.  I think she fell asleep while nursing, too, which allowed her to have a longer nap. 

So, I have no idea whether or not we broke the world record, but it was a good time. 

Wow, I didn't realize it was so late!  (haha who knew I'd someday think 9:30pm was late)  I need to finish up my wine and head to be.