Comments on: How I Became An Attachment Parenting Freako – The Nursing Edition

By: Robin

Robin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 12:12:38 +0000

As someone said in an earlier post, attachment parenting chose us! I had attempted to nurse my son when he was born (but that was eighteen years ago!) and it was just chaos, and there was no one willing to help; it was as though they WANTED him to take formula, so that's what we did. I wish I had never listened, as he developed asthma, allergies, food allergies, milk allergies, etc. However, with my new daughter (she is five months now), I insisted that no one take her from my chest after birth (she was a waterbirth baby) for a minimum of two hours…I was like a Birthplan Nazi to those people, I'm sure, but they respected me and no one touched her except her midwife to put her on my chest when she was born, and my husband to hold her while they helped me out of the tub. She was instantly back on my chest and nursing, and she ate for two hours! She ADORES nursing; I truly hope she keeps at it for a long time. I'm so tickled that we stuck with it for this one, because although it is never too easy in the early days and weeks, the reward is so great as the nursing relationship develops! No, I never pump for her to consume. Sometimes I manually express to relieve my breasts (they make a LOT). The electric pump and I have a nasty relationship – it is so mechanical, and I get no “let-down” at all with it. Yes, people think I'm insane…I dont' care. I guess I'm just too old to care now! My daughter is happy, healthy, exclusively breastfed, a co-sleeper and carried around for the better part of the evenings. These are our choices; this is such a brief phase of life: we don't need a “date” without Grace now…that can wait a little while. So soon the high school graduation day comes… ; )

By: kristy

kristy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:28:05 +0000

ok, so i'll try to not write a novel. my,how i've changed in my 7 short years of parenting. tomorrow night we will leave KM for the first time (he's 7 months) with a dear friend while mike and I go to dinner and shopping. i will try to time it so that he will nurse a couple of hours before. we will eat at a nearby restaurant and i'll probably go by and nurse him before hitting target and the toy store. he took a bottle for a day or two after the feeding tube when he was a newborn so i just assumed he'd always take it. but alas, it's just easier to nurse him than to pump and deal with bottles. mike has tried giving him a bottle a few times but he just screams. so we say ok! as for co-sleeping we're still all screwed up and bedtime around here is a daily armagedon…last night i slept in abby and km's room in her double bed with her after putting KM in the bed with mike (lilly was already there) if mama gets no sleep, nobody is happy! abby was weaned completely by 14 months and lilly at 7 months so we'll see with our third and possibly last

By: Suzanne ~ TheJoyfulChaos

Suzanne ~ TheJoyfulChaos — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:39:04 +0000

i'm so glad y'all told your stories! i love 'em all. brittany – this sounds
alot like me – so glad you nursed through the pressure to wean. that
pressure certainly does ease after your first baby – everybody just accepts
that you're gonna do what you want i hate the sadness that comes with
weaning. i've had different levels of it with each. just before TheFinalist
came i remember looking at my sleeping BigMan, months after he was weaned,
and feeling sad about it. it's just sweet. thanks for sharing!

By: Brittany Taylor Martin

Brittany Taylor Martin — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:24:04 +0000

I'm not sure when I decided that I wanted to nurse my babies, but it was sometime before I got married in my freshman year of college. I started hearing about how good it was for babies. I'd never actually seen anyone nurse before! And I guess the Lord just laid it on my heart, because I have no other way to explain it. I met my hubby, got married, 2 years later our firstborn was born. I am a studier! I read up on everything I could related to pregnancy…especially breastfeeding! Someone gave me the terrific advise to make up my mind before he got here that I was going to nurse. Even when it was hard and not convenient for me. Fortunately for me, it came easy. I've never known what it's like to struggle with nursing. Or for milk to dry up too soon. But it wasn't always convenient. With Cayson I tried to pump, but I since I stayed at home, it seemed like it took forever just to get enough milk to leave him with someone. So we supplemented a tad with formula one weekend. But that messed his poor little tummy up! And he decided he did NOT want a bottle, even with breastmilk! So I sucked it up and planned better and we nursed all the time. The only hard part was the church nursery. I couldn't keep him with me in church because I sang in the choir and played the keyboard and my hubby's the music minister. So I would nurse immediately before worship time and immediately after. We did pretty well from then on. And yes, I felt pressure from mostly family to wean him. But I held fast and he weaned himself at 13.5 months. With my 1 year old, Bryce, he never would take a bottle at all. But I was used to it at that point. No pressure whatsoever to wean this time. He went 15 months. It was much more emotional for me this time when he weaned. I was a basket-case! But, just like my oldest, he's a cuddler so we still get that special bonding time.

By: Lani

Lani — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:04:12 +0000

I originally intended to nurse my triplets. I knew it would be hard but I knew they would be preemies and need all the extra protection that breastmilk would give them. I just couldn’t make actual nursing happen. Only one could even come close to latching, and not very well, so I pumped after every feeding, and the kids all got a mixture of BM and formula.
I think everyone has to do what is right for them. What irritates me is when moms judge each other for their choices if they are different from their own. You clearly aren’t doing that, so you aren’t a freako:)