This conversation happened the other night, while reading “Floating Bananas” by Richard Scary:
Bob: “CALLED, Daddy, CALLED?”
Daddy: “Called CAT.”
Bob: “Cat DOOOO-ING?”
Daddy: “Cat is driving a forklift.”
Bob: “Forklift DOING, Daddy?”
Daddy: “Forklift is lifting bananas.”
Bob: “Bananas COME FROM, Daddy?”
Daddy: “Ecuador.”
Bob: “Oh, ALL-RIGHT.”
(Takes forever to turn a page in this house! LOVE IT!)
I’ve got a baby with a green snot filled nose passed out on my lap at the moment. I’m happy she’s sleeping because she needs it. As she was up ALL. NIGHT. LONG. Anyone who has ever nursed and tried to nurse a baby who can’t breathe through it’s nose knows the trial of which I am speaking. Horrible for them, very uncomfortable for you. (I am being generous with uncomfortable: the longest interval of sleep last night was a whopping 20 minutes).
I love breastfeeding. I mean, for me personally, the kick-ass feeling of “I am sustaining human life through my own body, HUZZAH!” and grateful grunts make it worth it. And there are 101 other, fancier reasons right here for your perusal. But holy crap.
Breastfeeding can also DRIVE YOU RIGHT UP THE WALL. I continued to breastfeed Bob while I was pregnant with Maggie (he self weaned one week before she was born, THANK YOU UNIVERSE) and it was, no joke, hell on earth. When I read “Adventures in Tandem Nursing” I thought, “Ohhhh this is a very negative book, these women are having a horrible time…” and then BOOM, it happened to me. Whatever hormone that can kick in that makes you repelled with every fiber DID kick in and I had to count down every second in some hyper-ZEN stay-CALM meditation until my beautiful boy would unlatch his shark like grasp on my breast. While I was certainly not at my most friendly, I sure did grow as a person during that period, let me tell you.
What I was actually going to write here, was not about tandem, but was about how much Meeps has been nursing lately. I’ve had to take her off solids (she’s started to vomit every time solid food goes near her gullet, and will be reintroducing in another few weeks to see if her gut is more prepared) and boy-o. Nursing a 100% breastfed, crawling active 8 month old is not like nursing a little peanut. Not only has there been the added pressure of returning to fully sustaining her life from my body (she was eagerly enjoying solids last month, three times a day), but she cut two teeth, got sick AND to just ice that cake, I just got my first period yesterday…. SO NO WONDER my milk supply has been in the toilet and she has been attached to me like a joey in a pouch!
I feel much better knowing that last compounding factor, even though I truly annoyed that I have returned to menstruating even though I am breastfeeding like a lunatic. (Note to body: Husband has been fixed, there is no need for these shenanigans!)
ALL women who breastfeed AT ALL should be given giant gleaming tieras of glory, and any woman who tandems, does extended BFing or the like should be CANONIZED into SAINTHOOD.
(Before anyone jumps, I don’t think anyone’s child will grow a third head or become a sociopath because they were not on the breast).
I tandem nursed for two and half years. It was definitely a challenge. But it was also an amazing tool in making raising two little girls under the age of 3/4 possible while my then husband was out to sea on submarines for 3-9 months at a time. Can’t get the toddler to sit still while you have to nurse the baby? come have some milk then. I also believed it helped foster their closeness.
Although we did periodically try solids here and there-Freya was 99% on the breast until about 14 months…and now at almost 21 months she continues to be 70% breastfed, and 30% food. Those numbers fluctuate of course, and if she is sick or going through a growth spurt or teething, she tends to get back to the 90% number. She is by far my ‘milkiest’ babe to date, the older girls were both at least 50% food/50% breast milk by age 12 months.
We are also dealing with the snottyness, and we use little noses saline spray for babies, and the dreaded bulb nose sucker thing. I have to hold her down, or swaddle her then hold her arms, and suck the offending green mucous that more likely resembles wall spackle and then spray the little noses saline spray several times a day. I also keep the humidifiers going fulltime.
(thanks for adding the comments feature! i love being able to dialogue with you again!)
I bet it was totally awesome to have them nurse together at times. I love it when my kids sleep all lumped together, I would imagine watching them nurse together would be incredibly beautiful.
NWPreg was so painful for me, I was SO relieved when he weaned. Though I do so miss that closeness with him SO much.
MAJOR kudos to you Arkay, holy crap.
Oh yeah, we’ve got the humidifier going, the nose bulb out… poor dab has slept ALL day.
I hope your babies feel better soon.
NoseFrida! NoseFrida! NoseFrida! Love it, love it love it.
Also, is she really eight months old already?!! Holy cow. Time is flying!!
I’m so sorry to hear about the food sensitivities. Is it everything?? As a mom with a kid who had three sensitivities and found that a pain in the butt, I cannot imagine having to go back to 100% bf!
I hope to all high heavens that I’m able to nurse through my next pregnancy and tandem nurse. Really, I really, really hope. I kind of doubt it’ll happen, but I want it to.
awwww, i hope you all feel better real quick like! we are all sick here too and it sucks.
nursing a baby who can’t breathe through their nose… *mind boggles*
how do you even do that?
i hope your littlest darling is feeling back to normal soon.
We’ve started solids with Pearl in the past 4 weeks or so. Some days she wants lots, others not so much. Just going by what she tells us really. (Only thing she’s guaranteed to eat is avocado, I’m pretty sure she’d eat a ton of that in one sitting.) But the past week she’s only had a couple of solid meals and has been nursing what feels like constantly. (I like your reference to the joey thing, might have to use that one in future!). Teething is the most frustrating part of parenting for me so far. So unpredictable and frustrating for all involved. Just when she starts sleeping longer stretches at night, BAM the teeth start giving her jip again.
I have the utmost respect for mamas tandem nursing. I’m not planning to stop BFing Pearl anytime soon, so I will just see what happens when the time comes if I get pregnant again before she is weaned from my breast.
p.s I also love being able to comment on your blog, I love reading it so thank you for sharing about your beautiful family and life.x
OH and that conversation between Bob and Scott is adorable!
aww…wee bobby lee and meeps. i love reading your blog. i swear i can hear your voice when i do.
WP looks a lot better than the old iWeb version. hit me up if you have WP questions…i just re-did teamrockstar’s blog with it.
yay and miss you,
steve and morgan
oh! i suck.
new teamrockstarimages.com blog:
http://teamrockstarimages.com/blog/
the teamronin.com link doesn’t really go anywhere other than TRSI.
Awww I love listening to little kids talk and working things out in their head! When I’m at the day care that I intern at I always help put the toddlers down for their nap – there’s one little girl that will insist I sit beside her and ask me questions everyyyyyyy day until she passes out xD. Todays number one question was what exactly shoes are. She had the idea that the shoes on her feet were the ONLY shoes possible and wanted to know what the things on my feet were called. =P Priceless.
I hope the snot levels subside in your household. I miss BF. I had a rough deal with my little girl and did what I could for 6 weeks. She was a very hungry baby and we got off to a terrible start, despite a perfect latch etc. I stayed in the hospital a week because my milk took so long to come in. I kept on hoping that I’d be able to keep up with demand, but alas, in the end I had to stop. No exaggeration, I had a few days where she was attached to my boobies 80% of the time. I’d have to switch her back and forth, scraping the barrel everytime. I couldn’t look after me or her as a result so in the end I had to throw in the towel. I felt so guilty and got a bout of depression afterwards, but I look at her now, 15 weeks and a whooping 17lb of happy bonny baby and I think atleast I did what I could. She has 49oz of milk a day (7x7oz) and I am determined to not ween her until 6 months. She has been doing a lot of things early including teething so I understand the lack of sleep. That and a cold and cough, the poor mite. I am so scared she’ll choke or something I find myself going in to look on her every five minutes, but just end up staying in there to comfort her.
ps, that first period after baby is a b*tch is it not?! I didn’t have mine until the week before last and no one told me how heavy it was going to be, or how crazy I might have become.
I am praying the snot levels lower tonight. I did the same last night, but this morning everyone woke up with fevers again.
It’s all about doing what you can! If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. When Maggie came I was constantly checking to make sure she was still breathing. My son was just on the breast allll the time at night (comfort nursing, hello my name is Mama and I am a human soother) so I never had to worry. Maggie was an expert sleeper in the beginning, so I kept thinking “OH GOD SHES DEAD.” And focusing my eyes on her chest raising and lowering. So, even when I COULD have slept… I didn’t. Ha. The joys of parenting!
And YES man, it is SUCH a bitch. Holy crap. I forgot about “THAT” feeling. I’ve hardly had a period for three years and man. I forgot about PMS and cramps and the whole thing. It’s awful. And EVERY MONTH. Gosh. I was not ready for this so soon!
When I’m sleeping in the same place as my Ma she STILL occasionally checks to see if I’m breathing and I’m 28!! Old habits die hard.
Ick. I hope you get a reprieve from the snot soon. Finn FINALLY seems to be getting better after nearly a week of sniffling, snorting and fever. It’s got to be so awful to be little and sick.
And the conversation between Scott and Bob is simply priceless! I have a feeling we’ll have similar book discussions around these parts as well. For now Finn just points at individual objects on the page and we tell him what it is/what color it is/what noise it makes. He gets a kick out of my attempts at an elephant noise.
I know how you feel trying to breastfeed a plugged up baby. I’m still nursing my 2 year old, but would like her to “self wean” soon. At times I feel like pulling my hair out! Other times I can’t imagine what I would do if I wasn’t breastfeeding her, the closeness is truly amazing! What a beautiful little sleeping girl you have!
Hope things clear up soon (weather and noses!)
~Monica~
seeng that photo brought back some awesome memories i’d forgotten (three years seems so long!) *sigh. i needed a pick-me-up