An Incredible Blessing

I feel like we've been incredibly blessed in many ways. Obviously, we've been blessed with Claire and all the Joy she brings. But also, I feel blessed with our nursing relationship. http://blog.thenatureschild.com/2009/03/shes-still-nursing-that-child.html Check out that link to AN AWESOME read about extended nursing. It's a blog I follow. She discusses basically what extended nursing is in her opinion (anything past 12 months). I think that's interesting because in the US it's more like anything past, say 6 months, is extended!

And she also talks about other issues relevant to nursing. I feel incredibly blessed that Claire has never been really sick. The only time she has thrown up was because I thought I should give her iron drops. I haven't had the chance to post about this yet...but basically I had myself tested at an annual physical for all my blood work, etc. My calcium and D were low even though I eat a ton of dairy. I actually drink about 3-4 cups of milk/day and have at least one yogurt and cheese serving/day. So I hate to think what my calcium/D would be without that! I also rarely drink carbonated crap as I know that can somehow interfere with the absorption of those. SO anyway, I am now taking calcium/D supplements and I'm going to get retested soon. I still take a prenatal vitamin and fish oil daily as well. I think this is why my blood pressure runs so low. The last 3 times I've been to the doctor, they checked it twice! Ha! Anyway my iron was surprisingly high for what I used to run. I used to donate a lot of blood and sell plasma in college. (Si denote: it's kind of creepy that the Red Cross gives away pins for each gallon of blood you've donated. Like you want a reminder?)

So then I had Claire checked for the gene mutation that my brother Rich has that causes blood to clot too quickly. And only because we were already sticking her, I had her checked for D, calcium, and iron as well. Her mutation test was negative...yay. Her D and calcium was fine, but her iron was REALLY low. So the doctor prescribed iron drops, which were less vile than the over the counter drops, but still truly nasty. I made myself take a whole dropper full orally like Claire would, and totally understood why Claire hated them. I always want to "taste" what she's eating anyway. Just that mothering instinct I guess. Ok, so long story short...she was on the drops for less than a week. She would absolutely refuse to take them. The last time I gave them to her she actually coughed/gagged so hard that she brought up her dinner, which was awful. Luckily we were in the kitchen. I will spare you the details of what it looked/smelled like, but I will say that it wasn't digested and looked exactly the same as when I fed it to her. OK...I digressed a bit, but luckily she hasn't thrown up other than that one time, knock on wood, and I truly think that nursing has helped prevent any major illnesses. Not to say that she can't get sick or get a cold, but it's shorter and less severe...etc.

I feel pretty passionate about wanting to talk about babies and breastfeeding because it's my life right now, obviously. Is Claire still a baby? I would say yes. I went to a toddler meeting for LLL, and we talked about discipline. I thought it was really good. Basically it talked about how little children understand and how quick we are to treat them like little adults. ESPECIALLY in the US. They need to sleep on their own too early. They need to wean too early...etc...etc...I don't know...let's let the kids be kids and the babes be babes for awhile. And the whole "they can ask for it thing" drives me nuts because um, hello, newborns "ask" for it by crying. Duh.

But I guess most of all I feel incredibly blessed to have such a supportive family and husband when it comes to extended nursing and letting Claire have what she needs. Because I think that if she still "wants" it then she still "needs" it. And I truly don't have it in my heart to ever tell her "no" to nursing. I could not wean her if she wasn't ready. If we are out and about I try to offer her the sippy cup or crackers, but that's mostly because there's not a good place to sit down and nurse. Although, I have learned that the shopping cart is the perfect height for nursing when Claire sits in there! Ha! As long as I have my coat on and a baggy shirt, I just pull over and "read" a label for awhile while she nurses. Some more talented people might be able to actually push the cart and nurse! I've also learned from another mom that you don't have to flip the baby over to the other side at night to nurse on the other side. It is possible once they are older (you'll know when) to just lean over some. It's not super comfortable, but sometimes it works when you just don't want to even roll over! :) ALSO...I learned from another mom you can YES YOU CAN nurse while laying on your back. Just put a pillow under the side you want to nurse on, and that will bring the baby up high enough. I thought I'd share those great nursing positions if you haven't tried them already. I think it's pretty funny that when I first starting going to LLL I thought some of the "older" babies who were able to stand and nurse "were so old"! HA!

I guess I'm thinking about this because Claire woke up about 8 times last night. Thankfully she was able to nurse back to sleep quickly. I don't know how I would ever put her to sleep without nursing. She is quite possibly the world's most clingy baby. My mom said it's "revenge" because I was her clinging vine. But really, I think it's just sweet. So if this is revenge or payback, it's kind of sweet because as long as she's in her Bjorn or sleeping velcroed to my side, I know where she is and that's she safe. I just also wish that every woman gets to experience pregnancy and motherhood and most especially nursing. The bond is truly incredible. Nursing has helped put me to sleep sometimes too. It releases those hormones to make mommy sleepy and relaxed too, if you didn't know. Oh, so Claire woke up so many times because she had a small plastic ring in her jammies all night. She was playing with a handful when I was putting her lotion and jammies on on the changing table last night. Apparently one fell down behind her but in the jammies. So NOW I KNOW why they say if baby is fussy to change their whole jammies if they just won't be consoled. I've done this other times and found it pointless, but the one time when it's what I needed to do...haha...I didn't do it! She survived though without any marks!

But I do have to tell myself, we are weaning...it's just slow. Claire was a late starter when it came to liking foods. She actually didn't eat too well when it came to solids yesterday so she had a breastfed mush poop today...so we have days when she nurses more or less. I still can't count how many times. I would still say ONLY NOW are we down to the reality of 8-12 times w/in 24 hours. The first 6 months it was like nursing constantly or so it seemed. Ha!

Anyway...the way I see it happening is Claire eventually just dropping more and more of her nursing sessions...hopefully especially all the night ones...ha!...and then she'd drop like the Nature's Child article said...to just every other day or every few days and then once a month....and then like I've heard other LLL moms say .... suddenly they realized it's been 3-4 months since the last nursing...and they can't remember the last time they nursed...then usually tears will spring up all around the group because then everyone thinks about their child weaning, which is a happy/sad thing! I guess that would be easy esp. if you have a younger one nursing and the older one just checks in once in while to see if he/she still can.

Well, I've only been posting pictures and videos lately, and not doing a whole lot of writing on here, so I wanted to write. I have written thousands of books in my head though as I drift off to sleep. Am I the only one who does this?

OH! I also wanted to comment on how Nature's Child blog lady mentioned that she once said something about if they are old enough to walk up and ask for it, they are too old...ha! I also have said things that I definitely would take back now! Two quick examples are...1. I said all kids should be potty trained once they can walk. HA! That's another post though. and 2. I said I would not donate breastmilk. I actually would love to do this at some point!

Well I'm just thankful that nursing worked out in the end because I never thought I was going to make it especially in the beginning. So I feel like I've had an incredible blessing to go on and be nursing right now at 19.5 months and still going strong.

What did you think of Nature's Child post and what's up with you!?!