Usually, when she is hungry she focuses and empties the breast quickly. If she cannot focus on nursing than I figure that she is not very hungry and we try again later. She has also developed signals that she wants to nurse. She will twist herself into nursing position and fuss excitedly. Although she cannot sign yet, it seems like she does recognize the sign for milk. Her response to the sign is to wave her arms and kick her feet while making a very earnest facial expression and excited sounds. Occasionally she will grab at my top in an … Continue reading →

Breastfeeding my daughter has been an entirely different experience from breastfeeding my first born. It took her a couple hours after she was born for her rooting reflex to kick into gear. I remember trying to nurse her thirty or forty minutes after she was born and she was not ready to latch. As soon as she was ready to nurse, she latched on really well and seemed to nurse really well. She would only take as much milk as she needed and then she would stop. Unlike, my son, who was a cluster feeder and would nurse for an … Continue reading →

American society seems to have a different attitude toward breastfeeding sometimes than the world at large. I was shocked when I started nursing my first child a few years ago to learn that the World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding until the age of 2. I had always thought that one year old was the recommended age, although I knew that many cultures breastfeed far beyond that. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breastfeeding until 1 year. I have always breastfed my children until about 14 months of age. I am determined to breastfeed. This has not been an easy task … Continue reading →

I learned later from other first time mom’s that the first few weeks of breastfeeding can be quite painful. Cracked and bleeding nipples are not uncommon for first timers or in the early days of post-partum with consecutive babies. Other mom’s warned me that I might have a breast infection; I did not however. The honest to goodness truth is that breastfeeding can and often does hurt. After I weaned my son (a good six months before my daughter’s birth), I could not help but wonder what my experience with breastfeeding would be the second time around. I was almost … Continue reading →

As a mother who has nursed three babies and edits an attachment parenting site, I am a big supporter of breastfeeding. But one thing I’ve noticed is that some people are crazy about it. There are a lot of breastfeeding moms and supporters out there that get kind of nasty to moms that don’t breastfeed. My personal experience was when my oldest quit nursing at seven months old. She just quit. No notice, no warning. Just one day she woke up and wanted nothing to do with my breast. Come to find out I was pregnant, but she didn’t care, … Continue reading →

Have you ever tasted your own breast milk? Many moms do. I have had several people tell me that they taste everything they put into baby’s mouth, and that includes their own breast milk. I am very pro breastfeeding. I feel that for me, it was definitely the right choice with both of my children. I was blessed with an overabundance, and I felt like it was my responsibility to breastfeed. But, I never tasted it. Never. It felt unnatural for me to try my own breast milk. It was for baby, not me. But, what is the harm in … Continue reading →