This past Sunday, for the first time since Raphaela was born, I left her with a sitter all night, so that I could attend a wedding. Other than the oppressive heat and humidity of Tel Aviv, at a certain point I started to feel the milk filling up, and had no way to deal with with the discomfort. I learned several things that night, the least of which is that I am no longer able to stay awake until midnight, and that I miss my daughter when I am not in the same city as she.
Yesterday, the husband of a friend of mine started complaining to me, about how my friend is still breast feeding their year and a half old daughter. "Enough already," he said, "why can't my wife just move on and stop nursing?"
I answered this man honestly from my own experience. Men don't get it, and I am not even sure that I can put the feelings into words. There is something intense and wonderful, magical almost, with the connection between mother and child during nursing. If a woman can get past that first awful, awkward and difficult stage in infancy, breast feeding becomes fun, a time of bonding.
With my own supply starting to dwindle, I have felt sadness that this period for myself and Raphaela may be coming to an end. My books say that after one year, the actual nutritional value of breast milk is minimal in any case, and yet I hope we can continue.
1 comment:
If you have still not gotten your period, I suspect you are still making quite a bit of milk. Why do you think it's dwindling?
And what do "the books" think happens to the nutritional and immunological components of the milk at a year? Breastmilk doesn't turn into water at 12 months. Yes, babies need additional foods by this age, but breastmilk still contributes everything it did before.
If you can, ask your mom to bring you a copy of Mothering Your Nursing Toddler.
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