World Breastfeeding Week

The first week of August is World Breastfeeding Week. Emma and I are almost 16 months into breastfeeding with no signs of slowing.

When she wants to nurse, she climbs into my lap, slaps my boobs, and then signs “please.” She knows what she wants and she’s not afraid to ask for it. All day long.

The theme of this year’s World Breastfeeding Week is “Close To Mothers” and the emphasis is on support and peer counseling. I owe our success to the support we were given after she was born, both from the hospital staff and our family and friends. I owe it to the women online who are always ready to help troubleshoot, commiserate, and cheer other women on.

A tremendous amount of the credit for our success goes to Dan who picked up the slack in those early days of sitting on the couch nursing a baby for hours on end.

We’ve reached a point now where this is easy, but it wasn’t always that way. Early on there was always this struggle of balancing the needs of both kids. Countless hours over the past year have been spent with the three of us snuggled on that couch with a movie or books or toys while Emma nurses.

And now here we are. 16 months later, still snuggling on that couch at least once a day. The three of us. My children and me.

My children. Whose bodies I grew and nourished and nurtured. It’s this crazy thing to think about sometimes. Kind of surreal.

Sometimes it wasn’t easy. A lot of times it wasn’t easy. But it was worth it for me and if breastfeeding success is what another mother wants, I want to do what I can to help her reach her goals.

I’ve tried to pay forward the support and advice that I was given about how to manage the demands of two children when it feels like you’re doing nothing. I’ve tried to be a friendly ear to listen when she doubts herself. When others doubt her.

I’ve tried to say “Oh, Mama! You are doing an AMAZING thing. This will be worth it. This IS worth it.” Because it has been worth it.

It has absolutely been worth it.

(I’ve wanted totake nursing photos of Emma and me for a while now, so this morning my hair looked decent and I set everything up on a whim. Then Joshua saw the remote shutter in my hand, grabbed it, and started snapping. These are some of my favorite photos now. Not too shabby, best boy. Not too shabby at all.)