Nursing thru the years and across the country!

A couple of weeks ago it was National Nursing Week <3 this is very close to my heart since i have nursed all of my babies until 1 year and beyond! I think i will go thru and reflect on each child and our nursing relation ship. I do love how my children know its natural and normal to have a mom nursing their baby, they all have even nursed dolls in our house! I understand some women choose and cant nurse, my blog is not ment to hurt feelings. I do however think breast is best and should be worked for if need be to get mothers milk to a child.

Lets start with my sweet chloie! I had her when i was just 19 years old, but i knew when i was pregnant with her that i wanted to do what was best so i decided to nurse her. I did pump every morning so that i could get enough milk in the freezer for her to eat while i worked. Nursing my first baby was different, i remember feeling nervous and almost scared to nurse out anywhere...we always used a cover. I also remember at the hospital when she was born nursing her for seriously 1 hour on each side, i was CLUELESS! she was a sweaty nurser and took about an hour to feed every 4 hours! I loved nursing her and was proud at how chunky my sweet girl was, we nursed until roughly 1 year then she went onto cows milk. I dont think i have a nursing pic of her and I :(

Next up is my Ty Guy! I was way excited when we found out we were pregnant with this little er i mean big guy! hey he was born 10lbs 1oz ( i feel i am allowed to remind people of this) so he came out hungry and ready to nurse! He was a great nurser from the beginning, he nursed ALOT often and around 5 minutes. I still covered up w/ him but was more confident. Now i must say that no one around me nursed w/ chloie or tyler and my mom never nursed when i was baby. So i pretty much was on my own...with tyler if i needed support i could have gotten it online or the hospital, but i dont put much into a lactation consultant who hasn't nursed and is a male! Tyler and i had a nice nursing run of about 15 months which i was 3 months pregnant with myra at the time and my milk dried up. He was fine with that and so was I! The paci also went around this time as well. We put him on cows milk around this time too, very little tho...

Now for Myra and Cullen i am combining them, since they tandem nurse and really their pregnancies and nursing has felt like it was one and the same! Myra was born peacefully at home and nursed quickly after birth, she was a good nurser like her older brother and sister. Around 3 months old things changed...i was sore and seemed emptier...well turns out Cullen was on his way and my body wasnt producing as much milk. It was still producing some tho and myra was able to nurse up until 6 months old then she went onto formula full time but still nursed 3-4x a day mostly for comfort. My milk did come back in the end and boy was she happy! I supplemented Myra for the 6 months w/ a natural organic soy formula since she cant tolerate dairy. She did fine on bottles, it did however hurt my heart! But once cullen came, the bottles where gone! YAY! we were a happy nursing trio, and still are to this day!

People often wonder "how do you do it" well, 1 baby at a time or both at once, however it works out at the time. I never tandem nurse in public but i do nurse them both in public and with out a cover, i am most confident in my right and ability to feed my babies.  And plus trying to nurse with a cover on is like a circus freak show going on at the mall bench, its not happening w/o staring. And if i just discretely nurse my child no one even notices! I am modest and do not whip everything out, i use my hand need be to cover...

Now onto the nursing road trip! I have nursed everywhere! You name it, and i have fed my child there, ballparks, parks, restaurants, malls, national parks, water parks, on a mountian(see above pic), anywhere!!! I am not afraid to feed my babies and no one better ever sass me about it! I want to add that having a supportive husband is a huge help and lets me be able to nurse the kids wherever i need and he comes to the rescue when i need help positioning or taking a sleeping child to be for me, he is great and supports breastfeeding as much as i do!

Ok the follow pictures are from our road trip to and from Michigan this summer, i feed Myra and Cullen alot! LOL but thats my job!

Mountains just east of White Sulfur Springs, MT

Devils tower, WY

Mount Rushmore, SD This was one of the busiest places i nursed on our drive...i was nervous at first but after a bit no one even noticed!  A few women smiled in my direction :)

A rest stop somewhere near Illinois

 

 Brandon, IA at a park

Ludington, MI - Lighthouse on Lake MI

And a self portrait in Lewistown, MT

That is my  journey and i normally dont take alot of nursing pictures but i know that when i see womens pics on FB and different forums i am in awe at the love showed in the pictures they share. They are personal and wonderful. I urge you to have your picture taken while nursing, you can be discreet and never show anyone, but these are special times, ones you want to remember and cherish. 

Myra is slowly weaning and cullen is slowing down as well. I hope to be done completely before we get pregnant egain! One last thing with myra and cullen even tho i nurse them both i still have weight trained the entire time and done zumba for 9 months, it never effected my milk, so you can work out and still nurse! You can do anything! You are superwoman!!!

Hope you enjoyed my long nursing story....i have wanted to share it for a long time...and now its written onto internet space, here forever!

Thank you! Happy  nursing!