Nursing Gavin, around 2 months old
I started to write a piece on why we chose to breastfeed, and it ended up being about 4 pages long. That is just way too much. You would get bored. You actually might get bored now.
I should say that if you’re already sure you don’t want to put your child to breast, there’s nothing I or anyone else can say to change your mind. Even if you don’t KNOW that’s how you feel … if deep down inside, you are not confident or just uncomfortable with the idea of a child nursing at your breast … it’s probably not going to happen for you.
If you are on the fence one way or the other (and I was at one point, and that may surprise many of you), I’m going to say some things that I hope will tip you over to my side of the fence.
I can throw at you all the statistics about how it’s much healthier, how it’s more natural, etc. But you already know all that.
I have heard some moms (or soon-to-be moms) say that breastfeeding just seems so restrictive — like the mother is unable to be as free as a mom who feeds her child a bottle instead.
Well, consider this. When I returned to work at 3.5 months postpartum, I decided I would pump milk and send it to daycare in lieu of formula. (I ended up having to supplement with formula anyway because my kid loved milk, whether from the breast or the bottle.)
When we came home each evening, I spent about 15-20 minutes preparing bottles for the next day. Washing, drying, pouring and measuring milk, and making sure I returned them to the fridge.
This was for the 3-4 bottles of breast milk that my infant son consumed in 9 hours.
Consider how many more bottles of formula are consumed in a single day by a child who is solely formula-fed. 10-12 bottles, maybe? Perhaps you just dump them in the sink throughout the day and wash them all at the end of the day.
Consider being awakened by a crying baby in the middle of the night. My kid? Got placed on the boob and was quiet again 99% of the time within 30 seconds. A bottle-fed baby? Unless you have one of those mini-fridges next to the crib or your bed, it may take you at least 1 minute to pour the formula in bottles that are pre-filled with water — and that’s if you don’t spill water or formula, or drop the measuring scoop. (I’m clumsy. I’m sure I would have dropped the scoop at least once a night.)
Going out: I’ve already talked about my diaper bag and what goes in it. What never went in it: bottles (unless he was going to the babysitter’s, or grandparents’) or formula. If we were out longer than expected, we never ran out of milk. We could have a little bit of spontaneity in our day, even with a 2-month-old infant.
I know, I know. It’s so difficult to pump and leave the baby, wondering if you have enough milk. I couldn’t ever have fun when I left Gavin anywhere because I was always worried about whether I had left enough with the sitter or whoever happened to be watching him. But think about it. The child is a newborn. Newborns by design are not meant to be away from their mothers for very long. I didn’t want to be away from my newborn. Sure, a couple of hours at the salon for a pedicure or a massage is great. Or even an afternoon shopping. But we have to consider that our children were made like this for a reason. I don’t believe that our modern culture should change what biology (or God) has designed — not this part.
It was after Gavin turned 2 that I finally spent the night without him (and unbeknownst to him, I was actually in the next room, just in case). Perhaps that is a little longer than most mothers would wait to spend a night away from their children, but in the first year, I feel it’s important to be close, not just for breastfeeding purposes but because our children should feel our closeness while they still enjoy our closeness.
There are more reasons why I should feel all mothers should at least attempt breastfeeding. This is just one of those teeny, tiny ones that I thought of, that maybe hadn’t been discussed or was maybe glossed over in those overwhelming breastfeeding classes that you might have taken.
