This weekend has been pretty crazy in the breastfeeding world. I've been reading of women getting harassed for feeding their children in some public places. It makes me so sad when I hear that women are being told to feed their child in a restroom. It also makes me sad that some people think breastfeeding is disgusting. Breastfeeding KJ for 17 months was the most beautiful time of my life. I feel really sad that it ended.
I've been writing about the struggles that we've had with getting KJ to sleep at night without him being attached at the breast the whole time. I weaned him because I thought that it was time for me to be done with breastfeeding. After two weeks of not nursing my baby, do you know what I discovered? It had become a part of me. I miss nursing my baby so much. We bonded so much when I nursed him. I miss holding him in my arms and his big beautiful eyes looking up at my face. I miss being able to soothe all of his pains and fears by simply nursing him. It was such a special time.
The day after Christmas, there was an incident that occurred where a woman was told to leave a Hollister store (which was located in a mall) because the manager did not want the mother to breastfeed her baby girl there. The woman had even used a cover so that no one could even see that the baby was breastfeeding.. The incident sparked an outcry from breastfeeding supporters all over the world (here in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, and other places). People organized a nurse-in at Hollister stores all over. I decided to attend one that was held locally. I wasn't sure if KJ would nurse since it has been 2 weeks since he's done so, but I still wanted to go and show my support.
There were four women, including myself. One of the ladies was actually tandem nursing, meaning that she nursed both her 4 year old and 4 month old. When we were inside of the Hollister store, I attempted to nurse KJ. He simply looked at me like I was crazy. The event seemed to be successful. It was mainly to raise awareness of a breastfeeding mother's rights. I got home, checked the event page, and saw tons of pictures of women who were breastfeeding their babies. I will admit that I was jealous. I started crying (and still am) because it seemed to be over for us. I'm not sure why the tears...but I just feel so sad. It's funny how in the moment we think that we won't something (in my case, "something" was to sleep more at night) but then once we have it, we decide that it wasn't what we wanted after all.
No matter what, though, I can say that I breastfed my baby for 17 beautiful months. I will still continue to nourish him...it will just be in a different way.
1 comment:
Avalon is 13 months now, and I am still planning on nursing for at least a few more months. Still, I remember how hard it was for me when I stopped nursing Ayden, and I am not looking forward to doing it a second time. It was so hard to get started nursing both my girls, but in the end it always became a special experience for us, too. Thanks for supporting a good cause, Shea!
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