Acrobatic Nursing

Tyler is in that crazy acrobatic stage of nursing. It takes all of my energy not to just push him down and cut him off cold turkey. He flips around from side to side, tries to turn my nipple around in every direction possible, he fondles me with his hands everywhere and tries to shove his feet into my g's and shorts. sometimes he will head butt my breast when he is silly nursing and playing. A lot of the time I get a fat lip because of it. And there's also the fantastic added bonus of a smelly, sticky, stinky hand or foot in my face. That's nice! He also enjoys kicking the mouse, keyboard or my hand as I am working or "working" on the computer. Ahhhh! It it weren't for all of the lovely benefits of extended breastfeeding for myself and Tyler I wold have cut him off a long time ago.

But then there are the times when he hums to himself while nursing. He will also smile while latched on and giggle and coo as I tickle him. He will also slurp on and slurp off with a refreshed, "Ahhh." He will lovingly sit down gently in my lap and fluff my shirt a bit as if to say, "it's time mama." And now that he's signing to nurse I just can't resist it's just too cute to say no to. My favorite is when he will be half awake half asleep between naps and he will look at me with a dazed and confused expression and grasp slowly but surely at thin air to tell me he wants to nurse. all the time he has the cutest bed head you've ever seen. Man!

I put some old home movies on DVD and couldn't resist watching Justin's younger self. He went from calling nursing "no no" to "nur to" and then just "nurse" or "nursie" It was very fun to watch. I find it interesting that each kid has a different name for nursing. Thus far Tyler will sign, pull on my shirt or simply yell, "Bah!" at me.

A little girl I know today watched me as I nursed Tyler. She looked me in the eye and said, "I don't suck milk from boobs no more." I just simply said, "okay." And that was that. Too cute!

I was doing the math today in my head and I realized that I have had very few periods in the past several years. I became pregnant with Justin in July of 2002 and got my fertility back in September of 2005. I became pregnant in June of 2006 and have yet to have my period. So, what that's 9 or 10 periods in (9+28+9+19=65 months) almost 5 1/2 years. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

Not to say that any of it is easy. One mother was asking me about night nursing and my honest to goodness answer was, "I was really tired for 3 years." And I was. You just do what you have to do and what works for you. And nursing works for us!