more on the art of breastfeeding

look - he is getting better and better at sitting! so cute :)

it has been 5 months now and i finally feel like it is natural when i am feeding thomas. crazy! i am not sure exactly when it happened.. somewhere around 4 months i think. it was actually uncomfortable for me for the first 6-7 weeks (esp when he would first latch on). after that, it was just awkward. not to mention leaking and feeling like they were going to explode if i didn't feed thomas or pump every 3-4 hours. somewhere around 3 to 4 months, i learned how to feed thomas without the pillow and without my sofa at home with all of my cushions set up perfectly so. i have always wanted to, ever since i witnessed queen naomi as she effortlessly fed Dylan while walking around. :)
breastfeeding really is an art.... or a skill that you have to learn and then perfect - just like driving. i always thought it would be more natural, but it really isn't. on top of that babies have to learn too. most of them pick it up pretty fast, but they have to perfect it as well. the first month or two, they are just sucking at anything and then choking when the milk starts coming too fast. by the time they are 3 months old they get really good and can actually suck the milk out more efficiently than the pump. every single book and website i have looked at says that and the older thomas gets the more inclined i am to believe it. another thing that happened is that around 3-4 months, my body adjusted to Thomas and stopped overproducing milk. they say many women produce too much milk for baby the first 12 weeks or so. as your body adapts, it starts to ease off and produce exactly how much they need based on how often they feed. it is really really amazing. i actually was a little distressed when that happened to me because i thought i was not producing enough. even thomas was a little fussy because the milk would not flood out the way it did the first few months. so that made me feel like i really wasn't producing enough. they say this is common and that many women mistakenly stop breastfeeding or start adding formula when this happens, thinking that they should wean their baby off. so my doctor's advice was to go by diapers. as long as thomas was wetting at least 6-8 diapers a day, he is getting enough to eat. easy enough. when i was overproducing, he would finish each feeding in 5 minutes tops. he was a fast sucker. ha ha... once i leveled off, he would try the same speed guzzling method but wasn't getting as much. it really worried me. luckily, Thomas adjusted too and now takes 5-10 minutes to drink. he also takes both sides in one meal. he used to only need one at a time. the best thing about all this is that i no longer leak at random times because my boobs don't get ridiculously full of milk anymore... to the point where they are painfully full. yay...

however, now that he is his little very aware self, he is SUPER distractible. i can't even read anymore when he is drinking because he hears the crinkle of book or magazine pages and his little head swings off towards the source of interest. then he reaches out to try to grab the pages and help me read. this is especially hilarious and irritating when he does this right as the milk starts coming out. then i have like 5 of these leeeittle geysers of milk spraying on the pillow, on his head, his face, the sofa and me. if he hears anyone else talking besides me (i.e. DAD) he swings off to check it out. if he hears something outside, like a car horn or siren, he pulls off to check it out. he is so funny, so irritating and so funny. sometimes when i feel him start to pull off, i try to lock his head in place with my hands. but that darn little neck is getting really strong and even if i am squishing his adorable little ears, cheeks and nose, he STILL makes every effort to turn towards the interesting sound. man!!! little shyster!

the downside is i went from a C (esp those first 2 months, they were like coconuts!) to a B back to an A. ah well, it was short-lived, but at least i got to be a bustier girl for a few months. :p

another funny thing is he has a little better control of his limbs now so he utilizes them while he is drinking. sometimes his hand (on the arm under his body) reaches up to tickle my armpit. his toes are usually kicking at either my side or my armpit. it is especially tickly when his toes hit my armpit. his free arm is usually wildly roaming about, exploring my chin/mouth or my shirt. he also likes to slam his hand into my chest. repeatedly. ha ha.... not so funny when his nails are too long.
in the last month, he has gotten especially good at what i like to call digging for gold. he crams his hand right down into my bra, and starts grabbing at whatever he can find down there. sometimes the bra strap, other times my boob, many times the little, round nursing pads i have in there to prevent leaks. the funny thing is he will grab it, pull it right out and swing it around (all this while drinking). even funnier is that it has a sticky strip on the back. so sometimes when he tries to let go so that he can go digging around for something else to grab, it sticks to his hand. so there is thomas drinking away, little pad stuck to his hand as it is waving around... :)

--------falling asleep in the car-----------

thomas looks so sad when he is falling asleep. those little eyes looking at you, just makes me want to scoop him up and hug him! william chronicled it as we were driving home one day. he gives you this really sad little face and then the eyes start to roll back. of course he is still drooling the entire time. the only time he stops drooling is when he is asleep. thank goodness or the entire bed would be drooly by morning!