Breastfeeding my daughter has been an entirely different experience from breastfeeding my first born. It took her a couple hours after she was born for her rooting reflex to kick into gear. I remember trying to nurse her thirty or forty minutes after she was born and she was not ready to latch. As soon as she was ready to nurse, she latched on really well and seemed to nurse really well. She would only take as much milk as she needed and then she would stop. Unlike, my son, who was a cluster feeder and would nurse for an hour straight. We did struggle a bit with nursing at night. Since I could not see with the lights off (of course), I could not help her latch on properly. Once I turned the lamp on, she latched on within seconds. As the weeks went by her nursing abilities grew and she needed less and less help latching on. Nursing during the night continued without much interruption to our sleep because she had learned how to latch on without needing me to put my breast into her mouth… she could find it on her own. We enjoyed our nursing moments together as she the weeks flew by us. I have fond memories of sitting on the sofa and gazing into her eyes that were gazing into my eyes while thinking that these were moments to remember and cherish. I remember the first time she popped off the breast to smile at me which is something she still does regularly. As she began to get more interested in the world around her, she began popping on and off the breast with more frequency so that she could focus her attention on the things happening around her. That is when I started putting her down after she popped off three times in a row…
(To be continued…)