Love reading all of these.
My oldest will turn 21 this year. My LLL when he was a baby was Holly McSpadden, who
is now the LC that I have been privileged to work with as a newbie lactation counselor for
the past two years!
I learned to nurse when I was pregnant by watching my good friend, who delivered her
first three months before me. I remember she had to return to her teaching job and
leave her daughter with the stay-at-home dad, and I watched in total awe as she casually
pumped several ounces of milk while we visited. It was a matter of, "Well, if SHE can do
it, no reason I can't do it". I think my SIL nursed my nieces but I never saw her do it.
Went to the hospital with the calming music cassette my friend used, expected a nice,
natural delivery, had a c-section after a long labor and my posterior baby having late
decels, and was so sad when they rolled me back from the recovery room and my dear
MIL, God rest her, was feeding the baby a bottle of water. I hadn't even gotten to hold
him and I burst into tears and thought yet another of my expectations was going to crash
and burn. I remember holding Dennis and trying to latch that afternoon, in pain and
feeling like crap and crying. Early the next morning, his little cart rolled into the room
and he was chewing on his fist and he of course immediately latched and the rest was
history. The LC mainly sat and talked with me, don't remember her even holding the
baby, just advised and encouraged. Did like a previous poster, nursed the baby with one
hand and held Karen Pryor's "Nursing Your Baby" with the other hand, nursed lying on my
side and put the baby on my chest and rolled over to change sides. The good part about
the c-section was being kept for four days, during which time all the engorgement,
jaundice, etc. happened and I had help - by the time I got home, I felt confident I knew
what I was doing. MIL was convinced we were starving her first grandchild, so I strolled
him down to the grocery store to weigh him on the electronic scale at the register, so I
could tell her he had gained a pound in the first ten days. The next two deliveries were
VBACs and everything went like clockwork. All my babies were 42 weeks, and now I
know how much that helped, although those last few weeks weren't fun in the hot
Southern summer wearing support hose for my varicose veins.....
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