It has been a pleasure to read everyone's stories...and took me back in time
to my firstborn, who managed to arrive three weeks early on Christmas Day at
the small hospital on Nantucket Island.
No obstetricians or pediatricians in Nantucket...the usual maternity nurses
had Christmas day off...and the dialysis nurse was working in maternity that
day !  A definite lack of advice for a new mom !  Fortunately, one of the
meager benefits of a liberal arts education is the concept of "when in
doubt, buy a book about the subject at hand" :)  I had read the Womanly Art
of Breastfeeding and every pregnancy book I could find (wouldn't the
Internet have been wonderful way back then...)  But, as an only child, I had
never even held a newborn, let alone seen a baby being breastfed and neither
my mother or mother-in-law thought it was a good idea. I think I did all the
right things for not the best reasons...I thought BF would be easier than
getting up in the middle of the night...and it was !  I thought carrying my
baby's milk with me would be easier than carrying bottles and formula
around...and it was ! I longed for the closeness nursing my baby would
bring..and I found it times infinity...When he was 6 weeks old, I
"discovered" LLL and learned all of the health benefits of BF for both baby
and I and was convinced for life !
My son was delivered by an intelligent, but, eccentric GP who believed all
women in labor should get a shot of Demerol upon admission and that 1st time
moms should have a forceps delivery !  But, I had done by "homework" and
arrived with my "birth plan", unheard of at that small hospital at that
time...and had a natural delivery and declined the offer to send the baby to
the nursery. I just assumed he would know how to breastfeed and he
did...despite the nurse who woke me up at 5am the next day to announce he
was jaundiced and she had come to save us with a bottle of sterile water !
 We hurried home, where my milk immediately came in and persevered through
weeks of colic and "just enough" weight gains and grandmas who suggested
cereal and a "nice bottle" to calm him. I kept the "Womanly Art" next to my
favorite chair and it became the "experienced BF friend" I desperately
needed. We went on to have a happy nursing relationship that (only) lasted
19 months...babies #2 and #3 benefited from my learning more and more about
BF and they nursed for close to 3 years each.

I never learned to express or pump...I was too busy being a stay at home mom
and secretly enjoyed that only *I* could feed my babies. With my firstborn,
I knew intuitively that timing feeds and scheduling were wrong for a
baby..but, there was still a learning curve that I didn't quite reach in
terms of flexibility...we didn't sleep together...I never thought of lying
down to nurse him (how wonderful that would have been for the sleep-deprived
mom of a colicky baby...). But, babies #2 and #3 slept with us from Day 1
and the sweet memory of nursing lying down with baby and a paperback book
remains the height of luxury in my mind !

I miss those days.  Middle age has brought nothing comparable.
Diane...thanks for asking these questions !  Rachel..thanks for the
wonderful phrase of
venturing down "mammary lane"...a few tears are threatening to seep onto the
keyboard as I look back in time :)

Nancy...no initials of any monetary value, just "Mom"
ps   I cheated. Oldest is just 23 yrs. old. But, I couldn't resist <G>

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