Suddenly recalled that it may have happened of necessity.  I needed to
express milk and I could not let down milk to my duly acquired double
cylinder pump, and discovered that hand expression worked better.  I could
express from both sides at once, with two cups.  Most likely I just put my
fingers where the baby's gums usually were, that I don't remember.  But I do
remember spraying milk about three feet by hand expressing to soften my
breast so I could feed, when we were visiting my in-laws a month after our
daughter was born, and my husband's grandmother got a huge charge out of it
and told me the story of how she as a young child had tried to pee standing
up. She'd watched her brother and thought it looked very convenient, but she
kept spreading her legs wider apart to keep the stream from running down her
thigh and finally ended up in the splits on the floor in a puddle of urine,
very miffed at what seemed to be the inherent unfairness of gender and
anatomy.  She said she would have loved to have known then that she could
have had her revenge as a new mother.  This means I already knew the
technique when she was a newborn.  Hmm.
 
Actually I only thought I needed to express milk.  My daughter wouldn't take
a bottle, just had no clue what they were about at all, nor would she deign
to drink any lactiferous fluid from a cup, from any species.  Still doesn't,
though she is fully weaned and has lived in another city for the past 8
years.  So the only reason to express was to relieve pressure if I was away
for too long.  Until she was six months old I was only very occasionally not
in the same room with her and I don't think I was ever gone for more than
two or three hours.  Funny, I never felt it kept me from doing anything I
cared to do; she was a portable kid, could go to sleep anywhere, and didn't
require a lot of space.  Her food supply was a no-brainer as long as she was
fully breastfed - even *I* in my persistent postpartum fog could not forget
where I'd put it away last time I'd fed her.  I didn't give her baby cereals
as a weaning food and it didn't occur to me to mix breastmilk in with the
table foods she was sharing with us.  Stir-fried tofu and vegies, with MILK?
Spaghetti sauce?  Teriyaki chicken?  Curried lentils and rice?  Give me a
break!  Like I said, it didn't occur to me that my milk would add anything
to the culinary quality and besides she was drinking it as a chaser with all
her food anyway when I was there.  If not she drank plain water or sometimes
fruit juice.  Egad.

I have to laugh when I think of all the fretting mothers do now, about how
much milk to leave behind the first time they are going for a night out with
friends.  They are rarely concerned that the child will miss THEM as people.
My child hardly cared at all about the milk, she was only concerned with
proximity to its provider, her mother.  I suspect she was not unique. 

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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