Nursing & Nat the Fat Rat

I recommend reading this post to better make sense of what's to follow.

Natalie Holbrook, author of the popular blog 'Nat the Fat Rat', and I have one major thing in common: we both have adorable boys called Huck. After this similarity, we start to part ways...

She is a mormon. I am a Christian.

She has dark hair. I am blond(ish).

She lives in the Empire State. I live in the Hoosier State (bleh).

She gets paid to blog. I... do not.

She appears to eat whatever she wants and stay stick thin. I am a normal human and would tend to gain weight when I eat whatever my heart desires.

She has to try for years to get pregnant. I get pregnant even when trying to prevent little Henriks from coming along.

And the biggest difference between us (besides the mormon thing of course - that's a big one) is that she breast fed her baby child for 2.5 years, is devastated to stop nursing, and apparently still has the milk supply to feed triplets years after giving birth.

Me? Not so much.

I can't quite grasp why anyone would breastfeed for longer than a year. I tend to think when your child can walk to you and ask to be fed, it's time to hand them a nice sippy cup of milk and send them on their way. Don't misunderstand, I really do enjoy nursing Henrik Sebastian, I'm just not sure I'll shed any tears when those days have passed (maybe I'm wrong, I'll be sure to let you know if I end up eating more words). And the milk supply thing? Engorgement isn't a word in my vocabulary (which is okay since I hate that word). In fact, I barely have enough to keep little Henrik full.

This week my doctor said I needed to start supplementing a couple ounces of formula after I nurse Huck. He was gaining weight, but maybe not at the rate he should (or could) and wasn't seeming content after some feedings (usually dependent on the time of day) and when I would pump, I wasn't getting all that much, hence the supplementing. I was a little sad and annoyed about this. Who wants to spend close to 40 minutes breast feeding only to get done and have to give a bottle? Not ideal. Oh and the worst part - the smell. I used to love when I would put Henrik up my shoulder to burp and his little breath would be next to my face, but not as much anymore, those formula burps are gross...breast milk wins in the smell department by a million. But the reality is that I'd rather have a content and healthy baby. And in the couple days I've been supplementing, I already have a happier baby, which makes dealing with smelly burps worth it. :)

My point of this post is definitely not to say any one take on nursing is right or wrong. Really. To each their own! It just felt so ironic today as I read Natalie's post on quitting nursing her Huck while I nursed my Huck and thought how she would probably kill to have my fertility and I would love to have a better milk supply and how these things are just out of our control.