Yay, for Le Leche League!

Gwyneth recently staged a nursing strike-Adam said he could imagine her with a little picket sign crawling around with a grouchy little look... She is getting some teeth on the top (I figured out after lots of parenting detective work) and refused to nurse from 10am yesterday until we had success at about 8pm! I was bursting to say the least-since she is only 7 months and nursing is still her primary nutrition every 2-3 hours. It was horrible...I would lay her back into position and she would wail this horrible yell I have never heard from her, or she would just put her mouth on and look at me sideways with no latch-on and then sit up crying, or she would bite me and cry immediately from guilt...nursing has always been a beautiful bond between me and my babies and a way I bring comfort and intimacy as well as nourishment to my girls, so this was heartbreaking for me. I worried (since she is eating solids twice a day now and moving on to finger food) that she didn't want it or was weaning. I had to wean Agatha at almost 2 years old-because I wanted to stop-not because she did-so I was not ready for these thoughts. It was hard, and I realize I may need to prepare myself for Gwyn to move on before I am ready. But, I knew it was too early to move on now. I pumped, I gave her some in a bottle (should have used a cup and no artificial nipples I realize now) and she sucked it down. AHHH! What was wrong? SO, finally I called my LLL Leader, Rebecca Konegen, and she is my lifesaver. She has saved me from three nursing catastophies with Gwyn and I owe her some crazy big attachment parenting points! She told me to take a bath with Gwyn and try to nurse in there with the skin to skin, comfy atmosphere. I have to admit it seems wierd to those who have never birthed or nursed-but it worked! (As did the admittedly wierd suggestion of boob soaking in a sink of hot water for mastitis/clogged milk duct, among other helpful things she has told me) Yay for LLL! Yay for Becky! Yay for Gwyn who is now nursing again, gently and with a little pain, but nursing!!! Double Yay for Gwyn who is also crawling now. She started on New Year Day and has now started to really get around. SO many big things happening in her little life-it is no wonder a nursing strike was staged!