Learning the Hard Way

by Holly Andrews

With child number one you tend to think you are superwoman, then with number two you have a little more "after baby pain" so you take it a little easier, then with number three you just can't make yourself do everything that you know you need to.

I was so tired after my third child I couldn't wait until she needed to eat so I could relax. One night about three weeks after she was born it was three in the morning and she had woken up every thirty minutes. I was so tired I was crying, she was crying and I thought if I give her a bottle of formula it will calm her down and we can both get some sleep. At first she didn't want it but I kept trying and eventually she took two ounces. Then five minutes later she spit up all of it. I felt so bad that I had made her eat that junk, I cried even harder than I had been from lack of sleep. She was still acting hungry so I let her nurse one last time, we laid in my bed and fell asleep.

From that day on I never gave her another ounce of formula. I gave all of my "free samples" to my sister-in-law who doesn't breastfeed.

She is now an eleven month old beautiful little lady. I am a mother of three. My oldest is 4 and I only breastfed her for 6 weeks. My second child is 3 and I breastfed him for 4 months. Now with Taylor it seems like I don't know how not to be a nursing mom. I've decided to let her stop in her own time no matter how soon or far that day is.