Parker

Shanna Lowes

Before my one and only child was born, I decided to try to breastfeed him because it is the healthier choice. It didn't really seem like a big deal, this choice. Little did I know what a huge part of my life nursing would become, or what I was getting myself into. Oh boy!

My pregnancy was far from typical, consisting of 15 weeks of strict bed-rest (care of my "incompetent" -ha!- cervix) and the birth was more than painful (care of lying horizontal for a whole season!)

When Parker was born 7 weeks premature with spinal meningitis, I was hardly allowed to hold him for more than a few minutes at a time. The month of his recovery at Royal Columbian Hospital was heartbreaking and emotional, he was being fed through a nose-tube, and it was amidst all this that I was introduced to a breast-pumping machine.

My pumping experience started out as very uncomfortable, moved through embarrassing and discouraging, and ended somewhere between boring and inconvenient. I have to say that my back-pack style pump was handy, and conveniently (and discreetly!) carried with me everywhere. In total I pumped for 2 and 1/2 months, every 3-4 hours. Let me reach for my calculator... that's around 525 times! Through these months we were trying to nurse every day. I remember almost giving up so many times, probably because I didn't know what I was fighting for. Special thanks here goes to my loving husband for cheering me on and supporting me. We were supplementing his bottles with formula because I was not making enough milk. I guess my body wasn't optimized for breastfeeding a noisy robot, go figure!!   One day I found myself lazing comfortably with my son and couldn't be bothered to get up to find my nipple shield. finally, we just "clicked".   I then realized that there way no way to measure feeding amounts and learned to trust that my son and my body new what they were doing.

I excitedly sold my breast pump, and 6 months later he forgot how to use the bottle, ditched his soothers, and voila, heaven!

At 25 months old he still nurses 5 times a day. When people ask me when I will wean my toddler son, I say "We worked soooooo hard to nurse, I will NOT give it up lightly. When we are both ready to wean, we'll know. And we are in NO rush."