Nursing for fun!

It's just so much fun to nurse for fun. That is, to breastfeed when you don't really have to. This week is the holiday of Passover and that means lots of vacation days to spend with my family. Not working plus eating lots of good food is a great breastfeeding recipe, I've found. Sam is with me all day, and we spend a lot of the time with family.

A germophobe like me realizes all the nasty scenarios like kids drooling on each others' toys and stuff, a sick cousin, a sneezing nephew, etc. I figured, lemme load Sam up with protective ammo to fight off whatever he may be exposed to. So I gladly filled our days with a few nursing sessions. It's so relieving and stress-free to just nurse when you really don't have to, since Sam eats regular meals and has snacks and drinks and all that. So he technically doesn't need to nurse at all during the day. But why shouldn't he, when it's that easy for me and my boy? We both enjoyed the experience immensely.

At first I was kind of worried that these extra feedings would result in an uncomfortable increase in my supply, but it hasn't done that at all. I actually got my period a day before Passover (and our vacation) began and as you may recall from an earlier post, my milk supply jumps up during my period, after being kind of faulty from ovulation onward. So this was a perfect time to max out since my milk was flowing nicely. I had plenty, even during the day (not that I felt full or anything, just I did have availability as long as Sam sucked). Today I am back at work and don't feel uncomfortable at all - I feel like I normally do.

Speaking of sickness protection from breastfeeding, two weeks ago I came down with an awful case of strep throat. I don't know where I caught it, but it's been about 20 years since my last case of it and now it was back. I began to feel sick on a Friday but thought it was just another virus so I didn't go to the doctor. Over the weekend I felt worse and worse (with fevers, chills, aches, knife-scraping throat-ache, sore muscles... the works!) but didn't get a chance to see a doctor until Sunday. That's when I got medication and began to feel better. Now, all weekend before I took the meds I was most certainly contagious. But you know what? I was able to personally deliver the proper antibodies to Sam via our breastfeeding and that must be why he didn't contract my infection!