Life in the Sling
August 29th, 2004
Life doesn’t slow down so you can stop and nurse
when you have three older children.
when you have three older children.
When
I was taking mother and baby yoga, after Soren was born, I got teased for being
able to breastfeed while practicing certain poses. I’d never do it in a way
that would endanger my son, but feeding him on demand seemed to be a notion he
wanted to test, and there were days when it felt like I would get to do no yoga
at all if I didn’t do it while breastfeeding. It just felt like the natural
consequence of all the other things I did while breastfeeding, reading,
emailing, playing boardgames, washing dishes, working on world peace… Today I
did one better and breastfed while playing miniature golf (and I got a
respectable score!) Rainer, bless him, is comfortable in the sling in a way
S¿ren never was and happily suckles away in relative privacy, and once I
figured out how to swing the miniature golf putter around his bulk hanging off
my shoulders, I was quite able to keep up with the rest of the family, including
S¿ren who showed a definite inclination to meander across other people’s
games. I do recognize the limits on this behavior, and will probably be in the
market for a great massage therapist within a couple of weeks, but it was
important for our family to have this time together doing something fun. And
once everybody is in bed and I finish this entry I can breastfeed with my whole
attention and bask in this time that is just him and me.
I was taking mother and baby yoga, after Soren was born, I got teased for being
able to breastfeed while practicing certain poses. I’d never do it in a way
that would endanger my son, but feeding him on demand seemed to be a notion he
wanted to test, and there were days when it felt like I would get to do no yoga
at all if I didn’t do it while breastfeeding. It just felt like the natural
consequence of all the other things I did while breastfeeding, reading,
emailing, playing boardgames, washing dishes, working on world peace… Today I
did one better and breastfed while playing miniature golf (and I got a
respectable score!) Rainer, bless him, is comfortable in the sling in a way
S¿ren never was and happily suckles away in relative privacy, and once I
figured out how to swing the miniature golf putter around his bulk hanging off
my shoulders, I was quite able to keep up with the rest of the family, including
S¿ren who showed a definite inclination to meander across other people’s
games. I do recognize the limits on this behavior, and will probably be in the
market for a great massage therapist within a couple of weeks, but it was
important for our family to have this time together doing something fun. And
once everybody is in bed and I finish this entry I can breastfeed with my whole
attention and bask in this time that is just him and me.
