Visit with the Grandparents

So, last month I blogged about how I was nervous about my grandparents staying with me for 10 days over Thanksgiving because I knew this year I wouldn't be able to hide nursing a 3 year old. He's super obvious about when he wants his booby drink. I avoid awkward surprise situation I wanted to give them a heads up in advance, and that ended up happening through my dad talking to them about it. I have no idea what their initial reaction was, but the visit went beautifully and there weren't negative moments as far as I could tell. 


I believe it was their first or second morning here that they were in the diningroom with Chicken Little while I was in the kitchen. They must have been looking at a cow of some kind and I heard something like "Well, that's not the only source where he gets milk." Ears immediately perk up and I felt a little nervous. At this point I had no idea if my dad had even remembered to talk to them, and now I knew he had. 


Most of my son's nursings happen before/after sleep cycles, but I did nurse him a few times in front of them if he asked for a bonus boob. Everyone seemed comfortable with it. Whew! 


I got to learn a bit about my grandmothers breastfeeding experience, which was wonderful (perhaps I'll ask her to do a guest blog spot!). She had two boys and breastfed both of them. My dad is the oldest, and in Illinois 1955 they kept the baby in the nursery and only brought them to the mothers on a schedule. But they fed the babies bottles of formula in the nursery if they were crying. She remembered being so frustrated that by the time they brought him to her he wasn't hungry anymore and wouldn't nurse. When she asked why they didn't bring the baby to her when he cried the nurses reply was that it wasn't TIME to bring the baby. Oh my.... Grrrr!!! She said she was the only one of her friends to breastfeed and she didn't even realize it wasn't a thing to do because everyone in her family had always breastfed. 


My 14 month old daughter Chicklett stole big brothers sippy at one point and I jokingly scolding her telling her to give it back to him. My grandma had a great one liner come back saying, "Now, to be fair she shares her sippy's with him!" Ha ha ha! Good one grandma. 


All in all a pleasant coming-out-of-the-toddler-nursing-closet experience. 

Hiding

This last week has been a whirlwind of family while we attended a family reunion. Those who are on my facebook know that I'm tandem nursing but I wasn't sure how comfortable I would be nursing Olivia in front of all of those people. I had NO problems nursing Ella but Olivia is almost 3 and society says that breastfeeding a 3 year old is weird. I do NOT agree that breastfeeding a 3 year old is weird. I think it's beautiful and I'm SO proud that Olivia relatched and is nursing again. It drove me crazy that I felt uncomfortable nursing her like I usually do in front of all these people. I talked about it with my husband and my friends and I turned her down multiple times. Finally, right before bedtime, she was asking and so I did it. I nursed her in front of my mother in law. She just kept talking to me and didn't look twice. I don't know what she was thinking, but I so appreciated the fact that I didn't feel judged by her.
While we were at the family reunion, Olivia was too busy to want to breastfeed so it didn't become an issue. After we left, my brother in law came back with us so he can spend some time with all of us before going back to California. This morning, Olivia wanted a boobie (as she always does) and so I nursed her. My brother in law came upstairs. He ate breakfast and didn't look at me weirdly, didn't say anything...nothing. Again, I don't know what he was thinking but the fact that he didn't say anything or give me weird looks really meant the world to me.

I wish I could say I am now fully comfortable nursing Olivia in public. I wish I could say that I cured of my insecurities about nursing a toddler...I'm not though. It is definitely something I'm struggling with but I am working towards being more comfortable with it. Because our nursing relationship has been reestablished after a year of not nursing, Olivia is essentially nursing on demand and she likes to breastfeed at least 3-4 times a day, as much as 6 (usually not though). Generally speaking, I don't deny her when she wants to breastfeed, however I find myself denying her in public or when we're around family other then our immediate family or my mom.

I don't want to be this way though. I don't have a problem with people who keep their toddlers on a schedule, I TOTALLY understand it. The only reason I'm not is simply because we recently reestablished and she went a year without. As time goes on, I think I'll limit her a bit but for now I'm letting her nurse on demand and trying to work through my own issues that society has put upon me.