"It takes time to language a speak ..."

While responding to a comment on my Fearless Feeders post, I was reflecting on my nursing relationship with my son, and how lucky we've been during this wonderful journey together. I was lucky not to suffer from any soreness, cracking, bleeding, or supply issues. My son had a perfect, textbook latch from Day 1. However, it didn't come natural to me. I had to learn how to help him. It wasn't until the Lactation Consultant gave me the tools I needed to succeed and I was able to practice them with my son that everything came together. And that took time.

• I remember the days (and the nights) when he would eat every two hours for an hour at a time. And by every two hours, I mean two hours from the time he started the nursing session. So, for example, he would start at 2am, finish at 3am, and then be up again by 4am, if I was lucky!
• I remember when he struggled to get used to my powerful letdown and would choke on the milk.
• I remember when he went through his 10 day and 6 week growth spurts and literally lived at my breast for 24 hours.
• I remember when he would have a great nursing session, only to spit most of it back up as soon as he was vertical. 
• And I also remember when, after taking the occasional bottle of EBM, he vehemently refused to have anything to do with an artificial nipple. I finally had some luck with the Mimijumi bottle, but to this day he has only taken 4oz of EBM on three separate occasions. The rest of the time, he drinks about an ounce, fights with the bottle, and then plays with it. Whatever. He prefers the real thing. Who can blame him?

I think things finally levelled out around 4 months, and we've been going strong ever since. 

There's a lovely video by First 6 weeks that likens breastfeeding to learning a new language:

Pretty spot on, I think.