Can I nurse?

(4yo) I wanna nurse from your breast, Mama.

– you’re too big to nurse from my breast, Lillian.

(4yo) No I’m not! I don’t want milk from a cup. I want milk from your breasts.

-Why do you want milk from my breasts?

(4yo) Because you don’t have to pour it into a cup. It’s just comes right out.

-How about I pour some milk into a cup for you….with a lid and spout so you can drink that way?

(4to) Okay!

7yo walks in and the 4yo says

“I’m getting Mama Milk in a cup with a lid”

(No they aren’t, they are getting regular milk in a cup with a lid but before I could reiterate that)

(7yo) iiiii want Mama Milk in a cup.

(4yo) Mom can just pour some in from her breast

-That’s not how it works. I don’t have gallons of milk in my breast I can just pour out into a cup for you. Lincoln drinks it because he’s still little. When you were his age you drank Mama Milk too.

(4yo) Yes you can! Just use your hand and squeeze it in!

(7yo) Or get the pump and pump it all out.

(Mind you, Lincoln eats solids throughout the day so the milk he drinks when he’s nursing is more for fun, comfort, and antibodies than it is for meal supplementation.)

They leave the room and I feel relieved because that was so much pressure. I’ve let them try it before – since Lincoln’s been born – not straight from the tap, but expressed on a spoon. But that was a drop or two. Not ALL the milk. Talk about pressuea. *phew* Dodged a bullet.

Then they each returned with a sippy cup and asked me to fill them up.

(What do they think I am? A milk machine? Oh, wait…..)

In one word, describe what breastfeeding means to you?