Nursing Your Kids

After delivery my very messy baby was given to me. His eyes wide open, I held him close against my chest. My instincts were to see if he wanted to nurse, but I didn’t want to stop looking at his face. I also knew that I needed a few stitches and that they’d want to clean and wrap him up. After a few minutes they took him to the other side of the room. My doctor attended to me while they weighed and cleaned the baby. Bob took pictures.

It felt like forever before they gave him back, but it was only about five minutes. I started to unsnap my gown but Bob stopped me to take a few pictures first. Then it was show time. He latched on right away and knew just what to do. His little jaw started working and I felt a familiar pull. But just as quickly as he started he stopped. I tried to encourage him to nurse more over the next 45 minutes but he didn’t seem all that interested.

He was alert and looking around the room. He looked at me and he looked at Bob. We admired him back. Our baby boy looked nothing like Sam did at birth. He was a full pound heavier with darker skin, darker eyes and a head of thick, black hair. While Sam was happy to latch on and nurse for close to an hour after his birth, Sam’s little brother was happy just to look. He didn’t cry and he didn’t fuss, he just took everything in.

We stayed in the delivery room with him for more than an hour before they took him to the nursery for assessments and took me to my room in the maternity ward. Bob got us food and I had a midnight snack of chicken fingers and French fries while my baby had his first bath. Bob went home for the night. Not too long after a nurse brought me my son and it was time to nurse him again.

Again he latched well but didn’t really want to breastfeed. He was too tired. I stripped off his swaddle, removed his shirt and tickled his feet to wake him up to nurse. He was not happy about being so rudely awakened, but he did latch again and nurse for about five minutes. The nurse took him back to the nursery to warm him up and I was able to sleep for an hour before they brought him back.

When he returned for the night he finally latched on and nursed for about forty-five minutes before falling asleep, completely exhausted. He slept in my arms the rest of the night, completely oblivious to the nurses coming in and out, checking my blood pressure and temperature and patting my uterus. He was one tired baby boy.