Dirty knees

I'm posting this picture late; it's from the fall equinox. We were over at some friends' house, and she took this picture of us. :) We had a firepit, and Ari was crawling all around the porch... but she still had some time for mama nursies!

She's getting to be a really big girl these days. She's cut down nursing alot in favor of solids- it all happened rather quickly, which was odd for me. One month, she was nearly exclusively nursed, and the next, she was eating three full meals a day, plus snacks. Even though she's nursing less, though, she's still firmly into the four or five times a day that she still nurses.

Now, we're starting to work on toddler nursing manners, though. *roll eyes*

Staked in the heart!

Here we are, nursing on the gaming floor at Dragon*Con, Ari with her favorite stake in hand. She was also dressed in a blood spattered white onesie (left over from her vorpal bunny costume), so she looked like a slayer. Especially because she genuinely loves those stakes!

We nursed everywhere around the con, frequently less than discreetly because of the necessities of my costumes, but given that this was Dragon*Con (home of the barely-obscured nipple!) no one gave us two glances, even *with* my enormous baby.

One year

This is me and Ari at my birthday party. It also happens to be almost her first birthday!

It's amazing to think that it's been nearly a year since I became a mother, and a year since my baby was wee and tiny... and a year that I've been nursing. And thank god, I might add- Ari is so mobile these days, that anything that gets her sitting still and not trying to knock things over is a godsend when we're out.

I can't believe how huge my baby looks in this picture. And we have no plans to stop anytime soon, so I guess she's just going to get huger!

Nursies and snuggles

I had Thad take these pictures this afternoon; she was nursing in both although it's less obvious in the second. I really, really love nursing lately (I'm sure the existence of this blog speaks to that).

When Ari was younger, I loved it less. I didn't hate it or anything, but I was fairly ambivalent. It had its good points and bad points, and mostly it just was. I definitely approved of it for health reasons- how it kept my baby healthy through months of me and Thad passing colds and fevers back and forth, and also how it got me back to pre-pregnancy weight in just a few weeks. I especially approved of it because I'm lazy, and the concept of having to fuss with bottles or (god forbid!) actually wake up in the middle of the night to feed the baby just sounded like unnecessary horribleness.

But I didn't really feel terribly positive towards it or anything. But lately, the last month or two, I've really been just loving it. It probably has a lot to do with how much more independent my baby is these days. I don't get to just snuggle her that often anymore... not even when she sleeps. So I love the times I get to just sit in a chair and hold my baby close to me.

Pig, or boob?

Nursing at the Jazz and Ribs festival. That is, by the way, a denuded rib in her off hand. We let her play with it- but she knew where the real food was! A friend took this picture. We look so happy and casual.

An upside down bear

This was taken last Tuesday. I've been working full time for a little over a month (but I'm off for the summer now- Huzzah!), and it's hard on Ari. She won't really eat when I'm gone, so we spend hours nursing and cuddling when I get home. I usually read email while I nurse her at those times. Here, she decided she needed a little reading material, too!

Nice pillows

Aw- all asleep and cuddled up with her favorite thing. These were taken about a month ago- when Ari was 10 months old. She's actually a little too heavy to hold like this for too long anymore. There was a time when I could be a baby couch for hours on end, but now my arms just go numb.
Remember when I said that now "she'll crawl up to me and latch herself on while on all fours"? Guess what this is! I was watching a movie when Ari decided to help herself to the all-you-can-eat Mama Buffet.

Eggplant baby

I love how she's cuddling her book in this picture. Her papa has been reading to her since birth, and she loves books, even if she doesn't even understand what reading is.

The necklace I'm wearing in this picture is mostly obscured, but I made a series of nursing necklaces in the hope that she'd rather grab on those than my tender, tender flesh. It works sometimes.

Walmart tanktop

Here we are a week later, back in the computer chair. This is my favorite nursing chair of the whole house. It has arms, it rocks and it is rollable, so I can sit at the table or at the computer or wherever. I always tend to sit with the one leg cocked up like that to support her. It's very comfortable, and I can check email or whatever while she nurses.

Again, here you can see for comparison's sake, how much bigger my baby got!

Razor sharp

Fast forward another four months- at this point, Ari is 7 months old. And wearing pants! I think I thought this was just a really cute outfit. And I love how she's holding my hand here. Mind, I probably have my hand there so that she can clutch my hand instead of clutching my sensitive flesh with her Baby Claws of Doom.

My baby's trust in me

Fast forward again another month- now Ari's nearly 3 months old. This is one of the very first times she did the monkey kneeling kind of nursing. Now, of course, she'll crawl up to me and latch herself on while on all fours! This position is kind of a comfy, laid back, sprawly kind of nursing- but I think it would only work if the baby has a decent latch, or their head would pop off the boob.

This is the night of the same day above. You can see how much she's grown from the very first picture.

I took this picture because I wanted to remember how it was to have my little baby girl snuggled up against me and nursing to sleep. Nursing to sleep is controversial in baby-rearing circles, I guess. But for me, having my sweet baby snuggled against me, her eyes slowly closing, is an experience I'll treasure forever.

Buying t-shirts

Here I am, in the Hobby Lobby, a week after Halloween. This is one of the first times I nursed successfully in the sling. That was a huge turning point- I could walk around doing things and still feed my baby! I never got to the point where I could nurse hands-free with a ring sling, though (that, by the by, is a Maya Wrap).

Nursing is a huge bonding experience- especially as my baby is older, I find- but much of the time, it's just feeding. It's not a particularly special moment. Breastfed babies can eat alot. I mean, she was on the boob twenty minutes ago. In thirty minutes she'll be back on the boob... anything you can do to get on with your life in the meantime is awesome.

That's what drives me spare about people against nursing in public- I wasn't trying to make any political statement in this picture. I wasn't trying to be exhibitionist. I was just trying to meet my baby's needs and not have to totally sequester myself. That's why I'm grinning- look, I'm still shopping!

My father-in-law took this picture, but I'm not totally sure he realized that I was nursing at the time. Regardless, this is one of my treasured pictures.

Sharp pointy teeth!

Last one for the night, and then I'm going to go sleep and snuggle my little girl.

This is us at just over 2 months- Halloween. If you can't tell, we're in costumes from Monty Python's Holy Grail- she's the vorpal bunny. And look- here she is feasting on human flesh! It's so in character it hurts.

This is the first picture I have of me nursing in a public place, but it's not the first time I did it. That would have been when she was about 6 days old, and we went out for ice cream.

Monkey baby!

Fast forward a month and a half! This was me and my first bout with plugged ducts. Ari was happy to nurse no matter what. I thought it was hilarious that she just latched on eagerly and started nursing greedily, even when being hung upside down.

I can't remember whether these acrobatics cleared the plug or not, but I think it did actually help. Later on I figured out that one could just lie down first, and it made the whole process much easier.

Why I'm doing this

I seem to have taken a lot of photos of me nursing my little girl (now nearly 11 months) in the last while. I thought I'd gather them together in one place, with a bit of commentary. So, here goes:

These pictures were taken very shortly after Ari was born. She looks so tiny at the breast! They're not the most fetching pictures of either of us (though in our defense, we had both been through a lot right before!) but they're very dear to my heart. They mark the beginning of an incredible relationship.