My power is back!

This time last year I wrote this post about missing my super power…. ie making breast milk. So it’s a year later, breastfeeding week again and my power is back… with a vengeance! But if making breast milk is my super power I can’t help but feel I am somewhat of a daggy, ‘last person you’d want to call to save the world’ kind of super hero!

When the girls were breastfeeding it was pretty much a comedy of errors. Read that old post for the details but basically things didn’t go our way right from the beginning and each time I thought I was about to get it together and ‘save the world from evil’ something else would go wrong. If I was a super hero I was the one with the ‘harry high pants’ undies pulled up under my arm pits – I almost looked the part but just didn’t quite cut it!

Thankfully my two side kicks were very forgiving of my lack of skill, and we blundered on together for a very respectable 2 and a half years… and I think we managed to ‘save’ something along the way, it may not have been the ‘world’ but I am pretty sure we saved all three of us some health issues, not to mention money, and a heck of a lot of good happy vibes, so daggy or not I was one proud super hero.

This time around things are somewhat different. For a start I have a new side kick called Muski, he’s bigger (understatement of the century he was almost 5 times bigger than Zoe at birth!), he actually wants to eat and there is only one of him. This time I may just manage to ‘save the world’.. eventually!

I am still a bit of an unco super hero…. We’ve not hit any really major issues since Muski was born, just a few bumps in the road so far. We had latch issues early on which tore my ‘magic nipples’ to shreds, but they healed super fast once we both learnt how to attach better. Then we got attacked by the dreaded ‘killer thrush’ but managed to fight a gallant battle and send him packing pretty fast. Since then all has been good… except for the unco bit!

I can’t tell you how much easier it is to be a super hero when you only have to worry about one mouth to feed at any given time. No giant feeding pillow to lug around and only one side kick to satisfy means we can feed anytime anywhere, which is a HUGE plus! But here is where the unco bit comes in…. we have really only figured out two ‘super move’s…. we feed really really well sitting on the couch with a pillow or two, and we are pretty good at lying down in bed too, but trying to feed in a normal ‘cradle hold’ while out… well we suck at that.. literally!

I am not beating myself up too much just yet though… I’ve only been back in my super costume for six weeks and already I can shoot breast milk clear across the lounge if the mood strikes! Plus my trusty ‘side kick’ Muski is stacking on the weight so clearly I have plenty of milk and he is obviously enjoying it. But to avoid being laughed out of the ‘super hero’s convention’ I really do want to master feeding in public (ie a decent cradle hold) and wouldn’t mind mastering feeding in the sling not to mention feeding while typing at the PC! But all that is not so important…

I have my super power back, and ‘unco-harry-high-pants-daggy-super-hero-ness’ is no big deal when you consider how much goodness breastfeeding is doing for my boy and I. It really is an ace super power to have and I congratulate all those out there who have it or have had it, even if you only breastfeed for one day you are still a super super hero!