Bothersome Bosoms

Breastfeeding is such a self-sacrificing commitment. Ella slept nine hours last night and I'm exhausted. It's so ironic, you'd think that when my baby slept through the night, I'd get more rest. Since last Friday, she's been doing eight hour stretches, and I've been up every morning at 5am to the minute, in pain, because that's when my six hour Ibuprofen wears off. For me, nursing has always been about managing my oversupply, and that's consistently been more problematic than managing my kids' sleep cycles. By 5am, my boobs hurt so much I can only sleep on my back. They're hard, they throb and beneath my skin, stretched taut and thin, it literally feels like my chest is going to explode. I wake up, pump just a little, then lie in bed watching the monitor eagerly, dozing in and out of sleep, torn between wanting her to wake up and feed, and wanting to stay in bed a little longer. Between her late evening feed, and my 5am wake up call, I'm getting no more than five. If I'm lucky, six. Even after she feeds, my boobs hurt all day long. Someone bumped into me at Safeway and I almost yelped in pain.

All that aside, I'm so amazed by my little girl. I remember with Greyson we had to train him to get through the night because he'd keep waking up by habit. Once we knew he wasn't hungry anymore, we sent Roque in there instead of me, to comfort him back to sleep. There was some crying and protest, but he did it eventually. Ella did her first seven hour stretch when she was seven weeks old. She's extended her night sleep gradually and on her own. She takes three hour naps during the day. I remember hearing about babies like that when I had Greyson and being green with envy. My little boy was a fantastic night sleeper, a lousy napper, and a superb eater. At almost 14lbs now, Ella's got him beat three for three but who's keeping score?