Ten years ago I had just had Zach. I didn’t put much thought at
all into parenting stuff, and I didn’t put any thought at all into labor. I
didn’t put thought into breastfeeding or circumcision or vaccinations or
co-sleeping or, well, anything. I had just been trying to get through my junior
year of high school and praying that he stayed in until I was done with the
school year and that, please Lord, my water wouldn’t break while I was at
school.
After he was born we did breastfeeding and bed sharing. Zach was
such a sweet and easy baby and he made my first year as a mom such a breeze. I
never put thought into if were going to be breastfeeding or not. I was raised
seeing my mom breastfeed my younger siblings and my aunt breastfeed my cousins;
it’s what moms did, so, I did. He was exclusively breastfed until I returned to
school in the fall, and continued breastfeeding until he was about one. My
favorite time of the day was coming home from school and nursing him. It wasn’t
until years and years later that someone pointed out how odd it was for a 17
year old high school student to go into breastfeeding so unquestionably and
continue doing it for a year. He also continued to sleep in my bed until right
before Ryan was born.
