EB blogger Joh Baker-Dowdell
My youngest son is four weeks old tomorrow and I am pleased to say I am still breastfeeding him, despite some hassles along the way.
After only being able to breastfeed my first son for three-and-a-half weeks I am thrilled to already be past that milestone with my second. However, the time it takes to breastfeed and my inability to do much else while I am feeding has made me think about time management and organisation more than ever.
When Ethan was a week old I was admitted to the hospital I had only just left days earlier with him, suffering from an infection after retaining some of the placenta. At first the doctor thought I'd need a curette, but sent me home with two antibiotics to see if it cleared up without further intervention. Luckily the infection did and I had the all-clear a week later, but the antibiotics wreaked havoc with our feeding schedule. Ethan became sick and we had to put him on to formula for five days while I was taking the medication and had gone from my system. As my husband fed our smallest son I expressed milk to ensure my supply remained and it took almost an hour each time.
After a few days of mucking around with feeds when he went back to breastfeeding from having a bottle (Ethan had become lazy with his sucking) we settled back into a routine of 7-8 feeds in 24 hours. Then my 34-month-old son, Noah, figured out mum couldn't do much while feeding Ethan, so this was the optimum time to be naughty. And he's been having a ball: letting our rabbits out of their cage, filling the washing machine up with the chicken's food, demanding food and drink, drawing on the carpet, fiddling with the television remote control and taking the footstool out from under my feet, amongst other things.
But these hassles paled into insignificance when compared with Saturday's events. I was breastfeeding Ethan in the parent's room at Myer while my husband and older son did some shopping. I always assumed parent's rooms were safe, private places, but while I was indisposed, so to speak, a middle-aged woman came into the room looked around, looked at me and then walked out. Afterwards I noticed my purse was missing from my handbag, which had been in the bottom of the pram.
Couple with my fury that my purse had been stolen and I now had to cancel all my cards and replace the contents, was the fact the woman had looked at me and then taken my property. As I was on the phone to one bank she used the card twice, but I should be able to get that money back if the transactions are allowed to go through. Another bank is actually charging me $15 to replace the stolen card, but that is off topic! Thankfully the purse was found after being dumped and a lovely 17-year-old girl and her boyfriend picked up the scattered contents and called me to say they had it. My faith in humanity was restored.
The events of the past four weeks make me realise how much better I need to organise my time and myself so I can satisfy my young son's hunger, my older son's need for attention and my work and home commitments.
How do you or your partner cope with breastfeeding? Do you have tips to entertain toddlers or time-saving pointers?
