Fond memories

This post is late, but yesterday was Heathers Birthday. Hooray she turned 8 and I'm so proud of her. She is coming along to be a great person.Yesterday I was also reading a post by the yarn Harlot about breast feeding. I also read the comments left by many of the readers. There were 132. It brought a tear to my eye because everything I felt was echoed somewhere in there. It was so well expressed I didn't feel the need to leave a comment. I breast fed both of my daughters and my stepchild was too. My first one I could only do for three months and the second for only two. But they are both healthy and we share a very close bond. When they went on formula for their various reasons, they began to get frequent ear infections and very bad gas. Unfortunately as much as I wanted to continue naturally, I just was not able to. It was not the fault of culture or nature or society. I will say that when I went back to work with my first child, in the military, my desire to pump was not supported by my supervisors and the local counselors were not very helpful about how to use the pump and how to store the milk. My supervisors didn't understand why I needed to be away every two hours and I had to use a 1 person stall.(the only womens bathroom for the whole building.)In public people were shocked and confused. But I was always covered by a blanket for my privacy as well as their comfort. I wound up quitting tho because my daughter had facial surgery and by the time she was healed my milk had dried, and she had forgotten how to latch on. Her birthday is in 10 days.My second daughter came at a hectic time in my life and after a month went to live with her grandmother. I nursed her until 1 day befor she left. It was great since I knew what I was doing and I had all day to spend with her. My in-laws came to visit first and after they left my mom came. In the hospital, the nuses wanted to bottle feed. They were worried the baby would starve since my milk didn't come in till the next day or so. I let them feed her sugar water but no formula. When I told them I was breast feeding, they seemed shocked and did what they wanted when they took her away. Fortunately that was only once or twice. Then my milk came in and she didn't leave the room. Both my girls were strong and determined. Heather ate a lot and often. Quisha ate often but not much at a sitting. If I had it to do over again in this day and age I would have BF both of them until they were at least 6 mos if not a year.This weekend I am going to spend with all of my girls. I miss them a lot, and hope that they don't miss me too much. They are supposed to be having fun.
Toodles!