Tales of a Breastfeeder

Juliette is 15 days old today. It's amazing to me how fast the time is going compared to when Joshua was born. The first four weeks of his life seemed to crawl by like four years. Every minute of every day was accounted for on a chart: time and duration of each feeding, separated into right and left breast details, followed by whether or not he was satisfied at the end of the feeding, and complete with number of wet/poopy diapers per day. Yes, I am serious. It was insane, I was stressed and crying, he was hungry and bawling. I blamed it all on the fact that he was tongue tied and incapable of latching on correctly. The real culprit was a book that was recommended to me by a well meaning friend ("Babywise"). This book had me attempting to put a newborn on a schedule. What it actually did was diminish my milk supply and make me into the Nazi mom from hell.

Which brings me to Juliette. What a difference! Before even figuring out that Babywise was the reason for my season, I decided I was going to chill out this time. Her latch is perfect - she's a natural. The sad thing is that there was so much bad information I picked up from that book about breastfeeding that even without an attempted schedule, my milk supply is still low. I have to supplement with formula and pump. The good news is I found an amazing lactation specialist who is not overly emotional about breastfeeding - she's very practical and helps me sans the guilt trip.

Here's the kicker. From the 9 months leading up to Joshua's birth all the way through to Juliette's 2 week mark, despite all the craziness I've gone through trying to breastfeed, it never occured to me to find what scripture had to say about it. Oh, I used, "My Yah shall supply all your need according to His riches in Glory by Moshiac Yeshua". I would "confess" a good milk supply, easy breastfeeding and even use visualizations. Yet I never actually tried to find the scriptural promise because honestly, I didn't think the bible had anything to say about the matter. This morning at 4am I had an epiphany and decided to look it up. Not only does the bible have tons to say about breastfeeding, I found out that just like barreness, "dry breasts" are a curse. What?! Before reading that, I was content with just "trying" to breastfeed. Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be. Now that I know that not being able to breastfeed is a curse, I'm mad. The devil is a liar!

Anywho, here is my favorite scripture that I found, personalized for us: Isaiah 66:11-13.

"Juliette feeds and is satisfied with the consolation of my bossom. She drinks deeply and is delighted with the abundance of my glory. Yahweh extends peace (shalom) to me like a river, and the glory of the gentiles like a flowing stream. Then Juliette shall feed: on my sides shall she be carried and be dandled on my knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so Yah will comfort me, and Juliette shall be comforted in me."

That scripture is so fly for many reasons. 1. It gives a beautiful visual of drinking deeply and being satisfied. 2. It says once I allow Yah to give me peace, THEN she will feed. The enemy definitely was able to steal my peace on this issue way too many times. 3. It speaks of His will in comforting your children, which Babywise condemns. That book totes letting your children cry themselves to sleep so they learn how to comfort themselves. I did that to Joshua, thinking I was doing him good. So many moms who read that book have done the same. I'm glad I learned early enough that it was so wrong...but not before seering much of my motherly nurturing spirit. I'm getting it back.

That's my story for now. More to come.