Showing posts with label babies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label babies. Show all posts

Monday, November 12, 2007

I Was a Boob


I married the kids' dad when I was 17..he was 18. I had my first child, Mike, when I was almost eighteen. One of the problems I encountered early on... was that while I was enjoying the thought of married life..my husband still wanted to drag main, honk at his friends, drink warm Budweiser, and talk with the ladies. oooops.

It was 1970, and I wanted to nurse my little newborn...as was the popular deal at that time...but just barely. I had heard that breast-feeding would be good for the baby. One of the problems I encountered early on...was that my boobs grew to be the size of atom bombs and were just about as hard. I was told to get into a very hot tub of water, soak those girls, and then pump. I was afraid to leave Mikey alone, so I'd put him in a tiny air-filled pool on top of me in the tub. Pumping was done with a hand-held thingee that looked like my tricycle horn.

Well, so much for breast-feeding. After 6 weeks of total misery, and one very unhappy little baby, I went to my dumb Dr. and asked how to dry up the milk in my boobs. He gave me some red pills to take for a week. Relief. I could finally lay on my stomach again..and move without shooting milk all over the sheets...and the baby and I stopped crying all the time. I no longer felt like "a walking boob".

I began to mix formula for Mikey...and he slept 4 hours in a row... for the first time! I finally had, what I am guessing was, a maternal experience. He would eat, then sleep..and I would enjoy hours just watching his angelic little face. One of the problems I encountered after that, was getting kicked off the La Leche volleyball team. Oh well. Those girls couldn't serve anyway.