For a couple weeks now, Kaia has been rejecting the breast. I figure she’s finally come to the conclusion and understanding that she just doesn’t get much food directly from my breast, so I told myself to just let it go. Maybe she doesn’t need comforting with my boob anymore, and that’s okay because she’s growing up and moving on. But tonight before bed, she was getting fussy, likely from the teeth under her gums trying to break through, so Chris suggested that I just offer her my breast to see if she’d take it. In the early days of her pre-teething, the boob was all that made her stop screaming and calm down. And given her days in a row rejection of my breast, I just stopped offering it to her because I didn’t want to upset her. But today, she actually did take my left breast right away, for a whopping four minutes. She was much more distracted this time around, constantly looking up at my face, then at my breast, then waving her hands all over the place to grab my arm, shoulder, neck, and collar bone. Then, she unlatched, pushed my nipple away, and started rubbing her eyes. It was sleepy time for her.

I can’t believe my baby is almost seven months old now. That also means it’s been seven months postpartum for me, seven months of pumping milk out of my breasts to feed and nourish my sweet little Kaia. Breastfeeding was certainly a journey to say the least, but every day, I feel grateful looking at her and knowing she is being nourished with mama’s milk and growing so beautifully. My friends and colleagues all gush over how chubby she is, how pinch-able her fat little cheeks are, and they say, “good job, mama! That’s all thanks to you and your milk!” Looking back, I think breastfeeding/pumping/increasing my milk supply is one of the hardest things I’ve ever worked to do. And though I wish I was more informed from the very beginning, I am grateful every day for my journey.