Friday, January 06, 2006

Expiration Date?

I was brushing my teeth without my shirt on the other night, and I noticed a little discoloration on my nipples. I scratched at it gently with a fingernail and it came off easily. Dried milk. It's odd, I thought, that it didn't wash off on the shower sometime over the past 6 weeks.

Then, behind the dried milk came the answer: fresh milk. From both breasts. I'm still lactating.

Perhaps I will make milk forever. Perhaps I am now Mother. It feels . . . rather powerful.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

It is quite the powerful feeling.....that you have the ability to nurture, through famine...your body gives life.

Anonymous said...

I still had milk six months after I stopped nursing my four year old.

Oddly enough, the opposite happened with Elainah, my milk never came in at all. I suppose that this was because trying to nurse so difficult and because she was so sick.

Redhead Editor said...

I am woman, hear me roar. Can you squirt it across the room? I'm a suck mother.

Sarahlynn said...

So many kids with DS have trouble with the suck. I was just so lucky with Ellie. The lactation consultant told me that she had an unusually strong suck, for any baby.

Of course, I'm also lucky that my nipples aren't too tender!

RE, I haven't been able to squirt since Ellie was about 6 months old. But that was really cool!

ccw said...

Ha! It is a very womanly feeling to be able to produce milk. I still leaked during the 8 years between Kid L and Baby H and it picked up after Baby H and has increased again with this pregnancy.

Like you, I haven't been able to squirt for a long, long time.

Sarahlynn said...

That is amazing! And so cool!

Redhead Editor said...

All this leaking... I did mean I'm a sIck mother, not a sUck mother, but I loved the play on words!

Sarahlynn said...

Hah! I thought it made perfect sense as it was . . .