Thursday, September 07, 2006

Love Bites

Yesterday Nora bit me.
I mean she REALLY bit me. I bled, there is bruising, it was bad. I didn't shout no, or flick her cheek as some say to do because it was my fault, I was jiggling her around while feeding her (thanks a lot for making my phone ring and making me get up and causing her to bite me, dear sister, I owe you one!).
This is the first truly painful bite I have experienced, and I think I am scarred. Every now and again she will bite me while she latches, and it hasn't really bothered me until lately. She has been really easily distracted when I feed her, and she hasn't seemed all that interested unless it is at night when the house is quiet. I think the reason that she is waking up twice every night is because she wants to nurse, and kind of needs to because she can't during the day. And it is not that she can't it is just that she kind of won't. I usually nurse her first thing in the morning, which is fine, then after her am nap which is kind of touch and go. She would prefer to be playing with Abby then, but kind of wants to be feeding. I am toying with the idea of supplementing with formula, but something is making me not just bite the bullet and do it. Until this biting incident I was planning on waiting it out for 2 more months so that I could supplement with whole milk and call it a day, but now I don't know.
Why am I so opposed to formula? In truth it is probably better for her than my milk, but it smells and it is expensive and I fear that if I start giving her formula then it will be really easy to just wean her altogether which I realize is the ultimate goal but not now. But why not now? What is wrong with me?
Part of it is that I feel like I nursed Abby for a year and I should be able to do it again, but is that realistic with two? I can't pump so I am totally tethered to the darling to some extent, which doesn't bother me, but it isn't the easiest thing in the world. I guess I feel like she gets shafted on so many levels that this is just one more, but it is one I can control, right?
What should I do?

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