10 Breastfeeding Moments That Prove You're A Complete Hot Mess
bySabrina Joy Stevens
I've been awkward for a significant chunk of my life, so my threshold for embarrassment is pretty high. But when you're a mom of a new human — who has all of your inborn awkwardness and legitimately has no clue what acceptable behavior even looks like, let alone any means of attempting it — it's easy to spend a lot of your time hovering riiiiight near that limit. Add breastfeeding to the mix, and, well, basically it's inevitable: if you choose to nurse, you'll probably end up experiencing the kind of breastfeeding moments that prove you're a complete hot mess. Welcome to the club. We'd get jackets, but that would require a level of free time, organization, and financial investment that we just don't have to spare right now, because motherhood.
Nursing is definitely one of my favorite parts of being a mom. After overcoming our initial breastfeeding struggles (poor latch + fearsome baby claws = asking your husband if he kept the warranty info on this child), I discovered that nursing is probably my favorite tool in my parenting toolkit. Especially now that nursing is less about food and more about rest and comfort for my son, functional boobs are basically my co-sleeping snooze button, and my get-out-of-tantrums free card. I'm going to be super sad when my son weans and I have to figure out other ways to solve our problems.
But of course, every benefit has a cost. For me, that cost is moments like the following, several times a week. But whatever. As far as I'm concerned, I'm perfectly happy to trade a little extra awkwardness here and there in exchange for never having to prepare bottles in the middle of the night. Nursing mamas, we're amazing, as is what we're doing for our kids (and ourselves). Keep calm and nurse on, ladies. If the following is at all familiar to you, you're in fantastic company.