June 30, 2009
Update
So, I’m not going to say I’ve mastered nursing, I’ve certainly learned plenty in the past five weeks, and it’s getting better all the time. I will lay claim, however, to having mastered reading while nursing. Which I don’t do all the time for fear of child neglect or that she’ll grow up to think her mother is a hard cover, but I am pleased to say that I’ve got a lot of reading done lately. I read Catherine O’Flynn’s What Was Lost in a hurry, and enjoyed it very much. I’m now absolutely obsessed with Lisa Moore’s February, which I think will win the Giller Prize this year, if anyone’s betting. And this morning I bought The Ten Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer, who I’ve never read but have heard great things about (including from Jessica Westhead). So the moral is that reading is possible in this new life, as are banana pancakes, park bench afternoons, Midsomer Murders, laughter and ease. I have avoided daytime television thus far, which I’m quite proud of. New pleasures are late evening walks, respect for quiet, baby bathtime, board books and almost-smiles. And that’s starting to make everything else worthwhile.
I read a lot too once I got the whole nursing thing down. I also read a lot in the evenings when Moira had to be tightly wrapped against me for an hour and walked up and down the hallway for an hour so she would fall asleep. Man, it is crazy how that was just this time last year and now things have changed so much – I know I sound like a cliche but it is true.
Anyway, the reading thing is totally possible. I watched movies on my lap top too sometimes and listened to podcasts as well.
I think I read more when I was breastfeeding (as we blatantly call it in Australia) than at any other time. I miss it! Best thinkg is that if you've got a great book on the go, you can actually look forward to those moments when you're forced awake in the middle of the night. Well, it helps anyway. I also wrote a lot – which meant my left breast got a bit more of a workout, I think.
I'm impressed!
Writing while breastfeeding! I'm not quite there yet, but Rachel, you've given me something to aspire to.