Nigel Sucks

When Nigel was a few weeks old, he couldn’t suckle properly. Instead on latching on when I would bring him to my breast, he would suck his lower lip and make this cute squeaky sound! It looked absolutely adorable at first but later on it got in the way of suckling correctly causing much frustration on my part. I tried for a couple of days for both of us to master the “art of breastfeeding" but Nigel would get all fuzzy so I would end up giving him a bottle of expressed breast milk. Eventually, I got used to the routine of pumping milk regularly and forgot all about breast feeding. It was tedious but that was the only way I knew to keep him on breast milk.

Until last week, one afternoon, I was too lazy to get and heat his bottle. So I tried feeding him directly from me. To my surprise, he finally got it! He no longer fuzzed. He opened his mouth wide, latched on and started suckling. His chin and cheeks were moving as if he was really getting milk and I saw the same satisfaction he has on his face during a hearty bottle feeding session. He had two loud burps after assuring me he fed well. I felt triumphant and proud! I don’t know, maybe his mouth was too small before or something. There will be fewer bottles for me to clean. I still need to express milk to allow Butch and other family members to feed him. I’m just happy he finally gets it.