A very modern meal

Eve and I are finally getting the hang of this breastfeeding thing. I am producing enough, in fact too much, milk for her and other than the odd painful tit or nipple, which is nasty but easily solved, everything is going quite well.

It is getting pretty easy to know when Eve is hungry because she wails a bit, thrashes her head with her mouth wide open and makes a funny grunting noise. A friend of mine described the action as looking like a hungry starling begging for food. This makes knowing when she is hungry pretty easy. H has rightly pointed out that, given the chance, Eve would eat whenever she is awake and as a result is putting on stupid amounts of weight, which is brilliant, and eating like the pig she is (I am not being horrible about my daughter, she was born in the year of the pig).

This, however, leads to another problem. Breastfeeding boredom. Breastfeeding conjures up lovely images of child gently suckling while mother looks down adoringly at her offspring. That is great, for about 3 minutes, and then the realisation hits that you are going to be here for another 27 minutes or, seeing as Eve is gobbling at the moment, another 45. There is only so much adoring looking one can do before it gets very dull. This happens 7-8 times a day. Yes, that is around 6-7 hours each day of having my child stuck to my chest and when I am not able to do anything else.

Initially I felt I should give Eve all my attention, and while we were both learning this feeding thing that was required. However, we are over that now and nothing will separate Eve from my nipple during feeding, leaving me with a free hand. I refuse to feed in front of the TV. I believe that Eve should not watch TV when she is little (although the more observant would point out that with face turned to my chest and no interest in anything other than eating, Eve wouldn't really be "watching"). I do feel, however, that it is entirely acceptable for me to listen to the BBC World Service while I feed, and when the Boy is home we listen to BBC Radio Five sports podcasts. It is too difficult to read a book with only one hand free, but I have found magazines to be quite manageable so today I have read half of last weeks Economist, including a very interesting article on Iran's nuclear programme and the IAEA.

I am getting better at using the computer one handed too and check Facebook and a couple of blogs each morning, although have yet to master typing more than a few words. I will let you know when I finally manage to type this blog while feeding.