Sheila Davis, Alabama 希拉戴维斯，阿拉巴马州
Originally published in January/February 1982 issue of LaLeche League News
发表于在1982年1-2月的母乳会通讯中
翻译：于莉宛 审校：Daisy, Missy
除了小瓦莱丽以外，我有两个稍大一些的孩子。每次怀孕期间，我母亲都会告诉我在哺育宝贝时会感到多么亲密。每次我都会回答说，“我可以就像哺乳一样亲密地抱着我的孩子，给他用奶瓶吃奶。”
好吧，我也不知道是什么促使我给最后一个孩子哺乳，但在整个孕期，我对母乳喂养始终是一种积极的状态。
我需要几周时间为哺乳宝宝去做调整。我想，瓦莱丽可能是一天中有24个小时都在吃奶。但当我们喂奶更有规律些后，我们彼此都深深享受在一起度过的时光。实际上，我真的特别希望停下来休息时给她喂奶，我认为哺乳给了我需要停下来休息的理由。
我享受了18个月为瓦莱丽哺乳的时光，但那时起我开始感觉到生活受限。我丈夫一直在谈论一次为期一周的旅行——“只有我们俩。”我开始感受到对那种想做什么就做什么的自由的渴望。于是，由于瓦莱丽吃奶的时间变少了，我决定要“帮助她继续”。哦，我尝试了各种方法去分散她的注意力。然而，这些均未能奏效，我就直接告诉她我们不能再在一起给她喂奶了。
有时她会冲我非常生气，她挥舞着小拳头边打我边哭。然后通常我会走过去给她喂奶，但有时我不喂奶。这样持续了几周后，她对吃奶的要求变得越来越不频繁。
但我有一个比周围任何人都爱闹脾气的宝宝。人们以前总是说她是多么温和多么好。但现在我的宝贝变成了一个我无法想像的人。她会突然发脾气，对经过她的人又咬又打。曾经快乐独立的她，变成了一个黏人的孩子，紧紧抓着我的裙子，整天地哼唧。她看起来非常害怕我离开她的视线。
几周后，她因病毒感染生病了，要求吃奶。我试图告诉她我的奶已经回去了，但她无论如何就是想吃奶。想着只给她吃一分钟，伴随着沮丧和放弃，我允许她吃奶了。她吃了足足45分钟！
由于我已经几乎没有奶了，这使我明白了所有她想要的不过就是我。于是在思考了这个问题后，我告诉我的丈夫如果她那么需要我，那么她需要的时候我就会在。我要继续给她喂奶，直到她自己不想吃的时候。哦，顺便提一句，我的那个和善的好脾气的小女孩儿又回来了！
英文原文：
I have two older children besides mylittle Valerie. With each pregnancy, my mother would tell me how much closeryou feel nursing a baby. Each time I would reply, “I can hold my baby just asclose feeding him a bottle as I could nursing him.”
Well, I have no idea what promptedme to nurse this last baby, but during the whole pregnancy, I felt verypositive about nursing.
I needed several weeks to adjust toa nursing baby. I think Valerie could have nursed 24 hours a day. But after wegot into our routine, we both loved the time we spent together. As a matter offact, I came to really look forward to being able to stop and nurse her. Isuppose nursing gave me the excuse I needed to stop and rest.
I enjoyed nursing Valerie for about18 months, but then I started feeling confined. My husband kept talking about aweeklong trip—“just the two of us.” And I started feeling a need for freedom todo what I wanted to do. So, since Valerie had cut down on our nursing time, Idecided to “help her along.” Oh, I tried everything to distract her. Then, whenthat didn’t work, I just told her that we weren’t going to nurse anymore.
Sometimes she would get so angry atme she’d beat her tiny fists on me and cry. Then often I would go ahead andnurse her, but sometimes I wouldn’t. This went on for a couple of weeks, withher asking to nurse less and less frequently.
But I had the grouchiest baby ofanyone around. People had always mentioned how even-tempered and good she was.But now my baby had turned into someone I couldn’t relate to. She began havingtantrums and hitting and biting anyone who crossed her. Once cheerfullyindependent, she became a “clinger,” clutching at my skirt and whining all thetime. She seemed afraid to let me out of her sight.
A few weeks later, she came downwith a virus and asked to nurse. I tried to tell her that my milk was gone, butshe wanted to nurse anyway. Thinking that she would nurse for a minute, getdiscouraged and quit, I allowed her to nurse. She nursed for 45 minutes!
Since I probably had little milk, it dawned on me that all shehad wanted was me.So after thinking about it, I told my husband if she needed me that badly, thenshe was going to have me. And I will continue to nurse her until she wantsto stop.Oh, by the way, I’ve got my good-natured littlegirl back again!