nurse

Since Maddie has been home, things have been very different for Elliott. For one, I am now somewhat unavailable to fulfill his every whim periodically throughout the day while I am breastfeeding her. For a few days, he was quite upset about this, but after awhile, when I would just explain to him, "Mama's going to nurse Maddie now," he'd be cool with it. The other day, while we were playing, he crawled up on the couch with Bear, grabbed the boppy, wrapped it around himself and tucked Bear inside, all while repeatedly chanting, "nurse." He then laid back and relaxed with a look on his face as though he were thinking, "finally a moment of peace and quiet." Since then, we've gotten other hints of how he's picked up on our parenting skills. Sometimes, while "nursing" bear, he will sit bear upright, pat him on the back all while saying, "burp." We've also caught him holding bear over his shoulder and bouncing while walking, just like we do to calm down Maddie.

Here's a video of Elliott "nursing" his doll and giving it quite a leg workout at the same time.

play video

Side note: When Maddie first came home and Elliott saw me nursing her, I think it really hit him hard that our relationship was now different. For a few days, he was actually really stand-offish with me, which was incredibly heartbreaking. I knew that someday he would go through a phase where he hated me, I just thought it would be a little closer to middle school age. However, one day I picked him up in a cradle hold, sat down with him on the couch and said, "nurse" repeatedly, while smothering him with kisses. After that we were cool again.