This past month I have watched my baby girl, now seventeen months old, behaving less and less like a baby. She is becoming more and more independent and more verbal as well. It seems as though she is saying a new word everyday! Just last week she climbed up in my lap, patted my chest and said "MILK!!!" Her request was immediately honored of course.

Her nursing schedule really hasn't changed too much although we did work through a nursing strike...or was she just punishing me?

I was away from her for two days, attending a youth leadership conference at San Jose Christian College with some of the teenagers whom I work with. I took my handy little Medela pump with me and ducked away from the kids a few times to pump some milk. No problem for me. I checked in with my husband to see how he and my four daughters were doing. He told me just fine! He did tell me that Jodie would walk around the house as though she was looking for me but otherwise she was just fine.

So I come back early Sunday morning, anxious to see my family and looking forward to some quiet time with Jodie. Not to be! She wanted nothing to do with me. Every time I offered her some milk she would firmly shake her head no. I sadly thought that perhaps this was truly it. This went on for a day and a half. I was able to nurse her only once when she was sleepy at bedtime, but other than that, she wanted nothing to do with "mommy milk."

Then come late Monday night, she climbed up into my lap, looked up at me and smiled as she clicked her tongue and patted my breasts. I think that we both breathed a sigh of relief.

Happily nursing,

Laura and Jodie

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