Teeth

Church. Ugh. Reason 12,902,834,294,892,348 I stopped going: the people. So today for the first time I attended church with my 8 month old daughter. I sat in the back so if she started to make noise for any reason, daddy or I could step out and not disturb the sermon. We spent most of the service in the lobby listening to the sermon because my daughter wanted to preach with the pastor. Things were going great and service let out. Now because I haven’t been to church in a long time I don’t know most of the people and of course everyone’s attention is on the new baby in the church. This one lady who I don’t really know, but have seen before approached me and said, “Oh I see her teeth coming in, your not still nursing are you?”

PAUSE

Who the hell are you? I don’t know you! What makes you think that’s an okay thing to say to me? First of all how do you even know I nursed at all? I was shocked and taken back.

“I am still nursing.” I politely replied.
“Well when she gets those top two teeth in you’ll stop, they bite you know.” She continued.
“Well every baby is different and she doesn’t bite.” I replied, then walked away.


Ugh! It has been bothering me since it happened hours ago, and all I can think is this is just a taste of what is to come. It seems that among black women, the sign that you are supposed to stop is the teeth, I don’t know how many times I have heard, “Oh when they get teeth…..” I had been so fearful of the day my baby would grow some teeth, but when they came in I honestly didn’t notice them.

When I first decided to breastfeed I had no idea how long I wanted to do it for, it never really crossed my mind as to what was or wasn’t appropriate. My husband and I attended the hospitals classes and they recommended the 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding followed by at least 1 year of breastfeeding with solids. I figured I would do that and that was sufficient. But lo and behold I got a buzz of the online breastfeeding community! I started reading about real moms who were proudly nursing ay 2, 3, and even 4 years old. All this made me begin to rethink my nursing goals.

My husband has been very supportive of breastfeeding so far but whenever I ask him about when to stop he is vague. To tell you the truth I don’t even know when I want to stop. I can’t even say I will let my child decide because there may come a time when I am just done with it. On the other hand I would like to let her be the guide.