Bonding With Baby: Not as Easy as I Thought

First, I wasn't expecting nursing to be so incredibly downright painful. Oh sure, I knew how to do it. My mother was a lactation consultant. I grew up knowing how to ram it down their little mouths. But the first two months were practically unbearable. In fact, I would rather give birth again than go through those two months ever again and one just doesn't come without the other. I mean with the faculties to nurse, it is just too good for their brain development.

Second, here I spent nine months, well eight months, meditating on this child, and he really made me work for this connection after he was born. I really felt very bonded with him while he was in me. I knew he was a boy before anyone told me. I knew that he preferred the name we gave him over the one we were considering for him. I predicted the date that he would be born and the time the birth would take place. It went like clockwork. However, when he came out, it didn't seem as if he knew me at all. He looked at me quizzically and cried almost as if in denial. It was the first of many exasperations to come.