They say that breastfeeding is a beautiful, intuitive communion between a mother and child.

Bunch of dingo's kidneys, if you ask me.

We've come a long way since the initial attempt at optical insertion, but there's been a lot of "two steps forward, one -- or one and a half -- step(s) back" type of stuff.

He's got the sucking thing down. He does it so well that, the first day I tried breastfeeding exclusively, I got a blister on the tip of one of my nipples.

Lovely.

We've been working with a lactation specialist about once a week, trying out different positions and techniques. I used a nipple protector (a soft, plastic shield with holes in the tip that fits over the nipple) for a while, until he started sucking me through the little holes, which plugged up the supply of milk, making him suck harder and damaging the nipple tip.

To give myself a break, I started pumping a lot to try to provide him with breastmilk without getting abraded by his little turbo-charged Hoover mouth. Unfortunately, in my zeal, I pumped too long at each sitting, causing inflamation of the milk ducts and shutting everything down for a couple of days.

The pattern I seemed to be falling into was a couple of days where things went really well, a couple of days of increasing soreness, followed by a blister by the end of day five or six. I'd pump the breast with the blister (which reinflates the blister, taking longer to heal) until things healed, then start over.

Oh, and my milk supply has been irregular, going from full and leaking one day to producing barely a half-ounce when pumped. I'm taking fenugreek (thanks yet again, Judy) and trying to nurse more often.

Finally, this week, I thought we were getting somewhere. Yes, I'm a little sore, and yes, I'm a little blistered, but by changing positions, I've been able to keep nursing Hunter without increasing the damage, and I actually seem to be healing.

Friday, he started teething.

Crap.

He doesn't actually have teeth coming in yet, but he's getting the symptoms: excessive drooling, chewing on me, starting to suckle then dropping off while crying.... Supposedly, these symptoms can go on for up to two or three months before the teeth themselves, appear, but even without those pearly whites, I'm really not looking forward to this, especially the "chewing on me" part. He hasn't bit down really hard yet, so I'm hoping to have a little bit of respite before that becomes an issue.

*sigh*

The things we do for love....