Don't Play With Your Food

Like most mornings I woke to find my son happy, wiggling, and ready to offer me plenty of smiles. I'm often amazed at how much of a morning person he is given that both his parents are so anti-morning that we would rather sleep till 12 just to bypass the AM portion of the day.

As we settled in for his morning nursing session I took note that he was slightly distracted and said a prayer of patience. The older he gets the easier it is for the littlest thing to grab his attention and as he tries to take in the entire world at once he forgets that he is, at the moment, attached to my chest. I'm constantly trying to make sure he doesn't rip anything off while eating as he turns his head, pulls back, or vigorously kicks his feet in the excitement of who knows what.

This morning I got lucky, he let go before pulling back and giving me a full gummy grin. Laughing I asked if he was done and watched as his eyes grew large at the sight of my nipple. He looked at it like he had never seen it before and fascination radiated from him from head to toe. He mouthed like he was hungry but as I attempted to reattach him he reached out and grabbed me instead. Upon him getting a hold of me he was squirted with his breakfast causing me to let out a laugh. The shock on Andrew's face as he was squirted with milk was hysterical and followed with a laugh of his own. Smiling he reached for me again and I caught his hand before he could squirt more milk on the two of us and encouraged him to latch instead, no success.

His excitement over his most recent discovery was unabated and he kicked his legs furiously while trying to eat and smile up at me at the same time. Surprisingly the milk stayed in his mouth as he continued to kick and then out of no where started to smack my breast. The noise and obvious increase of milk caused another look of shock and excitement. He was so proud of what he had discovered and seemingly wanted to further his research. After only a minute or so of this game and discovery I clamped down on his feet with my elbow and his hand with my own and did my best to encourage him to stop playing with his food and just eat, which he finally did.

Now unless he is down right starving he wants to play with his food. When given a bottle he gets right down to business but when nursing he wiggles, giggles, kicks, and attempts to play; anyone know how to get him to focus with out starving him first?