Thank goodness for breastfeeding.

For the past week, at any given time, at least one person in this family has been sick, sometimes more than one at the same time. I don't usually get sick, but with the crappy cheap foods we eat these days because that's all we can afford anymore, and the stress of watching the life we've built over the past 7 years crash down in a matter of months, my immune system is pretty much shot right now, so I got sick, too. I was so sick for most of a day that I couldn't nurse Chai much, and Thak had to feed him pumped milk from the freezer for about half his feedings, but I nursed him as much as possible even then.

Because of this, Chai is the one member of this family who did not get sick. Through breastmilk, he got the antibodies to fight off the virus before it even made him sick. It's the same principle as a vaccine, but without the toxic chemicals and scary side-effects. I am so glad he didn't get sick. It was bad enough that the rest of us did, but a sick baby is even worse than pretty much anything else. Erin and Orren both caught some nasty bugs like this one when they were about Chai's age, and it was really scary. I am so glad Chai dodged that bullet this time. If that's not a great reward for fighting through our breastfeeding difficulties, and succeeding in spite of it all, I don't know what is.

Oh, and the bebe Chai is four months old now. That means we are 2/3 of the way to our initial breastfeeding goal of 6 months. That doesn't mean we're stopping then, of course. We actually have no plans to stop at all, and have every intention of letting Chai gradually self-wean when he's ready. The 6 month thing was the initial goal I set out at the beginning, as a starting point, and we are almost there! Also, at 6 months, he'll be starting solids, so our breastfeeding dynamic will change a little as he eats more. More on solid foods later, though.