Meet Grace, my best friend.

For the first month that Natalie has been on the outside of my body, Grace tried to "cut" in the nursing line at our house. She could have been reading a book, eating cereal, running in circles around the lamp post, etc., but when Natalie cried, needing to be fed, Grace would holler, "MAMA!! Nurse! Gracie nurse!!" Now, I am still nursing Grace, so it wasn't a problem that she wanted to nurse. The problem was that she was intentionally interfering with my nurturing of Natalie, in an effort to lay her claim to me, I suppose.

Things improved as we lay down the ground rules for nursing in Casa Roby.
1. Babies nurse whenever, wherever. Toddlers nurse once in the morning, once after nap, and maybe once at night if needed, but never right before bed (we can't have her still relying on me to get to sleep or we'd be back to square one).
2. Baby crying always trumps a toddler's desire to nurse, but a latched-on toddler pretty much gets to finish if baby cries mid-session. This happens so rarely, that I allow it.
3. Mommy will nurse two at a time when at home (why would we be given two boobs otherwise?!) but will NOT nurse a wiggly worm. Nursing toddlers must have a calm body at all times around baby.
4. Toddler must make eye-contact and say "thank you" after nursing. Babies need only gurgle and smile.
5. Mommy tries to avoid nursing the toddler outside of the home (except for La Leche Meetings!); I don't lie about it, but neither do I want to advertise that I nurse an almost-2-year-old.

Fast forward to this morning. I hear Grace call for me at 6:20 am and I stumble into her room, giving her a good morning hug.

"Nurse, Mommy." She demands.

"Can you say, 'Good morning, Mommy?'"

"Good morning Mommy Nurse."

"Nurse please." I suggest.

"Nurse please." She implores.

I take her out of her crib, sit down on her big-girl bed, and she begins to nurse. After about one minute, we both hear a sudden cry from my bedroom, where Natalie and Daddy are. I wait a moment to hear if there is a problem. Natalie cries again. I deduce that she has awoken and needs to nurse. See the second part of rule #2: A latched-on toddler gets to finish before Mommy responds to baby. I take a deep breath, prepared to wince while listening to Natalie's escalating cries as Grace takes her own sweet time enjoying mommy-time when it is in demand by the upstart new sibling.

Grace, full of surprises, jumps off my lap (now milk is squirting everywhere) and shouts,

"Mommy! Nurse Na-lly! Nurse Na-lly!"

I find myself fleeing Grace's room, being pulled down the hallway by Grace. I try to stop the flow of milk with my hand as we race into my room where poor Scott is holding a very hungry Natalie. (On a side note, it is totally unfair that I have two functioning lactating breasts while Scott has none!) Grace continues her look of panic until I actually sit down, take the to baby to my breast, and calm her cries. Satisfied with Natalie's contentment, Grace crawls onto the bed, comes over to my other breast, looks up at me, and asks, "Gracie nurse, too?" Not even two years old, she has learned that the "haves" should share with the "have-nots."

As I pull her head to latch-on, I think to myself that I have the best best-friend in the whole world.