The Lesson of the Latch
This is a true story. Well … it’s actually three stories in one about a journey I took that has led me to ANR sites like this one.
Several years ago, I met with a lady to have my first breastfeeding experience. She was a wonderful person, as sweet and as caring and as soft spoken as could be. I was so taken in by her that I drove 12 hours to see her as she was unable to make that long of a trip to see me. Honestly, because of what she taught me, I would have driven twice as long as that to be with her.
She laid on her side on her bed and I laid next to her. We spoke for a while and got comfortable. Then she lifted her shirt and directed my mouth onto her left breast. Initially, I drew as much of her boob into my mouth as would fit and put such suction on her that, after 10 minutes, my jaw was aching. So she stopped me and gave me a lesson that has been more meaningful than much else I can think of.
“Put your thumb in your mouth,” she said with the softened tone of her voice.
I did so and then she told me to close my lips around my thumb. Trying not to laugh, I followed her directions - closing my lips around my thumb.
“Now, put your thumb on the roof of your mouth and put your tongue up against it,” she said sweetly with a smile in her face that made clear how she enjoyed teaching me this.
I put my thumb to the roof of my mouth and my tongue up against it. Then she told me to try to drink from my thumb as if it was a straw.
“Do you feel the different muscles you’re using now from the ones you were using before?” she asked as I nodded with my thumb in my mouth (LOL). “Those are the muscles you need to strengthen. And next time you nurse from a woman, let her nipple be where your thumb is at.”
For as affectionately sweet as this lady was, she lived too far away. There was no way to make a 12-hour distance apart any closer. So that was the one and only time I spent with her. But we kept in touch for years after that.
When I got home, I researched ways to breastfeed and how to strengthen those specific muscles. This was when I discovered the term “Latch” - the most natural way to breastfeed. So I practiced and practiced and became obsessed with it until I got this latch thing right. But my practicing didn’t include my thumb. Instead, I practiced on a Tommee Tippee baby bottle, said to have a nipple on it that was as close to the real thing as possible.
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Time passed and I met another lady. She was very sweet too and had a greater sense of humor than even I did. (That is saying something as I like to insert humor into life as often as I can.) By the time I met her, I had a chiseled jaw of steel that would have made Superman jealous. And when I nursed from her, she closed her eyes and put an enormous grin on her face. The latch worked and she thoroughly enjoyed it.
She lived a lot closer than the first lady. So I had learned my lesson … but I didn’t learn it enough. We still lived a distance apart that wasn’t sustainable. So I never met with her again. But I do keep in touch with her on KIK, from time to time. She was a sweetheart and whoever winds up with her will be a very lucky guy indeed.
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More time passed and I met another lady who lived a far more reasonable distance to drive. We messaged and texted and spoke on the phone and when we were comfortable, we met each other.
Now, she had spoken extensively about how sensitive her nipples were. Whenever I’ve read that on a woman’s profile, I’ve often wondered what that meant.
Does sensitivity mean things are painful to her nipples?
Or does sensitivity mean that her nipples are the gateway to her arousal?
Or does sensitivity mean that her nipples are susceptible to overwhelm because of certain sensations?
The answer to those questions is: Yes. LOL It means different things for each lady and it’s certainly something to have a discussion with her about.
So when I met with this lady, I quickly learned that her sensitive nipples were focused erogenous zones that really didn’t require much stimulus to skyrocket her upward. But as I drew her right areola into my mouth, pushing her nipple up to the roof of my mouth and flattening my tongue up against it, she gasped. Her eyes grew big and wide as she looked down at me, in disbelief that I had such an iron jaw as to be able to latch her and hold her there.
Her sensitivity did get the best of her several times and these were the moments when she tremored for a little while and then switched me over to the other breast to have me do it all again. I lasted two and half hours without stopping, but then needed to pause for a few minutes. Guys are always proud when they have incredible stamina, our proudest representation of this being how long we can “do the deed”. But having a latching jaw of steel is a close second place and I was very happy that I had taken the time to learn the latch, to practice it and to have done fairly well with it.
That lady was a charmer, sweet but also having that feminine sense of control that didn’t require anything physical to be achieved … rather, it was her sweetness and her words that made me putty in her arms.
But the two of us were lucky to have been able to coordinate our conflicting schedules to have even met that once. When last I messaged with her, which goes back a ways at this point, she had met someone, gotten married and was expecting. I wish her all the happiness in the world. I wish this of all three of these ladies as they were so welcoming and kind to me, but also because they each were a part of the lesson of the latch.
From teaching me to use the proper muscles, to showing me that it can work, to show me how it can overwhelm a woman as well as send her to the summit, these ladies have done a number on my memories.
I can’t imagine breastfeeding now without using the latch. And I don’t imagine I ever will.
Several years ago, I met with a lady to have my first breastfeeding experience. She was a wonderful person, as sweet and as caring and as soft spoken as could be. I was so taken in by her that I drove 12 hours to see her as she was unable to make that long of a trip to see me. Honestly, because of what she taught me, I would have driven twice as long as that to be with her.
She laid on her side on her bed and I laid next to her. We spoke for a while and got comfortable. Then she lifted her shirt and directed my mouth onto her left breast. Initially, I drew as much of her boob into my mouth as would fit and put such suction on her that, after 10 minutes, my jaw was aching. So she stopped me and gave me a lesson that has been more meaningful than much else I can think of.
“Put your thumb in your mouth,” she said with the softened tone of her voice.
I did so and then she told me to close my lips around my thumb. Trying not to laugh, I followed her directions - closing my lips around my thumb.
“Now, put your thumb on the roof of your mouth and put your tongue up against it,” she said sweetly with a smile in her face that made clear how she enjoyed teaching me this.
I put my thumb to the roof of my mouth and my tongue up against it. Then she told me to try to drink from my thumb as if it was a straw.
“Do you feel the different muscles you’re using now from the ones you were using before?” she asked as I nodded with my thumb in my mouth (LOL). “Those are the muscles you need to strengthen. And next time you nurse from a woman, let her nipple be where your thumb is at.”
For as affectionately sweet as this lady was, she lived too far away. There was no way to make a 12-hour distance apart any closer. So that was the one and only time I spent with her. But we kept in touch for years after that.
When I got home, I researched ways to breastfeed and how to strengthen those specific muscles. This was when I discovered the term “Latch” - the most natural way to breastfeed. So I practiced and practiced and became obsessed with it until I got this latch thing right. But my practicing didn’t include my thumb. Instead, I practiced on a Tommee Tippee baby bottle, said to have a nipple on it that was as close to the real thing as possible.
---------------
Time passed and I met another lady. She was very sweet too and had a greater sense of humor than even I did. (That is saying something as I like to insert humor into life as often as I can.) By the time I met her, I had a chiseled jaw of steel that would have made Superman jealous. And when I nursed from her, she closed her eyes and put an enormous grin on her face. The latch worked and she thoroughly enjoyed it.
She lived a lot closer than the first lady. So I had learned my lesson … but I didn’t learn it enough. We still lived a distance apart that wasn’t sustainable. So I never met with her again. But I do keep in touch with her on KIK, from time to time. She was a sweetheart and whoever winds up with her will be a very lucky guy indeed.
---------------
More time passed and I met another lady who lived a far more reasonable distance to drive. We messaged and texted and spoke on the phone and when we were comfortable, we met each other.
Now, she had spoken extensively about how sensitive her nipples were. Whenever I’ve read that on a woman’s profile, I’ve often wondered what that meant.
Does sensitivity mean things are painful to her nipples?
Or does sensitivity mean that her nipples are the gateway to her arousal?
Or does sensitivity mean that her nipples are susceptible to overwhelm because of certain sensations?
The answer to those questions is: Yes. LOL It means different things for each lady and it’s certainly something to have a discussion with her about.
So when I met with this lady, I quickly learned that her sensitive nipples were focused erogenous zones that really didn’t require much stimulus to skyrocket her upward. But as I drew her right areola into my mouth, pushing her nipple up to the roof of my mouth and flattening my tongue up against it, she gasped. Her eyes grew big and wide as she looked down at me, in disbelief that I had such an iron jaw as to be able to latch her and hold her there.
Her sensitivity did get the best of her several times and these were the moments when she tremored for a little while and then switched me over to the other breast to have me do it all again. I lasted two and half hours without stopping, but then needed to pause for a few minutes. Guys are always proud when they have incredible stamina, our proudest representation of this being how long we can “do the deed”. But having a latching jaw of steel is a close second place and I was very happy that I had taken the time to learn the latch, to practice it and to have done fairly well with it.
That lady was a charmer, sweet but also having that feminine sense of control that didn’t require anything physical to be achieved … rather, it was her sweetness and her words that made me putty in her arms.
But the two of us were lucky to have been able to coordinate our conflicting schedules to have even met that once. When last I messaged with her, which goes back a ways at this point, she had met someone, gotten married and was expecting. I wish her all the happiness in the world. I wish this of all three of these ladies as they were so welcoming and kind to me, but also because they each were a part of the lesson of the latch.
From teaching me to use the proper muscles, to showing me that it can work, to show me how it can overwhelm a woman as well as send her to the summit, these ladies have done a number on my memories.
I can’t imagine breastfeeding now without using the latch. And I don’t imagine I ever will.
