"Hold your baby's hand instead of a bottle"

I just realized the other day that one of my favorite aspects of breastfeeding (besides the nourishment value) is that I have a free hand to hold my baby's hand. I'm constantly holding his little hand while nursing, marveling at his tiny fingers, bringing his hand to my face so I can kiss it. I love being able to use that free hand to gently tickle his cheek and rub the back of his head or run my fingers through his hair, down his arm, to be able to tickle his side and hold his little foot. When he reaches for my face, I take his hand and press his palm to my cheek or pretend to munch on his fist to make him laugh. All of these things I'm able to do because I'm not holding a bottle. I suddenly realized that all of this physical contact must be part of the "bonding" experience they say you get while nursing. Without planning it this way, my default picture (which I chose because I didn't want a picture of my face and would never display a shot of my baby nursing on my breast) demonstrates one of my favorite activities while breastfeeding! The idea hit me at once. With the amount of hours we spending holding our little ones to feed them, wouldn't you rather hold your baby's hand instead of a bottle? So that's my blog's slogan now!