As a new mom, one of the first decisions you have to make is how you will feed your baby. I'm just an advocate of feeding your baby, and that is it. Feed your baby however you wish, and you're doing what is best for them! Some people are unable to breastfeed due to illness, supply issues, and others are just uncomfortable with the thought of doing it at all. I'm writing this post to help and encourage those mothers that want to tackle the daunting task of nursing their baby. Here are some tips, tricks, and products to help you figure it out!
Get all the things!
Nursing Pads
In the beginning, when your milk comes in and then for several weeks after you will feel like you have constantly sprung a leak. Milk will be everywhere--- I promise you that! It will be on your clothes, on your baby, and probably on your furniture. One place it shouldn't be for many reasons is your bra; the biggest reason being that it could cause thrush. SOOOO you need to have good breast pads available to keep that milk off of you. I recommend these. I tried some reusable nursing pads from Bamboobies; however, I found that I was constantly damp and uncomfortable with them. I have never had any problems with milk leaking through the disposable pads; even after wearing them for a couple of days because it has a core that absorbs and locks away the moisture. The material these pads are made out of is also very soft, and trust me that is important! You don't want itchy disposable fabric next to your bruised and blistered nips!Nipple Cream
Repeat after me: I will use nipple cream from the very beginning. You may start out and think those little boogers won't get chapped and crack and dry as heck, but they will! I recommend this one, because I liked the smooth jelly texture of it over all of the others. I also felt like it did the best job in the most natural way. It was also okay for Koop to ingest this stuff, so I didn't have to wipe/rinse it off before a feeding.Nursing Cover
You only need this accessory if you are uncomfortable just whipping your boobs out in public (which I'm totally good with btw #normalizebreastfeeding). I like cover goods nursing covers. Although, I've heard very good things about milk snob covers as well. They both provide all around coverage which I think is a must. I had one cover that only draped the front of me, but since I am a lift from the bottom kind of gal, I prefer to have my back covered as well.Nursing Bra
This is the best nursing bra ever! I love it because it is silky smooth, which is perfect for the day that your body gets its crap together and stops having random let downs at the most inconvenient times (like while actively monitoring the STAAR test???) and you get to throw those nursing pads away. I also like it because the clasps that allow your baby to access his food source are easily undone and redone with one hand (this is critical).Be Prepared. It might take a lot of work.
In my journey to successful breastfeeding, I encountered tons of struggles LINK HERE. Just to name a few: I was unable to nurse successfully at first because I had a baby with head trauma from being emergency vacuumed out. He also had a substantial case of jaundice that caused him to be very lethargic. Do to these issues he wasn't so great at nursing in the beginning. He was pretty terrible actually, so terrible in fact that he lost a ton of weight, and I ended up being an exclusive pumper (frustrating, time-consuming, and mind numbing). When he did finally start to nurse his poor latch gave me a clogged duct that quickly morphed into an awful case of mastitis. Often times, there is no solution to the issues women face in the realm of breastfeeding, and they are forced to "throw in the towel" and switch to formula. AND THAT IS GREAT! FED IS BEST!!! However, there are many times where determination and hard work pay off in the long run, and you end up with a happy nurser and in a happy nursing relationship. KEEP TRYING!Positioning can save your sanity.
Nursing takes a lot more time in the beginning than formula feeding. It often would take Koop up to an hour to feed. For me, that meant that after a feed was over I had exactly one hour before another would start. I was lucky in that Koop slept at least 3-4 hours at night from the beginning, but during the day, he was ravenous! I felt like he was attached to my boobs constantly. What saved us was when I mastered the art of side lying nursing (I now refer to it as napping). When we nurse laying down on our sides, most of the time Kooper falls asleep and so do I. If you are planning to fall asleep while nursing like this make sure the bed is clear of pillows and blankets in order to make sleeping this way as safe as possible. When I'm not wanting a nap, we nurse in the rockers using the classic cradle hold. Which, is difficult in the beginning to master especially if you have small boobs (in my opinion, having small boobs makes everything about nursing harder!).Feed when the baby is hungry!
Follow the baby's cues! One of the best decisions I ever made was to throw out the feeding schedule (that only frustrated me because he wouldn't follow it). I deleted the app that was a never ending list of poops, pees, feeds, and unsuccessful naps! I stopped worrying so much about him doing the same things at the same times in the same ways every day and started concerning myself with watching for his cues. I know now that when Kooper is hungry he starts making this really high pitched whining sound (and sometimes that sound is two hours after the previous feed, and sometimes it is four). It is up to him and how much milk he took in the previous feeding. I also know now, that when Kooper is tired he starts yawning and rubbing his eyes! I was so much less stressed when I throughout the log and the schedule. Those things have their place at the beginning of mommyhood, but once your baby has gained his/her weight back you're in the clear! He will let you know when he is hungry!Supply issues happen, and not always the kind you expect.
Oversupply
Oversupply is very normal in the beginning of breastfeeding when your milk comes in, but after that, you should not feel engorged all the time. I had this issue when we switched to exclusive breastfeeding due to all my pumping after Kooper was born. This caused several other issues. First, an engorged breast is very difficult for a baby to latch onto. Also, it caused my let down reflex to be very strong, which in turn caused Kooper to sputter and choke and be sprayed in the face with milk! Correcting this issue is easy, but SUPER uncomfortable. What I did was feed Kooper off of one side for 2-3 feeds while the other breast became a rock hard leaky faucet. Then I switched to the rock hard leaky faucet for 2-3 feeds while the other became that way. This told my body to produce a milk inhibiting hormone that lessened the amount of milk I produced. Like I said, simple fix, but SUPER uncomfy.Undersupply
I have also experienced undersupply in varying degrees for varying reasons, but the fix for me has always been the same. WATER, SUPPLEMENTS, GALACTAGOGUES (which is fancy talk for milk-producing foods). The first thing that helps get your supply up is to take in more water. I try to never let myself get "thirsty" as a rule of thumb. If I'm feeling parched then I haven't been giving my body what it needs. It takes liquids to make liquids! My supplement of choice has been and always will be Fenugreek I use these. They worked for me immediately. I did have a strong smell of syrup the entire time I was taking them, but according to my mom, no one but me could detect it. Another supplement that people swear by is blessed thistle. I cannot vouch for this because I'm allergic to it, and you might be too if you're allergic to ragweed. I can vouch for the potency of brewer's yeast! Man, that stuff causes me to make crazy amounts of milk! The final part of this solution is to eat foods that boost milk production. I swear by the cookies made by Milky Mama! In fact, buyer beware, start out with just a cookie or two because you'll end up with an oversupply situation on your hands! If you don't want to buy these cookies you can make your own. There are also several recipes on Pinterest, but the bottom line is this: oatmeal, flax seed, brewer's yeast, lecithin. I make myself either a hot bowl of oatmeal or a cold bowl of overnight oats with these foods in it every day when I start to notice a supply issue.There are times when you need to ask for help.
Professional Lactation Help
One of the best decisions I ever made was connecting to a LeLeche League group on Facebook from my area. I found tons of answers to my questions without even having to go through the "embarrassment" of looking stupid and asking them myself. I just searched through the posts! Lactation consultants are also a very important piece of the mystery that is figuring out breastfeeding. They can weigh your baby pre and post feeding to see if they are getting any milk. My little Kooper wasn't, and that is how we figured out I needed to start pumping and bottle feeding. However, don't take everything they say as the final word. My LC told me to not even worry about breastfeeding because Kooper "would never figure it out" and HE DID exactly one month later. Keep in mind that your first 6 LC visits are free with insurance.Non-Professional Help
This is probably the best kind of help if you ask me! I reached out to my friends who were mommas. I also talked to the women in my family who had breastfed. If nothing else having someone to lament with and a shoulder of someone I loved and trusted were invaluable. REACH OUT. People want to help new mommas, and you should let them.I'll leave you with this...
Just Know That It gets better.
Let me say it again: It gets better.Wait no, you need to hear this for real: It gets better.
