I wanted to celebrate this week and help increase the normalcy of breastfeeding and also bond all mothers together no matter how you feed your baby. A fed, growing baby is the right way to do it, plain and simple.
 |
| Giant's Causeway |
This is my story...(play MTV Truelife intro...)
I had a breast reduction in 2008 and so when I found out I was pregnant I was afraid wouldn't be able to breastfeed. Noah latched pretty well right after birth and in the hospital, like most mothers, I was sure we weren't doing it right. I went back to the hospital to visit a lactation consultant and called many times in that first week just stressed out that Noah was going to die of malnutrition (he didn't). The doctor was a little concerned with his post birth weight loss being exactly at 10% which is the limit for what's considered 'normal' so we had a follow up the next day to re-weigh and low and behold Noah had gained half a pound! I remember just breaking down in tears that it had clicked. Noah and I had found our rhythm, and it was pretty much smooth sailing from then on.
I nursed Noah whenever he wanted it, and that was always! Being able to keep Noah like attached to me was immensely helpful since my maternity leave was me working about 20-25 hours a week from home. We tried a ton of bottles for my return to work and he settled on Dr. Brown's which are great! They have a thousand pieces but they mimic the breast and limit air intake, so good for all kinds of eaters!
I was never an amazing pumper, and when Noah was around 6 months my boobs were like 'nope' to the pump completely. First, I thought my Medela pump crapped out and the AMAZING people at Medela sent me a brand spanking new one after we troubleshot 4-5 different things over the course of a week. It wasn't the pump, maybe it was, maybe my body was just so stressed at work that I couldn't get it going, who knows. A friend of mine had a Medela Symphony pump that she let me borrow and bless her because that is what kept me pumping and my sanity. I wasn't ready to stop at 6 months and Noah was not having any formula.
By the time Noah was 13 months old, we had him sleeping through the night and drinking regular milk during the day. I continued to breastfeed at night, in the morning, and when he was sick. We finally weened a week before his second birthday.
I used a 4 night trip for work as a jump start to ween Noah and it was pretty hard for me and relatively easy for him. I'm happy I waited, it was an amazing bond that we created together.
Things That Make Breastfeeding Easy!
Boppy Pillow - So many moms put this on their "don't buy" list saying that you can just use pillows...no...I love my boppy so much I got another for my mom's house because I was over there so much and hated using pillows.
Boppy Cover (extra) - Babies spit up, or you'll drop food on the pillow whilst eating over a breastfeeding baby. Don't be like me trying to keep a receiving blanket on top of a pillow and get an extra cover.
Infinity Scarf - I didn't really ever cover up while nursing but when I did, I used an infinity scarf for so many reasons that will be explained in my next blog.
Medela Quick Clean™ Breastpump & Accessory Wipes - These make pumping as dreamy as can be. They are super moist so I would use one wipe for the whole day of pumping and never had to figure out where to wash my parts.
Medela Quick Clean™ Micro-Steam™ Bags - I put everything in these bags. Each one has like 20
uses so they go a pretty long way.
Extra Parts! - Not a damn person I know wants to wash each pump piece every single night. I got a spare and washed bottles and parts every other day. I also got an extra ac adapter so I didn't have to crawl under my desk to take it home.
Cooler - I found the Medela version on clearance at Target. But any cooler is fine, it keeps you from having to store milk in your office fridge.
Kiinde Nipple Brushes - Oh. Em. Gee. I don't know how people wash bottle nipples or any pump parts without this brush. I tried many different brushes and they all sucked. This brush is short and stiff (lol) but gets all the milk out easy peasy.
No comments:
Post a Comment