Thoughts on Breastfeeding

In honor of National Breastfeeding week, JK I just wanted to capture my thoughts on breastfeeding since it takes up a significant amount of my life and because I have time to type this (I quit my job).

I love nursing. It seems kind of odd that I can love something as utilitarian as feeding a child, I do not have the same feelings about baby led weaning or feeding toddlers solid food (this is one of my lesser favorite tasks actually). Before actually having kids I naively thought I would nurse but then have Brendan give the baby 1 bottle at night. I do not think I understood that that would mean I would need to pump while the baby had the bottle. Having a little break sounded nice at first but in reality this meant needing to wash bottles and pump parts and pump which in my mind is a million times more of a hassle than nursing! I realize this is not the case for everyone!

I have been nursing for the last 801 days. It seems like not that big of a deal and it isn't but it does impact a lot like:

What you are able to wear. I wear anything that can be pulled up, pulled down, or with buttons. The actual "nursing" tops are not cute at all but they are super practical and are actually my favorite because of the ease

What you can eat. Idk if I'll go more into this but I didn't have dairy for a few months with my 2nd child which was a BIG deal because 90% of my diet was cheese. Otherwise I am not too restrictive but it is still something I keep in mind, especially when having alcohol or caffeine or broccoli. Also I have never experienced hunger like breastfeeding hunger, especially toddler nursing hunger like I would literally feel dizzy and famished

When you can leave the house. Basically if I want/need to leave the house without a baby I need to leave right after I feed them to have a window where I am comfortable enough leaving them and won't worry about them being hungry. I have been without this 2nd baby for sure less than 10 times. I'm not saying this to complain, if I really wanted to make it happen I could but the advance planning/ pumping is not worth it to me. 

Symbiotic relationship. Idk what else to call this point but before actually living it I don't think I realized that nursing very much so takes the mother and her needs into account not just the baby's. If I go longer without feeding a baby my body is also impacted. I have yet to get mastitis or a clogged duct but especially at the beginning it is also going through my mind, like I don't mind a baby clusterfeeding as much because it is also helping me out 

With the first child, I fed on a schedule and on demand. I did the wake up to feed thing at night and during the day until the Dr. gave the okay to stop. So basically, I didn't let the baby go longer than 3 hours without a nursing session but during the day especially this usually was around 2 hours. After I got the ok to not wake to feed, I didn't wake the baby at night anymore but during the day I'm pretty sure I capped all naps at 2 hours and would feed on average every 2 hours. I think I read this in Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding or something from the La Leche League but it is impossible to overfeed a breastfed baby so basically whenever the baby cried I nursed and that was my go to. I had a planned trip when baby was about a month old or else I probably wouldn't have ever used a pump. I got a Lansinoh one that the insurance covered and I don't have anything to compare it to but it was, fine. I remember being super intimidated by the thing and think I tasked Brendan with figuring out how to set it up. I reached out to the La Leche League for help getting the baby to take a bottle and watched some videos on "paced bottle feeding". I honestly don't know how to give a baby a bottle, Brendan was the only one who did this idk how it went. When my first child was around 10 months he stopped taking a bottle but before that there were no issues. This probably happened because there was a big stretch of time between the first time he had a bottle and the next (like months).

With my first kid I was always worried about my milk supply tanking if I went too long in between feedings. 

Nursing During Pregnancy

My milk supply dropped drastically when I was pregnant with my 2nd child (totally normal) and I continued nursing my first child the whole time. I read Adventures in Tandem Nursing which I recommend. I didn't experience any nursing aversions but if I did it would be helpful to know that that I wasn't going insane. 

Things That Are Different With My 2nd 

I don't remember my milk coming in being as much of a "thing" with my 2nd because I was still nursing another kid while I gave birth (not literally but ya know). I think it is also common for milk to come in faster in general with children after the first. I also didn't experience any pain during nursing (at least none that I recall), I did have some for the first few weeks the first time around. Actually, this is worth mentioning now that I think about it, with my first child, when latching on one side (slacker side) it reallllly hurt like say a bad word hurt for the first week or so. I didn't see a lactation consultant but I always tried to get a good latch. With my 2nd kid, I didn't worry about examining the latch or making sure it was "good" after the first week probably. I also didn't worry as much about my milk supply. In one of my 2nd kids follow up appointments, like the ones that happen the day or so after you are discharged, jaundice was mentioned and after that I realllllllly kicked it into high gear and made a big effort to make sure I nursed all the time, which is really hard with a super sleepy baby who has his days and nights mixed up. I nursed at least every 2 hours (maybe 3 at night) and made sure to do all the massage stuff etc. to keep him awake for a "full feeding". I would nurse for 20 min max each side with my first child, but with the 2nd after he made up his birth weight I would only do 1 side at a time if he felt content unless it was the last feed before bed. Oh in case you are wondering the turn out with the jaundice, at the follow up appointment in 2 days or whenever it was, baby got the all clear and made up his birth weight + some and I texted Bren that I kicked jaundice's a**. Not sure if that is what actually happened but it does feel like SO much pressure for the mom because I really felt like I needed to make it my sole mission those few days to feed the baby as much as possible. I also never bothered introducing a bottle and am more chill on the waking during naps because of frequent night wakings (the former could be the cause for the latter who knows)

The Good

After you make it out of the stressful newborn days when you can be super worried if your baby is getting enough to eat (I empathize so much with this struggle as it really feels like it is all on you) nursing is really quite lovely! I like the ease of not having to worry about amounts, as the baby can just stop when they are content and it is impossible to overfeed according to la leche league or something. You don't have to worry about cleaning, sanitizing, proper temperatures, that stuff realllllly stressed me out. It is nice having a basically guarantee way to calm a baby and knowing that you will never run out of food

cute (imo) baby pic to balance out all the text. also disclaimer, this is obvi not a recommendation or medical advice. this is just my experience!