breastfeed

This has been going great! After the return to work at 8 weeks (I pump 2-3 times per day for her two bottles at day care and nurse her on my lunch hour) and a long struggle with clogged ducts, we’re sailing smooth. LOVE that I don’t have to worry about formula!

I have started doing this and have been doing this for 4 months. I started back at work and was just wondering if there is any advice to keep me going.

With a 10 wk old baby i was almost ready to say i’d done this, which i have, for the last 10 weeks BUT we recently traveled to the UK (from australia) and its a long way and so i made sure i had lots of frozen milk for teh trip, unfortunately in not feeding my sone directly for most of 3 days my milk supply has gone done and it sucks, i had managed to feel freeer (i have a fear of public breastfeeding) becuase i had been expressing atleast 100ml in a morning to take out with us in the afternoon, unfortunately i can’t get that much any more and it means i feel very tied down AGAIN and then i decided to ensure he got enough to give a bit of formula but of course not having him sucking means i won’t increase it all…SOOO today i had a bit of a tantrum at my family’s decision to
go for a big walk and then lunch somewhere nice’ because i don’t find walking with a 10 wk old baby much fun, he hates his carrier and they pick walks that are not even all terraine-pram friendly… and then he gets upset and hungry and i don’t have enough milk expressed to take with us and its quite hard to breastfeed on a muddy track…
ANYWAY so today we are staying home and i am going to express for 15 mins each hr to stimulate milk flow, as well as feedin lil man…letd see.

This is going well. I’m back at work, and pumping twice a day there. I’ve realized this goal is about not having to feed my child formula, not necessarily nursing exclusively. But I nurse as much as I can.

I really am amazed at the amount of dedication it takes to breastfeed, and I’m so very glad I have the support of my husband and my boss and other people in my life. And of course, that I can look at my little girl and know that I’m doing the best thing I can for her.

Is the only thing thats got me through this week.
I had a horrendous time in hospital especially with the midwife/lactation consultants conflicting advice ‘hold him this way’ ‘thats wrong, you should be holding him this way’ blah blah THEN telling me my son had a tongue tie that meant he would probably never suckle properly and it should be cut…thankfully my mum managed to do more research and discover that this was a bit of a fad for some time and the lactation consultant clearly hadn’t caught up…Then just the difficulty of getting started, it is natural, yes, but its a bloody skill i’ve got to learn and so does the little guy…then on day 2 he suckled start stop start stop for a few hrs, yeah i know he should have a constant feed for a shorter amount of time BUT i was just so happy he could and would suckle…short lived hapiness day 3 (just as the blues set in) the midwife came to visit and gave me a greal spiel on how this would never work blah blah and winged about other stuff too and generally left me COMPLETELY void of any desire to continue. Soooo i managed to express about 10ml of milk and then i added about 5 ml of boiled water (tut tut yeah i know) to get his fluids up so he would be less lethargic and would suckle more. This worked, well, this and a feed that involved me blowing in his ear if he drifted to sleep or failing that Granny flicking his feet…sounds harsh BUT it meant he got some nourishment.
We also invested in a small pack of formula, i think knowing this was in the cupboard as a dire last straw and my baby would not starve, allowed me to relax a bit and this meant feeding was easier BECAUSE my little guy seems to have developed himself a bit of a routine of sleep for about 3 hrs, wake, cry, eat, stare adoringly at mum for a little while then sleep and repeat.
My nipples hurt (as i expected them to) but once he is latched on the discomfort subsides and i remember this is the best for baby.
He seems to have a preference for the right breast which isn’t great cos the other will get all yuck, so i’m expressing from that one and letting him have his favourite, once feeding is established i’ll convince him to share…The high point of today was that Lefty, in upset for being left out leaked…sure not every1s idea of a fun time BUT it said to me that my milk is in and there is plenty of it.

...that I’m a breastfeeding mama. I breastfed in public for the first time this weekend, during our first out of town trip since Little Miss arrived. OK, it was in my car, but that was “public” enough for me!

So far, so good. Baby is eating well, and growing strong. My breasts are still somewhat tender, but it is improving. Her mouth is just so little!

I’ve also started pumping, so hubby can feed her from a bottle now and then, which gives me more sleep!

So i was having coffee with my parents the other day and i think there was a woman breast feeding in the cafe, i say think cos it wasn’t obvious, she had the baby in a sling and a piece of muslin over her shoulder and the baby and she was just casually sipping her coffee (i also didn’t look too hard cos well u don’t…) It was exactly what i have in mind for when i ‘have’ to breastfeed in public. Thus proving it can be done and that those women i’ve seen floppin their boobs out is not the only way…:) I mean sure, if u don’t care, neither do i, flop away but i couldn’t do it. nup nup nup
So now i need to create a selection of attire that allows for easy breas feeding without full frontal boob flashing…layers? cut holes in under shirts then pull up/down top shirt??? I’m sure i’ll figure it out:)

It’s been awhile since my last major breastfeeding update. Since then, we’ve fallen into something of a predictable pattern:

• Middle of night / early morning: breastfeed
• Morning: pump just before work and while at work, and DH bottle-feeds at home
• Noon/afternoon: breastfeed a few times
• Evening: try to breastfeed, get rejected by Little Miss Fussypants, cry (both of us), and then pump while DH bottle-feeds (but, she breastfed ok this evening!)
• Late evening / night: pump in the middle of Little Miss’s eight-hour stretch of sleep to keep up my supply

I prefer breastfeeding over pumping, mostly because I hate having to wash the pump attachments over and over. Breastfeeding isn’t as “magical” as I thought it was supposed to be, but it would probably be better if I weren’t always worrying about my supply. I’ve noticed that Little Miss has gotten more efficient at drawing out the milk, so feedings are getting much shorter.

My preferred position is now side-lying – it’s nice to get a little rest and Little Miss seems to squirm less. Other than that, I sometimes use the cradle hold, but usually I have to start her out while sitting upright on my lap, then lower her to the cradle hold. It’s quite a contortionist act to do this.

Anyway, things have calmed down a bit but I’m disappointed that I’m still not producing enough milk. I guess the hardest thing will be to keep this up until Little Miss starts solid food in a couple months. After that, she won’t be drinking quite as much and I can probably cut out the formula altogether.

Yesterday i set about cleaning out my closet, i found 3 t-shirts we got free when we took part in the ‘Wunta breakfast trail dog walk’ i have all 3 because no-one in my family will EVER wear them, sooo yesterday i put them on and i drew a line from about 3 inches from my neck to just above my belly button, then cut along the line. Taaa daaaa!! instant breast-feeding night shirts. I read sumwhere you should cut a shirt from the neck line down but i don’t like the idea of getting caught up in the loose bits, this way, there rn’t any realy.