Today I wanted to share my experiences with breastfeeding. As I had mentioned in one of my previous posts, I struggled with breastfeeding with my other children. I think one of the main issues was that I wasn’t educated. I just figured there’s a baby and there’s a boob and it just works.. um absolutely not. It was very disappointing and very discouraging so ultimately I gave up. I tried with Jaiden but with me being so young I didn’t have the slightlest clue how to take care of a baby much less breastfeed. My mom had even made me an appointment with a lactation consultant because he wouldn’t latch which made me frustrated because I didn’t understand why he wouldn’t (goes back to there’s a boob and it just works mentality) and babies can obviously feel that your frustrated and it’s just not a good combo. I EBF Ophelia for 2 1/2 months but I supplemented for Scarlett from day one. She had colic so she cried a lot as is and I was just flat out exhausted to be honest. Her and Ophelia are only 13 months apart so I just felt like my body was drained. Breastfeeding Scarlett only lasted 3 weeks but I honestly didn’t give it my all.
There was never a question in mind if I would try again with Blakely. This time I was DETERMINED. I read books, articles, other moms blogs and posts on the WTE app because I wanted to be 100% educated this time. I already knew the pain of breastfeeding the first few weeks (I would cry when I breastfed Ophelia for the firsr two weeks) so this time I started putting nipple cream on before she was even born. That really made a difference in my opinion. I told myself from the get go that it was going to be tough but like I always say- mind over matter. Ive kept a positive attitude and that’s made a world of a difference.
Blakely is a big baby so she nurses a lot and on week 4 my body was struggling with keeping up. I had pinned lactation recipes when I was pregnant because my milk supply was low with Ophelia and I just wanted to be prepared because I knew I would need them. I went to GNC and purchased fenugreek and brewers yeast. The brewers yeast was for the lactation power balls I wanted to make and the fenugreek is a capsule that I take with my prenatal vitamin everyday and then I take it again in the evening to just keep the milk flow coming lol. The fenugreek works quicker than the brewers yeast in my opinion and the brewers yeast is very bitter even if you mix it into a smoothie or milkshake.
I’ve noticed on days when I don’t drink a lot of water that my milk flow is not as heavy. I’ve read several different contractions that say increase of water won’t help or you don’t need to drink more water than you normally do. For me that is false. I have to drink a ton of water. Plus breastfeeding makes me extremely thirsty anyways so it’s not really that big of an ‘inconvenience’. Another thing that I was prepared for is that one of my breast wouldn’t keep up with the other. Some moms call it the “dud boob” lol. While I don’t think one is a dud so to speak, I did notice that my left breast wasn’t getting as full as my right. But we fixed this by starting on the left breast for every feeding for a couple of days. On day two of doing this I could already tell the supply on that side had picked up. Now that she’s a little older and staying awake for the majority of the feeding, instead of falling asleep within 5 minutes, we switch sides halfway through to help encourage an even supply.
We’re only 6 weeks in but I’m beyond satisfied with how it’s going so far. We are taking it one day at a time but I mentally set goals. Right now my goal is to make it to 3 months and once we reach that goal it’ll be 6 months and so on.
No comments:
Post a Comment