Hello Guys! Happy middle of the week, time flies so fast… I don’t even know how to describe how I feel about that! Today I decided to write about my breastfeeding experience, it was so much a different than I expected.
Before Diego was born I was completely freaked out by the whole breastfeeding thing. How was I going to feed another human? Would it hurt? Would it be weird? Is it going to be hard? Will I be able to do it, will my body let me do it? All of those things kept going through my mind. Now that Diego is almost two months I can tell you that I was completely wrong about how I thought the experience would be.
When Diego was born the first thing they told me was to feed him, he was so cute and ready to eat! They told me that it was perfectly normal not to have milk yet that it would come soon and that Diego would be fine because his stomach was so small. The next day I still barely had anything so even though the poor little guy kept trying and trying – I felt terrible! By the time we came home I still didn’t have milk and I could see Diego was hungry so I made the decision to supplement with formula. I have never felt so observed and confused as I felt that day, everyone had an opinion. Some people did not agree with me supplementing because my “my milk could come any time,” some people said it was a great idea, some said I should just give up and stick with formula. In the end I did what felt right and gave him some formula, I am never gonna forget how he drank two whole ounces of formula without even stopping because he was so hungry. Right then and there I knew I made the right choice.
From there our breastfeeding adventure started. Every day both him and I got better at it and I felt more comfortable not just with feeding him but also with what I could and could not eat. At first I was stressing out about food because I didn’t want to make him sick. There was one time that I’m pretty sure I ate food that had a lot of spice (not hot spicy, just many spices) and I’m pretty sure we saw it in his diaper the next day but other then that… all good! Despite what I had heard breastfeeding didn’t hurt BUT as soon as I had milk I would have a lot of pain if I didn’t feed him or pump for a couple of hours. Some things that I found that were helpful for me are:
–A boppy pillow so you are more comfortable and your arms don’t get tired.
-A good pump, I rented the hospital grade one from Medela.
-Milkmakers Lactation Cookies (increase milk supply)
– My best friends “energy bars” from Mini-Fresh
–Mothers milk tea (increase milk supply)
– Baby’s Only Organic Formula (supplement milk supply, www.naturesone.com)
Diego is now two and half months and I am still giving him breastmilk and occasionally when I do not have enough I supplement with formula. I am back to work (as much as I love spending time with Diego, this makes me happy too) so I leave enough milk at home so he can be fed until I get back. Pumping at the office has been another adventure, Bloguettes being an all girls company makes it pretty easy as everyone understands. My plan is to continue breastfeeding until he is 3 months and then we will start transitioning to formula.
My final recommendation: do what you feel is RIGHT FOR YOU! Everyone has a different experience. Listen to everyone’s advice and opinion but in the end do what feels right for you.
I had the exact same experience. My daughter, Saylem is now 3 months old and I’m still supplementing and breast feeding also. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who was feeling this way!