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Happy Tuesday!!
New Month,
New Goals,
New Topics &
New Week.
Let’s make it count!
This month we will be highlighting something very special to me – BREASTFEEDING!!
(Pictured above is myself and my 2 Month old baby girl)
I have three children and each of my breastfeeding stories are different.
My oldest daughter, Naima is five years old and I breastfed her for two months. She was my first child so I wanted to do everything right and that included breastfeeding her because everybody made it out to be “THE RIGHT THING TO DO”. I didn’t know much about breastfeeding at the time I was just happy not having to buy formula.
Well to my surprise, Naima was born three weeks early due to low fluid. The hospital started my induction a Friday afternoon and she was born that Saturday morning. Naima weighed 5 lbs and 4ozs. After giving birth she had problems latching on. I worked with a lactation consultant while in the hospital and she still wasn’t able to latch on properly. I had to start pumping my milk to provide a supply for my baby. I pumped two to three times each day. After being home I wasn’t eating the same which caused my milk supply to decrease. Due to my lack of knowledge about breastfeeding I switched my baby to Gerber Gentle Powdered Milk.
My middle child is Braxton, my son who is almost two years old and I breastfed him for twelve months. With having a little bit of knowledge on breastfeeding I knew I wanted to make this story completely different. I did my research and learned more about breastfeeding which came in handy. I knew before giving birth to my son that I would breastfeed again. I knew from experience that if he didn’t latch on immediately I would have to work harder.
Well to my surprise, Braxton was born five days before his due date weighing 7 lbs and 4 ozs. After giving birth and once the nurses cleaned him up he immediately latched on and started to feed. He was on a very demanding schedule. He had to eat every two hours like clockwork and even sometimes every one and a half hours. I was a very tired mama but I was determined to provide him with my liquid gold.
I was home EBF (exclusively breastfeeding) for twelve weeks before returning back to work. I froze some milk while home but it wasn’t a lot of it. I made it a habit to pump three to four times a day to build a supply for the next day and so forth and this continued every week. My pumped milk took over the fridge.
Braxton started child care at three months due to me returning back to work at the time. While returning back to work I sometimes had thirty minutes or an hour lunch break. Within that allowed time i had to pump and eat lunch which sometimes meant no time to relax. also, it meant I had to store my milk in the work refrigerator. I would have preferred my own mini fridge, but oh well. While at child care I made sure to take four bottles each five ounces for him to drink. Some days he would drink all bottles and some days only three. It all depended on his appetite and sleeping pattern. At one point I thought my milk supply was decreasing so I purchased oatmeal raisin lactation cookies from toys’r’us. Out of a pack of 12 cookies I ate two. I wasn’t a fan of the taste. I realized shortly after my milk supply didn’t decrease.
I remember a week before him starting child care trying out a bottle for the first time. He took to it just fine so i was happy about that. Feedings at night were not so bad because I prepared myself to wake up three to four times until he got on a sleeping schedule. Once he got on a sleeping schedule he would wake up one to two times through the night. I will admit we did co-sleep so during feedings I would just roll over to feed him until he fell back asleep. When he turned four month he started eating baby food which decreased a little of the milk intake. Around this time he would consumer about three bottles in addition to baby food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sounds like a lot huh? Yes, Braxton was a greedy boy and still is. Around nine months he was more vocal on when he was hungry so it was easier with feedings. He was still EBF (exclusively breastfeeding) but around this time it was only one early morning feeding. At this point I had surpassed my goal of three, six and nine months so the only thing left for me was to hit my twelve month goal of breastfeeding. Due to traveling plans just one day away from his birthday that was the last time he was breastfed. Once he turned one years old officially we switched him to whole milk. The transition was not bad at all.
My youngest daughter, Nuri who is two months old is currently EBF (exclusively breastfeeding). Nuri was born two days before her due date weighing 6 lbs and 14 ozs. Immediately soon as she came out she was ready to eat as soon as the nurse placed her on my chest for skin-to-skin we realized she was hungry. I placed her on my chest to feed and she latched on with no question. She is also on a very demanding schedule eating every tow hours unless she is sleep. She sleeps for three to four hours after feedings sometimes. She feeds one to two times during early mornings. UPDATE: Nuri is approaching six months and she feeds three to four times during the days and eats about two to three times through the night. She is attempting to sit up but not quite yet. She spends time in her rocker and she just recently got a walker. She loves to smile and laugh.
As you can see each story is different. My youngest child story is just getting started. UPDATE: We are half way to our goal of twelve months. YAYY!!
This month we will have four guest from four different women. Each will give us their breastfeeding stories. they will give us the good and bad of their experiences, tips and recommendations.
Mommies let us know your pros/cons about breastfeeding from your experience. Comment below!
P.S. Below are some products that helped me on my breastfeeding journey.
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