Before I actually had E, I always thought I'd be totally Earth-mama natural about birth and breastfeeding. I went to a La Leche League meeting (that will be a story for another day) and watched videos online of babies literally crawling up to breastfeed after birth. I guess I kind of assumed that if I believed it could happen and really, really wanted it to, I would produce a child who would earn the admiration of all the nurses. They'd applaud his ability and promptly place a sticker saying, "A+ breastfeeder" on his chart (ah, the teacher in me comes out again!).
Well, things didn't quite work out that way. In spite of my wholehearted belief in the wonders of breastfeeding, I produced a jaundiced, skinny little man with a bad latch. If they did have breastfeeding stickers, his would've said, "Keep trying!". Ugh. We encountered just about every breastfeeding problem in the book. Needless to say, I had a LOT of learning to do when it came to breastfeeding.
Bad for me, good for you! Check back soon for snapshots of (many!) lessons learned on latching, diet during breastfeeding, solving common problems, pumping, storing milk, etc. Any comments, suggestions, or additional lessons learned are greatly appreciated!
E at the beginning of his breastfeeding career....
... and 6 months later. Safe to say he got the hang of it, huh?
My friend and I thought about starting a website for women on breastfeeding to address these issues. Between she and I, we had just about every problem in the book including cracking/bleeding, mastitis, yeast, restricted diets and all of the above. There were many times when we comforted each other, reminding each other that the reward at the end was worth much more than the pain at the moment. And yet, no one seemed to understand what we were going through. We spent hours on the internet, wondering if we were the only two new mommy's to have such a difficult time with breastfeeding. But guess what? We weren't. And you are so right that it is not all butterflies and rainbows (which many moms fail to remember or choose not to), but now looking back at all that we've conquered just means that in a blink of an eye and without even knowing it, we became great mommy's - putting our children's well being before our own, even at the most trying times. So many times I cried (those crazy hormones) thinking I was failing at feeding my child, and it was the one thing I was adamant about and looked forward to all of my pregnancy. And then, incidentally, the first 2 weeks was the easiest for me. But it was so bad after that, that at one month, I was saying let's try to breastfeed for at least 2 months. Then at 2 months, I said lets try at least 3. And now, at 3, I'm saying lets try to get to 6. Our newest challenges are teething and nursing strikes. So just know, that you were not alone. I just wish I knew you were going through this when you were, as being a new mommy is hard enough, but having empathetic friends, seems to make it just a bit easier to make it to such a fantastic reward at the end. xoxo Shanna
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