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We are so excited that breastfeeding is a topic so many moms are
jumping to talk about. Infact, we are even receiving emails from our
readers sharing their breastfeeding stories with us. So READERS,
here is your chance to share your story. This post is an open thread so
feel free to share your breastfeeding experience with us by SUBMITTING A COMMENT BELOW. We would enjoy hearing from you.
Diego was a very obedient newborn. He was a great starter baby, for beginners like my husband and me, with little to no experience. He made us look good. This was particularly true in the areas of daytime crying, napping, and nursing. He nursed slowly, and occasionally dozed off, but I managed to feed him fully and at regular intervals. No snacking, as per our pediatrician. That advice was the holy scripture to me and it was an empowering tip to which I held fast. My breasts needed time to recover, to fill up, and I had to nurse completely each time to keep up production, and to ensure Diego got the richer hind-milk. I was a factory and their were rules of efficiency and efficacy, not quite like that, but still. I had to stick with what worked.
I remember introducing Dieguito to my husband's extended family at a party, when he was five weeks old. I had thrush but my baby did not. I was treating my thrush but I did not plan to nurse every time he fussed in my relatives' arms.
When I got pregnant with my son Jack, I thought I would give breastfeeding a shot but wasn’t going to stress about it. Then I took a class on breastfeeding when I took my birth classes and got a little more serious about giving. Then I had my son and had just about every problem in the book. Everyone had told me that if I was doing it right, it shouldn’t hurt at all. Well, it hurt like crazy!! After 22 hours of labor and three hours of pushing that ended in a c-section, the most painful part of having a baby was breastfeeding for me. Every nurse I asked said I looked like I had a great latch. I saw the lactation consultant in the hospital, and she told me I had a great latch. I had a lactation consultant come to my home, and she said the latch looked fine. What the hell???
My redhead temper kicked in, and I became super stubborn. I wasn’t going to give up – I was going to figure this out! Did I mention that my son had a terrible case of colic aka acid reflux and cried all the time? I was in pain from the c-section, I got almost no sleep because Jack cried nearly every minute of a 24 hour day and nursing caused me so much pain that I cried every time he latched on – but I didn’t give up. I think it might have been the hormones, but I dug my heels in and insisted we not give a drop of formula. I ended up pumping exclusively and bottle feeding. In some ways, this was good – it really got my milk supply up. My “extras” took up nearly half our freezer. But even more problems popped up. We started with a pretty bad case of thrush. Then I got mastitis. Then I got mastitis again. Turns out that pumping for me wasn’t emptying my ducts well enough.
If you're reading this, chances are you have breasts. Or boobs. Or whatever you want to call them. It's also pretty likely that before you had kids, you didn't think too much about breastfeeding. Your breasts were something you admired, or maybe reviled. You dressed them up. Then undressed them. They were part of your sexuality.
At least that's how it was for me. Until I got pregnant, I really didn't give much thought to the fact that my breasts could actually serve a purpose-- feeding a baby. So breastfeeding was a novelty, and, as I soon discovered, it wasn't all that easy. There were leaks and aches. Awkward bras. Feedings at 3 a.m. Even an occasionally bewildered husband. But don't get me wrong. It wasn't all bad. There were moments of sheer bliss. Moments when it all came together, and our son fell asleep in a milk induced stupor.
That's just a little bit of my story, and I'm sure you have one, too. Whether you loved or hated breastfeeding, whether you did it for one day, one week, one year, or even longer, breastfeeding probably made quite an impression. That's why we're all focusing on babes and boobs today. Be sure to check out Silicon Valley Moms Blog, New York City Moms Blog, Chicago Moms Blog and DC Metro Moms Blog for our different takes on "the milky way." New posts will be going up on all four sites throughout the day, as we dedicate today to breastfeeding.....
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Andi Silverman is the author of the new book, Mama Knows Breast: A Beginner's Guide to Breastfeeding. She also runs the blog Mama Knows Breast and blogs at the New York City Moms Blog.
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