I knew from the very beginning that I would do everything in my power to breastfeed. Like everything I do, I assume that it’s going to be super easy and then get frustrated when it’s not. It’s just my nature. Many of my friends are currently expecting and I know that majority of them wish to breastfeed their little boys and girls. I want to share some of the things that I’ve experienced in the past 12 or so days, good and bad. I want my friends to say that they WILL breastfeed, not that they will try. I think that’s one thing that helped me stay strong during late night, four hour nursing sessions; when Steve was sound asleep and all I wanted was to be asleep too.
Chase latched reasonably well from the very beginning. I attribute this to immediate bonding after he was born. I may have had a crappy experience with tons of intervention, but I did get my bonding time. Chase was placed on me and didn’t leave my side until we had ample time to stare at each other for a while and let him figure out that I was his Boob. (That’s our nickname for me now. I’m “The Boob” and Steve is “The Financer.” LOL!) He didn’t latch immediately, but he did nuzzle around and get a feel for me. When he did latch, it didn’t last long (which made me nervous). A couple hours after his birth, he finally did latch and things looked good.
Another thing that I made sure of during our hospital stay was prohibiting the use of artificial nipples. No pacifiers, no bottles, nothing but the Boob. Since we’ve been home, Chase had a paci for a few hours on and off and in my heart, I knew that it wasn’t something that I wanted to be doing. Strangely, the day he had the paci was the day that he had the most trouble latching. I’m not sure if that was nipple confusion or if it was just a fluke. I do know that he won’t be getting any more artificial nipples for quite a while. It’s recommended that babies only have the breast for the first three to four weeks anyway.
Chase went through his first growth spurt at around seven days old. Let me just tell you, mama was thinking about formula. This kid was attached to me for HOURS on end. I’m not exaggerating. HOURS. When he would fall asleep, he would only sleep 30 or so minutes and wake up for more. This lasted for two days. I was in tears. My boobs hurt, my head hurt, and I was exhausted. I stuck through it though. I knew how upset I would have been with myself if I allowed myself to fall off the wagon so quickly. We got through it and we should be gearing up for growth spurt number two soon. Gotta mentally prepare since I know what’s up this time.
Night time nursing was rough to begin with. I knew that he wasn’t going to be sleeping through the night (or any long stretch), but I once again thought all would be rainbows and puppy dogs. My mom keeps yelling at me to put him on a schedule, but I am whole-heartedly against even trying to do that. He’s a newborn. He’ll eat and sleep when he wants. I’m not on an eating schedule, so why should I expect a newborn to be. Anyway, Chase wakes up randomly throughout the night to nurse for hunger and/or for comfort. That’s another thing - be prepared to nurse for comfort, not just for food. There have been nights when I’m nursing and I try to put Chase back down after he’s done and he isn’t having it. It’s hard to look over at Steve and see him knocked out and look down at my beautiful baby who is knocked out too and not knock myself out...but slamming my head through the wall behind me. J/K! Kind of. :-)
My milk was slow coming. I know a lot of mamas who give up on breastfeeding because of their milk supply or their milk taking it’s precious time to make an appearance. Mine finally showed up around day six and I was over joyed. I knew that colostrum was all that Chase needed in the beginning days and our pediatrician was/is awesome and didn’t say a word about his 7% weight loss - which is totally normal up to 10%. She said that she knew my milk would be showing up any time and that he had three weeks to regain his birth weight until we started worrying. Awesome!
Chase is also tongue-tied. He spits milk everywhere and while he is able to latch, it’s not a perfect one. It hurts a little and he fights my boob. Like literally is in a battle with it. It’s the strangest thing ever. We have an appointment to get this taken care of next week and that should help tremendously.
Ok, so now that I’ve made it seem like a nightmare, let me just tell you IT’S NOT! It’s the most precious, amazing, awesome, insanely over powering with love thing that you could ever do. Well, next to actually giving birth, I suppose. When I look down at my little boy’s face so peaceful, it makes my heart smile. When he’s staring up at me, (or at least we’ll pretend he’s staring up at me) I seriously tear up. I don’t think I would get the same satisfaction from looking down at him while feeding him from a bottle. Nursing is something that Chase and I can only share and it gives me the opportunity to bond and talk to him about random things. Night time nursing sessions have gotten much better since I now use our co-sleepr crib as an expensive blanket/diaper/wipe holder. Haha! Chase sleeps cuddled up to me and for the most part latches on before he even wakes up. Just know, that 99% of the time, you can nurse your baby. I understand some circumstances may not allow this, but I hope that you’ll at least give it a legitimate try.
And for the record, I’m not opposed to pacifiers and bottles forever. Just for the first month or so of life. I want Steve to be able to feed Chase when I want to sleep in on a Saturday or go out without him for a little while. I don’t mind pacifiers when used correctly and not as a tool to prolong not having to nurse.
So, that’s that. This turned out to be much longer than I wanted, but I just couldn’t stop myself. Keep it real!
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