So where did we leave off? Oh yes, the hubby and I come home with our new little bundle of joy. Going home from the hospital was not nearly the meaningful event I had anticipated. They checked in on me in the morning and then said ‘ok, leave when you want-bye’. What? That’s it? Aren’t we friends now? Aren’t you all going to come see me off in a wheelchair or something? Nope.
Well we made it home without incident and started life #2-life with kids. The first few days home with a newborn are actually pretty simple, you feed them, burp them, change them and make sure they have clean jammies on (because that’s pretty much all they wear for the first month, anything more complicated is ludicrous) and hope to god they sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time. I had all of them pretty much down…..except feeding. Someone had once told me when I was signing up for the ‘pre-baby’ classes that I should really look into a breastfeeding class. Well in my arrogant ignorance I thought ‘mom’s have been breastfeeding their infants since the dawn of time, how hard can it be?’……DING DONG, neither you nor the baby know what they heck you are doing! That’s right, you both have to learn a new skill imperative to the survival of your infant. No pressure. And as far as my ‘dawn of time theory’ well in the past (and still in many cultures) new mom’s live near their family and extended family which means there are a lot of other women around to help teach the new ones how to successfully breastfeed. Now a days the thought of asking my mom how to get my baby to latch on to my swollen, sore booby was just plain weird!!! My sister maybe, but she lived 13 states away. So that left me, Connor and my husband to figure it out. Yup that’s right, my poor bumbling husband helped me learn how to breastfeed. Now before any of you get visions of Billy and Connor giving mommy a lesson, it didn’t go down like that. It was more in terms of moral support and guidance. He actually listened to what the drs said, he also got up with me whenever Connor was hungry at night and made sure I had water and was comfortable. He also supported me if I just couldn’t do it for one feeding and would grab a bottle ASAP, no guilt, no hassle. I was shocked that something so personal would have ended up being one of the first things we shared as a family.
Let me tell you this though, it wasn’t easy. It hurt like all holy hell for the first month…yes month. And I made more milk that I thought humanly possible. I could have feed 1/2 the babies in Boston with what I was producing so even when I wasn’t nursing Connor I was pumping. And pumping, yeah, nothing says ‘cow’ like having milk sucked out of your boobies by a machine that actually makes a pumping sound ‘whoosh whoosh…whoosh whoosh. I still hate it.
So let me get to a few things I wish I had known ahead of time.
1-if you can take a class on breastfeeding, do it. I read a couple of books when I came home and they were all pretty useless. Let’s face it, you are just not in a place to take in new information right after you bring home a baby.
2-do your research on nursing bra’s ahead of time. I have spent $100′s on nursing bra’s and I personally dislike them all. The only one I find at all supportive is the bravado (www.bravadodesigns.com) that I got at a local maternity shop. It has the most support for us larger sized girls. Buy at least 1 to take to the hospital with you because trust me, the bra you go in with will probably not be the one you go out with. BUT don’t go crazy and buy a ton of them. In many ways all the stars have to align for you to have success in breast feeding your child, many people either aren’t able to for one reason or another, or chose not to. I make no judgement on either choice, but before you invest a small fortune in nursing bra’s, make sure you are indeed going to nurse.
3-Try to leave the pump in the box until you really need it (like going back to work). Your body is set up to produce what your baby needs. Part of my over production issue was that I would feed and then pump, telling my body it needed to make all that milk every time I had to fed Connor. Eventually my milk did level out, but I bet it would have happened faster if I had just left the damn pump alone. The only good thing about pumping is that it is a guaranteed time out for mommy.
I know I will have future blogs about weaning Connor. He already takes a bottle just fine and at this point is just too damn wiggly to try and nurse during the day so sadly, I know the day is coming where he won’t want to any more. But until that time I plan to stick with it as much as possible. My nights holding him after he has fallen asleep nursing are too peaceful to give up right now. Plus I can still eat like I’m pregnant. Big bonus.
