It is world breastfeeding week! I have
been nursing (not consecutively) for 74 months. I thought I’d write a post about
my breastfeeding journey.
During my pregnancy with Harrison, I
knew I would breastfeed. I wasn’t committed to a certain time frame, but
figured I really wouldn’t want to nurse beyond 6 months. I also didn’t know
much about it. One of my sisters breastfed, but I was too young to remember.
Another one of my sisters tried so hard to breastfeed both of her children and
was never able to produce enough milk despite her best efforts. I had no idea
where I would fall in the milk supply spectrum. My milk took forever to come in
– like over a week. Harrison was born big and hungry. I never had a huge supply
with him either. I had to take prescription medication and herbs to produce
enough. I hated breastfeeding for at least the first month. I felt like all he did
was nurse. I felt like he was always hungry and had a lot of unsupportive
people saying he was hungry. (Don’t ever tell a breastfeeding mom that she is
starving her baby – especially if you have never actually breastfed). I was
about to call it quits and give him bottles and then all of the sudden it got
easier. I still had to take herbs and such to keep my milk going, but it wasn’t
terrible. I went back to work when he was 9 weeks old. I was determined to keep
going. I do not produce much milk for a pump, so I had to pump while at work
and all throughout the evenings and weekends to have enough milk for him. By the time he was about 5 months old, I was
only able to pump enough for one bottle, so he was supplemented with formula.
We still nursed on demand evenings and weekends. By the time he was 9 months
olds, I couldn’t pump more than an ounce all day long. He was given formula
bottles and nursed full time for evenings and weekends. Nursing him was such a
great bonding time since we were separated for 9ish hours a day. I really
enjoyed those special little snuggles. We kept our nursing relationship going
for 14 months. He was only night nursing by that time and it was gentle. I felt
like I had to wean him because everyone told me that he was a year old and no
longer needed it. I’m so glad I stuck with it because it was worth it in the
long run.
We knew that I would likely not return
to work after Kadie was born. I knew I would breastfeed her. Somewhere between
Harrison being born and Kadie’s pregnancy, I became a research queen,
especially with parenting & health topics. I knew that I was comfortable
with full term nursing even if my friends and family were not supportive. I
knew it was the norm for every area, except USA. I knew I might have milk supply
issues and I knew that the first month might be able. I was ready to tackle
this. My milk came in within 4 days and she was not given any supplements. We
co-slept and bed-shared to make it easier. I still suffered with milk supply
issues and had to take the same medications.
She was a fussy baby and literally nursed all of the time. I thought
about throwing in the towel again because it was hard to take care of Harrison
and nurse her constantly. It took a little longer for it to get easy with her.
I think it was around 2 months. We also had thrush during that time frame which
was awful. She was also a big baby, but didn’t stay huge. She was petite for
her first year. She took longer to night wean – it was closer to one year. At
12 months, she showed no signs of weaning and I was completely comfortable
nursing her longer. She actually started nursing more around 15 months and
started getting really chubby. Nursing a toddler actually makes having a
toddler much easier because nursing is an instant comfort for tantrums,
boo-boos, etc. I nursed her until she was 26 months old. I was about 6 months
pregnant with Sam and my milk was gone and it was painful. I asked her if she
would stop nursing because it hurt and she didn’t mind. She would ask
occasionally, but I reminded her that it wasn’t comfortable for me and my milk
was gone.
With Sam, I just knew I would
breastfeed and he would wean sometime before he started college. My milk was in
within 2 days. He was such a tiny baby and gained so quickly and well that I
never questioned my milk supply. Around 6 months he stopped gaining well and we
realized he had a tongue tie. We weren’t able to get it repaired until he was 7
months. He started gaining well again
after we had his tongue tie repaired. He is 34 months -well he will be in 10
days. He generally nurses to sleep every night and every morning when he wakes.
He will still nurse in the middle of the might if he wakes. He will sometimes
nurse before a nap – although those are rare lately. He never asks for milk
unless he is sick or sleepy. At this point, we are both comfortable with
nursing.
I am very thankful for the bond that
breastfeeding has given me with my children. I have such fond memories of
snuggling my little nurslings. I even have fond memories of nursing the crazy
toddlers. It was very difficult for me to nurse two of them, but we made it
through the hurdles and it was worth it. I was determined and had good support
with my lactation consultant. I would advise any new mom to stick with it for 8
weeks before you quit. It always got easier for me by that point. Supply issues
can be a beast, but there are a lot of things you can do to help (as long as it isn’t due to insufficient
glandular tissue). Thrush, mastitis, tongue ties…all of those things suck. With
proper support and treatment you can get through most of those and keep on
trucking along.
Happy World Breastfeeding Week!
