World Breastfeeding Week!

-->

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!