the things I wish I'd known prior to breastfeeding...
I so badly wanted to breastfeed my first baby, and when I couldn't, I felt guilt for the longest time. When it came to baby number two, from the get-go, I had decided I wasn't going to put myself through that again. Then, as my pregnancy progressed, I decided that actually, I might give it a go and see what happens with zero pressure. When he was born and it all came naturally with no pain, worlds apart from my first breastfeeding experience, I was beyond delighted and I'm so grateful that I got to experience this beautiful bond.
However, there are so many things that nobody tells you prior to breastfeeding, and some of the advice that you do get has been complete rubbish in my own personal experience. I wanted to just jot down my thoughts incase another new mum comes along and wants some food for thought.
Introducing bottles from the get-go.
You're advised to wait to introduce bottles to a breastfed baby until breastfeeding is well established. I think I was told to wait until a month or two in. I ignored this and introduced them at two weeks in and I don't have one bit of regret. I had started getting sore nipples and being able to give my boobs that break, saved my breastfeeding journey and enabled me to continue. We are now ten months going strong! It CAN cause nipple confusion introducing bottles early on to a breastfed baby, but in my case, and I'm sure many others, it didn't at all.
What I do regret, is not continuing with them. I stopped giving Luca bottles at 9 weeks old and now at ten months old, he won't take a bottle at all. I have tried every bottle going, even the ones that look like a boob with a nipple on the end. Had I kept up with the combination feeding, I wouldn't have this problem and my freedom is minimal to none! It's really stressful if I want to leave him or have a date night with Jake, and going away overnight child-free is not an option at all.
Pumping before 6 weeks.
I do understand the whole being told not to pump before 6 weeks. The consensus is that your body is learning how much milk to produce for your baby, and by pumping you're telling it that it needs to make more than baby needs - and this can lead to engorgement and mastitis which none of us want. However, as someone who introduced bottles and did a bit of combination feeding with formula from 2 weeks old, I regretted following this advice. I think I own 3 different breast pumps in total and I ended up totally giving up on expressing in the end as I just couldn't express enough milk.
I really wanted to build a freezer stash for bottle feeding and weaning when it came to it and it was so difficult. I remember pumping around the clock and setting timers just so that I could get enough for one feed, and sometimes I'd have a really successful pumping session, but it took up hours and hours of my day and night to be able to do so. I was often pumping in the early hours when I should have been sleeping. In hindsight, I would have just pumped from the beginning and told my body to produce more milk initially and it wouldn't have taken over my life so much. Obviously this is not something you would do unless wanting to combination feed. In the end, I just packed in expressing completely and that's why we ended up exclusively breastfeeding, it was just easier.
Having no freedom.
This one sounds bad, I know, but as much as I love and adore my children more than life itself, sometimes as a mum you just need a breather. It would be nice to have the freedom to have a night away, and breastfeeding means I just don't get the opportunity. I know it won't be forever, especially now that he's nearly one, but even once a month it would be nice to just take a night off - even if I'm leaving the baby with dad, and I can't. He still breastfeeds multiple times through the night and because he won't take a bottle there is no option at all to leave him... ever. I have loved our breastfeeding journey so, so much, but this is the one downside. It doesn't mean that I regret breastfeeding or would do anything differently however, it's just not something I was quite prepared for having bottle-fed my first baby.
Cup training.
It's taken a few months, but Luca is finally drinking water properly through a beaker with a straw. It's taken a pretty long time to get to this point, before we basically just poured water in his mouth from an open spout. I guess this one goes hand in hand with bottle refusal, but from my experience, my breastfed baby just doesn't want anything other than a boob. Despite the fact that he puts pretty much anything and everything in his mouth?! Nobody tells you about this stage and how hard it is to get them to drink from other sources!
Knowing what's actually 'normal' for a breastfed baby.
I spoke about this a bit in my blog post about breastfeeding a CMPA baby, but time and time again we have been let down by our doctors because I trusted them rather than listening to my own motherly instincts. Having never breastfed a baby before, I wasn't sure on so many different things with feeding, nappies and what was considered 'normal' for a breastfed baby, and this lead to Luca's milk allergy not being picked up on as soon as it could have been... amongst other things. I wish I'd done more research whilst pregnant and learned as much as I could have with a breastfed baby.
I'd love to hear if you've had any similar experiences breastfeeding your baby?
