Breastfeeding

I have been wanting to write about my experience with breastfeeding but have been reluctant to do so, because there are a lot of opinionated people out there. I know there are so many debates about which is best, Breastfeeding or Bottlefeeding? This is NOT one of those post! It is just me simply talking about my experience and if people don't want to hear about it, please read no further. I do not want a heated debate on my blog.
 

I decided not to breastfeed Cloey because I wasn't totally comfortable with the thought of doing it. She was formula fed and I don't feel bad for not breastfeeding her, because she is just fine and just as healthy as any breast fed baby. I wasn't comfortable breastfeeding at that time, and her being healthy and eating SOMETHING, whether it be breast milk or formula, was more important then what other people may have thought about me for not breastfeeding.

I really wanted to try and breastfeed Carter, not because I feel guilty about not breastfeeding Cloey and not because I feel like she is any less healthy. I just wanted to know what it was like. My friend, Blake, was breastfeeding her son, Mason, and she made it look so easy! She also lost a lot of weight. She came to my house a week after having Mason and she didn't even look like she had just had a baby! So losing weight was one of my big reasons for wanting to try breastfeeding as well. Watching Blake and listening to Blake talking about her experience with breastfeeding made me so excited and I couldn't wait to try it!

I exclusively nursed Carter for the first eight and a half months of his life. I hit a bump in the road, I guess you could call it, when at about four days after he was born, my nipples were killing me every time he would latch on. I called my midwife's office went in to visit their lactation consultant. She watched me nurse Carter and saw that he didn't open his mouth wide enough, so he was only sucking on my nipple which was causing my nipples to hurt. The nurse tried to help me get his mouth to open more, by pulling down on his chin some, before he would latch on, but he just wouldn't. Then when we did finally get him to open his mouth wider, he got more then just my nipple in his mouth, and would gag. I was determined to breastfeed so I was going to continue to deal with the pain even if they couldn't do anything to help me. Thankfully, I didn't have to deal with the pain after that appointment though. The midwifes called me in a prescription for "triple nipple cream" which helps numb your nipples, while helping them to heal as well. I was so thankful because I had already tried many of the over the counter creams and they did nothing to help comfort me. They told me to only use a tiny amount of the cream on each of my nipples and to put it on after a feeding so Carter wouldn't need to go on again for a couple of hours, this way the cream could get a chance to work. I could feel a difference after the second time of putting it on, it didn't hurt when Carter would latch on and start eating. After a few days of putting it on three times a day, I went to putting it on only once a day for a couple of weeks and then Carter started to get better at opening his month wide enough with out gagging. I only used the cream a few times after that when my nipples would start to feel a little tender. That usually only happened on nights I was so tired, and didn't make sure he was latching on the right way. I never had a problems with my milk coming in or having enough. Of course, I drink about nine to twelve cups of water a day and I am sure that helped.

I loved to breastfeed because it was so easy. Some of the reasons I found it so easy were:

• There are no bottles to prepare 
• No bottles to wash
• No chance of forgetting formula on outings
• No chance of forgetting water to make a bottle with, if we were going to a place where the tap water was not safe, or weren't going to be around water
• No waiting for the water to get warm enough to prepare the bottle

When we were at home I would just nurse him with out being covered. When we went out places, I would cover up with the nursing cover I won from a blog giveaway from a company called Udder Covers. I loved it! I would walk around in the store, or sit around other people nursing Carter, all while being covered and comfortable. One of the big downfalls with this cover though, is that it doesn't cover your back so, if you aren't wearing a nursing shirt then you will expose your back while nursing. I only got to use it for a few months because with me being home so much and not covering up, he got used to being able to see everything and eventually wouldn't latch on if I was covered. When that started happening, I would just nurse him in the car or in a room at someone's house if there were men present other than my husband. I also only bought one nursing bra and didn't care for it after all. I used my normal bra and would just pull it up over my breast. I found that is what worked best for me.

Breastfeeding was going so great and then...

Carter got his first couple of teeth and decided he wanted to bite me. I would yell "OUCH!" and firmly tell him "NO, YOU DON'T BITE!" After he did that, I would also take him off the breast and then put him down. I did this every time he would bite me. But, all he would do is smile at me. I let it go on for a month, thinking he would learn that it isn't okay to bite mommy. A month went by and he got worse at biting. When he would bite me, I couldn't break the suction to get him off, because he would be biting down on my nipple and smiling at me, and not even sucking or nursing. I decided enough was enough, and it was time to make the switch to formula. I only had a single manual breast pump and I figured it was pointless to spend a hundred dollars to get a double electric pump when I only wanted to breastfeed him until he was a year old anyways. I still breastfeed him at night because as of right now, he has never bitten me then. Maybe he's too tired to bite and play in the middle of the night.

I want to say thank you to my good friend Blake, because she is the person that helped me the most and the main reason for me trying to breastfeed. I asked her so many questions and she answered all of them the best she could. If she didn't have an answer, she knew of a person that would.

Many highly educated people about breastfeeding say that if you get through the first two weeks of breastfeeding, then it is pretty much smooth sailing after that and I believe them now.

If anyone has any questions about my experience with breastfeeding,  please feel free to contact me. I am more then happy to talk about my experiences with everyone!