Breastfeeding...

I knew BF'ing was going to be best for my daughter. I didn't know some of the reasons, but I quickly learned all of the advantages during my research and reading before she was born! I was already convinced I wanted to give BF'ing a try. I was determined to try and give it my all! During pregnancy, my greatest fear for after delivery was successful breastfeeding.

So how did it go? And how's it going now at 11 days PP?

Immediately after delivery, Aiyana and I shared skin to skin time and an attempt at breastfeeding. We quickly learned she didn't have a good latch. She lifted her tongue, so it was in the way, and her mouth was so tiny that it wasn't taking in much of my areola. So we called the Lactation Consultant.

They recommended I use a nipple shield and use the football hold. We had success with this for the first 4 or 5 days. When my nipple was being sucked all the way through the shield (and causing me pain!!), I knew her suck wasn't an issue at all. She has a wonderful strong suck!

We started to try nursing without the shield and she loved it. The shield was making her work harder, and she's my daughter = lazy. She preferred to do the work on her own and get her meal quicker!

At 11 days PP, we are still having some issues with latch. I have to squeeze my breast/areola like a sandwich and literally, shove as much of it as possible into her mouth when she finally opens wide, which is rare. When we do this correctly, there's no pain... and I prefer no pain!

I'm waking her every 3 hrs to eat. Sometimes she's hungry after only 1 - 2 hours, so I feed her on demand. Luckily, she loves her sleep and at night she's content with nursing every 3 hrs.

Overall, it's going well. It's so true what they say... it takes about 2 weeks for mom and baby to learn. Then, it will just click.

One of the best things about BF'ing is the weight loss! The weight FALLS OFF! I'm 3.5 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight! That's a weight loss of 21.5 pounds!

If you want to breastfeed, I highly recommend only 7 things:
- determination
- a lactation consultant
- an online resource (forum, support group, facebook group like The Leaky Boob, LLL, etc.)
- nursing tanks (so much more comfortable than nursing bras)
- the Brest Friend Pillow (don't bother with the boppy for nursing.)
- Lanolin
- determination

If you have those 7 things, you can do it!

My favorite picture of her so far! This was after a hair washing and towel dry.