Breastfeeding can be so overwhelming and there can be a lot of pressure these days to breastfeed. If breastfeeding is not for you then that is absolutely fine and you shouldn’t feel bad for making that decision. The decision is yours to make and you need to do what is best for you and your little one.
Pretty much as soon as you have given birth, if you are breastfeeding, you are encouraged to start straight away.
So let me just start by saying breastfeeding is hard….. initially. Then it is amazing and makes feeding so easy. But please whatever you do, do not beat yourself up about it. My mum was on hand at the beginning and kept saying breatfeeding takes about 5-6 weeks to get settled. And it really can and did in my case.
My breastfeeding experience
I had decided I was going to give breastfeeding ago. All seemed ok, it looked like the little one was latching well but she just kept falling asleep on the breast. Therefore feeding took 2 hours. And then you are suppose to feed every 3 hours initially. This is 3 hours from the start of the last feed. So literally I was having an hours break and then feeding again!
Quite a few people looked at my feeding technique but always said it looked good. However, my little one lost quite a bit of weight initially. So I had to go back into hospital and do a lot of pumping. I then started topping up with formula feeds.
When you have decided to breasfeed, this really deflates you as you just think why is my body not doing this. Anyhow, after a night in the hospital and lots of pumping, the little one gained weight so we could go home.
Then the midwives come back out and once again she hadn’t put enough weight on. At this point I was topping up every feed with 30ml of formula. I really wanted to drop this top up feed. It was the 4th midwife that made a plan to wean the little one off the formula feed. This was at about week 3.
Formual feeding of a night was such a faff for me (as I love sleep) so I stopped doing that one first. Then I was just doing a top up feed every other feed. By week 4, my little one was still gaining weight, not loads but gaining. So I dropped another top up feed for a few days, saw how that went. It went ok, so I dropped another one. This was how it continued until all of the top up feeds were dropped. This was by about 5.5 weeks then I was solely breastfeeding.
After breastfeeding settled
After the initial hard work for the first 6 weeks, breastfeeding was amazing. I didn’t have to worry about sterilising bottles or how many bottles I needed to take out with me, I could just leave the house and feed when needed.
I had a breastfeeding cover and would recommend it if you are a bit self conscious about feeding out and about. So many people were supportive of me breastfeeding. It was never an issue for me when I feed when I was out although I did always use my cover. Another great thing about using a cover is that you can stop the little one from getting too distracted. My little one got distracted easily so a cover really did help with this and making feeds a bit easier when out.
If you are thinking about giving breastfeeding ago, I would highly recommend. You do have to paitent for the first 6 weeks. My mum was right – she has breastfeed 4 kids!
My top 10 breastfeeding tips
- Get as much help at the hospital as you can. Get the nurse’s to check you are doing it ok and ask as many questions as you can. This is your opportunity to get as much information and help before you go home.
- You will be sitting still for quite some time initally whilst breatsfeeding gets established. Make sure you have plenty of water, snacks, books, muslin cloths etc so that you have everything you need to help you relax.
- As I said, my little one preferred one breast over the other but do try to feed evenly on both sides. You want to make sure you keep both sides producing milk. You can always pump that side. What I did was to start my feed on that side then switch to the preferred breast which helped.
- Skin-to-skin is so good for both you can the little one so enjoy it. I swear I walked around half naked for the first couple of weeks with just a blanket around my shoulders.
- Invest in a good pump. It is always good to try and pump at the end of a feed to make sure you have cleared the breast and encourage more milk production. You can use hand pumps if preferred. For me, I found pumping hard so having a good electric pump really helped.
- When the midwives visit or you go they doctors, one of the first questions is how often are you feeding? Followed by how many wet and dirty nappies have there been. Trust me in the first few weeks you are so tired that it is hard to keep tract of these things so you may want to write it down.
- My husband pretty much did all the nappy changes which was great as it meant he was totally involved. As I was breastfeeding, it was hard for him to get involved in the feeding so finding other ways to get them involved is key.
- If you do want to do bottle feeds of a night, you may want to pump. With regularly pumping, you will start to build a stash; get some milk storage bags so you can freeze them. You want to freeze them flat ideally. You will be amazed at how quickly you start to build up a supply. It does feel like you are either feeding or attached to a pump initially but it is short lived.
- Make sure you label any milk bags correctly as you don’t want them going off.
- In the first couple of weeks, your nipples may become sore. I rubbed coconut oil onto them which helped to soothe and heel them. If the pain is too much and doesn’t go away, seek help.
How to wean off breastfeeding
After a while, the little one stops needing feeds through the night. This is especially true when you start weaning them onto solids. I will write another blog about weaning onto solids separately.
As the little one starts eating more solids, they just naturally don’t need the feed. So when I started weaning onto solids at around 5.5 months, I offered her some solid food first. I let her have as much of that as she wanted and then offered the breast. The feeds in the daytime just naturally started to drop by doing this.
The hardest feed to drop I thought, would be the one just before bed. She still had this one until about 10 months when she was eating lots of solids and a good dinner. It just became natural that she didn’t want it.
The hardest feeds actually to drop were the comfort feeds. For me I tried to offer as few as these right from the get go so she didn’t become dependant on them as ‘comfort’. It is entriely up to you how you feed, if you want to offer comfort feeds do so. DO what is right for you and your baby. It was around the 1 year mark when she came walking over to me after a little tumble and started to lift my top. At that point I just thought, nope. She really just wanted a cuddle so that is what we did. And in doing that, the cuddle became the comfort and it was pretty soon after that that she stopped feeding all together.
It was a very natural transition for me and I have to admit quite easy. I don’t believe it is always this easy. I recommend doing lots of research on how best to wean and finding the most appropriate way for you. Some people like it to be natural, others have a certain length of time in mind for them. If you do offer lots of solids, I do believe the main feeds will drop naturally.
Conclusion
If you have decided to give breasfeeding ago, be paitent and most of all kind to yourself. The more stressed you get about it, the harder it becomes as I found out. If you do stick with it, I believe that it is a great thing.
I put a lot of pressure on myself and really beat myself up about having top up feeds. Initially it upset me having to do these feeds but they were required. Looking back now, I know it was silly. The health of the little one is so important. I am so thankful that my husband took the first 6 weeks off work. Without him, I think I would have found breastfeeding so hard and probably would have quit.
I solely breastfeed for approximately 1 year, when my daughter weaned herself of it which was great. About 1 year was what I was hoping to do and I am so grateful for that experience. I wish you the best of luck with it.
Of course if you have any questions, get in touch.
