Breastfeeding a Sick Baby

15 Nov 2013 Leave a comment

by cross2000varga in Breastfeeding Tags:

As promised, here is the post on nursing a sick baby and it is a timely one because I have just went through it! Nursing a sick baby is rough! My little guy is recovering from croup. He had a fever and a stuffy nose and a painful cough. Nights were the hardest. Despite a stuffy nose, his best comfort was nursing, so I basically was a giant pacifier. This definitely led to some soreness so be prepared for that too.

Some tips for taking care of a sick baby. Keep the nasal aspirator handy. Suction their nose well before trying to nurse if they are having trouble breathing through their nose. Another tip, drink lots! By me drinking lots of fluid, I had a good supply of milk and he got lots of it. I think this helped a lot. So keep both of you well hydrated! Another thing I did: on the night I knew was going to be the worst night, I just didn’t even attempt to lay him down. I just slept in the recliner with him so he could be upright and so I could be sure he was breathing ok and I could nurse him when he was feeling icky. Did I sleep that night? No, not really, but I knew that I wouldn’t sleep much so I didn’t get upset as easily. Your mindset helps so much to reduce the frustration level. Trust me, even though you know it is because they don’t feel good, a sick child can bring you to your wits end. Some may disagree with me, but I give them fever reducer too like acetaminophen or ibuprophen because I know how horrible a fever makes me feel and I just try to put myself in their shoes.

If your baby has begun solids but doesn’t want to eat, don’t sweat it. As long as he’s nursing well just let him. If he doesn’t want to nurse and you’ve made sure that he can breathe as good as possible, that is a problem. It has been my experience though that my sick babies wanted to nurse more because it was comforting and soothing to them. If your baby is throwing up, I say keep nursing. Even though they are throwing it up they hopefully are getting a little bit before it comes back up, and you don’t want to have to end up at the hospital with them trying to stick a needle into a tiny dehydrated blood vessel. There are electrolyte drinks you can try, though I’ve always just nursed as much as possible. Steer clear of sugary sodas and sports drinks. If you think your baby is getting dehydrated get them to the doctor. While it seems like forever and time creeps by when you have a sick baby, the worst is almost always only a couple of days long. Of course I’m referring to common illnesses not chronic ones, that is a totally different ballgame.

As always, I welcome your questions and comments. You can also find me on facebook and leave comments there. Thanks for reading!

Breastfeeding When You’re Sick

11 Feb 2013 Leave a comment

by cross2000varga in Breastfeeding Tags: ,

This post is for a friend of mine who is a first time mom who was so sick that she didn’t feel like taking care of herself, more of less a needy infant.  Instead of giving up, she sought help and advice and made it through to the end. She’s a champion!

Breastfeeding when you are sick is HARD! When you don’t feel like you have the strength to get up and go to the bathroom, the thought of nursing a baby for 30-40 minutes just sounds like too much sometimes. It’s especially hard if you are all alone with no other adult help. You know that it will not last forever, but right in the middle of it, it sure seems like it!

Sticking with it though is the best thing you can do for your baby and you just have to make yourself do it! You pass along antibodies through your milk that will help the baby to stay well or not get as sick, which you really don’t want a sick baby. There are several things you can do to help you survive the ordeal.

First thing is take care of yourself! Don’t try to keep doing everything or you are going to make the sickness last longer and make things worse for you and your baby. I know that some things are unavoidable, but to the best of your ability take care of yourself and get as much rest as possible! Even if you are unable to eat, keep drinking as much as you can possibly get yourself to drink. Keeping fluids in your body will help keep your milk coming even if you can’t eat. I have noticed that when I’m sick my milk does not come in as well, but we have always been able to tough through it together.

Next, if at all possible, don’t be afraid or embarrassed to ask for help! If you have a relative or friend that can come over and run a load of dishes or even just hold the baby in between feedings while you take a nap, that can be very helpful. Most of you have friends that would be willing to bring you some soup if you just ask. Swallow your pride and ask for help if you need it. Don’t try to go it alone if at all possible. My wonderful husband has taken a sick day or two just to take care of me and the kids when I was too sick to do so. Even when I wasn’t sick, when I had my first baby, I had a good friend who would come over to hold and help with the baby while I threw some laundry in the wash or took a shower and it was a welcome break! Even though I’m giving this advice I have to admit that I have a bit of a pride issue and have trouble doing this myself. Last year when I had pneumonia, my sister came and stayed for a week to take care of me and the kids and it was definitely a blessing!

Remember! There are some medicines that you can safely take while breastfeeding! If you are really sick, talk with your doctor to see if there are any medicines that you could safely take that could alleviate your symptoms enough that you can function and take care of your baby. There are natural things like honey, cinnamon, vitamin C . . . that can also help you to a quicker path to recovery as well. Don’t just suffer in silence and make it last longer than is has to because you are trying to tough it out. Trust me, been there, done that, not fun or pretty. Many tears of despair cried. You’re body is already under a lot of pressure trying to sustain two people and sometimes it just needs a little help.

Don’t despair, this will not last forever. Things will get back to normal (well if there is such a thing as normal after a baby!). You are a breastfeeding momma therefore you are tough! It’s ok to cry, it’s ok to wish you were not going through this, but hang in there tough it out, find a friend’s shoulder to cry on and just focus on taking care of that baby and getting better! I don’t have the answer to everything, but I welcome any questions or even if I can send some encouragement your way, feel free to comment.

If you have a story about breastfeeding through an illness please post your story and let us know what helped you to make it through! Next time I’ll talk a bit about nursing a sick baby! Thanks for reading!

Breastfeeding and Siblings

29 Aug 2012 Leave a comment

by cross2000varga in Breastfeeding Tags: ,

Maybe this isn’t your first go at breastfeeding.  What is it like to breastfeed a baby when you have one or more other small children running around the place that you need to care for too?  Well, it ain’t always a piece of cake!  It’s not your quiet, peaceful bonding moment that it was with baby number one.  Truthfully, I think with additional children, those middle of the night feedings are easier and sweeter, because you and baby can finally get some one-on-one, peaceful time with each other!

There are pros and cons.  One of the pros is when your other children get a little older, 4 or so, they make good helpers!  While you are sitting, trapped, nursing a baby, they can fetch you things like the phone or a burp cloth or remote and such!  One of the cons are, there is often a lot of noise, which can be distracting for the baby and make nursing more difficult to keep them focused, especially when the baby gets a little older and wants to see what’s going on!  Latching on and off and on and off is not very fun!

Another problem is if your other child needs you.  Maybe they need a refill, or they fall down and hurt themselves, or there are discipline issues that need immediate attention.  Sometimes it is hard to choose which child needs more immediate attention!  It is a give and take.  If the two are close together in age, it’s hard to explain to the older one why the baby has to have your attention right now.  They don’t really understand why you can’t just put the baby down and get them some more juice.  All they understand is that they are thirsty and you are not getting them a drink.  Of course this is an example, but sometimes whether they understand or not, the older sibling just has to wait.  On the other hand, I have learned that it doesn’t kill a baby to cry!  Pretty incredible huh.  The baby will not starve to death if the feeding has to be stopped or delayed for a couple of minutes if your older child(ren) need your immediate attention.

I’ll give you an example that happened to me.  While nursing one of my babies an older sibling was about to do something that they were told not to do.  The baby was a couple of months old, so they knew the routine that I was stuck in the chair and couldn’t do anything at that moment.  I told them firmly not to do what they were about to do (which for the life of me I can’t remember what it was!).  They gave me a look that said ‘you can’t do anything about it!’ and did it any way.  Well, I popped that baby off my breast, laid it down in the pack-n-play and dealt with the sibling.  Obviously not every discipline issue needs immediate attention and there are times when the sibling simply gets an I’ll deal with you later.

There’s also mischeif.  While you are nursing your baby is a prime time for a sibling to get into mischeif.  This is the time that you will find them dumping four all over the floor or squeezing all the toothpaste out of the tube or things of that nature!  It’s always good to keep and ear open if you can’t see them!

Us mommies are not all powerful.  We really don’t have x-ray vision or eyes in the back of our heads!  Things are going to happen.  Just be ready for them to happen so you will be less likely to lose your cool when they do.  Spills will happen and will just have to sit there until you are done.  The sibling will enjoy playing in them in the mean time!  There will be times that older child needed you, but at the moment you couldn’t leave the baby and they had to wait.  The important thing is that when you do have the time, like during the baby’s naptime, you make the most of your time with your older child(ren).  Sometimes you just have to walk across the house with the baby attached to your boob!  Though I try not to do it often, there were times when cartoons were my friend as well.

Do whatever works best for you.  I know it can be done and it really is still fun, just in a different way than baby number one.  There were times when I had a baby nursing and two other kids just curled up in my lap.  Sure it was a juggling act, but we were all together and those were sweet moments for me.  Just enjoy your babies.  All of them!

If you have any sibling stories I’d love to hear them!  Feel free to comment!

Pumping Breast Milk

22 Jun 2012 Leave a comment

by cross2000varga in Breastfeeding

I wanted to share a few tips for pumping breast milk.  I worked a full-time job until my third child was born and was able to breastfeed my first two babies exclusively without any formula for about a year each.  I’m not trying to brag or say that using some formula is bad, I’m just saying it can be done.  I had a wonderful workplace and a very supportive boss.  The place that I worked had a mother’s room with lockers, a refrigerator and a nice chair for breastfeeding moms to go pump.  That was a blessing and I think more workplaces should offer this.  If you don’t have that luxury maybe you can ask for a vacant office or something like that.  Talk it over with your employer and hopefully they will be understanding.

First thing is you need a good electric double pump.  I know these can be pricey, but they are worth it.  I’m not sure what the policy is now, but I got mine for free through the WIC program since I was working a full-time job.  Now if you are not working but just want to pump occasionally to get a break or to leave with a babysitter then a slightly cheaper single pump might suffice, but I would still recommend an electronic one because the manual ones wear you out!

Pumping was actually kind of hard for me.  The milk doesn’t just come out like you think it would.  The shields feel nothing like baby’s mouth and the motion is not the same either so it actually may take a little concentration.  When I went to pump I took a picture of my baby so I could focus on them.  Then I would inhale deeply and exhale slowly to focus on getting my milk to ‘let down’.  This may not be the case with everybody, but being in a little room, by yourself, with your breasts exposed and a noisy machine hooked up to them sucking on them is not the most comfortable of situations!  But I was determined to breastfeed (I’ve always been a little stubborn) and was going to do what it takes.

Time is also a factor.  My boss let me take two, twenty-minute breaks one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  Some may prefer to take three, fifteen minute breaks, whatever you can work out with your workplace that fits you both.

I had a double breast pump and was usually able to get about four bottles out of the two pumpings because just going twice during the day I was pretty full.  I would nurse the baby right before I left and as soon as I got home and it worked!  If I ended up with too much milk I would just freeze it and save it for a day that maybe I didn’t get enough milk or for some reason missed a pumping session.  I tried to pump as much milk as I could during my maternity leave early on while it was still coming in strong so that we had that back store if necessary, but we didn’t have to dip into it much.

If you have any questions about pumping breast milk feel free to ask me and I will tell you what I did or did not do.  Happy pumping!

Why Do I Breastfeed?

12 May 2012 Leave a comment

by cross2000varga in Breastfeeding Tags: , , , , , ,

There are numerous reasons to breastfeed obviously.  I stopped to think for a moment though and asked myself the question “why did I breastfeed?”  I think for me the main reason was because I felt that it was the best thing for my baby.  God designed my body and made my milk especially for my baby and I knew it was the best thing for them and I was very determined that no matter what we were going to do this!  I have a bit of a stubborn streak in me (ok if you ask my husband he would say more than a bit) and I won’t easily take no for an answer when a challenge is presented to me.  Though we have faced rough patches I have loved nursing my babies and am very proud to have exclusively breastfed 4 babies to at least 12 months old or more.

There were several other reasons as well that led to my decision to breastfeed.  For one thing my breasts were always handy when the baby got hungry.  All I had to do was lift up my shirt and, viola, there the milk was already mixed and warm and ready for baby!  I liked this very much because I am a little lazy and mixing and washing bottles was not at all appealing to me.

Another major factor in the decision to breastfeed was the price of formula.  It was just not in our budget at the time.  I know that programs like WIC can provide you with formula if you need it (even a little if you breastfeed too), but it was just something I didn’t want to start.

Breastfeeding has also been a great calming tool as well.  If your baby gets hurt or doesn’t feel well, often a few minutes at the breast can make everything all better.  Something about the act of nursing releases calming chemicals (which is why we both often fall asleep together while nursing too I guess).

Breast milk also has antibodies in it that help keep your infant healthier which is a major plus.  A sick baby is miserable for all parties.  Some studies suggest that it also reduces your risk of getting breast cancer too.

I asked my husband the question and he said that husbands like it too because it makes our boobs nice and big!  Although on the flip side they are mostly hands off though due to the risk of being shot with milk!  Real sexy.

One of the best things about nursing though is looking down at that precious gift from God and feeling their tiny body pressed up against yours and knowing that they are a part of you and feeling the bond grow between the two of you.  It’s an awesome thing.  I just love my babies.

Breastfeeding in Public: Are You Shy?

26 Apr 2012 1 Comment

by cross2000varga in Breastfeeding Tags: ,

Ok, I’m a little bit of a rebel, but I love to breastfeed in public.  It is so interesting to hear some of the comments that people make when they see you.  One time I nursed my firstborn at a graduation and overheard people saying they ‘couldn’t believe she was doing that, that’s what they make cubicles for.’  Or something along those lines, it’s been a few years.

I try to be modest.  I don’t go flashing my boobs around if I can help it though a squirming baby has succeeded in doing that a time or two for me .  Does it embarrass me?  Not a bit.  Breastfeeding my child is my choice and nursing in public is completely legal and no one is going to stop me.  I guess I might have a bit of twisted humor, but I sort of enjoy watching people squirm with embarrassment when I throw a blanket over my shoulder and start nursing my infant in a large group of people.

If you are a new mom and are nervous about nursing in a public place don’t be.  Breastfeeding is a perfectly normal thing and if people are staring they are the freaks not you.  Don’t let the stares and rude comments that you might get bother you.  Just remember that your baby is hungry and that’s how it gets food and there is no need for discussion.  I also urge you that if someone challenges you for it to stand your ground and don’t let them pressure you.

Keep it modest.  Find a good nursing cover if you like, or do like I do and keep your shirt pulled down where nothing is visible and feed your baby without shame.  Of course with everything there can be a time and a place and different people do have different comfort zones.  If I’m at church I slip off to the nursery so as not to distract others around me, but if I’m at a movie theater or restaurant what better way to keep the baby quiet than to nurse them!  It is a bit awkward and does feel a little silly the first few times you do it, but you will gain confidence the more you do.

— Have you ever been harassed for breastfeeding in a public place or even in front of family or friends?  Have you ever gotten strange looks or weird comments by total strangers?  If you have any stories along these lines I would love to hear them!  You can share them by commenting here or on the Facebook page!

Mastitis and Thrush

14 Apr 2012 Leave a comment

by cross2000varga in Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding does not come without complications.  Two of the major ones are mastitis and thrush.  I have lived and breastfed through both and there is life on the other side trust me.

Mastitis.  If you notice your breasts are hard, red and very tender you may be developing mastitis.  I always knew I had mastitis when I spiked a fever and got severe cold chills.  I was freezing cold even though I was piled under blankets and sweating.  If you think you have mastitis contact your ob right away and let them know.  They can prescribe you antibiotics that are safe to use while breastfeeding.  A nice hot shower helps as well to relieve aching breasts and warm your chilled body.  If you can stand the pain, expressing or pumping milk helps to relive clogged milk ducts and engorged breasts.  Warm compresses and frequent nursing help you to survive as well.  Mastitis is very painful, but with treatment is usually over in 1-2 days.  If you have to go through this just hang in there and get the help you need and take some acetaminophen for fever and pain if you need to.  It is fairly short-lived, but extremely uncomfortable, but definitely not the time to quit breastfeeding!

Thrush.  Thrush was a pain.  It is a yeast infection that lasts longer and was harder to get rid of because you have to treat yourself and the baby.  If you have very sore red nipples and notice white patches inside your baby’s mouth and on its tongue you both may have thrush and you need to make a trip to the pediatrician.  Now breastfed babies do typically have a white milky tongue so don’t confuse this for thrush, but if you do suspect that you are dealing with thrush it is better safe than sorry.

I hope that you do not have to deal with either of these things, but in case you do, be prepared and know that they only last a little while and don’t give up!  If you can sacrifice nine months of discomfort for this beautiful baby, you can sacrifice a week of discomfort for months of nursing.

If you need encouragement or have questions feel free to contact me.  I just want to equip you to have the best breastfeeding experience possible and be an encouragement in any way that I can be.

Breastfeeding Fathers

04 Apr 2012 Leave a comment

by cross2000varga in Breastfeeding Tags: , , , , , , ,

I wanted to talk to the daddies today.  While I’m sure I don’t have very many male readers I’m sure you moms will be glad to pass this info along.  Breastfeeding is hard for dads too.  For one thing the breasts that used to be his now are off-limits and belong to the baby.  The next problem is that they feel sort of helpless since there is not much they can do to participate.  There’s not a whole lot they can do during those midnight feedings or is there?  I wanted to share a few ideas about how a dad can help with breastfeeding.

Change the baby’s diaper.  Newborns poop a lot!  (Especially breast-fed ones!)  They will need to have their diaper changed almost every feeding.  It is very helpful to a sore and exhausted mom to have this task taken care of by someone else.  Then all she has to worry about is feeding the baby and hopefully go back to sleep.

Walk with the baby when the feeding is done.  If the baby is having trouble going back to sleep after a middle of the night feeding it is such a wonderful thing for a wiped-out mom to hear dad say “here, let me walk with the baby while you sleep.”  Hallelujah!!!  I’m telling you that there is something about the ‘daddy shoulder’ that works to put babies to sleep.  No it won’t always work and sometimes you will both need to tag team being up with the baby to keep your sanity, but a little break after the feeding is very welcome.

Check on mom to see if she needs anything.  As I’ve mentioned before breastfeeding makes you very thirsty and hungry.  While she is pinned down feeding the baby checking to see if there is anything that she needs or would make her more comfortable is always a great help.

Don’t hate me, but if dads would help out with the household chores it will remove a ton of stress from a nursing mom.  Just a load of laundry or dishes will help tremendously.  It is hard sometimes sitting there, pinned down while nursing with thoughts running through your head of everything that needs to be done that you can’t get to because you are pinned down!!  (It’s our crazy women brains.  We can’t help it!  We don’t have an off switch like men do.)  I know that it may not seem like a big deal, but it is to her and it can make a world of difference in the atmosphere of your home.

Feed the baby.  After the first few weeks mom can pump some milk and dad can get to enjoy the bond of feeding the baby.  Or if you are supplementing some with formula, which I’ve known several moms who have used breast milk and formula and have not had a problem.  I do suggest pumping and giving bottles occasionally when nursing has been established.  Somewhere between 2-4 weeks I think is a good time.  This will give mom a little more freedom to go and do things without always having a tag along.  I never gave the baby a bottle.  If it got a bottle, dad gave it so as not to confuse it.  That’s just how we did it.  Dad – bottle, mom – boob.

Rub her feet.  This will score some major brownie points (at least in my book it would!).  If mom isn’t fond of this maybe try singing to her or reading her a book or whatever might bring her pleasure while the baby is feeding that is not too invasive for baby.

Dad, if you will try to do some of these things you will be your wife’s hero.  Your help now I’m sure will be rewarded later (if you know what I mean!).  Talk to your wife.  Ask her if there is any way that you can help her with breastfeeding.  Ask her if there is any kind of support that you can give to help her to breastfeed.  My husband always supported me in my desire to breastfeed even when we hit rough patches and he’s probably part of what helped me to stay strong.  Remember new moms are very sensitive and need gentleness, help and support even though sometimes our pride keeps us from asking for it.  Take care of mom and baby for me and enjoy the ride!

Things You Need to Breastfeed

16 Mar 2012 2 Comments

by cross2000varga in Breastfeeding Tags: , ,

If you are looking at all the breastfeeding paraphernalia and wondering if you really need that or not, here are some of the things that I found helpful when I was breastfeeding.

Burp cloths.  I have had 4 babies and 4 out of 4 were spitters.  They spit up almost every feeding and I stayed covered in spit up it seemed like.  I hope you have better fortune!  I always have 4-5 burp cloths placed around the house in case of spit.  As I said in an earlier post, they are helpful when your breast starts to squirt milk everywhere when it lets down too.

Lanolin.  I usually had sore cracked nipples at first and putting some lanolin on them after every feeding was helpful.

Gel soothie pads.  You can ask for a pair of these at the hospital and they should be able to get them for you.  These help when your nipples are really sore.  They help to keep moisture in and help the nipples to heal.  You just wear them between feeding and they feel very good too.

Hydration.  Breastfeeding makes you SO thirsty.  I was always walking around with a huge cup of juice or something to drink.  If you can, try to have something close to your nursing spot so you don’t get stuck nursing while you are parched of thirst.

Snacks.  I think I was hungrier while I was breastfeeding than I was while I was pregnant.  It doesn’t hurt to have a few granola bars, or whatever your snack of choice is, close on hand while you are nursing either.

A pillow.  Or something to prop your arm and the baby up during the feeding.  A Boppy pillow or My Brest Friend or even a small bed pillow work well.  Personally I usually pulled my knee toward my chest and used my leg as a prop.

A cover.  If you are nursing in public you will probably want some kind of cover.  There are several covers on the market.  When I use a cover I usually use a receiving blanket.  If you pull the corner of the receiving blanket under your bra strap then drape the rest of the blanket around you it works well to keep it from falling off!  When I’m at home I don’t usually use one.  Truthfully I don’t usually use one in public either.  You can pull your shirt down far enough that nothing can be seen once you get the hang of it and that’s just one less thing to worry about.

A comfy seat.  Once you start a feeding session you are pretty much stuck.  Making sure you are comfortable before hand is very important.  Often times it is so relaxing that you fall asleep with the baby so a cozy recliner works well.

A good book.  Or magazine, or video game or movie.  Like I said you’re kind of stuck until the feeding is over and if you are alone with no one else around it can get a little boring sometimes.  I like to have a book nearby that I can read, or sometimes even the video game controller to pass the time.

These are the things I can think of that helped me while I was breastfeeding and I hope you find them helpful too.  I will talk some about breast pumps in a later post and when they are useful as well.

What You May Not Know

08 Mar 2012 Leave a comment

by cross2000varga in Breastfeeding

You’ve seen the breastfeeding posters with this beautiful woman with beautiful breasts feeding this cute as can be chubby baby in its diaper with smiles all around.  Breastfeeding is really not this glamorous!  Don’t get me wrong, it is a wonderful thing, but in this post I want to warn you about the not so beautiful parts about it.  I am in no way trying to dissuade you from nursing your baby, I just want to inform you so that you are not caught off guard by something and quit too early because of it.

Here’s more the reality of it in the beginning at least.  A mom in baggy frumpy clothes because she doesn’t want to keep wearing her maternity clothes because she is not pregnant anymore, but she can’t even get her pre-pregnancy jeans past her thighs.  So tired that she would pay a thousand dollars for just 6 straight hours of sleep.  Still very sore from giving birth or worse still with stitches or staples across her belly from the cesarean.  Nursing this tiny, beautiful, demanding newborn who eats, sleeps and poops and then eats some more.  She is completely drained emotionally and physically and cries because she is so happy, then cries because she is so tired, then cries for absolutely no reason at all.

Now obviously this is not how it is for every woman and I am being a bit dramatic, but the point I am trying to convey is especially the first couple of weeks breastfeeding can be very hard.  I have nursed 4 babies for 12 months or more each, once weaning one child in August and giving birth 4 months later in December and starting all over again.  4 out of 4 times it hurt!  I thought sure this last time with them being so close together that my nipples would still be used to it, but it still hurt.  With some of them my nipples were so sore and chapped that they were cracked and bleeding and when your baby nurses on them it’s more of an excruciating grimace as they are latching on then a smile.  After latch the pain subsides so don’t worry.  4 out of 4 times I have gotten mastitis too.  I guess it’s a genetic thing because my mom always got it too.  If this happens to you get antibiotics and quickly.  It hurts to nurse a baby with mastitis, but it is the best way to get relief from it too.  The breastfeeding consultants would say to me that if it hurt that meant the baby wasn’t latching on right, then when I spoke with my doctor (who has 4 kids as well) she said it hurt every time.  So don’t worry that you are doing it wrong if it is painful.  It is good to have someone help you and make sure that the baby is getting a good latch, but this is new to your nipples and they need some time to adjust so give it to them.

Another thing is those first few days nursing can cause contractions.  Contractions!!   But I’ve already had the baby, I thought I was done with contractions!  Nursing helps your uterus contract back to its normal size.  In my experience it was not so bad with the first baby, but I was told it would get worse the more you have and have found that to be true, so be prepared.

Engorgement is another problem.  Until your breasts figure out how much they need to make you may suffer from engorgement.  Your breasts may get so full that you feel like they are going to burst!  You can combat this by nursing often, but then you have the problem with the sore chapped nipples.  Another way to combat this is pumping, which I like to do while I’m producing a lot of milk at first so I can get some stored in the freezer for later use.  Another thing I like to do is just take a nice hot shower and express some of the milk by hand.  The problem with pumping too much is your breasts will keep up with demand, which if you are planning on going back to work is a great thing, but if you are not, may just prolong the problem.  If your breasts do get engorged though try to do what you can to relieve them because this can make them more prone to mastitis.

Another thing that might bother some women is you may have lop-sided boobs!  The baby nurses more from one than the other or something and you’ve got one huge boob and the other not as huge.  Me personally, I just nursed from one side at a time.  I didn’t like the switching back and forth every 10 minutes.  That just made my nipples more sore.  I would nurse from one side then the next feeding session nurse from the other.  So I always had lop-sided boobs.

Ok, do I have you thoroughly scared.  As with all things these are only for a season.  You and the baby will get into a routine, your body and hormones will heal and regulate, the baby will start sleeping more and breastfeeding will get easier and will not be painful at all.  For me this lasted usually 1-2 weeks though with baby number 2 I was stressed out and trying to adjust and it took nearly 4 weeks to get settled into breastfeeding.  What I want to say to you is don’t give up!  It will get much easier with a little time.  I have seen several new moms nurse for about 1-2 weeks then give up when they probably would have only had to hang on for about one more week and things would have been fine!  Remember:  Be Determined!  Before you know it you and your baby will be like the poster.

I welcome comments and questions that could help you or other women as they begin this wonderful journey!

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