Friday, May 20, 2011

What I Wish I'd Known About Breastfeeding



I was reading one of my favorite blogs this morning, A Year With Mom And Dad,  and started reading a post she made labeled"Breastfeeding: I wish I had known...". It immediately struck up those feelings I'm still having about my milk drying up just after he turned 3 months old and having to give Gabe formula. I'm not bashing formula. Now that it's all said and done, I'll admit formula is so much easier for me than the struggles I went through with breastfeeding, but seeing how he reacts to it makes me feel like I'm poisoning my son. But with no concern from any doctors, and no difference from switching formulas, we're stuck like this in the hopes that he just grows out of it.
Upon further reading of Julie's blog, I noticed there's a "hop" going on where other mama's are posting what they wished they would have known about breastfeeding as well, so I had to share my story and join in. So here it goes....

What I Wish I Would Have Known About Breastfeeding:

If you start taking the mini-pill (no estrogen birth control) and your Dr tells you it will not affect your milk supply, but you notice a decrease anyway, stop taking it. No mater what they tell you, it can still affect your supply, and if you are determined to breastfeed, there are other birth control options that won't affect anything, like condoms.

Your stress is reflected in your supply as well. Shortly after Buggie was born J had to go back over the road and we were being evicted from our house, leaving a lot of that stress of moving and taking care of a newborn and 2 dogs on me. I did it, and J helped me as much as he could, but it got to be a lot, and I ended up having to pump exclusively for a while because the stress was taking a toll on me and Bug alike.

Exclusively Pumping is still breastfeeding. Don't let anyone make you feel otherwise. You're working just as hard, sometimes harder to get that milk out for your baby with a machine, kudos to you mama!

How much breastfeeding would really bond us. Yes, I'd heard that before, but I never realized how close I would feel to my son until my milk dried up and I had to stop.

What do you with you would have known?



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