Got Milk: Breastfeeding, Part 1

One of the big unknowns for me about actually having my baby was breastfeeding.  We learned about it in my prenatal class, but it's kind of hard to really feel prepared....  So I have a few posts for you about nursing.  If you're not ready to think about it yet, just skip these and come back later.

I was really lucky that breastfeeding worked well with Jack.  It's not that it never hurt, or that I didn't have any frustrating moments.  But overall, the whole experience was as good as I ever could have hoped (and obviously Jack thinks so too, since he's still going strong with no signs of weaning fourteen months later...).  I know that's not everyone's experience, and I have a lot of respect for women who stick with it even when it's tough.

I found this posted today on Today's Parent, and it has a lot of what I was going to say about nursing, so I thought I would just include the link instead of restating everything.

http://www.todaysparent.com/blogs/tracys-mama-memoirs/5-things-i-wish-id-known-about-breastfeeding

Really, it's hard to prepare for what it will be like. One thing I would add is to buy at least a couple of loose shirts you can nurse in and a couple of soft nursing bras (the softer, the better. The girls are sore). I'm not sure why I didn't buy anything like that before Jack was born, but I regretted it after.  I also should have bought a night bra or some nursing pyjamas.  That would have saved me a whole lot of milk-soaked laundry....

I think the other really important point the article makes is that, at the end of the day, the goal is to have a well-fed baby. If breastfeeding is making you miserable and interfering with your bonding time, it might be time to stop. Enjoying your baby is the most important thing.