its always boobie time

after 5 weeks
i feel like i can have an opinion on breastfeeding.
i plan on doing this until next spring so
things might change and i might have to update this again,
but for right now,
this is how it goes.


breastfeeding is a huge commitment.

huge.

i love it
and i hate it.

i love the time with her.
(haha - no one can take her from me for at least 35 mins at a time. she's all mine.)

i love the contact.
(i think the skin to skin time is good for both of us.)

i love the peace it gives her.
(if she's losing her mind because she's hungry, i can instantly sooth her.)

i love that its free.
(hello, no big grocery receipts yet because of formula.)

i love how fast and easy it is.
(no heating up water or washing bottles.)

i love how healthy it is for her.
(everyone knows the studies for why nursing is better for their immune system, etc.)
i love that it makes packing pretty easy.
(if i needed to leave quickly, i just need a diaper and wipes and i'm good to go.
but let's be honest.
i don't leave the house without SEVERAL other things as well.)

you can see why i love it.
but there is always a downside.

i hate that its a full-time job.
(especially at first, i felt like its all i did. and you are definitely on-call 24/7.)

i hate that it started off painful.
(it wasn't super bad but there was some cracking and bleeding and soreness. 
i think it just comes with the territory.)

i hate that i'm the only one that can do it.
(it would be nice to hand her off to ronnie if we're in the middle of dinner
 and she decides she's hungry. but no, i'm the one that eats later.)

i hate that it can be secluding.
(unless you're super comfortable whipping out your boob in front of anyone
[and some people are] you have to excuse yourself to another room for feeding time.
for me, i take my phone and catch up on facebook/twitter/blogger)

i hate that its hard to do in public.
(sometimes you don't have the option to "go to another room" so you might
even have to go sit in the back seat of your car.  that's the worst.)

i think what helped me the most was being able to do it from day one.

brette never had any latch issues or confusion.
i think this would be a totally different conversation if i had
struggled through it.  but for us,
it came relatively easy.
and it is only getting easier the more i do it.

since brette's bilirubin scores was high and getting worse once we left the hospital,

the doctors had me supplement after every feeding.

(the more she pooped, the better)

this got brette really used to nursing and taking a bottle.

i don't have to do that anymore,

but i still give brette one bottle a day right before her bedtime.
and right now she is still nursing every 2 to 3 hours a day
and then goes 6-8 hours at night.

 

also, for those of you that might one day try nursing,
here's a tip that made it 100 times better for me:

the doctor told me that babies get most of their milk in the first 5 to 10 minutes.

i did not know this, no one told me.
(hopefully that is not a well-known fact and you all think i'm retarded right now.)

so for the first week i was literally feeding brette for an hour or more.
try doing that every 2 hours.  no wonder i started hating it.

when i went to the pediatrician and i told her i felt like i spent my whole day nursing

 she told me to only do 10 to 15 minutes on each side.

this made a HUGE difference.

now, i do 15 minutes on each side,

with a 5 minute burp break. 

this gives me a lot more free time.

so there-
an update.
my thoughts.
and a little tip for future mammas.