Breastfeeding

Every new mom hates the engorgement phase of breastfeeding. You know, when your milk has come in right after giving birth. You're sitting there for the first day or two thinking, "This is so sweet, breastfeeding my baby. I am providing life-giving nutrients. It's truly miraculous." And then, your milk comes in.Your boobies flip out because they have no idea how much milk your adorable gift from heaven may need, so they just go crazy and produce WAY too much. Thus, for several weeks, new mama's boobs are like giant, milk-filled balloons. This is not a pleasant experience, oh no, it's awful. Despite the pleasure some dudes get out of thinking of giant tatas, they are strictly off-limits, so you better just turn off the light, and go to sleep. I knew one mama whose father came to visit after she gave birth to one of her sons. She had been an "A" cup and her breasts inflated to a "D" cup within a couple of days. Her breasts were so painful that she told her dad that she was not going to wear a shirt or anything because it was excruciating to have anything touch them. That's right, people, she walked around bare-boobed in front of her father just to spare herself the pain. And you now what? I can't blame her. Those babies HURT when they're full of milk. They get hard, like cut-through-diamond hard. And they get lumpy. Tell me the last time you thought of sexy as being a lumpy breast? Never....that's when. They get red! Yes, like an inflamed wound, they get red and hot to the touch. I am surprised my children did not get third degree burns on their wee cheeks for the heat my boobs were putting off. Maybe I could have cooked dinner off of those knockers if anything was allowed to touch them. Then there's the buying nursing bras thing. Good gracious, who knew bras came in that size, eh? "There's no way my little boobs could ever fit a bra like that." So you take the bra that looks like it will fit, try to keep the breast pads on so you don't christen the dressing room with "Essence of Milk," and try to put the bra in place. Great, you got about half the boob covered. That's when you realize, those gigantic bras that your tiny boobs could never fit in, yeah those bras were made for you. And, do you want to know the best part? The best part is, if you take your bra off to say, step in the shower, the sheer weight of them without support causes them to leak like a firehose. Oh, I am not kidding. If my boobs had been in a pissing contest, they would have won, hands down. Don't try sleeping without a bra either. Unless you want to wake up in a puddle of fresh squeezed mama's milk in the morning, you better keep those puppies under wraps and have a spare towel to absorb the mess.

Finally, you decide you can't handle the new growth where your regular boobs once were, so you express some milk to try to relieve the aching, milk making factory that are your boobs. The problem with that is, then your fantastic, life-giving tatas, think, "Oh, the baby needs more milk since it just ate some. Let's make some more so that this baby will never go hungry!" And there they go. They're off to make more milk for your precious little angel. Thus, the cycle continues until your body finally stops this nonsense, and your supply evens out. Sure, your baby may still choke upon "let-down," but that's to be expected for at least another couple of months. The point is, they are once again manageable, and you've stopped knocking everything off the shelves at target with your set of Dolly Partons.

And that's just the normal part of breastfeeding. It could take days and numerous posts to talk about all the complications that can arise.

If you haven't inferred this by now, I am not necessarily attached to breastfeeding. Some moms love the act of being the sole supplier of nutrients, and in essence, life, to their baby. While I appreciate all that breastfeeding is, I generally do not find it fun or awe inspiring. I breastfeed my babies  because I recognize the benefits for it, and, well to be honest, it's room service free of charge. But I have learned something new about myself and breastfeeding in the last couple of weeks.

My six month old baby was not gaining weight as quickly as I thought he should. His older brother did the same thing, and despite numerous discussions with his pediatrician about this, she did not seem concerned until he was finally off the charts. With that in mind, I worried that my new baby was going to do the same thing, and there was no way I was going to let that happen. So, I began to supplement his breastfeeding with formula, since I know that is what other pediatricians have prescribed to other babies for the same issue. It began slowly, with only 4 ounces of formula a day, and with always nursing my baby before giving him formula.

Somehow, it got away from me though. One week I noticed that I was slowly dropping in supply, so I did a couple of days of power pumping. Thankfully it helped. I also began eating oatmeal every morning for breakfast, which despite other mama's assurances of increasing supply, did not make a drop of difference. So, I just kept up the pumping.

I don't know how it happened. If I thought really hard, I could probably figure it out, but for now, I cannot think what went wrong. Sometime last week, I started going dry again. I ate oatmeal, I did some casual pumping, but alas, I dried up. Let me tell you, coming from the perspective of not really enjoying breastfeeding, and the whole aforementioned beginning phase, this was heart-wrenching. There is nothing like being UNABLE to provide for your child the way you once did. Not doing it by choice is one thing, but not doing it because you physically can't, that's hard. It's as if your own body is saying you're not good enough. Ouch! Well, boobs, you're not good enough for me, and if you don't get your act together, you will be dealt with. I decided to go on the defensive and conjur up some low supply remedies.

Now, most women would take these one at a time to see which one works best. Not me....Oh no. I am taking all it, full force! The peanut butter oat bites also have brewer's yeast, and flaxseed. I hope they're good.

So, this is my arsenal of hope. Hope that I can once again provide that special tincture concocted just for my baby. Did you know that breastmilk will produce antibodies to germs that your baby contracts before they show signs of the illness that those germs create! What an amazing feature. What other liquid on Earth is so advanced? It provides the exact nutrients that your baby needs depending on the age of the baby. Yes, it changes not just from week to week, but it can change from feeding to feeding. It is always being produced (though production can drop, obviously), and as long as there is demand, there will be supply. 

Speaking of demand, the baby is calling me!