My Boobs!

There has been lots of talk about boobs in our house.  For now I am exclusively breastfeeding, no pumping, no anything else.  I won't get into the details of why I think this is the best way, you can look up the benefits of breastfeeding on Google.  But I've found keeping a sense of humor is best. 

First of all, the baby knew more about breastfeeding than I did, in those first few days of life when we were in the hospital, I constantly had people checking his latch and everyone said he looked great and that he was doing great; "then why does it hurt so much!" was basically my response.  I even had a crabby nurse say, "well there is formula."  Which super pissed me off.  In came the lactation specialists, who are fucking awesome at HCMC, and they gave me better support and reassurance that he was doing fine. 

My milk came in about 48 hours after his birth and my boobs got super huge, I had to hand express some milk to get him to be able to latch on.  I also started leaking a bit.  But baby was fine and generally ended a feeding by falling fast asleep on my boob.  We went home and the boobs seemed to get bigger, but there wasn't so much engorgement, I had to hand express some once more and then they evened out a bit.  My boobs even got smaller and soft, I was so happy.  Then they got bigger; dammit!  And now they tend to fluctuate with feedings instead of randomly. 

The leaking tends to go up and down.  I had a few days of no leaking, and now I'm leaking all over the place and will soak the shirt I sleep in with one boob while I feed him from another boob.  This also means baby sometimes gets soaked in breast milk, which will mean more frequent baths for him, which is OK because for now he really seems to like the baths, perhaps they remind him of his days in amniotic fluid. 

I think the funniest part is when the baby is trying to frantically get to my boob, but does it by arching his back away from me and flailing his arms around.  He just looks so ridiculous I can't help but laugh sometimes.  And then there was the time I was feeding him while laying on my side in bed and I turned him upright to burp him and he was able to find my other boob all by himself, which was a good sign, but made me laugh because I was trying to do something totally different. 

I didn't think I would use a pacifier this early on, but sometimes he's eaten a bunch and still wants to suck on something, so a few minutes with a pacifier seems to calm him and give my boobs a rest.  And since he's gaining weight rapidly, I'm not too worried about it interfering with my supply.  We also make sure to take care of other needs before we pop the pacifier in his mouth, and if he drops it I don't rush to pop it back in unless he's clearly rooting around for it.  For now it works a little, though pacifiers in general aren't my favorite, but some babies really like to suck.  I'd much rather him find his own thumb that he can be in control of.  For now he kind of sucks his own fist sometimes. 

The most annoying part for now is that my boobs are actually making too much milk too fast and he sometimes chokes on the milk that comes out.  He'll arch away from the boob and then be mad that he doesn't have boob anymore.  I've been burping him more often when he seems to be struggling with the flow of milk.  Sometimes feedings take several latches.  Laying down works best, but this does mean a good portion of the milk comes out of the side of his mouth and drips on the the bed below him, though I do try to keep a cloth diaper under him.  We also have some signs that a yeast infection is coming on because he's getting more crabby and gassy after feedings and has a bit of a red bottom.  The lactation specialists told us to watch it over the weekend, we might need to get it checked out by a doctor; I'm taking some acidopholus for now. 

So breastfeeding is quite the journey so far, but will be well worth it.  I think I've had it relatively easy, but it's still really hard right now.  I know that it will get easier.  He will eventually sleep through the night, or at least for longer, he will eventually be able to go four hours before needing to eat again, and once he's an older toddler it might just be a couple feedings a day.  It's worth it to breastfeed at least two years simply for the health benefits it gives me, not to mention all the good benefits for him.