Breastfeeding- The Good, The Bad and The Beautiful

Breastfeeding- The Good, The Bad and The Beautiful

This isn't a blog where I am going to shove breastfeeding down your throat. I do strongly suggest if you can breastfeed to do so. It has such amazing benefits for the baby and for moms. I know that breastfeeding isn't always the easy option or even an option at all. Despite my attempts I was unable to breastfeed Little M when he was a baby. He endured some trauma to his scalp that made sucking painful and difficult.

Thankfully I was blessed this time around to establish a great breastfeeding relationship with our little lady.

The Good:

Our daughter has been a champ, she is healthy and beautifully plump. Breastfeeding versus bottle feeding is so much easier to travel with. Whether a longer road trip or just to church on Sunday. No bottle to pack, no formula needed. Even at home, no bottles to make or clean. I have been blessed with the world's most supportive husband. Every evening he would wash my pump parts, and in the morning he would pack my bag to take to work. As of the middle of January I resigned from my job and stay at home with the kids. This has made our breastfeeding relationship even stronger. Overall it has been such a natural process for me this time. Although natural doesn't mean easy....

The Bad:

I am not one of the women who instantly felt breastfeeding was amazing. You know you read stories about women who say they felt such a special connection because they were nursing, well that wasn't me. The nights waking up with soaked shirts annoyed me. Another annoyance- two words CLOGGED DUCTS. And sometimes I just didn't want to be the only one who could feed her. I wanted rest. That might sound selfish, but I spent 9 months pregnant and for just a little bit I wanted my body back and be all mine. I went back to work after 8 weeks and I nursed our little girl when I was home, and pumped when I was at work. Talk about a daunting task, sometimes I would get so busy at work I would miss my pumping time. There were days when I was done with work and I would cry because I didn't pump and didn't know if I would have enough milk for the next day for our daughter at daycare. Aaron would always be there to pick me up and remind me if needed she had formula there, or we had some frozen. There were also the days where our daughter was clearly have a growth spurt and I felt like she was nursing non-stop.

The Beautiful:

In just 6 days it will mark 9 months of breastfeeding for me and our little girl. I have set a goal to make it to at least 12 months, and we are so so so so close! I love our nightly snuggles and feeding her right before bed, we are nice and warm and when she gets full she has that sweet squishy look. Then there are the times when our little lady is eating and she looks up and me and I look down and her and she stops eating just to smile at me. Talk about pure bliss. It literally fills my heart with warmth. Our daughter is healthy, growing, and every once in a while I think about how amazing it is that my body is able to create exactly what she needs. The human body is an incredible thing. And lastly, my husband, my wonderful, wonderful husband. This journey in breastfeeding has been another way of showing me how lucky I am. When I would sit down to feed our daughter he would bring me everything I needed to make me comfortable, when I wanted to quit he was there to remind me why I started in the first place, and for every time I woke up to feed her he was there to change her diaper.

Breastfeeding can be a battle, I strongly encourage people to do the research, be prepared, have a good support system and it will pay off. No doubt there will be bumps in the road, but if you keep on pushing through it does get easier.