Geez the preggos are coming out of the woodwork these past few months!  I just heard about another couple that are pregnant.  If it weren’t for the INSANE amount of money we would be paying in daycare I might think about another turn, but then visions of minivans dance in my head and the baby cravings go away pretty quickly. 😉

So…for what it’s worth, I am going to post my mommy advice.  This will probably take a few different entries to get it all in, so bear with me.  Feel free to skip these posts if you don’t think I have any useful advice to give. 🙂

Nursing:

Basically, there are several things that make nursing a good option: Wellness for the baby and mother, saving money on formula, convenience, and losing the baby weight.

It is something that I think (my opinion here, not bashing those that don’t) should at least be tried. The colostrum that your body produces the first few weeks is important for all the antibodies you give your baby. They don’t produce their own until they are around 6 months old. It does hurt the first few weeks, but after that it is pretty easy. It is great to just be able to pop out a boob and you have fresh warm milk any time of the day. This is especially nice for the first 2-3 months when they wake every 2-4 hours at night. I co-slept with Anya (put her in her bassinet/crib right away but brought her in bed once she woke the first time) and it was easy to just give her the boob and fall back asleep. We both got more sleep that way. You do have to trust that your husband won’t roll over onto the baby, though. I trusted Brian…he always keeps over on his side of the bed. Plus we have the Sleep Number bed so there is a hump in the middle that helps with the separation.

Those were two things I thought I would never do…breastfeed for longer than my maternity leave and co-sleep. I have learned with parenting to never say never!

I also know that some women have a really hard time with nursing. A few of my friends had some bad experiences and I really don’t blame them one little bit for quitting. I just had a few plugged ducts that I had to work through and, although it was painful, it wasn’t bad enough for me to quit.

I don’t want to come off sounding like a breastfeeding nazi, where you are doing your child a disservice if you don’t nurse.  I just think that all women should at least give it a chance, since it is good for both the baby and you.  

I was able to figure out how to nurse in public without exposing myself, after I got over being shy about it, and so it really wasn’t that hard for me to do it.  I figured out that a pashimi shawl was a great fashion accessory and nursing cover-up all in one!  There are some malls that even have mothers’ rooms where you can nurse away from straining public eyes.

In private quarters, I think that most of my close female family members, and some friends, have seen my boobs at some point while I was nursing my kiddos.  I even nursed Anya every day for 4.5 weeks at daycare since she was so stubborn about taking a bottle.  That meant that even her teachers got to see my boobs, although I usually tried to cover up as much as I could.  Around women, I wasn’t that picky…they don’t get real excited about seeing another woman’s boobs, for obvious reasons.  I got over feeling that they were so special and needed constant covering pretty shortly after I started nursing.  I’m a mammal and their purpose is to make milk for babies.  Period.

Apart from the bonding with my baby, it also helps you lose weight! Major bonus for me 🙂 With both my kids I actually got under my pre-pregnancy weight around 4-5 months post-baby.

There are certain things you have to stay away from eating…cabbage based veggies (includes broccoli) as they make them gassy, the fish with high mercury content, and excessive alcohol. I would occasionally have one glass of wine without pumping so you can do that a little. I just made sure that I nursed them first and then drank so I had enough time for it to go through my system. Oh and you have to drink a lot of water. If you are low on fluids then you don’t make enough milk.

Overall, I think it was one of the best decisions I made with my early parenting.  I didn’t think I could do it, but I knew it was better for baby and for the selfish reason of losing weight.  It definitely worked for us.