Wee Baby Stuff

Pretty much every speck of information out there says that breastfeeding is what is best for your baby. What they don't add is that it can be TOUGH. Especially in those first two hellacious weeks where you second guess your every move and sleep precisely none.

This is a list of the kit that helped us navigate a tough time:

1: A good chair. This is a biggie. And there are a couple of pretty important requirements,

A. It should be easy to get in an out of. You may feel stupid but try sitting down and getting up with a ten pound(ish) bag of groceries cradled to your chest. If it's a struggle then your chair is probably too low.

B. The arms should be high enough to rest your elbows on, again try this while cradling your bag of groceries, 10 lbs gets really heavy really fast, arms at the right height are a big help.

C. Your chair doesn't have to glide or rock, in fact you may already have the perfect breastfeeding chair sitting in your living room. Bear in mind that you probably won't always be feeding your baby in his or her room, so if you have a great chair in the living room you could leave it there. If you're lucky once you and your pookie have learnt the breastfeeding ropes, you might be able to do it with out getting out of bed.

Chair from PBK

2: A good Breastfeeding pillow. Because my pookie was early we didn't have one of these pre-bought, I wasn't even convinced that we needed one. BUT when a friend passed one along to us the difference it made was enough to make me cry honking, snot bubbling, tears of relief. Really. The My Brest Friend Pillow, great product, cringe worthy name.

3: A clock with numbers that are visible in the dark. This is kind of a contentious item, Breastfeeding takes well, as long as it takes, and timing it obsessively... not useful. BUT 5 minutes can feel like 45 at 3 am when your brain is made of mashed potato. It can be helpful to look up an know how long your baby has actually been eating.

4: A Breast Pump. Again you may or may not need one of these, I used one in an attempt to get my supply up to speed, and they can be great if you're engorged (blah, gross word) We hired the Medela system from the hospital but actually the Avent Isis hand pump worked better for me.

Lastly, it's not so much a thing but, the ability to stay calm and cut yourself some slack is invaluable. Putting monster pressure on yourself to be an all singing, all dancing, MILK PRODUCING MACHINE is a good way to go nuts.

What happend with us is that Ted was induced three weeks early; keeping him awake enough to eat was an issue and my milk production was not great. He was still losing weight after 2 weeks so we had to supplement him. I felt like an enormous failure and was pretty hysterical. Right up until my lactation consultant told me to knock it off in no uncertain terms. Supplementing your baby is not the end of the world and actually it made breast feeding easier for us because we had a baby who had enough energy to suck. Nipple confusion can be an issue but it wasn't for us and Ted had both formula and breast until he was 4 months. When he started sleeping through the night my supply pretty much stopped. I was heartbroken.

Those first two weeks of fumbleing while you and your baby learn the ropes are tough, really tough... kinda like joining the Marines, except without the assualt course. But once you get it down it's really rewarding and a nice way to spend time, even at 3 am.

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