Today is the day! I have reached my first goal of breastfeeding Supernova until 6 months!
I am sooo flippin excited!!
I have been a cloth diapering, co sleeping, breastfeeding momma for six months!!
- Middlest I fell prey to the not gaining enough weight thing. Which if you don't breastfeed means Dr.s tell you your baby isn't gaining enough weight and you need to suppliment with formula and pump to see how much you are making. Breastfed babies gain weight diffrently than formula fed babies.Not everyone is good at pumping milk. A breast pump doesn't work as well as your baby. If I had known to ask a Lactation consultant to weigh her before and after feeding I would found out the truth as well as ways to boost my supply. My mom and I couldn't even find anyone who had EVER even heard of La Leche!! Anyways one bottle of formula gave way to more then when I got a job where I couldn't breastfeed it was just easier to quit.
- Big_Gwrl I hated breastfeeding. I hated having someone touch me constantly. I just couldn't do it without hating that poor little defenseless baby. So under the urging of my mom and Big Daddy I quit. We both were much happier with bottles and they allowed us to bond without the feelings of hatred.
- Supernova I read up on the latest news. Met other breastfeeding moms in my homeschool group who wern't afraid to answer questions. I met several lactation consultants and made sure I was ready for this one.
I knew what to watch out for depression wise and I wouldn't beat myself up if I couldn't which was why my goal was set to six months instead of 1 year. I really think having that support system really helped me on my journey. I knew if I had any problems all I had to do was make one phone call. When the dr. told me he wasn't gaining weight fast enough, to give him cereal at 3 months, or to give him water to hydrate him when he had RSV I either ignored him or called the LC. I'm not going to say it's been fun. Or easy because it hasn't been. Getting up and feeding the baby many many many times during the night isn't fun. Cluster feeding and growth spurts aren't easy.Drinking 10-15 bottles of water a day is yucky! When those little fingers pinch and when Supernova keeps kicking my sholder I want to quit. But I keep going knowing that he's only trying to stay awake. If you don't have kids or if you are going to try breastfeeding again my advice would be get a big squishy chair JUST FOR YOU and a small fridge filled with bottles of water. Also Drink drink drink drink drink. You should be drinking at least 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water a day! Bottles work best for me but thats just me. Also make sure you keep up your caloric intake!
Your little one needs the extra calories and you need the energy!
As for cloth diapering. It's a commitment. You have to commit to using cloth diapers. It's an expensive up front investment, but it's cheaper the long run. I think we are up to... maybe 600$ in diapers BUT these are diapers that will last until Supernova is potty trained! I would buy one of several kinds before your baby gets here and try them out to see what kind works best for you. We have 30 pocket diapers, Tons of unbleached prefolds, 3 all in one diapers ( for the diaper bag), and 6 covers. I had more covers but They were not one size and Supernova outgrew them. I didn't like them enough to get more. I do a LOT of laundry but we have a system that works. We use laundry baskets in each room I change the baby in. Every other day I walk around and dump them into a "traveling" bucket and wash them. Hang dry if sunny.. if not the diapers are air dried for 2 hours in the dryer. oh. If you do line dry your diapers outside.. just a warning throw them in the dryer for 10/15 min before you fold them so any bugs get killed.
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