Breast feeding joys/woes

You just expect that it is going to happen.  Women are engineered to feed their babies.  Right? Of course right!  You don't expect it is going to be hard.

After Tristan's second morning meltdown, I had had it.  I called the lactation clinic and set up an appointment.  We were going to get this right whether he liked it or not.  In the hospital they hadn't shown me very many techniques, or even showed me how to get him to latch properly.  I had just been trying to rely on my motheryly instincts, which I hate to say it, weren't all that great.  Tristan and I were both frazzled by the end of every poorly done feeding, and I was crying all day thinking I was a bad mother.  Nick kept trying to assure me I wasn't, but its hard to feel otherwise when you think your son is starving.

We got to meet with a lactation specialist for a little bit, and she was amazing.  She showed me different ways to hold him, how to position his chin and mouth, and she got him to eat for the first time ever without the shield.  I was soo elated I can't even describe it.  I realized what I had been doing wrong, and that there was more than one way to do it, and couldn't wait to get home and try it.

Nick helped, and our first feeding was a complete success, and each one sine has been as well.  I feel soo much better, and Tristan seems to be doing a lot better too.  On the way home from the clinic, we stopped off at Target and I got to go in shopping while Nick sat in the car with the baby.  I still hobbled around holding onto my cart at the speed of snail (Nick calls it the speed of Sara now…haha) but it felt soo good to get out.  I regretted it by the time we got home and my stomach and butt were on fire.  The couch was my best friend all afternoon.  Haha. so I think I'll be a homebody a little bit longer.

Bottom line, if you want o breast feed and can't get it yourself, go see a specialist!  They know what they are talking about, and it is definitely worth it!!!