From now through August 17th, hop along to all participating blogs for your chance to win a variety of fun, family friendly giveaways! There is no limited to how many you can win, so hop along and join them all! Good luck!
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This week is World Breastfeeding Week!
For the breastfeeding mom, that is certainly something worth celebrating! Let's be real, as natural as it is... that doesn't always mean it comes easily. In fact, sometimes it can be quite the struggle as many of us have learned firsthand.
For my son, nursing came very easily all things considered. There were the usual soreness in those first few weeks as we adjusted of course, but after that it was pretty well smooth sailing. When he was 6 months old, I developed mastitis... and while I wouldn't wish this upon anyone, we had by that point established a good nursing routine, and we were able to work our way through it...it did effect my supply on one side, but he was able to continue on despite the issue. At about 2, it lost supply completely and he stuck to one sided nursing. He nursed for 3 years and 9 months before he weaned himself rather unexpectedly.
When my daughter was born, I thought with nearly 4 years of experience under my belt, this would be a BREEZE! Boy, was I wrong!
I quickly learned that just as every pregnancy and every delivery experience is different... so is every breastfeeding journey. And we got off to a rough start. First of all, we had to go through that initial sore phase again. No big deal. We'd been through this before, we knew the drill. Give it a week or so, and it'd be great. Except it wasn't. Every time that I would do to nurse on that same side that gave me issues with my son, the pain would be excruciating. Her latch was great, everything seemed to be great... but the pain persisted. Just as we did. By the time she was 6 weeks old, it had reached a point that it made me sick to my stomach every time she would nurse... the pain was just awful. And so I made the decision to once again discontinue nursing on that side. Now, having been through this before, I knew it was possible in theory, but my son had been much older. I had known that at that point, if it didn't work out, he would be just fine. He was also nursing less at 2 years than what a 6 week old was. I was still nervous about making this decision, but at the end of the day I knew it had to be done! Thankfully, she did just fine. My body adjusted and was still able to keep up the supply despite it all. She continued to nurse until she was 3 years, 2 months when we unfortunately had to stop due to health issues on my part... but all things considered, that was a huge accomplishment!
Now, I don't share these experiences to scare anyone away from breastfeeding, but completely the opposite. I share these stories to let you know that if you have struggles, you're not alone. It also doesn't mean that you have to quit. If your desire is to continue to breastfeed, know that it's possible to push through. (And if it's too much, that's perfectly okay too!)
Awesome awareness week
ReplyDeleteI'd love this for my friend!
ReplyDeletemia2009(at)comcast(dot)net
I didnt get the hang of breast feeding with my 1st hoping to do it for my second!
ReplyDeleteThese would be a life saver!
ReplyDelete