A Nipple What?

Before I had our beautiful baby, K, I knew that I wanted to breastfeed.  I could picture myself holding K right after giving birth and quickly being able to jump onto the breastfeeding wagon!  Although I am pro breastfeeding, I fully respect everyone's personal choice of doing what works for them.  Feeding your constantly hungry child is a huge job, especially in those first couple of months.  We do what we have to do and what works for us, and that's all that matters!

In my case, I wanted so desperately to breastfeed, and unfortunately my desire to start that as soon as that beautiful baby came into my life did not happen.  This post is not just to tell you my story and adventures, but to encourage those who struggle with breastfeeding in those first fews days/weeks/months, because let me tell ya, you're like a human wet bar, and it's not easy!

K joined us 5 weeks early, on the first day of school, which is a big deal, since my hubby and I are both teachers!  Contractions started on labour day (hah!) and 40 hours later, K arrived!  I didn't get to hold him right away as he needed immediate medical attention.  I was finally able to hold him but what felt like a millisecond, before he was taken away once again.  Then came the hard part.  I was told that breastfeeding would be too physically draining for this little fellow and so I never got to try.  Being a first time mother, this scared me and I just went along with whatever the staff at the hospital said.  "We will give him a bit of your milk, and also give him formula...".  Don't get me wrong the staff there were so kind and caring, and did everything they could to make K strong and healthy.  They educated me on what they believed was best at the time.  I do, however, regret not requesting to try feeding K all by myself.  I was then introduced to the mysterious nipple shield.  "What the heck is that???" is the first thing that came to mind.  Well, it helped me feed Kingsley, but I hated that thing at the same time.  Needless to say, he ate well, grew before our very eyes, but WOULD NOT eat without it.  It took me almost 4 months to get rid of that darn thing that I loved and yet hated so much!  It is so hard to keep going when giving up seems like the easiest way to go.  I was lucky enough to have experienced people help me through this.  USE THOSE PEOPLE!  And if you need to take your top off in front of them, they'll just roll with it, trust me.  I showed my boobs to people I never thought I would.  I never thought THAT many people would see them!  As for the people who are discouraging you or stressing you out by saying things like "try harder, your baby should be weaned off the shield by now", ignore them.

There are loads of opinionated people our there who feel the need to tell you "how it should be done".  I had a hard time learning that I need to take things with a grain of salt, and do what I wanted to do!

S