Okay, so not a day has passed since Mr. E was born that I have not stopped and thanked the Universe for our effortless breastfeeding relationship.
Mr. E came out wanting to suck. I remember moments after he was placed on me I noted his sucking instinct and I asked our doula if I should give him my finger. She instructed me to give him my boo.b. When given my boo.b for the first time, he latched immediately. Some of my best memories of being in the hospital were of us lounging in bed while he nursed. It was so easy to do skin to skin nursing in that setting. My milk came in, full force, by the time we left the hospital. And I’ve been blessed with more than enough milk to feed Mr. E.
Once home, bfing continued to be easy. He knew what to do, I had more than enough milk, and somehow I avoided the painful nipple experience most women speak of – I’ve been told that until your nipples get used to the sucking, it can hurt a little (or a lot). This never happened to me. I attribute this to the fact that I applied Lansinoh lanolin after EVERY feeding for the first week, and to his excellent latch.
I continued to breastfeed Mr. E “on-demand” for the duration of my maternity leave. I often wondered why women who could (as in, made enough milk, had babies with a good latch, etc.) would choose not to breastfeed? And then I went back to work. Breastfeeding and working is HARD! I am very lucky because I can come home and feed him sometimes. But it is not the same as being home, breastfeeding on demand, and feeding with out the stress of feeding while convenient for my work schedule.
He is getting some pumped milk via bottles and I am not always free when he is hungry, which means I end up pumping and we get on different schedules. One day this week he had three bottles while I was at work and then rejected the breast that night. Since that experience we’ve been much more intentional about trying to adjust his feedings to my work schedule so I can come home to breastfeed him. Sometimes it works, but often I end up with tons of milk and need to pump while feeding or after in order to drain my breasts. I don’t like all the pumping because the more I pump the more my body produces.
I am one hundred and ten percent committed to breastfeeding Mr. E for at least one year. (Either from the breast or through pumped milked.) But I am beginning to understand why women who are capable of breastfeeding switch to formula after returning to work. It takes a lot of effort to successfully continue to breastfeed once returning to work. This is yet another reason I am glad I gave my notice and am excited that in two weeks I will only be working part time, and this won’t be as much of an issue.
Yet another reason we should get a year maternity leave, like our neighbors in Canada!
4 comments
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April 10, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Jen (yup, another one)
Hear, hear on the year’s paid maternity leave – but for nearly opposite reasons. I had an unpleasant start to breastfeeding – difficulty with latch and lots of pain but things were fine after one month (maybe six weeks). But pumping and maintaining breastfeeding came easily to us. What was hard was juggling everything ELSE and trying to work with an infant – and pumping did contribute to that. The time involved in preparing and washing everything, and getting bottles ready, and keeping track of “expiration” of milk, etc. It was exhausting. If it hadn’t been easy to pump or my work hadn’t been conducive to pumping, it would have been a nightmare.
April 10, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Carrie
I’m not even pregnant yet, and I’m stressing about going back to work! Luckily, my company gives us 4 months paid, but that’s still not enough, you know?
April 11, 2008 at 3:25 pm
piecesofgray
Agreed. One year would be amazing.
But it sounds like you’re doing a great job! I imagine it would be really hard to continue bfeeding while working full time.
Keep it up! But don’t kick yourself when the time comes to stop. You’re doing great!
April 12, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Erin
It’s so, so hard to breastfeed and go back to work. My baby and I did great for the 4 and a half months I was off, then I started supplementing with formula because they whole time I was at work (part-time) I was teaching so couldn’t pump. I’ve heard that is why there are higher breastfeeding rates in countries such as Canada, Aus, and most of Europe – they have such long maternity leaves compared to the U.S. Some days when I’m feeling energetic, I long to go out there and change this.