Boobs!
Let's talk about boobs!
So I decided well before even falling pregnant that I wanted to do the breast feeding thing. I thought it would be amazing feeding a tiny baby & save us some money. Now I knew during pregnancy that my boobs would change but my goodness!! Mine went from a D cup to an F! AN F!!!!! And they weren't even nice big boobs, they changed colour & I felt like they became these ugly massive lumps and they were covered in stretch marks! And don't get me started on maternity bras, those things are so ugly and make your boobs look a weird shape!
So out popped Georgia and as soon as I was in recovery they were trying to get the ball rolling with breast feeding. She was a natural, it was like she was a pro already! Me on the other hand had absolutely no clue what I was doing! I was super exhausted after such a long day so the nurses did everything, I just lay there. Later on that night the nurse came in and got me to squeeze my nipple and she collected the colostrum in a syringe and gave it to Georgia that way, My first fully conscious experience into making milk, it was extremely weird!
As the days went on I was up and trying to breast feed, OH. MY. GOD. The pain! It was excruciating! It didn't even cross my mind that breast feeding would be painful! My nipples were super cracked and bleeding & I dreaded every feed time. Every feed my whole body would tense & all I could do was curl my toes and close my eyes super tight!
Day 2- I was so worried as Georgia hadn't peed all day but the nurses didn't seem to worried at all, until change over then that nurse said to me, Love you need to drink water, if you don't drink water then Georgia doesn't get any hydration. Seems logical now but at the time I just thought the milk is liquid there for she will be hydrated.
Day 3- they weighed her and they said she had lost more then 10% of her weight since birth so one of the nurses said she will give me tips on using the express pump...now this nurse looked like she only just finished high school, I felt so uncomfortable getting my hideous F cup boobs out in front of this nurse who looked like a teenager. She showed me how to use the breast pump, those things are NOT pretty! It literally makes you feel like a dairy cow. She then sent in a lactation consultant to help me with the breast feeding part. She gave me tips on how to hold Georgia and how to get her to feed without hurting me. She also said I need to feed Georgia every 2 hours to get her weight up. EVERY 2 HOURS! It took me nearly an hour to do the whole process! Through the night was the hardest. One nurse was lovely & took her into the nursery for 3 hours as I had been doing this process for close to 20 hours. That 3 hours sleep was bliss! The hard work did pay off, she needed to gain 40 grams from memory and she gained well over 100 grams!
Even though I had this amazing idea of only breast feeding I just didn't make enough to fill Georgia's little tummy. So when I got home I did do some feeds with formula. I tried everything to get my supply up. I took fenugreek, I ate lactation cookies, I drank 3+ litres of water a day, I even went to the doctor and got a script for some medication which is meant to stimulate more milk supply. None of that made a difference for me! (By the way that's not to say these things wouldn't work for someone else, it just didn't help me out)
I went to full time formula with Georgia at 5 months & I had stored expressed breast milk in the freezer so she got a little bit more. We want to start trying for number 2 so needed my body to go back to being a normal female body instead of a feeding machine. Oh and BTW boobs went back to their normal size! They aren't the same anymore though, They look like sad depressed flaps of skin constantly looking at the ground! Even a push up bra wouldn't make these puppies look good anymore!
The pain does go away with breast feeding & it did get easier & quicker! Would I do it again? Most definitely! Don't worry invisible baby number 2, I got you sorted!
A handy tip! If you've got left over nipple cream don't throw it out! Use it as lip balm! The only ingredient in nipple cream is Lanolin, which any good lip balm has in it. It has no smell & it makes your lips soft and shiny! I use it on my lips everyday!
x
Day 3- they weighed her and they said she had lost more then 10% of her weight since birth so one of the nurses said she will give me tips on using the express pump...now this nurse looked like she only just finished high school, I felt so uncomfortable getting my hideous F cup boobs out in front of this nurse who looked like a teenager. She showed me how to use the breast pump, those things are NOT pretty! It literally makes you feel like a dairy cow. She then sent in a lactation consultant to help me with the breast feeding part. She gave me tips on how to hold Georgia and how to get her to feed without hurting me. She also said I need to feed Georgia every 2 hours to get her weight up. EVERY 2 HOURS! It took me nearly an hour to do the whole process! Through the night was the hardest. One nurse was lovely & took her into the nursery for 3 hours as I had been doing this process for close to 20 hours. That 3 hours sleep was bliss! The hard work did pay off, she needed to gain 40 grams from memory and she gained well over 100 grams!
Even though I had this amazing idea of only breast feeding I just didn't make enough to fill Georgia's little tummy. So when I got home I did do some feeds with formula. I tried everything to get my supply up. I took fenugreek, I ate lactation cookies, I drank 3+ litres of water a day, I even went to the doctor and got a script for some medication which is meant to stimulate more milk supply. None of that made a difference for me! (By the way that's not to say these things wouldn't work for someone else, it just didn't help me out)
I went to full time formula with Georgia at 5 months & I had stored expressed breast milk in the freezer so she got a little bit more. We want to start trying for number 2 so needed my body to go back to being a normal female body instead of a feeding machine. Oh and BTW boobs went back to their normal size! They aren't the same anymore though, They look like sad depressed flaps of skin constantly looking at the ground! Even a push up bra wouldn't make these puppies look good anymore!
The pain does go away with breast feeding & it did get easier & quicker! Would I do it again? Most definitely! Don't worry invisible baby number 2, I got you sorted!
A handy tip! If you've got left over nipple cream don't throw it out! Use it as lip balm! The only ingredient in nipple cream is Lanolin, which any good lip balm has in it. It has no smell & it makes your lips soft and shiny! I use it on my lips everyday!
x
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