Breast Feeding

I only breast fed my little boy for four weeks as my milk wasn't filling him up, but I am glad I had those four weeks to feed him myself, as I really enjoyed the closeness. Even when I moved him onto formula I still held him the same way I breast fed him, in order to keep that closeness.

I'm not going to lie breast feeding at the beginning is rather uncomfortable till you're nipples harden. I can remember looking at mine and they were scabby and sore, (there are some amazing lotions and creams for helping with this). Although this was the case it did not stop me from being determined to establish a good breast feeding routine.

I found when I was breast feeding my son I was feeding him every two hours and would have to give him time on each breast. I would have pints of juice lined up on the side for me to drink, so that I could keep replenishing my milk stores. if I didn't do this then I would get really dehydrated and my little boy wouldn't get enough food.

Night times could be quite tricky as it was hard to stay awake and breast feed. I worked out a fab strategy, I found if I was in the rocking chair and gently rocked whilst feeding, this would keep me awake long enough to get through the feed effectively. Either that or my hubby would prod me to wake up again.

After two weeks of doing this I also tried to use a pump so I could do a bit of bottle feeding too, however I found this took too long to even fill a bottle and I got fed up of firing milk everywhere but the bottle. It was after doing this I noticed that my milk was quite thin and not a very thick consistency.

Finding out what my milk looked like helped me understand why my little boy was constantly upset during the day and was what made me decide to switch onto formula.