Breastfeeding. That's what this post is about.
It's not a "Breastfeeding is good and Formula is bad" post. I don't believe in that crap.
When Nelly sees the nipple she opens up like Jaws (a lot more scary than this photo) and it makes me laugh every time without fail.
After Nelly was born, she latched on immediately to bring on the colostrum which is produced before milk comes in but despite feeding every two hours she did not have any wet nappies for 24 hours which was a cause for concern for everyone involved.
I had hoped that my augmentation would not impact on feeding in any way but even though my surgeon had assured me that it wouldn't, you just cannot know until the time came so obviously this thought was going through my head in the hospital and I was getting ready to blame my self.
One of the midwives decided to just manually 'milk' me which involves having your already sore nipples squeezed to ensure that milk/colostrum is being produced and let me tell you, that crap hurts, however it did show that there was liquid in there but that was not good enough for me, I needed my baby to have a wet nappy already.
We were asked if we were open to topping her up with formula to which I jumped at.
At that point I lost all my prior reservations about formula and just wanted to know that she would be fed, whether it came solely from a breast or tin. All I wanted was a happy, nourished baby.
As soon as we started the top ups of 30ml after each feed she started to wet her nappies much to my pleasure. Who knew that a wet nappy could cause so much joy?
Nobody tells you just how painful breastfeeding is at the start, and that is only because of the pain your nipples feel. They get all cracked and bleed, sticking to your breast pads.
To help this you can use lanolin or a cheaper (more painful) method is to express a little bit of milk and put it on your nipples and let air dry.
Think that you are too modest to let anyone see your boobs? Yeah, I thought that too.
By this stage you will not even blink if someone walks in on you doing this. You are used to your nipples being seen by every man and his dog every 3 hours.
The day that we were discharged from hospital, The Husband, Nelly and I were driving to my Family Dinner when I got all hot and my breasts started to ache and went rock hard within 20 minutes - my milk had come in, no doubt about it. A hot bath with hot facewashers on them helped, as did feeding as often as I could.
.JPG)
A milk drunk baby is a peaceful baby.
I have not had any problems with breastfeeding yet (knocks on wood), except for on two occasions when I had been unusually stressed and my milk supply really slowed down which lead to the baking of Lactation Cookies and giving Nelly two bottles of NAN formula to fill her belly before her night sleep.
I cannot understand why people try and guilt mums if they chose (or have no choice) to give their babies formula, it's really nobody elses business and as long as that baby is being fed, that's really all that matters - surely?! I really hate this mum shaming about how they gave birth, how they choose to nourish their child and how they raise them. Everyone has an opinion.
This is the recipe that I use for lactation cookies:-
1 cup butter
1.5 cups brown sugar
4 tablespoons of water
2 tablespoons flaxseed meal (often known as linseed)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups of plain flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups of oats
1 cup or more of chocolate chips (I use a mix of chocolate chips, almonds, macadamias, dried apricots and dates after my mum made these for me and they taste so much better with the mix of all of these)
2-4 tablespoons of brewers yeast (don't hold back as this is one of the main active ingredients)
Preheat the oven to 180c
- Mix together 2 tablespoons of flaxseed/linseed and water, set aside for 3-5 minutes
- Cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and mix well
- Stir flaxseed mixture and add with vanilla to the butter mix. Beat until blended
- Stir together the dry ingredients, except for oats and chocolate/nut mix
- Add to butter mixture. Stir in oats and then chocolate/nut mix (The mixture should be really, really tough to mix)
- Scoop or drop onto tray lined with baking powder. As the mixture is crumbly, it is probably easier to use a scoop.
- Bake for 8-12 minutes depending on size of cookies.
This mixture makes a heap of cookies so when mum made it for me she froze two rolls and I have just been cutting them in half and baking as I go along.
Don't be put off by the yeasty smell, these bad boys actually work. I really didn't think that they would but the morning after devouring half a dozen I was leaking all over the place and was able to express 100ml in minutes when it usually takes half an hour to get at least 50ml.
I use the Medela Swing Pump but pumping just isn't a skill of mine unfortunately.
What I do manage to pump goes into a Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottle and Nelly takes it like a duck to water. It's nice for Dad or other family members to be able to feed the baby as it's such a lovely time.
My brother Joseph did get disgusted when some milk dribbled on to his leg, definitely repulsed by the idea of his sisters breast milk!
They actually taste really nice, not as nice as a peanut butter choc chip cookie perhaps but even The Husband has enjoyed munching on them.
As for breastfeeding in public, I suggest a light weight scarf which you can just drape over baby and if you are wearing nursing bras and nursing tops or just tops that pull aside, nothing really needs to be seen by the public.
Some of my best nursing clothes are just cheapies from Kmart surprisingly.
Also, breast pads. The Rite Aid ones are terrible. Do not bother. Go straight to Johnson & Johnson contour pads. They are fantastic.
At the start before your milk supply regulates make sure that you wear breast pads otherwise you will be soaking everything you own, including your sheets.
It's not a "Breastfeeding is good and Formula is bad" post. I don't believe in that crap.
When Nelly sees the nipple she opens up like Jaws (a lot more scary than this photo) and it makes me laugh every time without fail.
After Nelly was born, she latched on immediately to bring on the colostrum which is produced before milk comes in but despite feeding every two hours she did not have any wet nappies for 24 hours which was a cause for concern for everyone involved.
I had hoped that my augmentation would not impact on feeding in any way but even though my surgeon had assured me that it wouldn't, you just cannot know until the time came so obviously this thought was going through my head in the hospital and I was getting ready to blame my self.
One of the midwives decided to just manually 'milk' me which involves having your already sore nipples squeezed to ensure that milk/colostrum is being produced and let me tell you, that crap hurts, however it did show that there was liquid in there but that was not good enough for me, I needed my baby to have a wet nappy already.
We were asked if we were open to topping her up with formula to which I jumped at.
At that point I lost all my prior reservations about formula and just wanted to know that she would be fed, whether it came solely from a breast or tin. All I wanted was a happy, nourished baby.
As soon as we started the top ups of 30ml after each feed she started to wet her nappies much to my pleasure. Who knew that a wet nappy could cause so much joy?
Nobody tells you just how painful breastfeeding is at the start, and that is only because of the pain your nipples feel. They get all cracked and bleed, sticking to your breast pads.
To help this you can use lanolin or a cheaper (more painful) method is to express a little bit of milk and put it on your nipples and let air dry.
Think that you are too modest to let anyone see your boobs? Yeah, I thought that too.
By this stage you will not even blink if someone walks in on you doing this. You are used to your nipples being seen by every man and his dog every 3 hours.
The day that we were discharged from hospital, The Husband, Nelly and I were driving to my Family Dinner when I got all hot and my breasts started to ache and went rock hard within 20 minutes - my milk had come in, no doubt about it. A hot bath with hot facewashers on them helped, as did feeding as often as I could.
.JPG)
A milk drunk baby is a peaceful baby.
I have not had any problems with breastfeeding yet (knocks on wood), except for on two occasions when I had been unusually stressed and my milk supply really slowed down which lead to the baking of Lactation Cookies and giving Nelly two bottles of NAN formula to fill her belly before her night sleep.
I cannot understand why people try and guilt mums if they chose (or have no choice) to give their babies formula, it's really nobody elses business and as long as that baby is being fed, that's really all that matters - surely?! I really hate this mum shaming about how they gave birth, how they choose to nourish their child and how they raise them. Everyone has an opinion.
This is the recipe that I use for lactation cookies:-
1 cup butter
1.5 cups brown sugar
4 tablespoons of water
2 tablespoons flaxseed meal (often known as linseed)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups of plain flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups of oats
1 cup or more of chocolate chips (I use a mix of chocolate chips, almonds, macadamias, dried apricots and dates after my mum made these for me and they taste so much better with the mix of all of these)
2-4 tablespoons of brewers yeast (don't hold back as this is one of the main active ingredients)
Preheat the oven to 180c
- Mix together 2 tablespoons of flaxseed/linseed and water, set aside for 3-5 minutes
- Cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and mix well
- Stir flaxseed mixture and add with vanilla to the butter mix. Beat until blended
- Stir together the dry ingredients, except for oats and chocolate/nut mix
- Add to butter mixture. Stir in oats and then chocolate/nut mix (The mixture should be really, really tough to mix)
- Scoop or drop onto tray lined with baking powder. As the mixture is crumbly, it is probably easier to use a scoop.
- Bake for 8-12 minutes depending on size of cookies.
This mixture makes a heap of cookies so when mum made it for me she froze two rolls and I have just been cutting them in half and baking as I go along.
Don't be put off by the yeasty smell, these bad boys actually work. I really didn't think that they would but the morning after devouring half a dozen I was leaking all over the place and was able to express 100ml in minutes when it usually takes half an hour to get at least 50ml.
I use the Medela Swing Pump but pumping just isn't a skill of mine unfortunately.
What I do manage to pump goes into a Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottle and Nelly takes it like a duck to water. It's nice for Dad or other family members to be able to feed the baby as it's such a lovely time.
My brother Joseph did get disgusted when some milk dribbled on to his leg, definitely repulsed by the idea of his sisters breast milk!
They actually taste really nice, not as nice as a peanut butter choc chip cookie perhaps but even The Husband has enjoyed munching on them.
As for breastfeeding in public, I suggest a light weight scarf which you can just drape over baby and if you are wearing nursing bras and nursing tops or just tops that pull aside, nothing really needs to be seen by the public.
Some of my best nursing clothes are just cheapies from Kmart surprisingly.
Also, breast pads. The Rite Aid ones are terrible. Do not bother. Go straight to Johnson & Johnson contour pads. They are fantastic.
At the start before your milk supply regulates make sure that you wear breast pads otherwise you will be soaking everything you own, including your sheets.
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