I know, it’s been forever. Life has taken over our household but now we have some free time that I hope to use to catch up and get some pictures edited.

So I found out it is world breastfeeding week and thought I would share my story.

When L was born I was determined to breastfeed. I think if I had been somewhere else it might have worked. I had no support form the hospital staff and by the time we left she had still not latched properly and they just shrugged and said to give her time and give her formula if needed. Needless to say after three weeks of trying we gave up. I felt defeated, that I had done something wrong. I really didn’t want a formula baby but I did.

It wasn’t until after K was born and I had some amazing nurses and lactation consultants that I learned the truth. With L I had a mild case of preeclampsia, turns out that preeclampsia can cause you to have trouble breastfeeding. They also told me that bigger babies are just lazy and not willing to work as hard to get the breast milk. And lastly, they told me it was okay if she took a day or two to get into, just give the baby time and don’t give into a bottle after 12 hours like the other hospital had let me do. If I would have known these things it might have turned out differently.

K was the complete opposite of her sister. Once she figured out breastfeeding there was no turning back. She wouldn’t even take breast milk from a bottle. Which was a concern because after her heart surgery she wouldn’t be able to breast feed for a few days. Turns out if you are hungry enough you will eat from a bottle, only if mama leaves the room. As soon as she was able she was right back on the breast. At 12 months or so she self weaned. I was thinking of weaning her because she had teeth and liked to bite but she decided that it was time. She went straight from breast to sippy cups, she hated bottles.

I do think that breastfeeding creates a bond between a mother and child that isn’t there otherwise but I wasn’t really sad when she was done. I knew that life takes it’s course and she was ready to be a “big” girl like her sister.

~Mama