Nursing 101

Intro to
Nursing

I can’t believe it, but I made it over one entire year nursing my sweet baby boy!! To be completely honest, there were a lot of ups and downs in this journey of nursing. I didn’t do any research on nursing before I had my son. Actually, to be completely vulnerable, the first time I watched anything about breastfeeding wasn’t until the night I was in the hospital waiting to dilate (I was in labor for 30 hours so I had a lot of time to wait, read my birth story here). I’m hoping that if I share some of my experience of nursing this past year, that it will help you as a new mom know a little bit more what to expect!

Nursing Tips and Tricks

1. PREP YOUR BODY : First things first, you need to prep your body even before you have your baby. Read more HERE Tip #7!

2. SUPPLIES TO HAVE AT HOME BEFORE BABY COMES HOME: I know this might sound silly, but I didn’t have any nursing pads. I didn’t realize that I would leak! I had no idea that when you nurse on one side, milk comes out of the other side also. It’s not until you are regular (meaning that your body is making the exact amount that your baby needs) that you won’t leak. It look me a while to regulate, so I used nursing pads for about 3 months! Read more about regulating on tip #4. Make sure you also purchase lanolin (that will help sooth your sore nipples, and a pump. Check with your insurance to see what you need to do to qualify for a free or discounted automatic pump. They are worth whatever work you need to do to get one.

3. PROPER LATCH: This is actually the topic of the breastfeeding video I watched the night I was in the hospital. There was a doctor who specialized in nursing. He emphasized over and over that as long as you have a good latch, your nipples will not hurt. I can verify, that statement is completely true. The idea behind having a good latch is to have the baby’s mouth not touch the nipple. If the mouth is open wide enough, the lips will only touch the areola (the dark part around your nipple). Keep in mind that this will take a few tries, sometimes a few days, to learn this. Both you and your baby will need to learn this technique.

I was nervous to research this particular part because for some reason I didn’t want to see pictures. (haha, yes you can laugh because that seems silly). So for those of you who might be the same, you can do a few things to ensure you have a good latch. One of the best things is to talk to a lactation specialist when you are there in the hospital. You can even talk to every nurse that is assigned to you. Ask them if you are doing it right. It will be a little uncomfortable for you for a moment for some stranger to be touching your boob, but it is worth the awkward moment. Some tricks I learned is to hold your boob with one hand and hold the baby’s head with the other. This works for women who have larger boobs.

Something else that I used during the first part of nursing was called a nipple shield. You can ask the hospital for one of these. The purpose of this was to pull the nipple out. If you have small nipples or if your boob is larger (can just be size or can be due to engorgement) it will help the baby pull the nipple out. There were often times I had to use this. Especially if your baby is a binkie baby; sometimes the baby has a hard time switching from the hard binkie to the soft nipple. That is called nipple confusion. Anyway, keep this tool in the back of your mind if your baby is having a hard time latching.

(*disclaimer, I do have relatives that their areola is actually larger than normal so it makes it impossible for the baby to get a good latch without sucking the nipple. You can be confident that you get to be a formula mom! See my thoughts here on being a confident mom).

4. REGULATING/ENGORGEMENT ISSUES: Oh where do I begin? Regulating your milk is a delicate balance, however keep in mind that your body is MADE to regulate to your baby’s needs. Some reasons your regulation gets off might be because you use a pump, you work and don’t nurse on a regular schedule, or even if your baby is going through a growth spurt. You might not think that having too much milk is even a problem, but from what I found engorgement can be terribly frustrating. The biggest concerns are that the baby can’t grasp the nipple because your boob is too engorged, but even moreso because your milk comes out too fast that they choke. Then they learn really quick that they don’t want to nurse, so they will refuse to nurse. I can tell you, that is one of the most helpless feelings.

This is the point that you have to balance. You can pump, so that you stay regular and do not get mastitis, and that your baby eats. However, remember that the more you pump the more your body thinks that the baby needs. It might take a few days, but you will figure out that balance. The most important things to remember during these times are first, your baby doesn’t know how to starve them self. They will eat when they are hungry, it just might take some encouragement (and a nipple shield). Also, your body was created to nurse, it will adjust. I found that my body was about 24/36 hours behind my baby. If my baby all the sudden went through a growth spurt, it will take a day or so to catch up on demand. So just be patient, your body will naturally adjust.

You can read more about oversupply HERE; tips on how to manage hindmilk vs foremilk. 

5. YOUR DIET EFFECTS YOUR MILK. This is like nursing 101, and there are tons of lists out there you can find of food you can avoid while nursing. I knew things in the back of my head but never thought that it really effected the taste of my milk.  There was one night in particular I can remember that my son would not nurse! I tried everything I could think of, I even pumped and put it in a bottle and he still wouldn’t eat it. He seemed hungry, but as soon as he would taste the milk, he would scream. My smart, calm husband tried the milk from the bottle and said it tasted very bitter. He suggested I get one of the bottles I had pumped from a previous day and see if it tastes differently, and so it did. Breastmilk is very sweet, but I had a large piece of chocolate cake that day. The rich chocolate had made my milk very bitter, so my son wouldn’t eat. It seems simple, but in the moment it’s very anxiety provoking. So keep in the back of your mind that what you eat might effect the taste of your milk.

6. CONCERNS: When I haven’t done something before I get a lot of anxiety about what to expect. If my expectations are set, then I don’t worry so much. With that in mind, for those new moms you might be having some very natural concerns about nursing. They are valid, and you shouldn’t be ashamed for worrying about them. Even if you make the decision to breastfeed, there will be days, weeks even that you have different worries. I had no idea that these worries would come. The biggest concern about nursing I had was how do I tell if my son is getting enough? Unless you pump you don’t know how much your baby is eating. That poses the question, are they getting enough? Are they getting too much? My answer to that came from months of experience. Your baby will learn (they don’t know right off) how to regulate themselves of how much they need. I highly recommend using the Baby Wise guide for nursing. That will give you a great guideline to at least make an educated guess if your baby might be hungry or if it is something else. You can read more about that here.

The other concern I ran across had to deal with engorgement. I had a phase there where I produced way too much, so I had a very fast let down. Meaning, the milk came out very fast. Well, there are too parts to your milk. The first part that comes out is called foremilk. It’s nutritious, but not as nutritious as the hindmilk. The hindmilk is what is the fatty part that sticks more to the milk ducts. The foremilk has to come out first, then if the baby is still eating, then the hindmilk will come.

7. NURSING IN PUBLIC: This is not as much of a deal breaker as some of the others, but I never thought about this. It does become more of a concern the younger your baby is, because they have to eat more often then older babies. Whether you are at your parent’s house, or out running errands, when your baby gets hungry you want to feed them! I was very sensitive nursing around other men, so in the beginning I felt like I was being almost punished. I had to go into the back room while all of the family was out having family dinner. My son wouldn’t eat under a nursing cover, or under a blanket, he didn’t like his head covered, so I would have to go in the back room. As soon as I became a confident mom and was confident in myself, I didn’t worry about this anymore. You can be flexible and nurse in the back seat of the car before you go into the store, or you can pump a bottle if you know that isn’t an option. 

 

Nursing for an entire year has been such a great decision for me! I gained such a strong bond with my son because I was able to connect with him on such a intimate level. I was the only one who could provide that need for him, and I had to stop everything I was doing for him. It was a sacrifice in the beginning, but as I realized how important that time was, I  have loved every moment of it! 

Set your expectations now that you will find a few struggles in your nursing adventure, but since you know that now, you will know that you can work through them. Whatever comes, keep calm and do your research. My hope is that you don’t give up! Nurse for as long as you can! 

 

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