I know I’m done with the whole breast milk thing and all, and I know how much you miss me talking about my boobs, so I thought I’d throw you a bone. A while ago I linked to a post from What the Blog? where Jenny was asking readers to comment on breastfeeding recommendations, tips, products, etc. Well last week I saw that she has now compiled all the feedback she got from that post into one giant breastfeeding guide. Check it out here.
Her post got me thinking about what breastfeeding advice I would give, so I thought I’d make a little list for any of you moms-to-be who are planning on breastfeeding or interested. A lot of this is contained in Jenny’s post as well, so you might get a double dose.
- Take the nurses’ advice on positioning the baby, positioning your breasts, etc., when you’re in the hospital after delivery and trying this out for the first time. I had no idea how to do it or what was going to happen, so having them there to guide me was essential. I never used a lactation consultant, either, so they were my main resource.
- It will hurt at first, both inside and out. Having baby’s mouth sucking away on your nipple is a sensation that takes some getting used to, and it also causes your uterus to contract, which can feel like, you guessed it, mild contractions. It’s a little painful, but normal, and is key to getting your body back to normal. Contracting uterus = flatter stomach
- Drink LOTS of water. I don’t know why, but nursing makes you extremely thirsty. I always had water with me when I fed D or pumped.
- Make sure you eat enough. You need to keep up your calorie intake to make enough milk. Depending on how much you produce and how often baby eats, you can burn like 500 calories a day just by breastfeeding. Feeling ravenously hungry? Eat!
- Feed on demand. Don’t try to put a newborn on a schedule, it won’t work. You might feel like you’re constantly feeding him/her for a while, but that will subside and more of a routine will emerge. The cluster feedings may return during growth spurts, but by then you’ll be used to them and know better how to handle it.
- At first, feed baby on one side for 5-10 minutes, then the other. This helps get both breasts going right. After a couple days I dropped this pattern and just fed D on one side at a time, but this is what the nurses recommended right after she was born and it worked for me. Before your milk comes in and you’re still producing colostrum, this also helps make sure the baby is getting enough to eat.
- Some people may yell at me for saying this one, but don’t wake the baby up to feed. He/she will wake up soon enough once discovering the hunger; you don’t have to worry about anyone starving to death. Yeah, it might throw that day’s schedule a tad out of whack for a little while, but honestly, in those first few weeks after baby’s born, everything seems out of whack. It’ll be ok. And if you get a surprise long stretch between feedings while baby decides to sleep, you should try to do the same. You never know when an opportunity like that will present itself again. (i promise i’m really not trying to scare you guys, i’m just being honest. it gets better, don’t worry)
- When baby wakes up for those nighttime feedings (or even daytime ones, for that matter), a diaper change before feeding helps wake them up a little more. Being more awake will help the efficiency of the feeding. A baby who is still basically asleep can take for-ever to nurse, just fyi. And when you’re up 2, 3, a million times a night, a fast feeding will be very welcome.
- Make sure you burp the baby often enough. Sometimes burping during a feeding as well as at the end helps get the air out and lets baby eat more comfortably. Along with this, have plenty of burp rags on hand. We burned through many every day when D was real little.
- I always tucked a burp rag over the bottom part of my bra and let it hang down the front of me while D nursed. This saved many shirts from drool, milk, and spit up that would occasionally fall out of her mouth.
- Having a watch or timer near where you nurse is very helpful in figuring out baby’s rhythm. I mentally kept track of how long she ate each time, and if you’re alternating sides during feedings you’ll be able to see when time’s up to switch. It also helped me keep track of how long it had been between each feeding. By the time I went back to work and R took over on parental leave, I was writing down D’s feeding times so he could see what her schedule was each day.
- Determine which position is most comfortable for you for feeding. I always did the standard cradle hold with D.
- I’m fairly indifferent on the boppy nursing pillows. I did get one, but pretty much never used it for nursing. I just found it easier to hold D in my arms than rest her on a pillow, or however you’re supposed to use it. It ended up getting used more to prop her up so she didn’t fall all over the couch when she was really little. And we did set her in it sometimes when she fell asleep, which I know you’re not supposed to do. Oops. She survived.
- Get lanolin for your nipples when they get sore. I put it on after each feeding and after every shower for the first couple months. Watch out, though, because it will leave greasy marks on your clothes if it gets on them. It’s like a really thick vaseline type substance. I used Lansinoh.
- Get nursing pads to protect your bras from leaks, dribbles, and lanolin stains. I liked the disposable ones best, since you’ll have plenty of laundry to deal with anyway. Again, I used the Lansinoh ones.
- Comfortable nursing bras are a must. The ones I liked best were from Destination Maternity. Just their brand, not the expensive A Pea in the Pod ones. I got 3 – 2 neutral beige and 1 black. I wore them every day until I stopped pumping and they were lifesavers. You’ll also want some comfy sleep bras. I liked these, again from Destination Maternity.
- Get some good nursing tank tops. These were especially useful for me, since D was born in the summer and it was HOT. But even if you deliver in the winter months they’ll still be handy and comfortable to wear around the house since you’ll be keeping it warm enough in there for baby anyway. I bought some from the Gap which weren’t the greatest and one turned into my sleeping tank, but I loved this one from Destination Maternity. I could put the nursing pads right in the cups and not even have to wear a bra with it. Sense a pattern with that place? They really do know their stuff.
- If you’re setting up a dedicated nursery room for the baby, getting a glider or rocking chair of some sort is a good idea. I liked the kind with the matching gliding ottoman. Here’s the one we got, and I have spent countless hours in it. I still give D her morning and bedtime bottles in it, and probably will for as long as she takes them.
- If you will be nursing in public, or maybe in front of people when they’re at your house, I highly recommend a nursing cover. I never ended up having to nurse D in public and would just go in her room to feed her if people were over, so I actually never used mine. But having it just in case isn’t a bad idea.
- Get a good pump. Even if you don’t think you’ll need it right away, get it before baby is born. If you have supply issues, or baby doesn’t latch properly, or it just takes a while for the whole breastfeeding thing to click, pumping will be very important to get your supply going and maintained until baby will nurse. Or if you do end up with a long stretch between feedings, you might need to express some milk so
your boobs don’t explodeyou stay comfortable. It’s also great to be able to have some bottles on hand if you’re going the breast milk route for those times when you have to go out somewhere with the baby or have someone else feed him/her while you’re gone or sleeping (sleeping? ha! i meant trying to sleep. or do laundry, or take a shower, or go to the bathroom, or eat…). I recommend a double electric pump. This is the one I got, and it worked like a charm. Medela also has a totally hands-free version that comes with a bra that holds the breast shields in place, but it’s obviously more expensive. I did get a little cheapie single hand pump for when I had to go places where I still needed to express but couldn’t take my big double pump bag. Like Camp Randall. Not kidding. Excuse me, what’s that in your purse? Oh that, don’t mind that, it’s just my breast pump. 😛 - To go with that pump, get the quick clean wipes. Are you really going to want or have time to clean all the parts in soap and water after each use? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Neither did I. I did also get the steam clean bags, but I only used one once. I did use it again when I put the pump away for good (you can use each bag up to 20 times), but I don’t know if they’re really necessary or not. I think one even comes with the pump, so maybe just try that one out and see if you’ll need more before you get a whole box of them.
- Get some extra bottles and nipples, preferably ones that are compatible with whatever pump you get. That pump above comes with 4-5 oz. bottles and lids, but only 1 wide base slow flow nipple, which is what newborns use. I got an extra set of the 5 oz. bottles as well as a set of 8 oz. bottles with medium flow nipples for ages 4+ months. Right now Medela only makes slow and medium flow nipples, so now sometimes D sucks the nipples flat trying to get milk out faster, but I think they’re fine. We have a whole bunch of other bottles that we’ve never even used. I asked for and received a nice set of BornFree bottles at one of our showers, which was the brand one of my girlfriends recommended when I was pregnant, but we’ve honestly only used one of them to put water in for D. The Medela bottles have been our go-to because they attach directly to the pump. This tended to be much easier for me than pumping into the storage bags, especially if I knew D would be taking the bottles soon after I pumped them (i.e., when I pumped at work and we would send those bottles to daycare with her the next day). I did, however, pump dozens, if not hundreds, of the 5 oz. storage bags full when I knew we would be freezing the milk instead. Medela has actually changed the style of their storage bags even since I started pumping last year, and they now come with an adapter to screw onto the pump instead of attaching the bag with an adhesive paper strap. Much nicer.
- These were 2 sites I used a lot during the first weeks after D was born to help with breast milk guidelines:Â LLLI, About.com.
Sorry, I guess that turned out to be more than a little list. But hopefully you find something of use in there somewhere. I know when I started breastfeeding I was like wtf?? Clueless. I’ll probably even have to look back on these notes the next time around myself.
(some of the links above are affiliate links, but every product i mentioned i either bought myself or was given as a shower gift, and i would personally recommend all of them)