Why Can't They Know How to Eat

Thank goodness none of us remember our early moments of life, what traumatizing memories those would be!! We flop into a world full of bright lights and loud sounds, we are poked, prodded and pushed on and THEN....a giant boob is shoved in our faces to eat!!!!!!!!! WHAT?!?!? Those little minds have got to be reeling thinking 'what happened to my belly button tube, that was so much easier, put me back in'.  And if you are like me, you are thinking 'why did they just cut that cord that made feeding them so much easier, put him back in'!!

*Like I said, traumatizing*

It is pretty amazing how God made our bodies.  We have hormones that tell our uterus its 'go' time, we make the best out of 10 centimeters (which is not much) and then we become a 24/7 dairy for that sweet little person they put in our arms.  It is amazing to me that our bodies know exactly what the baby needs and when they need it.  Colostrum and milk generally don't make their BIG entrance until needed.  First comes the colostrum, which is beyond nutritious for the baby.  The problem I have with colostrum is that there wasn't much that came out which resulted in my son trying his hardest to figure out how to eat and not getting much in return.....he probably felt underpaid for his hard work.  But, as underpaid as he may have felt, he had just eaten the cream of the crop and his immune system was better for it, you are welcome son!

*Enter stage left - A jersey cow......your milk just came in*

OOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!! How come no one told me about this!!! I was wishing for a pin to pop them just to relieve some of the pressure, holy cow (pun intended).  What was BIG to my baby before just....got....bigger and things had just got a bit more complicated.  I mean, have you ever tried to squeeze a newly aired up basketball, you can't......get the picture.  I was in pain and in denial that someone was supposed to get their breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack, midnight dinner, 3am snack, 6am pre-breakfast and repeat despite my pain.  Warm compresses, bags of frozen peas and 800mg Mortin were tricks I used to manage my dairy farm.  The ring leader of this circus was a little baby who was learning how to eat.  I kept asking my husband, why can't he just know how to eat???  He knew how to poop, sleep and cry, WHY COULDN'T HE HAVE KNOWN HOW TO EAT?  And even though he did it every 2.5 to 3 hours, he still seemed to forget how he did it the last time.  AYE

Breastfeeding is not for whimps my friends!!  Labor was easier for me than this breastfeeding thing has been.  First off, I put my Boppy in the closet and bought The Brest Friend.  The Boppy was not a good fit for me but this, THIS made all the difference.

My new pillow helped tremendously but Jackson did not latch properly (which is key) and I had a list of other issues, I won't get into, that continued to hinder the process from getting easier for this mommy/son duo!  I was frustrated and knew this was not working for us.  I still wanted to make sure my son was getting the best of the best.  Especially because, I had it and it was free.

Thank goodness I bought the Medela Pump in Style breast pump!!  Gotta have the double one, you have two don't ya??



This machine pictured above is my saving grace!!  Baby gets good food and mommy knows exactly how much he is getting!! Win-Win!  Pumping is an extra step but it has been good for this momma and in turn good for Jackson.  Happy mamas are important to babies.  In the beginning my OB encouraged me by simply saying 'breastfeeding is not for everyone'.  That phrase took some of the pressure off of how I had been feeling in the midst of all ups and downs I had been having with Jackson's eating.  At the end of the day I had to do what was best for me AND baby.  We better for it.

I still think they ought to know how to eat when they come out.