How my Breastfeeding Journey was Anything but “Normal”

If I had to pick one thing that I felt the least prepared for when having my first baby, it would be feeding him. I know, it sounds silly. Feeding your baby should be the easiest and most natural part of being a mother – after all, women have been doing it since the beginning of time. I wish someone had told me that just because it’s natural, that doesn’t mean that it will be easy.

Photo of Medela Breast Milk Feeding Gift Set

Starting Out

When my Peanut was born, I was not able to produce milk right away. I had read that this could happen, but for some reason I didn’t expect that it would happen to me. After about 12 hours of my newborn son not eating anything, a nurse suggested we give him formula. Little did I know that this was first of a long, long series of bottle feedings. The lactation consultant set me up with a breast pump and had me use it every time that we gave baby a bottle.

Going Home

It took two or three days for me to produce the same amount of milk as Peanut was drinking. I wanted to get him breastfeeding, but I was also nervous that he would not get enough milk. We alternated feeding him breast milk from a bottle with breast feeding him for a couple of days. I found that when he drank from a bottle he would finish a bottle in 15-25 minutes and then be full for around 2 hours. When he breastfed, he would either feed for 45 minutes or fall asleep mid-feeding and then be hungry again an hour and a half later. I decided to stop trying to breastfeed him and without knowing what I was doing, I became an “exclusive pumper.” 

Doing it on my own

While my husband was on paternity leave, we had a great system. Every time that the baby was hungry, my husband would give him a bottle and I would pump milk for his next feeding. This worked out great! The problem came when my husband went back to work and I had to feed the baby and pump all by myself.

When Peanut was hungry, I would feed him, change him, pump, and then wash the bottle and pumping supplies. This whole process took about an hour and then we would repeat again an hour later. I ended up skipping the occasional pumping session which killed my milk supply. I spent weeks trying to get it back up. The only thing that helped was pumping for twenty minutes every two hours. My maternity leave was consumed by pumping and feeding. Around two months, my son hit a huge growth spurt and no matter how hard I tried, I was only able to pump about half of what he ate in a day. We supplemented with formula, which was a whole separate adventure. 

Returning to Work

Once I went back to work, I actually enjoyed my pumping sessions. Being able to take small mental breaks once every couple of hours really helped keep my anxiety in check. Everything was great until my company’s production of “The Nutcracker” moved into the theatre. Anyone who works in the entertainment industry knows that tech weeks are long, stressful, and all-consuming. When you add breastfeeding and postpartum emotional strain into the mix…well, I would not recommend that anyone return to working for a ballet company in December. I was not able to take breaks every two hours and everyday I thought about how much easier my life would be without pumping. I cut back from pumping eight to ten times per day to pumping three to five times per day. It was a hard decision, but I really needed that extra time to myself. 

Deciding to Stop

I continued to feed my son about half breast milk all the way through Nutcracker and the holiday season. I was proud of myself, but I also felt defeated because I was spending so much time and energy to produce just half of my son’s diet. Now I finally had the time to think about the benefits of pumping versus having that time to spend with my family. My son was now three and a half months old. My husband, who had been very supportive the whole time, hinted that they would enjoy the extra attention. I decided that exclusively formula feeding was better for my family and for my mental health. 

Of course, like all well-laid parenting plans, our son had ideas of his own. Because of his rapid growth and the large amount of formula he was drinking, his doctor recommended that we start introducing semi-solids after his four-month checkup. So began the next chapter in our baby feeding saga…

 

Breastfeeding is such an important part of our culture. Not all mothers have the same experience. Pumping, bottle feeding, supplementing, there are so many ways that we are all different. Read a real breastfeeding journey here.

14 thoughts on “How my Breastfeeding Journey was Anything but “Normal”

    • Thanks for reading, Emma! I could not believe the difference that not breastfeeding made for my anxiety and mental health. Fed is definitely best.

  1. Love this post. Lila had trouble latching so I turned into an exclusive pumper too.. very different from what I had been planning going in. Some days I feel like all I do is pump and it’s definitely a challenge when she wants to eat and be active at the same time. It’s a relief to hear someone else’s story 🙂

    • I definitely felt like all I did was pump. Between that and my job I just couldn’t emotionally take it anymore.
      You are doing a great thing for your daughter!

  2. Can I just say how amazing you and all mama’s who pump are! it truly is such a sacrifice! I can’t say enough that moms(myself included) who breastfeed are truly the lazy feeder, I mean we just lift are shirt and we are done. Formula feeding moms have to make and serve, and pumping moms have to work even harder, pumping, storing, thawing,and serving! your an amazing mama,I have always said fed is best! That’s the only thing that matters!

    • Haha. I wouldn’t call any part of breastfeeding lazy! Just producing milk is physically exhausting. Thank you, Delia for the encouragement for me and for all moms. The #momtribe around the world is getting so strong. Parents need to support each other because it makes things so much better for all of us. 🙂

  3. I had to check out your story after seeing your comment on my post, and wow they are similar! We tried starting our girl on solids at 4 months, but she didn’t seem as into it as we thought. She was watching us eat and drooling like crazy, but didn’t want to open her mouth to eat! We just started trying again now that she is 6 months, and it’s going a lot better!

    • I’m glad to hear it! It’s hard to know when they are ready. At first our son just ate tiny bits of baby cereal. It had to be really runny. haha.
      Thanks for stopping by. <3

  4. I had a low milk supply. I was in Kenya at the time though and they were amazing. The milk can take 3-5 days to come in but the colostrum was coming through. I had to hand express after every feed to keep my milk up because the pump didn’t work for me. Well done for all you did. #FabFridayPosts

    • I’m so glad that you were able to get the support that you needed!
      Thanks for stopping by. 🙂

  5. This is so inspiring, i never BF my first son but i am planning on bf my second baby who is due in december, so im on the hunt for all the info i can on how to bf, tips advice for bf in public etcc xx #TriumphantTales

  6. I found it such a shame that the “support” that was available in my area was judgement and unhelpful tips. Ben was a NICU baby so was tubefed which I think got him off to a bad start, he also couldnt latch without a shield.We perservered and we got there in the end, but a few months later my milk dried up.
    It wasnt meant to be, but Ben has not suffered without and with number two we’ve already agreed that Ill only do bottlefed as it became so less stressful without the boob as Hubby could join in aswell.
    Thank you for sharing this with us at #TriumphantTales. I hope to see you back tomorrow.

    • The support available to moms is getting much better…it’s just hard because you don’t know what challenges you will face, so it’s hard to be prepared.
      I’m glad that you chose to feed your son in the best way for the whole family. Prayers as you prepare for your new little one. <3

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