I thought I’d share my journey of breastfeeding for the past 6+ months and what I’ve learned along the way. Everyone has their own story of how they feed their baby and none are better than the other. We’re all just here to care for our angels.

I intended to breastfeed from the start but honestly, I knew so many people that had trouble with it/stopped soon after that I was unsure of what to expect.

To be honest, Charlotte was a pro as soon as she came out. My doctor handed her to me, she cried for a minute and began to root. She then fed for about 30+ minutes…and hasn’t stopped since. I was one sore mama for the next few weeks and I don’t know what I would have done without this. But, she fed in any position at any time and I was so thankful.

The problem that I began to have was all me. At the hospital, I was told no pumping or bottle feeding for 6 weeks to avoid confusion for baby and to not mess with my milk production. I know that’s not something most people go by but again, that’s what I was told and I listened. I did so mostly because the issue that I was having was oversupplying and I was not going to make my body think I needed more milk by pumping and I also didn’t want to use bottles right away. I was already producing WAY more milk than needed and I had such a fast let-down that Charlotte would choke frequently. I got so stressed and broke down many times as my baby would get choked up and milk would drench her entire face when she would let off. I bought the thickest nursing pads I could find but still had to wear layers in public. I decided I’d try to introduce a bottle of breastmilk around 8 weeks because of the issues. She was NOT having it. It seems that if you really need your baby to take a bottle, the waiting advice probably isn’t best. As it turns out, my baby would rather get drenched than take a bottle. I tried every brand for weeks on end and she hated every one of them. Being the only person in the world that she wanted to eat from worried me because although I know healthy babies won’t let themselves go hungry for long, she was so adamantly against a bottle and that meant we were inseparable. In the end, my worries faded and it just wasn’t worth it to keep trying with bottles so we kicked them to the curb.

Thankfully, time and block feeding finally settled my overproduction issues at around the 3-4 month mark. Block feeding is basically only feeding on one side for a “block” of time so whatever side isn’t being used stops producing as much. It’s kind of a last resort though because if you’re not really oversupplying, it can have negative consequences on your supply so it needs to be done very carefully.

These days, all is well with our feeding journey and we’re grateful for that. I’ve also just introduced water out of a sippy cup to her and she’s catching onto that. I like these cups so far.

In the end, I think we’re all going to stress a bit when it comes to feeding. There are always going to be obstacles no matter your method but the end goal is all the same and it gets SO much easier with time. Good luck mama!