So I figured….. Whats the point in having a Blog…. being a ”blogger” but not actually talking about things I actually know a lot about like breastfeeding?!
Breastfeeding can be tough and whoever lied and said its easy and a piece of cake down right lied or had that easy baby that latched on perfectly, suckled like a dream and had a milk supply that could feed the thousands….
Yep….. This was not me!
I struggled as much with breastfeeding as I did with maintaining a decent milk supply. In the early days when my milk first came in it was perfect…. I had lovely full boobies. But those lovely full boobies were accompanied by extremely sore and damaged nipples. Well not long later did I find out my baby was tongue tied…….
To get me through my dark days of bleeding nipples the only way i could successfully feed my baby was to ensure that he had my expressed breastmilk as a top up…… Now i’m not anti-formula, I believe there are cases where it is absolutely necessary to help a mum and baby in need and especially with 2 out of 3 kids of mine being tongue-tied they both had the odd formula bottle. With Mini Muffin he had a formula feed a few hours after birth and Amzah actually had top ups for the first week until we noticed he had a dairy allergy! We wondered why he seems so uncomfortable and broke out in a dreadful rash, I even remember thinking it was me that was the problem .
So anyway, I wanted to give the boys the best I had to offer so i purchased an electric breastpump to help support my breastfeeding goals. Now breastfeeding and pumping whilst giving the bottle of expressed breastmilk is not for the faint-hearted when sleep deprivation is involved and it was tough!
Regardless my useful breastfeeding tool and my partner in feeding became my Electric breast pump and i’ll explain why.
- It allowed me to give my baby my milk, when I couldn’t breastfeed
- Pumping gave me more flexibility as it meant someone else could feed the baby or if I needed to run errands I didn’t have to take the baby with me .
- I used it to increase my milk supply which had dropped significantly as the tongue-tie had affected the amount of milk the baby was actually getting therefore it resulted in a massive drop in my supply. Pumping helped get me back on track.
- It allowed me to see exactly how much my baby was getting. Especially Mini Muffin who had breathing difficulties from birth and had terrible weight gain.
Disclaimer: I am a Lactation Consultant but this post is not a professional post and is merely to discuss what worked for me personally if you want me to discuss more about breastfeeding on the blog in a professional capacity, be sure to let me know in the comments. x
Image borrowed from google
Mommyrosebuds 