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dinapaulson · 6 years

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10 Things That Happen To Your Breasts When You Are Breastfeeding

Pre (post?) BF @Hotel del Parque, Guayaquil, Ecuador

#Fedis(most definitely)best. There are some awesome breastfeeding/new mom groups I have found, open to the range of challenges and realities for nursing moms (including moms who want to breastfeed but cannot for a variety of reasons). These are important camaraderie-building, resource-sharing networks for the baby mama community that consider with care the choices family units are making to nourish their babies. I learned firsthand breastfeeding is rarely a seamless union from the get-go. My baby and I were very lucky to have the support of an incredible lactation consultant early on, plus my baby, Zachary, has a soul of pure endurance. I love our feeding times (me and my baby, not me and my LC). Now, the ten...

1. They get so big. So. Big. Everything. The areolas, the nipples, the hang. Going back down seems futuristic, yet somehow on the horizon--parent *and* child led weaning, anyone?

2. They hang out a lot at home. When my wife brings my LO to bed for twilight feedings, they are typically out from the last feed. Why lose another second not waking up, when I can just roll over? Praise side lying hold. 3. They also hang out in public. Way gone are self-conscious cleavage days. To get the first latch, I need to see what's going on before I can tuck him under our nursing cover (which happens to be his favorite blanket; it is very convenient and beyond endearing). 4. Silver is your mejor amiga. Lanolin cream did not help my chapped and bleeding nipples, so my LC recommended silver cups. Silver is a natural healing salve for cracked skin, especially the sensitive skin of the areola. Each time I use them, my nipples heal, one hundred percent.

5. They are both receptacle and food--container and content--serving platter and entrée--you get the idea. You might be like me, squirting breast milk into ice cube trays of mashed vegetables or adding breastmilk from your breast directly to food at the table (see number two). 6. Your milk gets everywhere. It is common, post-feeding, breastmilk hangs out, pooling between couch cushions, soaking one side of my LO's shirt, or dampening bedsheets. Breastmilk on glasses? When you self-squirt, you can point your milky fresh down, but they have a mind of their own. 7. Nipple pads are a thing. At my most dire (bleeding and overly lactating nipple), I would pop on the silver cup, lay on a pad, snap up my gargantuan (but gorgeous--Chantelle is amazing) nursing bra, and voilà, I was ready to go... to another room in the house. #newbornlife 8. It can be hard to see them as an erogenous zone. Really, when you have a suction cup, I mean LO, working the nipple a bazillion times a day, eventually with a supplemental apparatus, I mean, gorgeous human development, of newly formed teeth? 9. Get used to lumps. Whether you miss a feeding from the breast while LO takes a bottle (or solids) or your hormones just act up, backed up supply results in lumps that hurt, a lot. For me, LO feeding exclusively from the lumpy side for a feeding, pumping, and expressing in the shower is a cure-all.

10. They are superheroes. Seriously. You are nourishing an entire new person from your body! Let that sink in. Your body knows, from millions of years, exactly what your baby needs, readies it, and pours it out when they need it (which is always, to lesser degrees of always, as time goes by).

Superlative work, mamas.

#breastfeeding #nursing #list #essay #workfromhomemom #boymom #babyboy #lovebeingamom #realtalk #momrealtalk #hoteldelparque #silverette #chantelle #ibegotthistextintwilightnursinghours #ilovemybabymuchisimo

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