My Breastfeeding Experience

During my pregnancy I yearned to be able to have the ability to breastfeed. Sometimes it just doesn't happen-- it doesn't make you less of a mother. But with me being a first time mother with my first child-- I really wanted to have the experience-- I heard so much about breastfeeding and how you bond with your child and all of those beautiful things..

And here I am today--- breastfeeding. I've been breastfeeding for 4 months-- 3 months exclusively but I had to begin to mix breastfeeding with infant milk because my boy wasn't gaining his weight like he was supposed to-- nothing too drastic, but at my health visitor visits, we would weigh him and he would always be a couple of ounces off the specified weight he was supposed to be. But despite that-- I could still see that my son was thriving. He was a little on the lighter side.. but still meeting all of the normal development stages.

But with introducing the infant milk as well as continuing to breastfeed-- he is putting on more weight because what the infant milk does which I have noticed is that he sleeps a lot better in the night-- when I was exclusively breastfeeding-- for me, he would wake up so much in the night and it's because he was hungry-- I know at the beginning, newborns, they will do that because their stomachs at that stage are the size of a pea-- but as he was getting older, it was still happening-- and babies need as much sleep as possible to grow. He would sleep a lot through the day and at night he would constantly be waking up. But... presently, he's up a lot in the day and sleeps for at least a solid 4 hours before waking up for a feed which is a very big improvement. A lot of people around me can see he's steadily gaining weight and is looking and maturing very well.

When I made the decision to mix breastfeeding, and also giving him infant milk-- to be honest, I felt discouraged-- I felt like I can't even provide my son enough milk to grow. But boy babies LOVE TO EAT! So it has nothing to do with me not providing enough milk-- they need more. And glory be to God, at least I was able to breastfeed exclusively for 3 months straight, and he was fine. I just made up my mind that I was going to breastfeed all the way until he's 6 months-- but one thing I've come to realise is that things don't always go according to the plan you have in your mind-- and that is ok; because at the end of the day it's about the child and what is best for the child at that particular time.

But breastfeeding is beautiful. You as a mother create this unbreakable bond with your child-- sometimes when they get to the stage where they recognise your face-- they will look up at you with this gaze like 'You're my mommy' and sometimes even flash a smile. When they get to the stage where they start to recognise the use of their hands, they begin to grab your fingers-- some squeeze your breast-- but it is all part of the bonding experience. It makes you feel so good that this child that you have carried for 9 months is here and you're able to provide nutrition for him/her.

I've also posted up my breastfeeding experience on the Huffington Post. Check it out and make sure you leave a comment!

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