The following is my friend Amanda's story about her experience breastfeeding her first child, her daughter Ava:
This is my story of breastfeeding. It will be short, sweet and simple, because when you have 2 children under 2 that is all you can do.
My daughter, who is now 2 years old, was born in April. What a beautiful birth experience I was able to have in the hospital (although I was supposed to have her in the birth center, but that's another story for another day. Overall, I am very thankful I had great care.
I remember when we were planning for her welcome into this world, I made sure I was going to nurse. I heard so many stories of women who chose to stop, couldn't nurse, didn't even want to try…the list goes on. I would slowly get "discouraged" but made it a priority that I wasn't even going to have a bottle in my home.
The day she came was so amazing. I was able to nurse her pretty much within the first 30 minutes after birth, it was such a special thing. In the hospital I remember the nurses would tell me all the time, "wake her up even if she doesn't want to eat, offer her the breast every 2-3 hours." We didn't have too many issues in the hospital since we had the lactation consultants only a room away.
When we brought our sweet little blessing home, the first few nights were pretty rough. I remember just getting SO frustrated because she wouldn't latch on for what felt like 10 minutes and then she would just start screaming. My husband and I would get so upset with each other. Thankfully that only lasted a few weeks and then we pretty much had it down. I didn't even know what it meant to have sore/cracked nipples.I never had to use lanolin, I DID have to use nursing pads,a lot of them! Pretty much, my experience was wonderful with nursing and I was so upset when she self weaned at one year due to my pregnancy with our second child. (I really wanted her to nurse until at least two -three).
Thank you for taking the time to read my story!
About the author:
Amanda is wife to Pete and mother to Ava, 2, and Noah, 11 months.
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