It has been brought to my attention that this week, August 1-7, is National Breastfeeding Week. It seems that since I have been a breastfeeding mama 2 times around I should have known such a thing, but I did not, so thank you Cat! Not only is this week Breastfeeding Week worldwide, August has been named Breastfeeding awareness month.

I know that breastfeeding is a choice that needs to be made between a mother and her child, it is a very personal decision. I am not here to tell you that you should breastfeed or not, I just would like to share my story with you.

My first baby was born when I was just 1 month shy of 19 years old. I was so young, and had no idea what to do to prepare.  I babysat most of my way through high school, but preparing for your own child is completely different. I took the classes and read the books. My mom encouraged me to breastfeed, as she did my brother and I. She swears that is why we’re both so healthy and always have been. So I decided to try. Rob and I decided before I gave birth to Ryan that I would stay home with him for at least the first 6 months and that I would try to breastfeed that long as well, without pressure. When Ryan was born it was clear that he and I were naturals at this. While it was very very excruciating painful those first couple weeks, I made it through without supplementing with any bottles whatsoever, as that is what the nurses told me, “No bottles!” By the time 3 weeks had rolled by we decided it was time to try a bottle, just to see how he does. It was a no go, he would not take the bottle. Who knew that babies could potentially not want a bottle? This happened over and over again no matter how we tried to give it to him. I bought every bottle and nipple on the market, filled it formula, breast milk or a mix of the two, and had numerous others try feeding it to him. Nothing worked. I accepted this and moved on. At 9 months exactly he decided to wean. I kid you not, he woke up that morning and screamed every time I tried to nurse him. Finally after several hours of my trying, I gave him a bottle of formula. The bottles were buried deep in the cabinets at this point, but I’m glad I saved them. He swallowed that bottle down and never turned back. I would also like to state that that was the same night he started sleeping through the night, coincidence?

Olivia shares a similar story. I knew going into breastfeeding this time that there was a strong possibility she would not take a bottle, I was prepared this time. She too was a natural nurser as soon as she was born. We gave her a bottle a little earlier at 2 weeks old and it was only once or twice, but she did take it. We didn’t try to give her one again until she was 5 weeks and we were at a wedding, she didn’t want it. Again, it didn’t matter who fed it to her or what was in the bottle. She didn’t want it, I half expected this anyhow, so onward we moved. The one major difference Olivia had from Ryan was that she slept through the night almost as soon as she was born. She started taking solids at around 8 months, so she was on solids and nursing until she weaned. She weaned herself less than a week from her first birthday. It was a little sad as she may be my last but I am happy for her that she was able to wean herself.

All in all I learned a lot from breast feeding my children:

-Some babies just do not want to take bottles.

-Sometimes breast fed babies do not sleep so well (or was that a personality trait?).

-My boobs can triple, even quadruple in size overnight.

-Breast feeding for me was very rewarding, an amazing bond between my infant and I.

-I believe breast feeding truly aided in the health of my children. Neither have ever had an ear infection, or anything serious for that matter.

Be sure to check out these post related to Breast feeding week including more mamas sharing their stories:

Cat at 3 Kids and Us

Cheryl at Lipz Unzipped

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 3:14 pm and is filed under Parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.