How to Survive the First Few Weeks of Breastfeeding

I am about to begin week 3 of breastfeeding my newborn. I was very worried about breastfeeding this time around (baby #2) because I struggled with my older son and began supplementing at 3 days old and was never able to breastfeed exclusively until he didn’t want to nurse any longer. This time around I was a little more prepared when I went to the hospital and though I had to supplement a few feedings it didn’t prevent me from nursing exclusively when my milk came in.  Here are my tips for making it through those first 2 weeks.

1.     Drink loads of water in the hospital and when you get it home. I didn’t do this before and saw a major difference in my milk when I did.

2.     If you must supplement, be sure to do it while nursing through a supplemental nurser, it’s basically a syringe that you place in the baby’s mouth while he/she is nursing to get in some formula along with the colostrum. I needed to do this as my son needed to void (pee) before he could get his circumcision as they needed to make sure he wasn’t having any problems before they performed the procedure.

3.     Mother’s Milk tea is your friend. I didn’t discover it before until a friend showed it to me when my son was 6 weeks old, by then I was really struggling to keep up with feedings.

4.     Rent a hospital grade pump or use one in the hospital at least. This really helped with the milk coming in for me as well. Plus, I could capture some milk and stick it in my baby’s mouth to know for sure he was getting the colostrum.

5.     Feed baby every 2 hours, this really stimulates the breast and even if he isn’t eating, having him on or near the breasts stimulates production, too.

I am so happy to be nursing exclusively and will send an updated post at 6 weeks to see where I am and talk about my babies sleep pattern, which right now is still at every 1.5 to 2 hours of waking up.