This post is sponsored by Munchkin, to celebrate Breast Feeding Awareness Month.
FIRST DAY OF PRESCHOOL!
My little boy started Preschool today. It’s only 2 days a week for a couple hours but I thought I was going to cry when dropping him off, since I am such a crybaby. “Mommy, don’t watch me okay? I want you to go.” he said to me as I was driving him to school. Part of me was happy for his excitement and independence but a part of me was sad that he didn’t need me anymore. As I dropped him off in his class and gave him several kisses and hugs, I watched him like a creepy stalker from the outside corner of his classroom door. Then a few minutes later, he ran out of the room and looked around for me but didn’t see me because I was hiding in the corner. The teacher got him then and held his hand and took him back into the classroom. As I peeped through the door window, I saw him almost in the verge of tears sitting on his teacher’s lap while the teacher consoled him. My heart melted and I felt a relief come over me. “He still needs his mommy.” I said to myself as I watched him a few minutes more(okay, fine, I stayed for about 30 mins.). As I got in the car, I didn’t shed a single tear! Instead of the sadness I thought I was sure to feel, I felt nothing but FREEDOM! EXCITEMENT! I felt I could overtake the world!!! I spent my day doing nothing productive, as I had planned and drove around looking for potential land, fixed myself a fancy lunch, and watched Jane the Virgin, my current favorite show. It was glorious.
3 o’ clock came and instead of having my friend pick him up for carpool as planned, I texted her to tell her that I’d pick up my son instead. I missed him. And I thought it would be best for me to pick him up on his first day of school. I went through the pick-up line and watched my boy beaming, waiting for my car to come to a stop. He hopped in the car and told me all about his day. They sang Hop Scotch, he said. His teacher read a book with animals in it, he said. Then that’s when I unexpectedly started to cry. “I missed you so much! How about you don’t go to preschool anymore because I’ll just miss you too much?” My boy smiled at me and said, “But Ms. Teacher will cry if I don’t come to skoooo(school)!” Psh, I guess he’d rather have me cry instead of his teacher! 😉
Motherhood hits you with so many unexpected events, doesn’t it? I remember having my first child and naively thinking breastfeeding would be super easy. You know those stock photos you see of mothers breastfeeding their baby? First, the mother looks meticulous, energized, glamorous and not a hint of sleep deprivation under her eyes. Second, she’s sitting on some rocking chair, rocking her baby gently and ever so peacefully while looking down at her baby with a hint of smile on her face. There are no signs of pain, frustrations of lack of milk or difficulty latching. Well, that’s what I believed breastfeeding would be like. BOY, WAS I WRONG!!!
I hated breastfeeding. The first time my baby latched on, I remember my mouth gaping open and my eyes wide in shock. “Wait, this hurts like no other! Oh my gosh, no one told me it would hurt! They don’t even have teeth, how are they clamping down on my nipple so dang hard?” And then the contractions came. No one told me about those either, I thought that was a done deal after the baby came out of you! But my love conquered all and I breastfeed all 3 of my babies. Even when I got mastitis and thrush, I winced in pain and persevered through it even if it took me at least 10 minutes to prepare myself mentally before getting my baby to latch on. I became to appreciate my body more and realized our bodies are really miracles! For my body to produce milk and for my baby to need nothing more than my breast milk, not even water, was amazing to me. That at any given time, my milk would come out in perfect temperature that would nourish my baby to grow healthily and happily.
But for my never-breastfed mommy friends out there, here are some things you should know so that it doesn’t come as a complete shock to you, as it did to me. I wish someone had told me these things, so that I would have been mentally prepared!
8 THINGS NO ONE TELLS YOU ABOUT BREASTFEEDING:
- Within a few days of giving birth, your milk will come in. Your boobs will get HUGE and literally rock hard and very sore, so sore that you can’t even lift up your arm and even moving your arms slightly will hurt. I remember calling my husband and crying from the pain, “I feel like an Asian porn star!!!” Hot, hot showers help. And massaging it while taking a hot shower. Also cold cabbage. It really does. Just slap on a piece of cold cabbage on your breasts.
- It hurts. It hurts so $%*#* bad. Don’t let their lack of teeth fool you. Their gum line is just as hard as teeth.
- Our sweet, tiny little newborns will look like Piranhas when latching on. They’ll have their sweet eyes closed and even asleep at times but as soon as a nipple touches their mouth area, they will open their mouth super wide and big and their head will convulse as they try to find that nipple to latch on. It is creepy and hilarious at the same time. I’ve never had a piranha bite my nipple(have you?) but I imagine it would feel the same.
- It will hurt for 1-2 weeks as your nipple adjusts to the vicious sucking, pulling and biting. Then your nipples toughen up thank goodness and stops hurting! The Heavens have opened, hallelujah!
- Just when you thought the pain from a piranha sucking your nipple couldn’t hurt anymore, you will have contractions that you missed dearly during labor. These are called afterpains that you get right after you give birth and breastfeed. But this is a good thing as your uterus shrinks back to its pre-pregnancy size and location. I’ve heard these afterpains get more painful the more births you give, but I honestly can’t remember how it was for me. I just remember my first birth and being shocked and appalled that the contractions weren’t over.
- Be careful not to skip a feeding, especially the first month. This is when your body is trying to calculate how much milk production it needs, so skipping a feeding means your body takes note that it should produce one less feeding.
- Watch out for the let downs. If this happens during the Summer and you happen to be in the middle of a water gun fight, there’s no need for a water gun, your boobs can shoot out milk farther than any water gun could! The let downs are when the milk starts coming out in the beginning of a feeding and it comes out strong. You could even hear it in your baby as they gulp, gulp, gulp faster. This let down can be triggered from hearing a baby cry, not just your baby but any baby for that matter, or if you skipped a feeding. Wear breast pads. You don’t want to go through the whole party for your baby’s 1st birthday, only to find out after the party that you had a huge wet spot right the size of a clementine on your right boob. Not that that’s a true story or anything, I’m just hypothetically speaking, eh hem……
- Another reason to not skip a feeding is you could get mastitis or thrush. And trust me, coming from a person who’s had both at the same time twice in a row, you do not want to ever experience them. They literally feel like 300 needles poking your boob over and over again the whole duration of your breastfeeding.
Did these obstacles stop me from breastfeeding or to cut it short? No. We do it because our love for our babies are fierce and we’d make sure to feed our babies the best that we can, whether it be breastmilk or formula. I breastfed my babies as long as I produced milk, and then I formula-fed them afterwards. Sometimes there are new inventions or products for mothers that come out now and I think, darn it! I wish they had that when my kids were babies! I would have definitely used the Munchkin Latch bottle on my babies, as the winner of the 2015 American Baby’s Best Award for Best Bottle Chosen by Moms, the accordion nipple pumps and moves just like the breast, stretching back to your baby’s soft palate for a correct latch. The bottle also features a one-piece, anti-colic valve — so no air travels through the breast milk, reducing the risk of colic. The Munchkin LATCH line offers a whole line of breastfeeding products that can help ease the breastfeeding process, so the breastfeeding won’t be so overwhelming.
So tell me, what are some surprises that came your way when you became a parent?
Kayela says
Breast feeding is the worst! And I love your piranha comparison… Haha! Spot on!
Maggie says
Amen to ALL of what you said!! I can only add two things – 1) have some lanolin (I used Lansinoh) on hand for when the cracking/dry nipple thing happens (it will happen!) and 2) if you have an anatomical reason for your baby not latching, don’t lose hope! My daughter never latched. I remember bursting into tears at the hospital on the lactation consultant. So stressful, but it didn’t need to be. I pumped for an entire year so that my daughter would have breast milk. She’s 5, healthy as can be and has never been sick…not once. I attribute this to the iga’s and antibodies that are in mother’s milk.
Brooke says
Amen to everything you said! Plus, nobody ever tells you about how tough the recovery is while you are trying to figure out parenting and breastfeeding and everything else! You should do a post on that! Ha! All my friends are shocked when I tell them about the recovery lol
Jenna says
Oh my goodness it hurt so bad at first, I was sore for about 8 weeks and then got diamond nips, haha! I also recommend lanolin, wearing slightly looser nursing bras around the ribcage (i got mastitis because my bras were too tight) and milk absorber pads. I leaked all over the place for the first month-ish until my milk regulated itself. I breastfed my daughter exclusively until she was 9 months and then slowly gave formula and then weaned from breastfeeding completely just short of her 1st birthday. I’m glad I went that long and if we have another I’ll probably plan for the same amount of time.
Anita sharp says
I was lucky and had great instructors at my childbirth classes who taught about most of the things that you mention, but there are always surprises.
No one told me about the let-down reflex, and how painful it could be. I could be triggered by my baby crying or just not feeding on schedule. Nothing stopped that flow of milk once it began!
No one told me that each baby would feed differently, that each one would have his own way of latching on, that one would gulp down his meal as quickly as possible, while another liked to graze. That was a big surprise!
No one told me how far milk can shoot across the room should baby be distracted and let go of the nipple mid-meal….It can be quite a distance.
No one told me how much I would miss it when it was over….
ourlifeadmin says
It really is true, isn’t it? They’re bloody sucking, nutrient sucking little things! 😀 But of course much, much cuter and so worth it all.
ourlifeadmin says
Yes, lanolin is great! If I think about the nipple cracking and drying, it literally makes me nauseous. The things that we do! And wow, so much respect to you for pumping for a year! I hated breastfeeding so I only did it a handful of times. That’s awesome she’s so healthy, it all paid off! Here’s to her continued health!
ourlifeadmin says
Amen, amen, amen! plus the hormonal changes. It really hits new moms as a shocker. I think I did do a post about that, I’ll have to find it and maybe repost it. 😉
ourlifeadmin says
8 weeks is a long time to be sore! And I forgot about the tight bras, that is so true! And I breastfed two of my kids until they were 9 months too. Great job mama!
ourlifeadmin says
You are SO lucky you knew most of it! So it was a less shock to you as it happened then. The let downs are crazy, it could be any baby crying, my milk will start to come in! I felt like such a cow! Haha. And you are right, I couldn’t wait until the day I weaned my babies but everytime it happened, I was really sad about it which came as a total surprise. Love your comment!
Beverly Houpt says
I knew it would hurt (and about the contractions afterward), but I somehow thought I would be lucky and it wouldn’t hurt me quite so much. I was wrong. I met with a lactation consultant (who also happened to be my visiting teacher!) a couple of days after giving birth. It was frustrating because she said I was doing everything right, but my baby was trying to figure out how to latch correctly. It was nice to talk to a professional about it and get some piece of mind.
I’m hoping my next baby will be a pro feeder!