Comments on: Breastfeeding: What I Didn’t Expect When I Was Expecting

By: Anomama

Anomama — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:43:04 +0000

I thought breastfeeding seemed so alien to me before my baby! But I really wanted to do it because I didn’t want to use formula. The more I learned about it, the more it made sense. I never see anyone breastfeeding in my neck of the woods, so it really seemed foreign. But the minute my baby was born, I knew I didn’t want to do things any other way. He’s almost a year old now, and I’ll probably extend my plans to breastfeed. Originally, I was aiming for a year. Now that that time is so near, I can’t stand the idea of weaning! It’s such a bonding time.

By: EllenRebekah

EllenRebekah — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 20:43:58 +0000

A second on the flu immunity! Last month the flu bug went through everyone in our house one way or another; my parents, and two siblings, plus my husband, daughter, and myself. My daughter got it the day after my sister but the day before her father and I. The minute she woke up that day, she sat up and wretched. I was so afraid the rest of the day would be horrible. It turned out to be so much better than I could have expected. Though she threw up several times throughout the day, the rest of the time she was her happy self, walking outside, nursing, playing. Incredible! The next day she spent most of her time with my father while my husband and I lay on respective couches and were sick and my mother took care of us.

By: Angela

Angela — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 19:50:36 +0000

Well said, Eilat! I feel the same way about breastfeeding becoming a part of mothering.

By: Eilat

Eilat — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 17:32:54 +0000

What a lovely photograph!

I must admit I was one of those “Breastfeeding is natural, how hard could it be?” people. Especially since my mom had breastfed twins with no remarks about difficulty. I read everything and prepared completely for my natural birth and it was a wonderful experience, but I made no preparations for breastfeeding. Then, after my son was born, I just kept saying “breastfeeding is really hard!”
Nothing about it was intuitive and I felt totally confused and worried that my baby wasn’t getting enough to eat. This is especially funny to me now, since at 3 months he weighed 17 lb!

The thing that surprised me most about breastfeeding was the deep level of communication that I had developed with my baby. I honestly don’t think that you get to *know* your baby in the same way with bottle feeding. That feeling of unintuitive confusion in the beginning forced me to hone my intuition and pay close attention to my son.

And, of course, there’s the amazing joy that nursing brings to him.

I don’t think Id know how to be a mother without the help of breastfeeding. Obviously people do it, but for me I think it would be 1000 times harder.