BOOBIES

Last night Ryan and I had our breastfeeding class. I had always assumed breastfeeding was something I’d at least try. Originally I thought I’d only be interested in doing it while I was home with my children and then when I went back to work I’d switch over to formula but the more information I’ve been gathering I’m becoming more and more open to pumping at work. Even though I am probably one of the few women who were ‘lucky’ enough to have been part of an environment where breastfeeding was done (my stepmom BF my younger brothers) I still had a million questions and was confused about the process.

I recently bought a book that seemed to be answering many of my questions. In addition picking Barbie’s brain apart helped with some of the things I’d been wondering as well. The class last night was really the last piece of the puzzle that helped to pull everything together.

I had kept telling myself that it wouldn’t make perfect sense until I was actually doing it so I tried not to get too concerned when certain parts just didn’t seem to make sense. Even though I wasn’t stressing out I still wanted to know more and be more prepared going in to be sure it was a success. The class last night really helped make me feel like I’m ready to go.

It helped answer questions about what a good latch LOOKS like, how to tell if your baby is eating enough, how to tell how much they need to eat per sitting (and ways to get them to eat more if they haven’t gotten enough), how often they should be eating and for how long. They also touched on other questions like when we will be able to do the first feeding, whether there’d be a nurse available to help with my first feeding and what to do in the event that the latch doesn’t happen in the first 24 hours of life.

I’m sure in the chaos of the first hour of his life (chaos for us, a normal day for the doctors) I’ll feel more overwhelmed than I do right now, but at least I’m not going into it totally confused – which I guess is the first step towards success.