As I was nearing the end of my pregnancy journey and I was receiving so many different opinions and personal stories of what my life was soon going to look like. Despite all the advice there was no real way to prepare me for how my life did indeed change. It was wonderful, overwhelming, joyful, and stressful. I had done so much research on the birth process while pregnant that I felt prepared as much as I could be for that and then they handed me my baby and told me to try to get him to nurse… well I should have done just a bit more research in this area because I felt very unsuccessful. I was determined to make it work though because I knew how it helped my body heal and was helpful for the baby. Six months later we are still going strong with nursing and it is wonderful!

There were just a few things I wish I had known in those first few weeks of this journey. 

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Prepare your body

I am not sure the how behind it, but one of my friends shared with me that some of the experienced mommas have all been saying to apply the nipple cream starting about two weeks before baby comes. I did this one and I feel like it was very helpful in preventing any cracking or bleeding. Continue to use the cream after every feeding, it is a lifesaver! This is the cream I used and really was happy with it.

Find the right position

I had some excruciating shoulder and back pain from holding my baby up to my breast rather than allowing him to come to me. I had a boppy pillow, but I found myself leaning to the baby while nursing when using it. Once I realized I was doing this and it was caused by the way I was sitting to nurse I quickly tried to find a way to position him on the boppy pillow and allow him to come to me. Made a huge difference. This is the boppy pillow I used and loved, once I actually started to utilize it correctly.

Relax

This may be the most important one of them all at this point in the nursing journey. I was worried he wasn’t getting enough or he wasn’t latched correctly. Once I found myself focusing on relaxing when it came time to feed him, I could feel by body providing him the amount of milk he needed and he was also relaxed enough to latch correctly. The tension in our body has a huge impact to our baby’s body. 

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate

This is one I can not repeat enough! Your body needs water to be able to make more milk for your baby. I had heard someone say that you need to drink about 10 oz of water in between each nursing session. I have been trying to use that as my goal between each nursing session. I would know when I did not meet that goal and would feel bad that my body was not making the amount of milk my baby needed. Once I started to make a goal of staying hydrated the nursing process just started to become easier. I’m not saying this will work for everyone but it has for me and it is something I still do to ensure I keep my milk supply up for him.

Eat and eat healthy

We followed a strict diet while pregnant and focused on eating healthy for the baby, well that needs to continue after birth. Your baby is going to be taking nutrients from you still after birth and we need to be consuming these highly nutritious foods to give our body the vitamins it needs to then give the baby what they need. I don’t know if you are like me or will be, but I feel like a bottomless pit while nursing. I am burning calories to feed him and in turn, I need to consume more calories to burn them during the next feeding. 

Bond with baby

This is one of my absolute favorite parts about nursing. It gave me and my baby one-on-one time to just bond together. They were within your body for the past 9 months and birth should not end this connection. Nursing gives you designated times each day (and night) to be present with your baby to look into their eyes and reassure them that they are safe in this new world. Quickly they will know when you are holding them and that you are their source to sustain life for them still as you were when they were in the womb. 

The app

When you first start nursing there is a lot of pressure to make sure that the baby is latched for an adequate amount of time every two hours. Well, when I was in the hospital they gave us the tracking sheet that my wonderful husband helped me keep track of the amount of time we spend nursing, but once we came home and I was trying to learn all about how to do our new life keeping track was harder to remember. I found the Huckleberry app and it allowed me to just hit start and stop to keep track of the time we spend nursing and how long between each session. This was a huge relief to take one thing off my plate to try to remember. I could just look to see how long it had been and what side I had used last. 

Not a one size fits all

I know that my journey and the things that worked for me are not going to work for others. Ultimately each nursing journey will look different and some might not end up in nursing at all. Finding a lactation consultant is one of the main ways to see how to make this process work for you if you are having any challenges with your nursing journey. 

I wish you the best on your nursing journey and welcome to motherhood!