Breastfeeding, YOU CAN DO IT TOO!!!

Now, I could give you all the factual information possibly found on the internet. But I'd rather talk about what I've learned from breastfeeding. Some of the things i have also been told about breastfeeding are interesting too. Let me start off by saying that my first two breastfeeding attempts with my 4 yr old and 23 month old were both fails... i never made it past 8 weeks with either of them. Now that I've given birth to my now 3month old and I'm still breastfeeding and no words can describe how prideful I feel.

Since breastfeeding I have learned patience... wow I have learned major patience. I tell you breastfeeding on the couch (immobile in my case) while my boys do everything in their power to destroy the house within a 20 minute time frame and I with nothing but my voice and a flyswatter to try and stop them makes for a very interesting situation. Thus comes in the lesson of patience, since breastfeeding I have learned to try to come up with some type of activity for my boys before i settle down to breastfeed. This makes both parties happy, my house stays relatively clean and my kids stay relatively entertained.

I have learned the beautiful blessing of the natural bond formed between a mother and her newborn child. My heart swarms with love and joyful thoughts fill my mind as I look into my daughters eyes as she gets everything she needs to grow and survive from my breast-milk. My thoughts lead to those of awe in the fact that my body is able to produce liquid gold well fortified to combat illness. One thing I love that my daughter does while eating is her breaks to coo and smile at me. We have some of our best talks during feeding time.

Now I'm not sure if this is for everyone or if it is just something that has happened for me and my family. But, since breastfeeding I've realized that she is trying to do a lot more, at 14 hours old she started sleeping for 6 hours at a time at night. Also at two weeks she started supporting her head extremely well for her age. She is already bypassing milestones set by her brothers and I am one to beleive all the credit is due to being a breastfed baby.

I love breastfeeding and I don't know why I wasn't able to do it in the past, I know it takes drive and determination now. But if I had known how the love would continue to grow like this in the past I would have made sure to work harder at reaching the 12 month milestone that I am shooting for with her. I tell everyone now that if you can push through the necessary pain of learning how to do it (yourself and your child learning) and make it past 8 weeks then it should become as easy as a cakewalk. Please remember to believe in yourself. Breastfeeding is worth all the pain and frustration because once your lil' one masters their latch and you find the positions most comfortable to you, you won't remember the trials of the past you will only remember the joys of the future!!!

The Craziness of being Home

Yes, it has been quite sometime since my last post... having a baby can make things go a little crazy. Just a little and that is in terms of measurements where a little is an exponentially large amount of crazy. I hate not being more faithful to my blog but hey that's life :)

Since giving birth to a beautiful 6lb 13oz 19inch long bundle of joy 11 weeks have passed. In those 11 weeks she has acquired a weight of 10lbs 10oz and a length of 21 and a half inches long. She is quite the lil' chunk only surviving on breast milk definitely does her body good. While we were at the hospital it was really easy to relax and kind of forget about the havoc wreaked back at our home. We had many visitors at the hospital and seeing people you know when you are confined to a hospital bed with nothing but bad cable to keep you company is always awesome. My father was among one of the visitors to the hospital, he brought my boys and my best friend with him. He seemed really proud to be holding his 3rd(2ND biological) granddaughter. We named her after my recently passed mother, who is and will always be my main source of inspiration for my parenting style. Anyways enough about that let me tell you about the craziness that ensued in the days and weeks following her home arrival.

Once we left the safe easy going surroundings of the hospital, I was eerily ready to get back to the crazy lifestyle I had left. The ride home was long and hot, and let me tell you a car with no a/c in the beginning heat of summer and a newborn riding in the backseat is horrible. Once home though, we were greeted with family and cool a/c inside our quaint 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment. Its been nice being home and with my family, its definitely taking some adjusting having 3 kids now, but it is a welcome change.