Hey loves! I hope everyone is having a good week! I am going to share my little routine with nursing, milk supply and some tips. To be honest, I wish I knew all of this before I had a baby and started nursing. But you learn when you become a mama, right? And I swear when you ask people about their nursing experience, they just tell you that everything is great and their milk is flowing and it’s all fantastic! So I am going to be very honest and blunt! A lot of women have a hard time with their babies latching, or milk supply, etc! I had a very hard and longgggggggggg labor that ended with a c-section! But I was very blessed to have had my kid latch right away (that was my small win). So obviously everyone knows that your milk doesn’t come in right away it takes about 2-3 days until your actual milk comes in. And you can defiantly feel it. Your breast become very full, they hurt and you leak A LOT at the beginning! My recommendation is buying a set of nursing bras from Target, Amazon, etc! I bought a few packs off Amazon because you go through so many!!! Plus the nursing pads. But eventually your body knows how much milk to produce for your baby so you’re not constantly leaking. When I first had my son a lot of people told me to have him on routine and feed every 2-3hrs and it will help him sleep better… well I will say every baby is soooooo DIFFERENT! That may work for you and may not. It didn’t work for me. I recommend just feeding your newborn on demand as much as they need and when they need it! Even if that means they’re eating every hour! (which when they go through growth spurts that can happen) When you commit to breastfeeding it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of work if you’re full time pumping or nursing. Oh and speaking of growth spurts, babies go through growth spurts at 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, etc! When my baby boy was 3 weeks old and he was super fussy, like screaming on top of his lungs and feeding non stop. I was like what is going on? what is wrong? what am I doing wrong? well I called the nurse line and they were like he is fine, he is just going through growth spurt! Oh boy that was a hard week and my nipples HURT!!!! So my baby went through every growth spurt so far and it has been HARD! I have asked some mama’s hey did your kid go through this growth spurt and I swear a lot mama’s were like nope, it was great! And then I am like wow.. what is wrong with me! haha well like I said every baby is so different!!! One thing that I learned and it was super hard and emotional week for me! But when your baby goes through 3 month growth spurt, it’s a huge mental development change for your baby but also your milk! Your let down becomes more regular and it starts to happen when your baby starts sucking instead of instant let down and spraying every where. Well that can cause “breastfeeding crisis” and that is when your baby refuses to nurse even when they want to. And that comes from your milk let down is changing. When this actually happens, a lot of mama’s don’t know or understand so they assume something is wrong with their milk supply so they quite nursing!! When I had to go through this it was so hard and very emotional for me. I went to lactation specialist for help because I thought something was wrong with my milk. But it was just the growth spurt and the changes! She actually recommended a lot of skin to skin, which helped a lot! And also, taking a bath with him and trying to get him to nurse in the bath, which also helped a lot! So if you find yourself going through this don’t feel discouraged and don’t question yourself or give up!! And here are some of my tips for good milk supply! Have oatmeal every morning, it’s extremely good for your milk supply. Also brewers yeast is great for milk production. I actually went to a whole food store and bought brewers yeast powder and made peanut butter cookies with it. You just make regular cookies and add a little bit into the cookie dough and you won’t even taste it and it’ll help your production. If you need to get your milk supply up try using Legendairy MILK supply supplements, you can go to their website and they have so many different options regarding to what you need and they actually work. All of their products are Fenugreek free so you won’t smell like maple syrup! Another great brand is BOOBIEBAR, they have fantastic bars, which also makes it easy just to have in your purse and have it as a snack if needed! My nursing/pumping routine, I don’t have a fancy pump, I actually just have the medala pump in style pump and I got it through my insurance for FREE! And that’s another tip, is call your insurance and your pump should be covered! So I feed on demand, but I pump twice a day and that is after his morning feed which is around 8:00am and then I nurse on demand all throughout the day and I pump again when I put him down to bed at 7:30pm. He also nurses twice at night. From what my pediatrician said is that they nurse twice until 6 months and then ones until 9 months and then they can sleep all through the night. But if your baby doesn’t wake up to nurse then don’t wake them up! Let them sleep!! And last tip is have plenty of water!!!!! And if you have a hard time drinking a lot of water then try coconut water! That also helps with your milk!!!
I hope some of this helps any mama’s out there!!! Have a great week and chat soon! ❤️
All in a day with Natalja 