My Breastfeeding Essentials

I've now been breastfeeding for almost six months and I couldn't be happier with our journey so far. Back when I was pregnant with Ava I wondered how I'd fare when it came to trying to breastfeed again, as things didn't go to plan with Noah. I've previously wrote about my breastfeeding hopes and fears and all about the early days in my breastfeeding journey. Today I thought I'd write all about my breastfeeding essentials which have made our journey easier.

Nipple Cream
When Ava was a newborn she nursed continuously and we had cluster feeds every other day, which is totally the norm for such young babies. We were also still working on our latch which made my nipples sore and cracked. Nipple cream worked miracles and definitely is number one on my breastfeeding essentials list.

Nursing Bra's 

Okay so nursing bra's don't give your boobs a lot of support, they kinda hang loose and free! Although they don't look particularly attractive, they are so comfortable and making feeding so much easier. Ava has actually associated the noise of the click of my bra strap with milk, as soon as she hears that noise she stops what she's doing and stares at me in anticipation! It's even woken her up from sleep before!

Brita Water Bottle
I've always drank lots of water but I've found I drink double the amount now that I'm breastfeeding. I'm always thirsty! I cart my water bottle around with me wherever I go, especially when feeding because I'm always always parched when she's nursing.

Breast Pump 

Now this isn't an essential for everyone but I've started to express every now and again so that Nick can feed Ava on occasion. It's great to be able to do this when you know you have a busy evening ahead and need your partner to step in and help too. Being a Medela Mum I have a Medela Swing Maxi which is fantastic and so easy to use, I'll be reviewing it in the next couple of months.  

Bananas 

I wish I could dive into a pack of biscuits every time I get hungry which is quite often when breastfeeding but I'm trying to be good! I tend to turn to bananas when hunger strikes as they are so filling and give me an energy boost when I need it the most. I can eat two in a day and I swear it helps with my milk supply and my mood, who knows! I know they've become my go to when feeding.

Easy Access Clothing
Breastfeeding tops and dresses are great but aren't necessary if you don't want to spend a small fortune. My wardrobe is full of breastfeeding friendly garments such as kaftan tops, empire line dresses, layered t shirts and jumpers. I now base my outfits on how accessible my boobs will be and you'd be surprised to know that you can feed quickly and discreetly in so many different types of clothing.

Netflix 
Netflix and chill? More like Netflix and boob! Netflix has become my best friend on many occasions, especially when Ava has her cluster feeding sessions. Sometimes you just have to curl up in bed with your baby with plenty of skin to skin, with your drinks and snacks and a new box set to binge watch! It's the perfect excuse to enjoy milky cuddles with your baby and totally unwind.

What are your breastfeeding essentials? 

My Breastfeeding Journey - The Early Days

When I fell pregnant with Ava last year I knew I wanted to give breastfeeding another go as unfortunately it didn't work out the first time around with my son Noah. I didn't want to put any pressure on myself but I knew that I wanted to start fresh and give it another try. With this in mind I teamed up with Medela just before Ava was born and wrote all about my breastfeeding hopes and fears which you can read here.

I've now been breastfeeding exclusively for two months and can happily say that it's going really well and I couldn't be happier with our journey so far. That being said the early days and weeks can be tough so I thought I'd write all about my own personal experience so far.

Before I get into all that I want to start by offering encouragement to any expectant mothers out there who are wanting to breastfeed or thinking about trying to. Whether it be their first child, second or tenth, if you've not been able to previously or are unsure about it. If you want the encouragement then please do take it and just give it a go, what's there to lose? Don't let previous experiences put you off as I could have easily done. I'm so glad that I tried again as it's been a whole different experience this time around. 

Let's start at where our breastfeeding story began, two months ago when Ava was born. The minute she entered the world she was placed on my chest for instant skin to skin and I gave her a cuddle in the towel as she gave out her first cry. I settled her in an exhausted haze and then brought her to my chest, she latched instantly and that is when our journey began.

We had to stay in hospital for 24 hours to be monitored after she was born which is a standard protocol when your waters break but your contractions don't start naturally. I didn't mind because it gave me time to rest and get my bearings before heading home with her. I remember laying in the hospital bed in the early hours with her and just gazing at her in awe. The midwives were amazing with me and one in particular offered me lots of support by showing me different feeding positions and gave me tips on how to get the ideal latch. Having this support so early on was just what I needed and I cannot thank them enough.

I found the first few days at home the toughest, especially at night. To begin with I struggled with her latch on the left side which made my nipple sore and cracked. As it was so sore I found myself feeding more on the opposite side as I wanted it to heal. Again I got great advice from the midwives who visited, they told me to feed through the cracked nipple, to apply lots of nipple cream and get lots of air to it because if I didn't feed on that side it could effect my supply. It was the perfect advice just at the right time. I did what they suggested and everything was fine in a day or two.

Then there's the cluster feeding, let me talk about that! When Ava was around two weeks old there was a couple of nights where she literally didn't stop feeding and being new to breastfeeding all kinds of thoughts and worries flooded through my head. Was she hungry? Was she not getting enough milk? Was there no milk left? Is this normal? I spoke to numerous people about this and they all assured me that it was all totally normal and it was her way of "upping supply" and perhaps a growth spurt too. So if you are currently going through a cluster feeding stage just bare with it, get comfortable, turn on Netflix and grab a load of snacks! It's the perfect excuse to relax and indulge while your baby does too!

We have now been breastfeeding for 10 weeks, a whole 70 days and our journey so far has been everything I had hoped it to be and so much more. I went into this thinking "just give it another go Jenna!" and now I can't imagine doing anything else! I love breastfeeding! 

Do you have any breastfeeding stories you'd like to share? I'd love to hear them! 

- Wrote in partnership with Medela. 

My Breastfeeding Q&A With Medela's Lactation Consultant

I recently blogged all about my breastfeeding hopes and fears and as my new role as a Medela Mum. Following on from that post and part of my journey as a Medela Mum I was invited to ask three questions to lactation specialist, Sioned Hilton.

What tips do you have for someone who is attempting to breastfeed for the second time? 

Go in with a positive mind. Every baby and pregnancy is different. Talk with your partner and family and chat about how important this is for you and having their support especially in the early days will really make a huge difference. When you are starting out and about having another person with you to have a cup of tea and moral support is really valuable as more often than not the only people who realise you are nursing are mums who are of have nursed and would love to give you a thumbs up and words of encouragement but as a new mum those early out and about feeds fills us with apprehension.

Look back at your early few weeks after the birth of your first baby and reflect would you change anything. Many mums will use this previous experience knowing that the sore and tender nipples are to be expected and that breastfeeding can be painful but that it can be improved with early support and tweaking things. Sometimes you will look back and identify that there was a feeding difficulty with a tongue tie or shallow latch or that you had mastitis,  you may have got the support you needed and resolved these problems but it also may have led you to stop breastfeeding earlier than you wanted and this time round with that experience you can seek help and support a lot earlier.

If you had a positive experience and all is well because you had support at the hospital, your baby just knew what to do that is great , however every baby and birth experience is different and you may find second time around you will still need as much support as you did first time round.

Find a local breastfeeding group to go with your toddler whilst you are pregnant, enjoy meeting mums who are there and share your worries and look at how to minimise those early blips with the support of a friendly face and good peers.

You know that those early weeks are really important to help both you and your baby to learn how to breastfeed , so that you get lots of practice and get breastfeeding off to a good start. Ask family and friends to help out before birth if your toddler is attending nursery/ school so that this is one less rush in the morning – plan a rota if this helps.

Be confident, go by your gut mothering instinct, babies have their own biological clock and need a lot of flexibility. Babies can’t read the parenting books, these are current societal trends and you will never spoil your baby or develop bad habits. Babies need to be held, soothed and fed to feel warm safe and secure – knowing mum is there to protect and feed. We’ve done this for thousands of years.

If wanting to do a combination of expressing and direct breastfeeding is there a certain time when I should start? I've heard about waiting a couple of weeks until you attempt to express but is this just hear say? 

Breastfeeding and milk supply does take a few weeks to get established and if there are no problems with feeding or unwell baby it is best to wait for around 4 weeks after your baby’s birth to start expressing. This is because you both need to get a lot of practice and your baby will have 2-3 growth spurts around 3 days, and 3 weeks and will have lots and lots of frequent feeds to meet this need. If you are expressing you could limit the available milk or actually contribute to an over supply which brings its own difficulties with engorgement, leakage and potential mastitis.

In the early days you can hand express as your milk comes to volume or use a pump just to soften the breast to help baby latch on , but be cautious not to do this too often.

If you are experiencing feeding difficulties, sleepy baby, jaundiced, tongue tie, engorgement, mastitis and baby unable to effectively remove milk you can support effective breast emptying with expressing after each feed to help with establishing your supply until baby is more alert , and able to feed more effectively. This means that you will have supported you milk production when your baby wasn’t quite there yet.  With the support of your midwife you can discuss this further.

Ideally wait until 4 weeks and you may find a routine of every alternate day or a similar time daily for you to express. Start with only pumping one breast just in case little one wakes earlier than expected and once you get to understand your baby’s feeding routine and frequency you can tweak it to when it suits you both.

What are fool proof ways to boost supply? 

Unfortunately there are no fool proof ways but getting it initiated well in the first few days after birth really makes a huge difference. Your breast milk cells are activated with the birth process and that first week of milk coming to volume gives each of these individual milk sacs the blueprint for your supply, production and storage capacity.

Rather than wait, start as you mean to go on. Frequent feeds every 2-3 hours and effective breast emptying as the more you drain the more milk you make. We look at milk volumes over a 24 hour period and some mums have a smaller storage capacity but feed 12-16 times a day and produce volumes > 700mls a day and other mums make as much milk but with less frequent feeds. What is normal is a great fact sheet to assist mums to understand the ranges of milk production per feeds and per day when babies are well , developing and growing.

If things are slowing down you can boost milk production by increasing the feeding frequency to 2-3 hours during the day. If you are night nursing no longer than 4 hrs if production is a little slow – so increase night feeds or reintroduce if these have stopped. If your baby isn’t interested in the other breast you can express at the same time, and pump after each feed to take any additional available milk to help with that breast emptying. If you are combining breast and bottle feeding it could have an effect even if its expressed milk in a bottle – some babies experience nipple teat confusion with a conventional teat and modify their sucking so that they get a little lost at the breast, or if you are using formula they are missing the opportunity to breastfeed and your body will down regulate your milk supply if you are not emptying the breasts as frequently.

The usual tips are always important:

·         Good latch and comfortable positioning

·         If it doesn’t feel right – seek help and support early

·         Keep a feed diary – jot down time and length of feed, look and listen for lots of sucking and swallowing of milk, jot down what the nappies are - lots of heavy wet nappies and stools that are soft yellow mustard are indicators of lots of milk and good hydration.

·         Have your baby weight length and head circumference jotted occasionally – there is no need for going to baby clinic every few weeks unless your health visitor advises you – babies grow at different rates and a steady weight with lots of wet nappies and a baby that is alert and happy is fine

·         Soft breasts don’t indicate a reduced milk volume – its just that you make what your baby needs after 4-6 weeks many mums don’t have that fullness

·         Eat and drink regularly, rest when you can and if you are tired and exhausted your body needs time to recuperate – delegate ironing and household chores to family, plan and freeze meals in batches, have lots of little mini nutritious snacks, and drink what your body needs – minimise the caffeine, diet  and soft drinks and opt for water

·         Sleep – even though you are waking for night feeds those breast feeding hormones provide you with deeper sleep to help you repair and refresh.

·         If dad is giving expressed milk in a bottle pump at the same time so you regularly empty the breast and avoid huge gaps between feeds which may lead to engorgement and down regulation of your supply over time.

·         If you are experiencing low supply – and this is confirmed by your health professional

o   Increase feeding frequency

o   Check the latch and positions

o   Express if baby not feedingo   You can take a galactogogue with the advice of your breastfeeding specialist and GP , there are some herbal remedies but these do need to be taken with a consultation.

Do you have any breastfeeding stories you would like to share with me?

- Wrote in partnership with Medela

My Breastfeeding Hopes And Fears

It's been three years since I had Noah and it's hard to remember him as the soft and squishy newborn that you see in the photo above. He's now a boisterous toddler who's all about superhero's and literally never sits still. Yet just looking at that newborn smile takes me back to that very day and all the memories and feelings come flooding back.

The newborn days can be tough, especially for a new parent. They don't call it the fourth trimester for nothing, it is hard but it's oh so worth it. Back when I was pregnant with Noah I had hoped to breastfeed him but I have to admit that I didn't really prepare myself for it. There's so much to learn when it comes to caring for a new baby that I felt totally overwhelmed once he was born. It's no surprise that when the time came to breastfeed him that I struggled. He had breast milk and plenty of colostrum during his first week but I eventually switched to formula as I openly admit that I wasn't prepared at all. I'd started to make myself ill with the stress and guilt of it all and I think that could have all been prevented if I had looked for more support during pregnancy and had done my homework. That being said I don't regret making that decision, it was right for us at the time because of all the reasons above but this time I hope to do things differently. 

I'm currently 9 months pregnant with baby number two, my baby girl is due any time now and I'm determined to give breastfeeding another go. I feel so much more prepared this time because I've been doing my research and feel like I know what to expect. I've read numerous breastfeeding articles, spoke to countless breastfeeding Mum's, signed up to a couple of breastfeeding support groups online and have also joined the community of parenting bloggers with Medela. That's right, I'm a Medela Mum! 

This post is all about my hopes and fears when it comes to breastfeeding. Of course my fear is succumbing to the emotion and stress of it all again like I did with my son but I hope and think I won't this time around. My hopes are to breastfeed and express for as long as possible and that my baby thrives. Having this army of support and knowledge behind me this time I know that I can do it, or at least give it my best shot! I'm so excited for this new breastfeeding journey to begin.

Do you have any breastfeeding tips you would like to share with me?

- Wrote in partnership with Medela