Se7en Things I wish I had known about Nursing…

Before the month is out and World Breast Cancer Awareness Month is over I thought should squeeze in one more post on the La Leche League and the marvels of nursing. As I rambled through the day this list kept growing longer and longer in my head… but I kept it to se7en things and here they are:

Se7en Things I Wish I Had Known About Nursing Before I had a Baby…

  • I wish I had thought more about having a baby, instead of just labour my entire first pregnancy. The entire focus during pregnancy and antenatal classes, and every conversation revolved around surviving labour, getting through it and the associated horror stories!!! Right you are pregnant, by the time you are nine months pregnant you are so grateful for labour to get this little interloper out of you! But hang on labor passes and babies move in for a very long time.
  • I wish I had hung around babies more, and especially mothers who were nursing their babies. I was so focused on finishing up at work before having a baby… Huge hint: Get yourself to a La Leche League meeting before you have your baby, and you can see the reality of the highs and lows of having a new baby.
  • I wish I hadn’t thought it was a good idea that the father person get up and change nappies/diapers in the dead of night whenever I had to nurse – whose stupid idea was that? It only took two nights to realize that two sleep deprived parents cannot care for a baby terribly well and somebody has have some real sleep. Let’s just say the father person slept through the night from the second night.
  • I wish I had known that you don’t have to change a nappy every time you nurse your baby…We were having a veritable party every time this poor baby squawked in the night… By the time we had frozen the kidlet – whipped his clothes off to change his clean nappy; stimulated him with soothing classical baby lullaby music and lit a bazillion soporific lavender candles… he was wide awake and so were we – for a number of hours… All the kid needed was a quick sleepy nurse and back to sleep he would have gone… I have never done this with any other child and never had any sleep issues with any other child!!!
  • I wish I had known that milk supply is totally dependent on supply and demand and every couple of weeks when your baby wants to nurse continuously it is just being very clever and generating more milk as it goes through a growth spurt. Not to mention everything that is difficult seems so much easier to deal with in the light of day… How many times did we barley survive the wee hours of the morning to finally have a great couple of hours sleep together at dawn.
  • I wish I had known that whatever anyone says they don’t nurse forever (treasure their smallness)… no matter how often you nurse or how many hours you spend nursing your child will eventually wean, sleep in its own bed and go to the toilet. Really, regardless of what anyone else tells you or doesn’t tell you, they will grow up.
  • You will hear a lot of horror stories about parenting and as soon as you survive one stage you will be warned off the next: Just wait till they are teething, walking, talking… Just wait till thy are six weeks, six months, one year or worse two… What Nobody Ever Tells You is how much you will love them. Your love for your own child is totally complete and there is not a whole lot you can do about it! Because of this you can and will survive almost any parenting challenge that is sent your way.

and in case you are still reading I asked the Se7en Hoods why babies should nurse:

Hood #1: It is Healthy and babies need to be touched to grow.

Hood #2: It’s free and easy to carry around.

Hood #3: You get to spend lots of time with our baby and you still have time to read to us.

Hood #4: Babies like it.

Hood #5: Your baby doesn’t have to have breakfast cereal.

Hood #6: Can I nurse now?

Hood #7: Glug, glug.

6 Replies to “Se7en Things I wish I had known about Nursing…”

  1. Hi, I have been reading your posts now and then, since my sister got her bday party ideas from you. (hayes family) I also wish I had known all what you wrote about breastfeeding and so much more for baby no1, its seems that only by baby no.5 do I finally feel secure in my heart about how we feed, sleep etc! I wish I had stood on what I believed right in the beginning than being swayed by other opinions.
    Bless you.

  2. It took me until baby #4 to figure this out. Enjoy every moment and don’t rush on to the next stage.

  3. Hi C, Don’t I wish I had known all this with my first one – the poor little guy survived my first mothering fumbles! He seems okay now but my word it was a bit of a shock to all of us!!! It really took a while to figure out “Go with the Flow!”

  4. Hi H, So glad you liked it! Isn’t hindsight the best insight!!! I popped over and had a look at your cute kiddo’s… yup you do indeed have a lot to be thankful for. thanks for taking the time to comment and have a great day!

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