Today’s Mantra: Everything happens for a reason
My littlest boy slept through last night. I got an amazing nine hours sleep but elation was soon squashed by the realisation that he hadn’t breastfed during the night. As he’s a mix-fed and curious four month old, it has been getting harder and harder to get him to breast-feed during the day. I always offer it to him first but he is either really distracted or cries as he just wants the quick feed from the bottle. He breastfeeds beautifully however, during the night.
I just read a post by “A baby named Max” blogger and it (and the comments she got) stirred up the emotions that breastfeeding brings out in mothers. I never had enough milk with my first baby, who was born at 36 weeks and didn’t latch on for five days and after an emotional three weeks (where I was hand-expressed by mid-wives like a cow and encouraged to only give him breast milk though he was starving) , I gave up the hope on ever being able to feed my baby just with breast milk. He mix fed happily for six months when the overwhelming solids, formula and breast milk schedule became all too much for me.
Leo, my four month old, seems a little less content with this scenario than Julian. He was a better feeder, latched on perfectly and exclusively breast-fed for three weeks until I was told, again, my baby was losing weight. Double motillion and three bottles of fenugreek made little difference and I made the decision to feed him what I had, naturally and top-up when needed.
The last month or so he has been breast refusing and I’m sad to say that when he misses feeds, my boobs don’t seem to care anymore.
PS. This gorgeous picture was taken by my talented friend Dana of Bloom Pixels
you did your best hon xx