STOP! If you are on my blog to look at wedding photos and engagements, please click under categories and scroll to those posts. Especially if this is the first post that comes up. This blog is long overdue and I’ve been promising it for a while now. I’ve had enough friends and even people I don’t know ask me how I get so much stored so I am taking the morning to finally answer them, so thank you for your understanding!
First of all, if you’ve made up your mind to breastfeed your baby and you want to store up as much milk as possible, kudos to you! Welcome to a very exhausting, delirious, but super rewarding experience. Besides all of the proven goodness you are giving your baby, let’s face it! It’s free!I never understood when people get grossed out by something like mother’s milk, yet have no problem giving their babies goat/cow milk and God knows what else is in formula. Seriously, have you read the ingredients? I have nothing against women who have to go the formula route (like you Mom, if you’re reading this 
), to each her own. But at least TRY. Or make it through the first few weeks. Let me preface everything by a more personal note. After a very long and painful labor with Amelia a few years ago, I didn’t think anything could feel worse. Until I breastfed. The pain is EXCRUCIATING and I understand why many mothers quit in the beginning. If you’re like me, you’re stubborn and self-taught. I didn’t do my proper research into all this baby stuff, what with scheduling my first labor class umm, the DAY Amelia was due. I guess I assumed that “hey! Boobs are getting bigger, there must be milk in there. Sweet.” I also didn’t deliver at the best of hospitals, and didn’t have the best advice in the beginning or a good support group. Hospitals are so quick to offer you breast milk if you’re “not producing enough” which I found out much later that the babies don’t come out hungry. They come out with full bellies, and all they need are those few drops of colostrum. It is so common to think that you are not making enough milk for the baby, so once mothers go through the pain of attempting to breastfeed and are handed a bottle of formula they think “this is a no brainer!” The first three weeks of breast feeding are painful. Your nipples will crack, bleed, scab up, then go through it all over again. I would spend nights just crying. Also, both my babies didn’t have a “proper suck” according to lactation consultants (and I saw quite a few).
*If I don’t answer your questions in this, please email me: talia@taliastudio.com — there’s a lot to this process, so please excuse me if I forgot to cover something.*
You have a couple options if you want to only give your child breast milk. You can choose to feed straight from the boob if you plan on staying at home. It’s rewarding as well, and you will officially be at your babies beckon call 24/7. Don’t even think about leaving for a quick grocery run.
I had to go back to work almost right away after having my babies. When you are a small business owner (and I am not talking about my height, or lack of height), the benefits to pumping outweigh solely breast feeding.
I don’t have to be the only one who feeds the baby. The baby will be used to the bottle when they’re still young enough to train. Sometimes if you wait too long and introduce them to the bottle they look at you like you’re crazy and they won’t take it. Your will power has to be stronger than your babies. I didn’t care that they threw a bit of a fit in the beginning when a bottle was put in their mouths. It’s still my milk, and danggit, you’re drinkin’ this kid! Same mentality our parents had with us as children! “If you don’t eat your dinner you don’t eat.” TRUST ME. Your baby WILL eat. Jeff also loved that he could have those bonding moments with the baby and be able to feed them while I pumped.
I could drink coffee afterwards or wine afterwards (depending on the time of day) because I knew that it would be hours until my next pumping session and by then the milk would be fine.
I could leave the house and do what I had to do, and now that Sebastian is almost three months, I can work a full days wedding. Life feels somewhat normal again.
Every pump is an ab crunch. Every suck from the baby is an ab crunch. Those who know me know I don’t work out. Ever. I lost 20 lbs in 20 days with both babies. By now my body is back to what it was before getting pregnant…except for a few battle scars/stretch marks that have yet to disappear. It’s a forced work out and so worth it!
I am able to monitor how much my baby eats for his feedings. This way when there’s a baby sitter, I make sure I have enough milk set aside and the proper amounts so this liquid gold doesn’t go to waste!
There are ways in the beginning to produce more milk. These methods haven’t been proven, buuuut I’ve done them both times and I’m milking like a cow over here. At 37 weeks pregnant you can start (if you don’t, you can do this after the baby arrives, don’t worry) – I was drinking raspberry leaf tea (you can find this online or any Whole Foods) and also taking 1-2 tablets of malunggay pills every day. Both are all-natural and known to increase breast milk supply. I stopped taking the pills about a month ago when my son was already 8 weeks old because I had more than enough milk to feed triplets! The raspberry leaf tea I still take at times because it’s yummy. I like to put a little bit of honey and milk in it. It’s caffeine-free as well, so you can drink it any time.
Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow! This article is used with permission and was originally appeared on Talia Studio’s blog.