NURSING

My experience - it's hard, not easy and not necessarily magical. If you want to breastfeed and are having difficulty - get help from a lactation consultant. Use the lansinoh nursing cream. It took a while for L. and I to figure it out but we've nursed and supplemented with formula for almost 7 months now. I'm glad I continued nursing; it comes in handy at various times - when L. wakes up at 4 am, I can just nurse him in bed and back to sleep he goes; when he's overtired and fighting sleep, nursing for 2 minutes calms him down and he's sleeping like a baby (heh).

I know other women have had easier experiences with their babies; I think it's helpful if they nurse in the hospital. L was born friday night and didn't nurse, then circumcised saturday morning and didn't nurse and we went home sunday. It can be very stressful so try not to take it personally.

**Note - Lactation consultants can be very focused on the whole "breast is best". That may be the case (personally I can't pick out the 4th graders that were breastfed only but that may just be me)but they can take it to an extreme. In our case, when our pediatrician told us we needed to supplement with formula to stop the weight loss, we did so immediately. My milk didn't seem to have enough caloric content to allow L. to gain weight the way he needed to and wouldn't have, no matter how much I nursed him. Remember - everybody has their point of view and their "agenda" as it were. Lactation consultants offer a wonderful service in a time of need but don't feel like you're failing if you go home and give your baby a bottle!

COVERAGE
If you are going to breastfeed, you're going to have do it on demand, so it helps to have some coverage options. I tried using a blanket but needed to see what was going on under there, so we both wound up with the blanket over our heads and that was just ridiculous. I opted for the "privacy hat" as Dan calls it. It's cute and works but here's why I wouldn't recommend it for moms just starting to nurse - it doesn't always feel like you've got good coverage going on. You do, the hat is big enough, it just doesn't seem that way. Also, it's a relatively heavy cloth hat - great during the winter but L. just starts sweating like crazy using it in warm weather. I like the hat but I'd recommend something like this to new moms. The best thing about this is that it has a rigid neckline that allows you to look down and see the baby. A blanket does not allow for that. Obviously it's larger than the hat so there's no issue with coverage. I haven't used this myself but would still recommend it.