I'm glad I'm breast feeding but...

Does anyone who breast feeds actually get their baby to latch on properly from the get go? The latching on problem has caused my nipples to be tender and sore, and it makes having to feed baby Doodle that much more of a dreadful experience. Because my little guy was born on a Saturday there were no lactation consultants at the hospital for almost my entire stay meaning that Mr. Doodlebug, my mother, the nurses and I were trying to figure out how best to get him to stay on my breast. When I finally did get to see a lactation consultant my nipples were already sore, I was extremely frustrated and it turned out the advice the nurses were giving me was the exact wrong thing to do.

I think it was the 3rd day of baby Doodle's life when he decided my right breast was too engorged for him to eat from it which made it more engorged. I hand expressed and pumped some collastrum (at that point my milk hadn't come in) but it didn't seem to help the growing boulder that was taking over my chest. I made an appointment at the Breast Feeding Resource Center for the following morning and got to spend more than hour with a consultant there who helped me tremendously. Thank God for that center. Things have been going pretty smoothly since then (Wed - today is Fri.). My nipples are still sore but baby Doodle is latching on much more efficiently now. I feed him for about 10 mins on each breast. It was taking longer before my milk came in, but now he gets fuller faster. I hope his appetite doesn't increase that much.

Last night was a bit rough, I mean rougher than the other nights. He ate every 2 hours -- and that is not from finish to start, that's from start to start. The "eating every 2 hours" thing is so deceiving. He's really eating every hour to hour and a half.

On a positive note, I know that breast milk is the best thing for the baby and it's making me look like a super model, well, a super model who just gave birth 6 days ago.

Baby Doodle is looking cuter every day. At this rate he'll be a super model by age 3.

Girlfiend wrote an excellent post on her blog on breast feeding.