New baby

Having a new baby is hard. Oscar came 3 weeks early. Today is his due date. I decided to push the breastfeeding which with my other two only lasted a week. What I didn’t know & what no one told me is that when breastfeeding, once your milk is more established, you get breastfeeding sweats. I thought I was coming down with something, a fever of some sort. I feel cold but hot to the touch & constantly sweating! Apparently that’s normal!

Breast milk is a natural laxative but he’s still constipated & crying a lot, obviously in pain. It’s frustrating as his mum, I can’t help him & I’m supposed to be able to comfort him but I’ve just gotta wait for it to pass. Breastfed babies also don’t poop every day. Sometimes they can go up to 7 days without needing a poop!

My boobs are leaking all the time but barely getting any milk out of them when I use my electric express machine but then I hand express & get more out of them! I find it funny when I express as I can see the milk squirting in to the bottle 😂

He settles better with expressed milk as I can see/control how much he has. Usually 3oz settles him for a good couple of hours. When I give him my boobs, I get maybe half an hour max!

Yes, you should sleep when they sleep. I nap throughout the day when he naps & I definitely need it! I find myself falling asleep with him in my arms!

When he’s on a boob & feeding, I read to him. It’s important that he hears & gets to know my voice! I’m an avid reader so it’s my books that I read to him but luckily he’s not old enough to know what they’re about! I get to still read my books & he benefits from it by hearing my voice & in the long run, it’ll help his language & development which should be a bit more advanced than children whose parents who don’t read to their kids!

Breastfeeding was so painful for the first 10 or so days, he got his tongue tie cut & been fine ever since! So if you have issues with pain & breastfeeding, ask them to check your child over for tongue tie. The county we live in are really keen on breastfeeding & are ever so helpful! They call me every couple of weeks to check we’re still doing okay & to ask if we need any further help etc! They’ve been amazing!

Peace out ✌🏼