Breastfeeding

I knew I wanted to breastfeed.  I also knew it might be hard.  I nursed Emily for 8 months and Tyler for 6 months.  Not only is it the healthiest option for your baby, but it's also the  most convenient.  From birth, all Henry has wanted to do is suck/nurse/eat.  He eats every hour and a half to two hours all day every day.  Every once in a while he'll make it three hours without eating during the night, and once he even went four hours!  That means he's eating about 10-12 times a day.  I cannot imagine the dish pile if we were bottle feeding this chunker!  I know I would just be ordering more bottles and throwing them away instead of washing them.  There is no way I could keep up with that!  Plus, it's so much easier to travel and do things if you breastfeed.  You don't have to figure out how many bottles you need or try to find hot water when you're out.  You don't have to make room in your diaper bag for all of the bottles and formula.  When you breastfeed you just need to bring yourself.  Which causes its own problem...you have to go everywhere with your baby!  This is why I also knew I would be pumping.  Pumping can allow me to have an extra beer, or leave Henry for more than two hours, or let Hannes or the kids feed him.  Basically, I can have a little freedom!  We've only bottle fed him a few times.  Once when we were driving back from Denmark and we didn't feel like stopping I pumped in the car and fed him.  I don't pump everyday...but I mean to, it just doesn't happen.  However, we do have a nice little stash of milk in the freezer.  I really am going to try to get better at pumping every morning; especially because I plan on returning to work two days a week when Henry is six months old.

I can't say that breastfeeding was super easy for us, but it was much smoother this time than it was with Emily!  With Emily I had cracked, bleeding nipples.  I would bite my lip every time I fed her those first few weeks because it hurt so bad!  It was easier with Tyler and with Henry I only had a little soreness for a few days.  However, I have an overactive let down...which basically means when my milk lets down it just comes shooting out.  You can hear Henry gulping trying to swallow as fast as the milk is coming.  Which, of course, means he is swallowing a lot of air.  This makes for big burps and lots of spit up!

We use full size swaddling blankets as burp cloths.  However, they cannot contain the spit up!  Henry also has this knack for turning his head and throwing up down my shirt.  He's such a sweet little guy!  I plan on continuing to breastfeed him exclusively for the first six months (so no food or cereal or anything else).  Then, continue to breastfeed and introduce foods for the first year.  I think, that once he has teeth I will be pumping and bottle feeding...I don't need any nipple biting!  Although, Emily didn't have teeth until after her first birthday so that might not be a problem.  

Side note:  Tyler is already suffering from the middle child syndrome - aka I remember nothing about him!  I can't recall any specifics about his birth or breastfeeding or milestones...whoops!  I'm sure it will be the same with Henry one day, but luckily I've written it all down here ;)

Here's a cute little video Hannes took of Henry saying hi to Hannes' parents: