Adventures in Babysitting Babyfeeding

Iver is now a week old.  This means we've had 7 days to work on our team effort to breastfeed.  Some times we do well, other times not so much.  I think, however, we are learning.

About 30 minutes after he was born, a nurse gave Iver to me and he latched on immediately.  I thought, hey, that was easy.  After all, I had heard all of these horror stories about how difficult it could be to breastfeed.  Maybe this was another baby myth I shouldn't have bought into?

Well, not so fast.  Like I said, this has been a work-in-progress since.  There's no way I could do this without a) KLC who nursed the twins for 13 months despite thrush, mastitis, and other challenges early on, and b) all of the nurses/lactation consultants I have had access to through the hospital and my doctor.

Letting Iver treat my nipples like chew rings?  Yup.  Allow the baby to dictate how long he nurses -- ie, for 1.5 hours twice on Wednesday night/Thursday morning.  Why not?

Like I said, it's a good thing I have help.  Even though "my milk is in," it's not quite running like a river so I need to do things to -- pardon the pun -- pump up production.  This includes feeding him every 2-3 hours, but only for 10-15 minutes per side.  If I let him hang out indefinitely, not only do my breasts feel like they have been through a meat grinder, they also don't have enough time to replenish their supply.

The other recommendation has been to use the pump for 15 minutes or so after I'm done feeding him to stimulate production.  This is extra fun when you have 5-year-old twins in the house who find you doing it.  The result is this:

And this:

For those of you who can't decipher, this is the twins imitating me while I am pumping.  Fantastic to have an audience for these things!