Hello everyone! I am currently 22wks pregnant with a girl and we are soo excited!! Since I have met my half way mark I have been starting to get more educated about breast feeding and things to come. I know all the benefits to breast feeding and I am planning on trying. However here recently I have been hearing horror stories about nursing and consequently am now starting to have nightmares as well. I would appreciate any advice (negative or positive) would be very helpful!!

-Thankyou

Hi Laurie!  Welcome!  Tammy had some great advice for you.  There is also an article on Parents.com titled 14 Things You Didn't Know About Breastfeeding that you may want to check out.  I've included the link below. 

www.parents.com/baby/breastfeeding/probl...

Hi Shannon,

Congratulations! It's great that your husband wants to participate in feeding baby. Even if you strictly breast fed, there are so many ways dad can be an active part of caring for baby.

I breast fed and pumped at times as well. My husband would feed when I had a bottle ready but most of the time he would do the burping and then baby would sleep in his arms. Dads just need to be reminded that there is plenty of love to go around :)

As far as bottles go, it's trial and error as well as personal preference.

I have three children. One never took to a bottle. The other two did fine with any bottle.

Here is some more information about breastfeeding that may be helpful.

www.parents.com/baby/breastfeeding/basic...

Tammy

Hi new mommies!

Congrats! And welcome to motherhood. :) I just wanted to share the info that most helped me with nursing. I wish I'd had this info with my firstborn it would have made our first couple weeks a lot smoother. But even by number three, better late than never.

1.) Learn as best as you can ahead of time what a food latch looks like and what a baby who is latched on well looks like while feeding. There are some good videos out there that are helpful, but the best way is to see it in person. If you have a relative or friend who nurses, the younger the baby the better, and she's comfortable showing you how the visual know-how is so much easier to understand than the pictures and descriptions in books or pamphlets. Pain is not just part of nursing. It's a sign that something is wrong, usually the latch, but sometimes infection. Soreness is normal, but not pain. I had one side that my daughter struggled latching on to. I experimented with different positions to help her get a food latch and I would break the latch if it was painful and try again until she was on and I just felt tenderness, but not stabbing pain. Sometimes we would have to try over and over probably 7 or 8 attempts each session on that particular side, but it's worth it to avoid cracked and bleeding nipples, and the agonizing pain that comes with that.
2.) My absolute favorite info about why to and the benefits of nursing your baby is in Real Food for Mom and Baby by Nina Planck. She has compiled so much research on it and her advice is logical and helpful without being preachy or pushy.

3.) You can start to pump anytime after your milk comes in. I often pumped when I was engorged o relieve the pressure, then I would let her nurse the rest. It was to hard for her when she was really little to achieve a proper latch with my boobs so swollen. Don't expect to get a lot more than an ounce or so the first few times you pump, you have to learn how and let yourself relax to be able to pump well, but gradually you'll get more as you pump. Also, don't turn up the suction to try to get milk out, it should just be a gentle tugging. Higher suction can damage your nipples, just like an improper latch. With my second baby, when she was about two or three months, my husband would get up with her about two or three nights a week for her nighttime feeding and give her milk I had pumped and stored. It warms up quickly and nicely just running it under warm water. She didn't like a bottle so she didn't ever drink very much, but it was enough to get her to her next feeding and to let me have a few nights a week that I could sleep 5-6 hours without having to get up. My hubby also would get up and bring the baby to me to nurse at night and them put them back in their bed so that I didn't have to get up and down each time. He was helping to ease my burden and I really appreciated it, it was so much easier to fall back asleep when I didn't have to get up and down every time. My hubby is also bathtime king. When they we little, I'd bring them to him in the shower he'd snuggle with them in the steam and sing to them, then wash them up and then I'd dry them dress them and nurse. He still does bath and bedtime most nights. I appreciate that little break soooo much.

Hope some of this helps!