Breastfeeding

Ok I titled this one straight up so if you don't care to know stop reading!

Evidently breastfeeding isn't as simple as sticking a baby on your boob. I learned the hard way that it is a fine art of negotiation and teaching. I've also learned that breastfeeding is something that becomes all consuming. I've experienced enough about breastfeeding that I feel like the expert. We've done it all with our girls.

According to the nurses at the hospital when I delivered I had a moderately traumatizing c-section experience that almost lead to a blood transfusion. This trauma can cause problems with milk supply. So between that and some anatomy issues and sleepy stubborn girls the breastfeeding didn't go so well for us.

I spent a whole day clumsily trying to get it to work alone, the next day with two lactation consultants (one for each girl) who came every time the girls ate. Nothing worked and I felt like a big failure whose children would starve to death because I couldn't feed them. So we gave them formula and the lactation consultant brought in the pump. Oh what cruel torture we go through for our children.

There is nothing like sticking funnels on and having your nipples squeezed. But I pumped away for three weeks until we could see a lactation consultant. Seriously in my next life this will be my profession. These women are freaking awesome. They are the reason that I continue to breast feed my children.

Any way at 3 weeks we went to the lactation consultant. By this point I had worn myself out pumping every 3 hours and then feeding the girls. I was tired of cleaning bottles. So our LC taught me how to breastfeed. By 3 weeks the girls were more awake and a bit more coordinated and the pump had helped me fix some of my issues. The natural part of breastfeeding started to kick in for us.

Did breastfeeding make our routine any easier: no. It is something I enjoy sharing with my girls. I love watching them and having them close to me. It is also funny what I have learned about their personalities from breastfeeding. L likes to be wide awake and she focuses on eating. She is my perfectionist. S takes her time and closes her eyes. She is my laid back baby.

In case you were wondering how breastfeeding works with twins:
We weigh the girls before and after they eat. L wasn't eating enough at first and J and I worry so we weigh them to make sure they eat enough. Yes we are OCD. After we weight them I get my EZ nurse twin pillow and both girls eat together in the football hold. I do tandem feed them or we would never get anything done. The girls are then supplemented with formula or whatever I pump while at work or in the morning and at night (the two times I pump after I feed them).

Life with twins is a circus!