World Breastfeeding Week: My Breastfeeding Experience The Second Time Around

My experience nursing Jordan was completely different than my experience with Jacob. I was much more educated this time around. Not only did I have my previous experience to go by but I also did a lot of research and reading before his arrival. I began to actually study lactation. I find that learning how the body works and what is happening and why helped immensely. 

Instead of trying to decrease my milk supply during the early days, I capitalized on the leaking stage and bottled as much of the milk as I could, knowing I would need it one day when I headed back to work. I also started attending a breastfeeding support group weekly, starting when Jordan was five days old. The support and camaraderie of other moms was unbelievably helpful. This also helped to change my views on nursing in public. I became much more open to it {due to the fact that I was essentially doing it every week at group} and didn't worry so much about what other people thought, only that I was caring for my baby in the best way possible. 

When Jordan was still a newborn, he had a hard time staying awake. We tried every trick in the book {some of which were very upsetting to me} to no avail. He just remained sleepy and was near impossible to wake up. This was our biggest challenge and I still don't have the answer for it. The only thing was persistence. He eventually grew out of it and became a nursing champ. 

When I started out I had a tentative goal of nursing for 12 months {something I never accomplished the first time around} and a real goal of nursing for 15 months. I'm not sure why I chose that number but it seemed great at the time. When fifteen months came around, I realized neither he nor I were ready to be done. We continued nursing for a little over 19 months and I am incredibly proud of myself and happy with our nursing relationship.