Breastfeeding No. 2

The moment I first held my second baby, S, while I was at the hospital recovery room a few minutes after giving birth and felt the warmth of his body as he suckled with gusto...I knew everything will be alright this second time around.

You see, with my eldest son...I was a naive new mom who thought taking care of a baby and breastfeeding would be easy-breezy. Ha! After bringing home A, the sleepless nights coupled with A's problem with nipple confusion (the hospital gave him bottled formula milk and whisked him away after he was born. I wasn't even allowed to touch him despite the fact that I had a very fast and normal delivery) crumbled my determination to breastfeed. Sleep-deprived and depressed, I soon caved in and fed A formula and whatever breastmilk I could find time to express in between the every two hours feeding. I didn't know anything about the challenges of breastfeeding, didn't know there was so much local support groups and online help to be found.

So with baby S, hubby and I decided to change to a breastfeeding-friendly hospital to ensure that right from the start, we get a better chance at being successful in breastfeeding baby #2. We also went to several seminars at the Medela House and read about every available information that could help equip us this time. Having breastfeeding mom-friends helped a lot too.

We didn't expect S to be such a healthy 8.14 pounder since it was a pretty easy one hour labor and normal delivery. But although S was a strong suckler, he started to lose some weight and by 2 weeks, we were afraid he was looking a bit scrawnier than the way he looked on Day 1. He was having a bit of a hard time latching on and for two weeks I had to bare the pain I was experiencing from his improper latch.

We strived hard and eventually, the pain went away, and he was finally gaining weight again. Yes, there were moments of doubts and feelings like "when will this constant feeding ever stop?" phase. But with my experience with A, I knew time will pass and everything will not last for long. They grow up so fast and changes seem to happen in a blink of an eye.

S at Day 1

S  lost some weight at Month 1, but after continuous faith in breastfeeding....

S began to gain some weight here shown above in Month 2...

Month 3

Month 4- Look at those chubby cubby cheeks! Am proud to say it's all from exclusive breastfeeding! Not one drop of formula here :)

7 months

It was such a joy to know that I have managed to nourish my once scrawny baby into a healthy exclusively breastfed baby for 8 months now and still going strong :) It does get easier as they grow older. We hit some minor roadblocks when he was teething (which will blog about next time) but with patience and persistence, we passed it. Still manage to take one day at a time and hope to breastfeed for as long as baby is willing. :)