Nursing

**DISCLAIMER: This blog is not about the profession. It is about boobs. If this offends you, makes you uncomfortable or grosses you out, read another post.

I knew when I got pregnant that I wanted to breastfeed. During my pregnancy I read a lot so I would be prepared to be successful. I have 2 sisters with kids - one who didn't breastfeed and one who nursed her daughter to a year. The WHO and AAP recommend breastfeeding to at least a year. I did a lot of research and this was my goal. Breastfeed til the baby turned one.

Well I have to admit, breastfeeding was not as "easy" as I thought it would be. For those of you that have followed the Baby Webb Blog, you know we had to feed Melia every 2 hours, 24 hours a day for the first month. Feeding a preemie is timed like contractions - start timing when you begin. So if she started eating at 2P, we had to feed her again at 4P. Not a big deal right? BS! When she was a newborn it took her 45 minutes to nurse. The burp her, change her, etc... and start all over. There was no time to sleep, eat or even pee!

Based on our beginnings, and knowing that preemies thrived more on breastmilk, I made a promise to myself to nurse her to a month. I could at least make it to her due date. When I hit that goal, I set a goal of 3 months or when I went back to work. When I went back to work I knew keeping up nursing would be hard. My job requires a lot of travel and day long meetings. Going back to work had a HUGE affect on my milk supply. I have had to work really hard at pumping regularly to keep up with Melia's growing demands. Not to mention flying with a breastpump and milk, pumping while visiting other ACS offices, finding a place to pump at my office. So my next goal was 6 months.

I am proud to say we have been able to nurse Melia exclusively for 6 months. Besides the first few days in the hospital, we have not supplemented at all. I am not knocking mothers who choose formula, but breastfeeding was important to Chris and I for numerous reasons. My new goal is my original goal - make it to a year. We are staring solids this week and that is technically the beginning of "weaning". We have built my supply back up and made it through lots of obstacles breastfeeding. I feel proud of our accomplishments and proud of myself. Now we just need to make it through teething....