pinklightbulb
Single Mummy
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2010
- Messages
- 7,276
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My OH was determined for me to FF as his first boy was from day one. If he had had his way I wouldn't be answering this thread, it goes to show you how pressure works both ways. He wanted me to FF so badly so he could bond and feed LO, so I initially said I would do 6 weeks of BF for LO to get all the good stuff then change over to FF.
Quite clearly I didn't once I got past the cracked bleeding nipples, pain, hour-long normal feeds and 3hr cluster feeds, getting up 3x a night for an hour at a time and being totally responsible for LO's nourishment, which was really hard for me to start with but as he got more experienced it was a lot less demanding than it was when he was a brand new baby. I suffered with engorgement something awful and was dumb enough to think it couldn't happen to me as I was an A cup before baby... well I turned into a D cup and couldn't believe it lol. I wasn't prepared for the hard-as-rocks feeling though or the shooting let down pain or any of that.
But I still didn't give up because through all that I bonded in a way I can't explain with my boy. I read up on BF like Dragonfly did as I knew not much about it, just that it was what we are supposed to be able to do and the milk is natural for baby. I realized just how many benefits there really were (AOB has them listed in one of her posts) and chose not to switch to FF. From there I became very pro-BF and it upset OH but he gave in when he saw how easy BF had become, how much it didn't take out of his bank balance lol, and how content LO was BFing... why change him over to FF when he was happy BFing and cosleeping and we were all getting a decent night's sleep?
Our BF journey together lasted 11 months and I loved every second of it, even the really hard part at the beginning because that showed me I had perseverance I never knew I had in me before I weaned LO two weeks ago because the mini-pill dried up my milk (OH's idea for me to go on it, I was told it wouldn't do much to my milk, what a joke lol.) If I could I would still be BFing LO now but I am proud of the 11 months we spent together BFing and I try not to be sad about weaning him anymore.
Oh... and I got my AF back at 5 months PP exclusively BFing... I was one of the unlucky ones!
Quite clearly I didn't once I got past the cracked bleeding nipples, pain, hour-long normal feeds and 3hr cluster feeds, getting up 3x a night for an hour at a time and being totally responsible for LO's nourishment, which was really hard for me to start with but as he got more experienced it was a lot less demanding than it was when he was a brand new baby. I suffered with engorgement something awful and was dumb enough to think it couldn't happen to me as I was an A cup before baby... well I turned into a D cup and couldn't believe it lol. I wasn't prepared for the hard-as-rocks feeling though or the shooting let down pain or any of that.
But I still didn't give up because through all that I bonded in a way I can't explain with my boy. I read up on BF like Dragonfly did as I knew not much about it, just that it was what we are supposed to be able to do and the milk is natural for baby. I realized just how many benefits there really were (AOB has them listed in one of her posts) and chose not to switch to FF. From there I became very pro-BF and it upset OH but he gave in when he saw how easy BF had become, how much it didn't take out of his bank balance lol, and how content LO was BFing... why change him over to FF when he was happy BFing and cosleeping and we were all getting a decent night's sleep?
Our BF journey together lasted 11 months and I loved every second of it, even the really hard part at the beginning because that showed me I had perseverance I never knew I had in me before I weaned LO two weeks ago because the mini-pill dried up my milk (OH's idea for me to go on it, I was told it wouldn't do much to my milk, what a joke lol.) If I could I would still be BFing LO now but I am proud of the 11 months we spent together BFing and I try not to be sad about weaning him anymore.
Oh... and I got my AF back at 5 months PP exclusively BFing... I was one of the unlucky ones!