Since my baby didn’t gain enough weight one month, I got obsessed with breastfeeding and baby weight. Every time I would get online I would look for diets, techniques, exercise, and lifestyle in general to increase milk flow. Pointers to make sure when my baby is sucking, she is actually getting milk. I went ahead and did the unthinkable. I went ahead looked for all the old wives tales on breastfeeding diets and tried all of them without finding out why and how they would work. This is probably the first time I followed something without finding out the logic behind it.
Anyway, my obsession kind of pushed me so far, that I would call up and talk to all moms, old or new or would be, and start comparing their experiences, babies weight, how long do they sleep, how much poop they. It was kind of like the old board exam days, where meeting of two friends would always mean questions like “how many hours everyday day are you studying? 9 or 10?” “Did you read the whole mogul history from the reference too!! But that’s 563 pages!”
Anyway, during one of these calls, I was talking to a friend of mine who was expecting at that point of time. After badgering her with all the details on medicines, diet and exercises good for breast milk, when I started on details of breast pump, my friend could not stop herself from asking “But don’t you feel like a cow!! I mean not only you are taking medicines for more milk, you are actually pumping it out of you ….”
Only then I realized, I don’t really feel like a cow, I feel like an overly ambitious, eager to succeed, totally stressed out cow. Thing is whole bunch of my friends had babies around the same time I did, and they went through the same phase. I don’t know what causes it to women like me in this age. I have heard during my mothers’ time, lots of women chose not to breastfeed so that they don’t lose their figure. But us … we get so much information on how breast milk is good for the baby, for her digestion, growth later immunity to disease and then how good it is for the mother also, less chance of breast cancer, more chance of weight loss (might not work by the way … I will explain later) etc etc. That we take it to heart that any use of formula for baby is kind of like a defeat. A failure to be a good mother.
Well the first thing I learnt about breast feeding later is you should be relaxed, and to achieve that if you need to take help of formula once in a while, it wont hurt the baby, in fact, it might just help her. Many such tried and tested experiences I had and still having I will jot down in this section. A request to all reading, in case you guys know something that I don’t, please leave a note.
Anyway, my obsession kind of pushed me so far, that I would call up and talk to all moms, old or new or would be, and start comparing their experiences, babies weight, how long do they sleep, how much poop they. It was kind of like the old board exam days, where meeting of two friends would always mean questions like “how many hours everyday day are you studying? 9 or 10?” “Did you read the whole mogul history from the reference too!! But that’s 563 pages!”
Anyway, during one of these calls, I was talking to a friend of mine who was expecting at that point of time. After badgering her with all the details on medicines, diet and exercises good for breast milk, when I started on details of breast pump, my friend could not stop herself from asking “But don’t you feel like a cow!! I mean not only you are taking medicines for more milk, you are actually pumping it out of you ….”
Only then I realized, I don’t really feel like a cow, I feel like an overly ambitious, eager to succeed, totally stressed out cow. Thing is whole bunch of my friends had babies around the same time I did, and they went through the same phase. I don’t know what causes it to women like me in this age. I have heard during my mothers’ time, lots of women chose not to breastfeed so that they don’t lose their figure. But us … we get so much information on how breast milk is good for the baby, for her digestion, growth later immunity to disease and then how good it is for the mother also, less chance of breast cancer, more chance of weight loss (might not work by the way … I will explain later) etc etc. That we take it to heart that any use of formula for baby is kind of like a defeat. A failure to be a good mother.
Well the first thing I learnt about breast feeding later is you should be relaxed, and to achieve that if you need to take help of formula once in a while, it wont hurt the baby, in fact, it might just help her. Many such tried and tested experiences I had and still having I will jot down in this section. A request to all reading, in case you guys know something that I don’t, please leave a note.
