BREASTFEEDING

When Archie was born, I was very encouraged by the medical staff to breastfeed him. As soon as he came into the world, they put him on my chest and he latched immediately. As we were transferred to the maternity ward, they advised me that he will be tired and sleep for a few hours and to not worry about it, even if he doesn’t wake up to eat. I followed the advice, but as I was in pain and still a bit shocked after everything, I didn’t wake him up to feed the whole night which led to him losing 10% of his birth weight in one day. This was the reason why we stayed hospitalised for another 3 days after birth. I was trying to wake him up, but he was still very sleepy. He eventually latched and started to feed – by the time we got discharged, he had put on a bit of the weight loss back so we were good to go home.

The actual milk came after a couple of days of being home and it was very difficult. By that time, Archie was feeding every 1-2 hours, very rarely 2-3 hours (even during the night) and my milk supply got extremely increased all of a sudden. This led to stretch marks, mild fever and very hard and uncomfortable breasts.

I must admit that I thought about giving up breastfeeding very often in the first 6 weeks and couldn’t wait until he is 3 months old to stop it and change him to formula. But as time went by and everything got better, I became slightly addicted to breastfeeding. I now want to keep on breastfeeding until he’s a year old, and maybe even longer. It is such a unique experience and the only thing only you, as a mother, can do for your child.

Archie was exclusively breastfed until five and a half months old when we introduced him to both solids and formula. He now has all three: breastmilk, formula and solids. Happy boy!