Breastfeeding is one of the greatest journey’s you will ever experience with your little one and we want to make sure you’re successful on that journey.
Breastfeeding Tips
Latching:
If you’ve noticed your child is have problems latching then you need to take a look at their lips when they’re eating. Make sure both their top and bottom lip are out all the way and not sucked in while they’re eating. If you don’t do this then it can cause a shallow latch or they wont get enough food either and you’ll start to wonder why they’re so fussy when you just fed them. You also have to make sure they’re doing this when feeding from a bottle.
Bottle or Breast:
The decision is up to you honestly, but we tried doing bottle with both of our kids and it’s exhausting. We found it much easier to just stop making bottles and to just feed on the spot so you don’t have to worry about heating up the bottle and wasting money on the bottle warmer and sterilizer or just cleaning all the bottles all the time. I promise you that you will save so much time and effort if you just whip it out and feed them on the spot.
Breastfeeding Positions:
I’ve had two C-sections and the one position I found as the biggest lifesaver is the side-lying position. You’re going to lay down on your side with the baby facing you and pulling them in close and the best way to make sure they’re close enough is using their nose is lined up with your nipple. This way you can lay down on your side and rest while they eat! Another method is the old fashioned football hold which everyone knows about too. If you’re really new to breastfeeding and haven’t conquered the latching part, then I highly recommend the cross-cradle hold. This is where you hold your baby across your body, but support their head with the arm opposite the breast you’re feeding on. You can then use your hand to gently guide their head towards your breast while the other hand supports your breast.
Breastfeeding Essentials
Breastfeeding can be very difficult after having a baby as you’re trying to balance raising your newborn while also going through postpartum and I wanted to help new or expecting moms with this page because I didn’t have a lot of resources when I had my first kid in South Korea. With that, I will provide a brief reason as to why I’ve chosen all of these items and why I highly recommend them. Click the button if you wan the full list of items!
- Hope
This is one of the most important items you will need as you will be feeding your newborn every 4 hours since they don’t have an internal alarm clock yet. With that, your nipples are going to get really sore really quickly and that’s where these come in.
You’re also going to want these, in combination with the silver nursing cups. These are really inexpensive and will cost you $15 usually, but amazon is always having sales on them so make sure you get them when you can.
With breastfeeding you always have to worry about leaking and I highly recommend to get these as they are extremely comfortable in your bra. Do not buy the disposable ones because they are very itchy and they can really irritate your boobs.
If you don’t have this on your baby shower list then you need to put it on there now. This nipple butter saved me so much when I was cluster feeding my son and my nipples started to crack. This can also prevent cracking which is another good reason to grab it. Going price for it right now is $14.
These are amazing when it comes to traveling or going out on dates as they can catch your milk while you’re out in public. On the plus side they can easily hide in your bra too.
When I had my son, I really struggled with latching while breastfeeding and it was because we had so many different pacifiers that made him have a shallow latch. These definitely fixed that problem really quickly and if your child has a tongue tie then this will also help. They’re very cheap which is probably the best thing about them, and if you need to buy more on short notice they’re also sold at local stores.
These covers are the best when it comes to feeding your baby in public. They completely cover you and your baby so you have privacy, but the best part is they’re always on sale on Amazon for $15. I recommend having two just so you have a backup.
Night feedings are extremely difficult because you just want to feed your baby and go back to sleep as quickly as possible. You want to make sure you baby doesn’t have a bright light shining in their eyes or else you’ll be up all night watching Gilmore Girls. This little light is really soft and you can turn it on and off simply by flipping it.
Nursing bras were another thing I struggled with because you’re trying to find something that’s comfortable for you to wear while also allowing you to feed you baby easily. My husband bought a bunch of different bras and these were the best bang for our buck. They’re extremely comfortable and they wont irritate you. The Momcozy bras are also really good, but they’re a little bit more expensive if you’re willing to do it.
Like I said before, these are also really good, but I recommend getting them during a sale because they can get expensive really fast. Just one of these will cost you $30, but it’s totally worth it in my opinion, just not my husbands opinion.
These burp clothes are the best in the business and I recommend buying a truck load of these things. They’re fairly big and will help with spit up like nobody’s business. I think we have 20 of these lying around our house because of how much our son spits up. They will cost you $23 for the 3 pack which isn’t bad for how great they are.