Newborn Breastfeeding -
Day 2 of my Son's Life

Having my newborn breastfeeding every hour or two has been exhilarating and tiring all at once. I am still fairly delirious from the lack of sleep during the birth and since it. Thankfully I've got people helping me out! Having mum stay to look after the house and my husband looking after me is essential at this stage.

Both my nipples are now looking quite pink/red and have grazes on them from my son attaching poorly. It is phenomenal how strong their little suck is! I put my finger in his mouth when we were in the car and he was unsettled and it is not surprising my nipples are sore with the vacuum he's creating!

I'm very tender from my stitches for the second degree tearing and I can't sit or stand for any longer than a few minutes. My midwife suggests I try feeding lying down to look after my perineum. I thought sitting up using the cradle position was hard enough to co ordinate, this lying down thing is even harder initially because I can't see what's going on as easily. My little guy of course gets a little more frantic to attach than he would have otherwise because I take a bit longer to get myself organized.

One other random thing no one has told me about this stage of the breastfeeding relationship is the pain from their little fingernails scratching you. I have little scratches all over my breasts and he has them all over his face. I certainly didn't expect to have to cut his nails already!

Lessons from Hindsight

It was at this stage that I should have asked someone else for help as I really didn't find the advice I'd been given very useful.  Newborn breastfeeding is like any other new skill that you learn, it doesn't come easily for all people and not all teachers are the best teachers for all people!

If I had  got a different lactation consultant to come and help me then I might not have had mastitis, and for those of you in so much pain you're thinking of quitting breastfeeding, imagine that the small fee of seeing an LC is far less than the huge cost of formula over time!

If I had known that I could have tried baby led attachment again I would certainly have given it a go.

I would also have loved to know how to position my baby better so his head was in a better spot as at this point he always had his nose really close to my breast which is a definite sign he wasn't tilting his head back enough (see the first video on the latching on page to check out what I mean by that)

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