Breastfeeding: Love Your Baby!

Breastfeeding is one of the most natural, beautiful things in the world.  God gave YOU the perfect food to feed your baby!

Now if you're simply not interested in breastfeeding, skip over this blog.  While in my perfect world, each woman would at least give breastfeeding the ol' college try, some women just don't want to, and that's fine.

There is a GREAT blog for anyone who, for whatever reason, chooses to feed formula.  It's a wonderful resource for formula feeders everywhere!  Fearless Formula Feeder breaks away from the lactivism (and yes, I very much consider myself a lactivist - though hopefully not a pretentious one!) that often makes formula feeders feel small and like a failure.  You're not a failure! 

However - this blog is about breastfeeding.  I'm so grateful that I decided to breastfeed.  When Donovan was diagnosed with milk-soy protein intolerance, I found out that the formula he would have had to use costs $25 a can.  Right?!  Breastfeeding is FREE.  It's absolutely the best thing I've done for our family financially.

In addition, I have lost fifty pounds since giving birth - I gained 25 pounds during pregnancy.  So I'm in the best shape I've ever been in!  I don't think I could have done this without breastfeeding!  I still have a lot of weight to lose - I'm certainly not skinny! - but I'm grateful to have this extra "kick" from breastfeeding.

But breastfeeding is fickle.  I've had to take fenugreek or drink nursing tea to increase my supply a few times, and in the beginning I actually had an oversupply which choked my newborn baby and made me leak everywhere.  It hurt a lot at first, too.  But I kept at it, and I'm so glad I did.  Donovan only got a few milk proteins in my breast milk - he could have gotten really sick if I'd fed him milk or soy-based formula from the get-go, which is exclusively made from dairy! 

The pros far outweigh the cons, however... and in the next few days I really hope to point those out!

I would like to encourage my pregnant friends to give breastfeeding a shot.  It's a great, great way to bond with your baby and give him or her the best nutrition anywhere.  What's the worst that could happen?