Essay Post #1: How To Establish a Proper Latch

For my composition class, I was given several different types of essays to write. I chose to do them on topic I am passionate about: Breastfeeding, not letting a baby Cry It Out, more breastfeeding and the story of how I met my husband. I plan to share all of these essays in a series, starting tonight. I will be sharing them on Lactastic Mommies, my facebook, as well as Baby's Breastie and Badass Breastfeeders of NW Ohio. All wonderful pages devoted to supporting breastfeeding mothers. Here is the first essay.

When a woman is about to become a mother, she is given endless advice. Most women know that breast milk is best for babies, yet rarely are they told that breastfeeding is not always easy. Breastfeeding can be rewarding for both the mother and the baby, but getting a healthy latch can be difficult, these steps should guide a mother to a healthy latch.


When you are preparing to nurse your baby, first, you must get comfortable. It is a mother’s natural instinct to want to comfort her infant, but the letdown occurs only when a mother is relaxed. Nursing sessions can last thirty minutes or more and you don’t want to spend all of that time hunched into an uncomfortable position. Get yourself comfortable by propping your arms up with pillows, resting your feet on a nursing stool or trying multiple nursing positions.

Once you are in a comfortable position it is time to place the baby. You want to bring baby straight in towards you. His body should be coming in sideways so your stomach and his are facing each other. He should not have to turn his head to the side or arch his neck in order to get to the breast. At any age, it is harder to swallow with your head turned towards the side versus having your head straight.

Get baby into a comfortable position. Babies love to be close to their mothers and nursing is the perfect time to incorporate their need to snuggle. Pull baby close and wrap his around you and support his with your arm that will not be supporting the breast you intend to offer. If baby is flailing, try swaddling or resting your hand or thumb on top of any arms that are getting in the way.

Once everyone is comfortable, it is time to present your breast to your baby. Cup your breast in your palm and place your thumb past your areola to form a sandwich. This should project your nipple forward. Baby needs to take the majority of the areola into his mouth. To stimulate baby to open his mouth, use your nipple to tap him on his lower lip or chin. If he is stubborn, it may be necessary to squeeze your hand and thumb together and express a drop or two of milk or colostrum onto your nipple or finger and rub it along his lips.

When baby has opened his mouth, aim your nipple for the center of his palate and pull your infant to you, not your breast towards your infant. You want to make sure you are aiming upwards towards the roof of his mouth. Your baby’s gums should be past the nipple and taking in as much of the areola as it takes in order for your nipple to be pressing against his palate. Your milk reservoirs are in the areola, not the nipple. The areola needs to be stimulated.

To make sure your latch is sufficient, examine baby’s lips. Are they both folded outwards rather than in? If not, remove your breast by inserting a finger to break the suction, and then try the latch again. Your latch should not be painful. In the beginning, you may feel a burning sensation as baby sucks, but it should be in the center of the nipple, never around the areola.

These steps should help a mother establish a healthy latch which is the most important part of nursing. There are many medical cases that can hinder breastfeeding, but a bad latch should not be one of those reasons. Breastfed babies receive over four hundred ingredients from breast milk that cannot be found in formula. They have higher immunities, closer bonds with their mothers and a healthier digestive system. Breastfeeding can help a mother lose weight, lowers her risk for multiple medical conditions and helps the body repair itself from pregnancy. Every woman deserves the opportunity to nurse her child and every child deserves the chance to nurse from her mother, hopefully, with these steps, they will have a positive breastfeeding experience.

    Thank you for reading and Happy Breastfeeding Week! I hope all of you are meeting up for a Big Latch On Event!

Huddy, you are my everything. You are a breastfed, intact, bedsharing, Moby Wrap lovin' boy and I can't wait to hold you all night.

I am taking classes online and spending half the night on the computer or reading and my biggest regret is that I am not with you. I don't like leaving you, ever. I lock my keys in the car, forget things and can't focus without you. I just love the person that you have made me. Thank You for being my son.

Oh, and tomorrow, be have. You hate to wake before 10 am and we are waking you at 830 for Daddy's surgery. If you aren't too tired, I promise to take you to the art museum where they are having a special tour just for babies!

Also, you are nearly 8 months old, STOP PEEING ON ME! Everyone knows you do it on purpose!

Wow! I get virtually NO page views anymore.

Sorry for being such a slacker. I exist and so does Huddy.

He is a big boy of 7 months now, but let's do his 6 month post first.

At 6 months:
Huddy has:

• 2 teeth! The first popped up the Sunday May 6th and the second Wednesday May 9. Teething was rough. Sinus infection, our first sickness. Rash. Very clingy. Slight Fever the Friday before. Awful stuff.
• An obsession with pulling hair. He does it to pull himself to you, pull you towards him, and just for the heck of it.
• Biting. Fun stuff. Luckily, he has done very well about not biting while nursing. (commence the knocking on wood)
• Been snuck into the ICU via a Moby wrap and a tall cousin. shame on us but he needed to see his Graham Cracker.

He Likes:

• Grandma. LOTS!
• Graham Cracker. She has spent the last month going from Hospital to Rehab Center and back to the Hospital. Huddy does NOT like that. He prefers to see her every 2 weeks for shopping.
• His Happy Napper. No clue what it is from, but it is a penguin Graham Cracker got him and it sings a very annoying song that he loves very much.
• Skinny-Marinky-Dinky-Dink
• Broccoli. It is his favorite food. Second fave is steak.
• Standing.

Dislikes:

• Shots. We delayed his 6 month shots until 7 months because he does the hold-my-breath-till-i-turn-blue-thing. I hate that.
• Mean voices. Grandma growled as she told a story and he cried. I guess that means we don't yell enough in this house? 90% of our yelling is play so yeah, probably his issue. But when I yell "Moose! I am going to put you in the washing machine!" and then George yells "F*** you" every few minutes when he is playing video games, our neighbors probably think we are disfunctional as can be.
• When Daddy works past bedtime. NOT okay anymore. (Daddy goes to 2nd shift next week, this is going to suck)
• Baby food. We are doing BLW but we thought we'd try baby food. He isn't a fan. Pretty sure it is a texture thing since he actually puked when I gave him mashed potatoes.
• The CAR! He hates having to sit back in his carseat. The lounging isn't cool once you master sitting up. I bribe him with car keys and then pray he sleeps. Otherwise, I go through a bag of 15 or so toys in the 15 minute car ride to my mother's.

He was 16 lbs. 14 oz. and 27 inches long. 50th percentile for weight and 75th for height. He is a boob man. He eats real food maybe 3-5 meals a week and refuses that when teething. The boobs are his saviors.


7 months!

• He is STANDING. By himself.
• Okay, he STOOD by himself for 10 seconds, 5 seconds, 8 seconds, 7 seconds and 11 seconds in the last few days. I am guessing he will be walking by 10 months.
• He refuses to crawl. At all. He makes it obvious that he CAN he just chooses not to. Heck, he can climb.
• Speaking of climbing. You know where he does most of his climbing at? My bed. Our bed I guess. Daddy started encouraging this (yes, DADDY) when Huddy went through a stage where he only slept 1 hour at a time (like a month long growth spurt) between nursing. Then it became him sleeping the first 4-6 hours in his bed and then the rest in our bed. No biggie since Daddy leaves at 5 am. It is now to the point where his crib is sidecarred to our bed and he sleeps maybe an hour a night in it. I like having him sleep in our room. LOVE it. I don't like him in our bed. At all. LOVE snuggles. But I like to spread out and toss and turn and wiggle! This is no longer allowed.

And that is all we get for 7 months because Huddy is waking up. Goooooodnight

Diapers.com

Okay, I am obsessed, I know, but Diapers.com has saved us tons! We are now even using Soap.com!

I am taking part in their refer-a-friend program where you get $10 off your first purchase of $49 or more, and as a first time user, that will also get you free shipping and probably half a million other discounts. We just got a ton of diapers for $80! I'd guess around a 4 month supply.

So go here:

use code: STAC1659

Not valid for existing Diapers.com, Soap.com or BeautyBar.com customers. Some restrictions apply.

and save!

Also, for every time you go through this referral, they are donating $30 to Best Friend's Animal Santuary! SO GO!

5 months

I had 3 different photographers take Easter pictures for us.
For the 1st, it was $100 for 8 prints. It would have been $300 for the rights to the pictures. No.
For the 2nd, the shots sucked, the photographer DOUBLED the price when I went to go pick them up and she made it clear that we were not as important to her as her client who had an appointment after us since she pushed us out the door when they showed up early.
These pictures are from the 3rd who was very patient with our boy and who only charged $125 for prints and the rights to these pictures! Guess who has already had 3 people book with her because I raved about her? I am a mom. Hear me roar!

The biggest thing George is doing at 5 months old? Eating! Go watch!

We are doing Baby Led Weaning. He eats what he wants by grabbing it (In the video the banana slipped from his hand so I helped him out...bad mommy) and getting it in his mouth.

He also weans off the breast when he is ready. Which will hopefully be in a few years. Yep. I hope to breast feed my boy as a toddler and tandem nurse if I am lucky enough to get pregnant before he self weans.

Activities:

• He loves his piggies (toes). He has to be swaddled to sleep because the moment he is laid down, his pigs go in his mouth and he can play with them for hours. Without falling into a full sleep. For hours. Swaddle him and he is out in minutes.


• He loves to nurse. Duh!


• He leans for what he wants. Running water? Lean. Grandma? Lean. Daddy? Lean. Moose? Lean.


• He sits up by himself for over a minute when he wants to. Do not try to get him to do this for pictures. He refuses because he can.


• He rolled over 5 times so he could get from one side of his playmat to the other (we have a 5 foot by 5 foot alphabet puzzle that he plays on and I can disinfect if anything....wonderful...happens on it)


• He has a bi-weekly shopping date with his Grandmothers. My mom and grandma take us out and we shop until we drop. Unless Great Grandma (Graham Cracker for future reference) has to have a blood transfusion. Then we make them drop us off before they head to the hospital.


• He grabs my hair or ears or skin and pulls me in for a smooch! Very sweet. In a forceful kind of way.


• He loves to bite. Totally teething. My knuckles seem to be his favorite thing to bite and they feel sore constantly.

Likes:

• Broccoli


• Sweet Potato (but we think it aggravates his reflux)


• Patty Cake


• Honeydew


• Cats. Even though they avoid him like the Hair-Pulling-Plage-He-Is.


• Dogs. He loves to pet them and pull their ears. Moose is very tolerant of this but doesn't hold still. My mom's beagle will hold still, but she has very sensitive ears and although she tolerates it, we know it is too much for her and try to prevent him from doing it. Other dogs? No. They aren't fans. But he will yell at Moose if she walks away from him.


• Kids. He loves watching kids play. Or eat. Or cry.


• His frog. Stuffed Frog that ribbits.


• Fish Tanks. He likes to watch the colorful fishies.


• Momma.


• His Daddy. George told us about his horrible work day one night and Huddy laughed hysterically after every sentence.


• Johnny Cash. Always has. Always will. I can sing every song from his greatest hits, word for word. All the songs in order.


• Bath time! It is the best time! I can't wait to take him swimming!


• Walks! We walk twice a day. Once for coffee and once to watch kids play.


• Books! He loves to look at them, be read to and "read" them himself.


• His Graham Cracker. When she was at my Uncle's for a few weeks after her blood transfusion we went to help my mom clean her house (84 and still lives on her own) and he looked at her chair, where she ALWAYS is when we walk in and she wasn't there! Huddy says that isn't acceptable! He hasn't gone over 2 weeks without seeing her in his entire life. Pretty proud of that. And she even picked him up from my lap and held him! She gets lots of smiles too.

Dislikes:

• Being Swaddled. He is okay once it is over. But he hates that I take away his piggies and make him hold still.


• Mommy studying. I am headed back to school in June and he can't stand to watch me prepare for my pretest.


• Dogs barking. Who isn't annoyed by this?


• Sitting back in his carseat. He will sit in it. But sitting back to get strapped in? AWFUL!


• His stroller. If he has to ride in just the stroller part and can't see me? End of the world!


• Car rides when he isn't sleepy! We are attempting to time our life around naps. Otherwise I get the screaming baby in the back. I guess once you learn to move, sitting still sucks.


• Daddy being a bed hog. After sunrise, Huddy thinks he needs to be awake. But he is still too tired (he goes down with the sun and tries getting up with it) so I bring his butt into bed with us so he will see me sleeping and sleep all snuggled with me (he is my snug-a-bugga). But if Daddy doesn't work, we don't have much room. So he doesn't sleep as well for the last 3 hours (he usually isn't ready to get up until 930 or 10) and tends to be a bit cranky.


• Moose walking away from him. If he is talking to her or petting her, she had best stay or he will call her mean names in Baby Language.


• Mommy walking out of the room. I thought he was too young for this, but since he also picks things up with just his thumb and index finger, I guess all kids just do things when they want to. He always wants me, my mom or George.


• Shots. I can't handle them. He stops breathing, turns colors and then when he does start breathing again, 30+ seconds later, he screams bloody murder. It tortures my Mommy Heart.

Something I want to remember:

When I tell him I love him I say "I love you with all my Mommy Heart. On the day you were born, my heart grew to twice it's size and became a Mommy Heart so I could love you twice as much as anyone else."

George says it sounds like it is from The Grinch but I love it and have said it since we came home from the hospital.

Today

Today marks 44 years since Martin Luther King Jr. was killed for demanding Equality.

As a mother, equality has become so important to me. With so many teenagers committing suicide due to bullying, I am scared. If we do not acknowledge every single person's human rights, which I believe the right to join lives in marriage is, these children will continue dying. We must show our children that everyone has Equal Rights so that we are not segregating our LGBT youth any longer. We need to show this by allowing marriage for all. We need to show this by always reminding ourselves to only judge by the content of someone's character and not by their religion, looks, physical capabilities or sexuality. We should not speak down to others, even our children. We should never put someone down, it may be as low as they can go. Some days, I think we should all begin our day with THIS to remind us of what this man was calling for.

Justice should be a reality for ALL of God's children.

I knew...

I knew I would make a good mother. I am not being conceited. I just knew.

I knew I would give my heart and soul to this little boy. And I think I always knew I would have a boy first.

I knew I would be the mom who couldn't wait for nap to be over so I could kiss my son's perfect cheeks.

I knew my child would be spoiled.

I knew I would be a very independent mother. I was raised by a single mother.

I knew I would be fiercely over protective.

I knew I would love him so much it hurts.

Parenthood has a lot of unknowns, so sometimes, I want to remember that I always knew the important stuff.