Serving doubles at the breastfeeding bar, straight up with a twist of peaceful parenting.
Via Etsy.com
I know, an extra bump in the lady lumps can be annoying! And confusing. Or worrisome. Painful even!
But before jumping to conclusions (and the medicine cabinet), it’s important to first determine what the lump truly is. An abscess? A plugged duct? Something more serious? Your health provider can give you a diagnosis and treatment options, but most of the time lumps found during breastfeeding can be resolved without a trip to the doctor.
Read on to find out more…
Once you’ve heard of thrush, trust me — you’ll know it when it finds you.
Feeling the drag of what must be broken glass shards from the top of your breast, downward and heavy through the bottom to the release of letdown? That’s thrush.
The experience of seeming white-hot razor blades slicing round and round your areola in sickening circular motion as baby nurses? That also can be thrush.
Seizing up with dread before every feed, knowing (and sweating bullets over) the least pain that might come, and imagining the worst that could, and that sometimes does come? Well, that too is a hand-walker with thrush.
Photo Credit: Javier Mantrana
As with everything experienced in our breastfeeding journey, there’s no predicting what direction this nursing relationship will take with MaiTai once his little womb-dwelling brother needs sustenance ‘on the outside.’ MaiTai is currently older than three years old and will turn three-and-a-half when his baby brother is born.
And he’s still nursing… technically.
Via babygearlab.com
*Read the first part of this post here.*
**Learn about cup feeding as a bottle feeding alternative here.**
Photo Credit: Sugarsnap Photography
Katy Wentworth and her daughter Holly. Photo Credit: Ana & Ivan Photography
NUTRITION IN HUMAN BREAST MILK
You know how your brain literally shrinks while you’ve got a baby in the womb, causing what’s commonly and oh-so-affectionately known as ‘pregnancy brain’?
Though you might feel like the dullest knife in the drawer for about nine months, the fuzziness does work for a good cause.
The evolutionary view is that the resultant mental fog allows women to literally forget about everything else and focus only on their babies. ‘Pregnancy brain’ also erases traumatic memories of labor and birth so women will be, you know, tricked by mother nature into doing that all over again.
Support, pictured left. Demand, pictured center. Supply, pictured right. Photo Credit: Ana & Ivan Photography.
Milk Production: Supply & Demand
Christina Valdez with her two month old, Oliver. Photo Credit: Ana & Ivan Photography
THE FIRST SIX WEEKS
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
Christina Valdez with her two month old, Oliver. Photo Credit: Ana & Ivan Lifestyle Photography
GETTING STARTED AFTER BIRTH:
Kimberly Williams with her two-week-old, Kaleb. Photo Credit: Ana & Ivan Photography
PREPARING BEFORE BIRTH:
Mama's Milk, No Chaser 