Milk Machine

I love, love, love breast feeding! I recommend it to anyone who is expecting. It's an amazing bonding experience for you and baby plus it's the healthiest option for your little one. It's the easiest way to feed at 2:00am and you certainly can't beat the price! The biggest draw for me is that you can't duplicate with a bottle the way that your baby looks at you while he or she is on the breast and their eyes meet yours and he grabs your finger. Love. It's the sweetest! Formula feeding is not bad for baby. Let me just clarify that before anyone jumps all over me. The strides that have been made in recent years to ensure that formula feeding is as equal to breast as possible are awesome! And for many mothers formula feeding isn't even an option. They have to due to an array of issues. I personally don't produce milk very long myself. I made it to 5 months with my first baby and 6 months with the last. Then my supply dried up. So I had to formula feed. My boys are healthy and strong! And I'm hoping to make it to 7moths with this baby!

So with that said, I'm gonna get to the flip side of breast feeding. When moms talk about breast feeding it's all unicorns and rainbows flying around while mommy and baby bond and share that magical moment. Seldom do they talk about the cracked nipples, the pain while baby is learning to latch on, the leaking, the engorgement, or the inability to plan your life past 2 hour increments because you will need to find a spot to sit and feed your baby!

I am a mother of 3 breast fed babies. My first was by far the easiest. He latched on like a pro right out of the womb! No pain, engorgement, or cracked anything. It was an adjustment for me, at the age of 20, to get used to the new found functionality of what had previously been fun. Fun to dress, fun to play with, fun to use as a supreme source of power over the opposite sex! Yes, they were no longer these things. They were now milk machines. Then my next 2 babies came out tongue tied. Meaning that the tendon that holds your tongue in their mouths extends all the way to the tip of their tongues and makes learning to latch on quite a trick to learn! Here's where we got to the pain, cracked nipples, and engorgement! But in time- and with enough breast feeding paraphernalia- they both got the hang of it. But I tell you, while they are learning those first few sucks on each breast felt like they were trying to extract my spine through my nipples!

Yes. There is a side of breast feeding that isn't so glamorous. And there are times where you will love it and times where you won't. Then there will just be days where you feel like a dairy cow! But overall its an amazing experience that I wouldn't trade for the world!