Ten months in on this exclusively breastfeeding journey and I'm grateful to say the least.
Grateful Savannah Rose made her way to my breast and latched minutes after coming earthiside.
Grateful my body has produced nutrients for Sav for almost a year.
Grateful for a freezer full of liquid gold.
Grateful for my girls (obvs grateful for my boobs but in this case when I say “girls” I mean, like my actual girls, my friends haha) my support system!
Grateful for the beautiful, empowering moments when nursing and pumping make me feel like a superwoman, a goddess living in my divine purpose.
Even more grateful for the strength to go on during the moments when I feel damn near defeated and 100 percent depleted.
But perhaps I’m MOST thankful for my husband, my life partner, my rock, supporting and encouraging me on this journey.
From helping me guide my breast into Sav’s little mouth when her head was too wobbly to do it on her own and I was still trying to figure out how to hold her and do all the things at once (eeek), to being even more mad than me when I’d come home from work with stories of little to no time to pump and suffering from clogged ducts, to waking up every single time Savannah wakes up at night, getting out of bed, handing her to me, rubbing my back while I nurse her and then taking her back to the crib for me. I mean SERIOUSLY!
Grateful he believes in this as much as I do.
Couldn’t do this alone.
So I asked hubs what advice he’d give to partner’s of breastfeeding mamas and his words are priceless! Here they are:
1. First of all, understand that your breasts are going to be loaned out to baby for a while.
2. Always allow your spouse to have extra time when getting ready and be prepared for them to leave the house with a lot of bags because they have to carry a lot more equipment (pump, cooler, ice packs, bottles, milk bags, etc) and will likely need to nurse the baby at least once, maybe twice before you leave the house.
3. Remember that each bottle/bag of milk is precious like gold so make sure you always refrigerate any extra.
4. Be willing to be the first to wake up to grab the baby when feeding time happens in the middle of the night . Your spouse is going to be drained and dead tired all of the time. Ensure that her job is made easier by your willingness to take care of the little things.
5. Be willing to buy less meat and frozen veggies at a time because the freezer’s primary purpose is milk storage now.
6. Encourage your spouse to fight for her allotted time to pump at work.
7. Be ready at any given moment to assist when it’s feeding time, whether that’s lending your jacket to use as a cover during feeding or kicking somebody out of a chair so that wifey can have a seat to feed.
8. Always make sure your spouse remembers to eat, eat, eat, and drink a lot of water. A lot. People always remind women that they’re eating for two during pregnancy but forget that the same thing applies to breastfeeding.
9. Over all just slow down and be ready to put baby’s needs before your own. You have to be willing to stop whatever you’re doing to ensure she/he gets fed. Trust me, nothing’s that important. Like King Joffrey said in my favorite movie Coming to America “LET THEM WAIT!” we’re feeding our baby.
Gaaaah. My heart.
*If you have any questions about breastfeeding, baby’s latch, pumping at home, pumping at work or on the go, traveling with breast milk, or anything else let me know! You can also check out these posts I’ve done:
Our ever evolving breastfeeding journey
Bringing home the bacon…I mean, breastmilk
Love Always.
Jas