Cubling is seven weeks now and honestly, breast feeding is going much better. In the last week, she's gone from feeding every 2 - 2 1/2 hours to 3 hours during the day and 4-6 hours at night. That's better. And it's no longer painful. She still takes a long time at each feed, but I'm enjoying it. She is so good at it now that I can actually type on my laptop, surf the net, read the best book on crying babies I've come across from top to tail in just two days (Sheila Kitzinger - Understanding Your Crying Baby), or even nap myself. Oh. I know, not supposed to do that, but hey, I need sleep too.
It's fine, and actually very enjoyable now.
And I would really like to ask everyone not to suggest to switch to formula, I've heard this advice one too many times. I know it's well meant, the thing is that I do want to breast feed and have enough doubts as it is. It's the easy option of course, and I know it's there, but I still want to breast feed for so many reasons. In fact, my post was meant to encourage breast feeding by preparing mothers for potential problems. Problems, which, if expected, may be easier to overcome. I didn't anticipate problems and when I had them, it was very difficult to keep going.
Once again it's worth pointing out that breast feeding support is out there and it's fabulous support. The volunteers from the breast feeding initiative magically materialised twice at crucial points where I was close to giving in to the bottle. I never even had to contact them. The two midwives at the hospital who got me started, I only wished they'd been on shift non-stop during my stay. The breast feeding drop-in with practical advice and the opportunity to exchange experiences with other mums. All my friends who had babies before me and shared their experience and difficulties, and their advice how they would do things differently if they were given the chance. And finally, the recent publication of research that pointed out that currently used growth charts are rubbish because they're based on bottle fed babies in the US. It's a small point, but I don't worry about the slower than average average weight gain of my daughter now and have finally confidence in my milk production machine
