I finally got a boob job!

I am a small-chested person... always have been. I always wanted to know how it felt to be otherwise. Now I do. Thank you breastfeeding!

Oh my goodness I can't believe I'm sharing a nursing picture! I'm one of THOSE people!
PS - I have a very attention-deprived cat.

In addition to praying for an all-natural childbirth (God granted my request - hallelujah!) I prayed for the ability to nurse my baby from the first moments after birth. I read La Leche League's The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding and learned about all of the potential pitfalls of doing the 'natural' thing... that is breastfeeding.

BUT I had 2 big motivators to make it work:

#1 - My mom did it.

#2 - I'm cheap and lazy.

Regarding the first point, I think I turned out okay (don't comment if you disagree :p). If my mom breastfed me then I figure I should do the same for my daughter, so she'll be motivated to try it with her kids.

Regarding the second point, I am painfully cheap after quitting my job at an amazing company. Breastfeeding is free. Have you priced formula at the grocery store? Sheesh! No way! I am also not a fan of spending extra time awake in the middle of the night preparing bottles... especially knowing that I'd already be sleep-deprived from having a newborn. That's the lazy part. I've never liked doing dishes. Do I want to be washing 12 bottles a day? No, thank you. Breastfeeding offers the easiest clean-up... although I've since learned it can be a little messy!

Then, of course, there are all the scientific studies on how "Breast is Best" and there's that obvious fact that mothers have been breastfeeding their babies since THE BEGINNING OF THE HUMAN RACE. No matter the challenges - they made it work. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here today. So, while I will not harp on any woman who chooses not to breastfeed, I knew I could never forgive myself for not trying. Hence, the boob job.

For anyone who's never experienced it engorgement is just that. It's not the sexy, get-your-husband-excited, kind of big boobs... it's grotesquely abnormal, someone-hit-me-in-the-chest-with-a-baseball-bat kinda boobs. The second morning home from the hospital my always-honest husband declared, "That's not even sexy. It looks like it hurts." And it did. But did I quit nursing? Nope. The solution to engorgement is to nurse even more. That little baby became my lifesaver vacuuming out the extra volume to make me more comfortable. I'd wake her up every two hours during the day to do her job. Now she's an expert. We're a team.

We call this the "milk-coma" face :)

Honestly, we haven't had a lot of trouble (other than having to wake the baby up when she falls asleep eating. Tough life, kiddo. Ha!). We were visited by two lactation consultants while we were in the hospital. I asked them to check Lydia's latch (it's the MOST important thing to get right if you want to breastfeed comfortably and efficiently) and once they adjusted us we just kept practicing!

While in the hospital the first night I practiced every nursing position I'd heard about... cross-cradle, football hold and side-lying. The cross-cradle is now our standard position for daytime feeding. I swear by the side-lying position for night-time feedings... I get so much more sleep that way!

I've determined that success at breastfeeding is based on the mother's DECISION to make it work. This is also how I feel about natural childbirth. It's all mental. It's like running a marathon or training for a triathlon. I will not criticize anybody who chooses not to breastfeed - or go for a non-medicated childbirth - just like I don't walk around criticizing people for not running marathons. But I know that I'm a pretty wimpy person and after I set my mind to do these things I never looked back. I guess that means I have to suck it up and start that triathlon training now, huh?

Fun fact:  It takes more muscles for a baby to breastfeed than to suck on a bottle. A baby uses 40 facial muscles to breastfeed effectively and only 4 to suck on a bottle! Cute little cheeks and mouths are the result!