Breastfeeding is WONDERFUL!

I never, NEVER, NEVER, never, never, never, never, NEVER EVER, NEVER EVER thought I'd EVER admit it, but breastfeeding is seriously the coolest thing in the world. I absolutely DREADED it in the beginning. I remember at the hospital, breastfeeding the baby for the first time. The first time, actually, wasn't all that bad. I don't even remember if I was doing it correctly, but I remember it not hurting. However, the next several feedings WERE EXCRUCIATING. I would ABSOLUTLY DREADED feedings. I tried and tried and tried, but it was so painful, I couldn't stand it. I would struggle to remain calm to unlatch the baby with my pinkie, but the pain was sooooooo intense, I'd just pull her off. What made this worse was that Daphne had low-high risk of case of potential jaundice. BLEH! So she was bottlefed formula. Probably, over the course of her entire life, Daphne has drank 150 fluid ounces of formula, give or take. I am determined to let that amount be the only amount she ever eats, EVER.

She went cold turkey on bottles when Daphne was about 2 weeks old, and it was SO hard. My nipples weren't sore anymore, but they were still tender, and she still hadn't learned to latch on quickly. She was latching on correctly, just not quickly enough. There were so many times after I said good riddance to formula did was I tempted to fetch a bottle. It was JUST SO HARD. She'd struggle to find my nipple and when she couldn't find it immediately, she'd start to cry! Sometimes, she'd be inconsolable. There were times when Eman was even tempted to give her the bottle. But I was SOOO determined. I rationalized that the tenderness was BOUND to go away sometime, and I had no excuse not to breastfeed. There are hundreds of women who have had harder time trying to breastfeed that I had, so there was absolutely no excuse. It was hard for me because I was impatient, and I constantly thought, what would that mean if I gave up on breastfeeding because I am impatient? It's not like I had anything else that demanded my time. I wasn't going to work, I wasn't going to school. I had no legitimate reason. So I kept trying and kept trying. Slowly but surely, I stopped dreading feeding her and the pain subsided.

Now she is a purely breastfed baby. Thinking back on it, it would have been so difficult for me to bottlefeed her. I'd have to get up, prepare formula, warm it up. I actually think what really did it for me though, what convinced me to go cold turkey, was that I'd pass on antibodies to her and that there was almost a zero percent chance that she'd get diarrhea or become constipated due to bacteria in the bottles or making formula too concentrated.

Yep. Now it's time for a diaper change.