10 Things I Didn't Know about Breastfeeding

Hello, long lost readers! I'm gradually emerging from the postpartum fog and getting the hang of multitasking with a newborn. My latest feat is hands-free breastfeeding, which I'm proud to reveal I'm doing right now as I write this post.

I've been pretty lucky with breastfeeding. Cameron seemed to know what to do right away and doesn't have any mouth anatomy obstacles to overcome. My inverted nipples haven't turned out to be a problem. During the first few days, I had a few bruises on my nipples, but it wasn't traumatic and healed quickly.

Despite my luck, breastfeeding has thrown numerous curve balls I wasn't expecting. Here are 10 things I didn't know until now.

1. Newborns nurse ALL the time. I knew newborns nurse every 2 to 3 hours. What I didn't know is that's 2 to 3 hours from the start of one feeding to the start of the next. Sometimes Cameron will start nursing at 10am, finish at 10:45am, and be ready to nurse again at noon.
2. No, really, newborns nurse ALL the time. Sometimes every 2 to 3 hours isn't enough. Especially in the evenings, Cameron dives into cluster feeding. He'll nurse pretty much constantly for up to 4 hours. The pediatrician says this helps increase my milk supply. I've also heard that it may be babies' way of tanking up before a longer period of sleep.
3. Nursing in front of people takes balls. In general, people aren't used to seeing breastfeeding mothers and babies—even with a discrete nursing cover. I swear it took my father-in-law a good chunk of time before he could look me in the eyes while Cameron was nursing in my own livingroom. And the idea of nursing Cameron at a restaraunt was about as foreign to him as sitting topless at the table.
4. People get used to breastfeeding. My own dad freaked out when I drew my nursing cover back just enough so he could get a peak at his new grandson. But by the end of the evening, he was cracking jokes about Cameron being with his "breast friends."
5. Breastfed babies lose weight. Cameron lost 10 oz within 2 days of birth. The pediatrician said it was a "significant" amount of weight for him to lose. It had me worried for the whole weekend, but by Monday Cameron was gaining an ounce per day. It takes 2 to 5 days for a mom's milk to come in, so it makes sense that breastfed babies lose weight at first. (On a side note, I wager that the amount of meconium newborns poop in the first couple days weighs a good 10 oz on its own.)
6. Meeting other breastfeeding moms is a sanity saver. I've been lucky enough to stumble onto The Breastfeeding Center for Greater Washington, where I've been attending a new moms' discussion group once per week. After class, we all go out to lunch with our babies. I can't tell you how refreshing it is to see other women take a head dive under their nursing covers while they get their babies latched on to the breast between eating sandwhiches and talking about nipple cream and breastfeeding idiosyncracies.
7. Boobs are an endless source of conversation. Because my boobs are such a major part of my daily routine, I find it natural and entertaining to talk about them with just about anyone. Examples include: I think Cameron wants another boob; He can't be hungry again—he already had a 3 boob lunch; OMG, I just bent down to touch my toes and milk spilled out of my nipple shells onto the floor. Whoa, look how much bigger my right boob is than my left one.
8. Baby's relationship with boobs are another endless source of conversation. I love, love, love Cameron's face when he's really hungry and first sees my boob. He goes wide, cross-eyed, opens his mouth, and lets out a determined little grunt/aaahhh. When I shared this treasure with my in-laws, everybody looked at me like I had just let out a string of unspeakable swear words. At lunch with my breastfeeding friends, the whole table cracked up.
9. Breastfeeding can be hard. After an easy coast into my breastfeeding journey, I came down with a cracked nipple and a burning, itchy feeling in both nipples. For the past 3 days, I've been pumping out of the cracked side, nursing out of the other, and using an over-the-counter medicated cream. The pump made the milk supply on one side go whacky, which led to alternating periods of undersupply and engorgement. The whole fiasco sent me into tears, and I can imagine how easy it would be for a woman to forgo breastfeeding during that kind of speed bump. Finally, I got a prescription for Canadian nipple cream from my midwife yesterday. Now I'm back to nursing on both sides and beginning to feel more comfortable. 
10. Breastfeeding can be easy. I'm so thankful to be able to just take my baby and go without worrying about packing formula and warming bottles. During pregnancy, I heard so many stories about how hard breastfeeding is, so I was expecting a wild and crazy journey that would call on my intellectual/analytical skills. But it's turned out to be the most intuitive, convenient process. Yes, some women need guidance to access that intuitive knowledge, and sometimes mom or baby have very real challenges that stand in the way of breastfeeding. But for the most part, mom and baby do their thing and find their groove through trial and error. In fact, I picked up a book on breastfeeding during the first few days, and it made me anxious and overly analytical about whether Cameron was getting enough milk and whether his latch was correct. When I put the book down and just focused on Cameron, I felt better, and breastfeeding worked better.