Breastfeeding

Warning: This post is going to be exactly what the title says so if it not of interest to you then don't read.

So I had to officially give up breastfeeding this month. I no longer had the patience and energy to do both bottles and breast. It was exhausting because I never knew if Kendrick was getting enough milk. I was really losing my milk so I kept trying to cut out bottles and only breastfeed but he was just not having that. I finally just had to do an ultimatum with him and when he choose bottle over me I cried and moved on.

This post is really just going to be a journal for me so I can know what I would do different next time. The 3 biggest mistakes were exercising, not eating enough, and having periods. I started a exercise routine 2 months after delivering and my milk supply decreased oh so fast. I just couldn't eat enough for my supply and exercising. I also quit taking my acid pill during the same time so it made eating large amounts nearly impossible because I didn't want to have acid reflux all day. Even when I quit exercising I still don't think I could eat enough calories to keep up with Kendrick. Periods were just the worst thing for my milk. Call me crazy but each month I'd have a period it was like pulling teeth to try and get milk out. My milk would always come back after.. but with less :( I would have to pump almost my whole period because Kendrick would be so frustrated he wouldn't even latch on. It was very disheartening.

Things I would do different:
* Never introduce the bottle. (I like bottle feeding more so this one will be hard)
* Make a 4 month meal plan before giving birth.
* Make lots and lots of freezer meals.
* Live by my mother who cooks delicious food :)
* Don't do cardio exercising but maybe just some light yoga to tone up.
* Possibly take some birth control that makes it so I don't have periods. (Um I'm not yet convinced I will ever go back on birth control but if it is the only solution to keep breastfeeding then possibly).
* When baby sleeps through the night go to bed when they do... and sleep sleep sleep.
* Get comfortable with breastfeeding in public. When a baby needs to eat they gotta eat and it shouldn't be a big deal.
* Carry food in the diaper bag for me to eat. 
* Sign up and go to breastfeeding groups that will encourage me to keep going if I get frustrated.
* Don't let baby sleep more than 8-9 hours during the night when breastfeeding (wish I had known about this one sooner because Kendrick was a 12hr sleeper sometimes).