I think I took a fair amount in my stride after Ada was born. I
was tired, had lost some blood and inevitably sore. I do wish I had known how
long it may take for me to heal. It was 6 weeks before I stopped taking pain
relief everyday.
I thought I had been told but I didn’t really realise that breastfeeding
is work, exhausting work. You need to eat enough, drink enough, sleep enough
and stick with it. Ada took a long time to feed and fell asleep a lot because
she was hot and feeding was taking so long. I was feeding her 7-8 times a day
and each feed was taking over an hour. Feeding alone was a full time job spread
over 24 hours.
I hadn’t heard about cluster feeding. Babies like to feed
continuously sometimes. Rather than eating every three hours, they feed for something like
for 3 – 6 hours straight. Ada cluster fed her first night, I was in the
hospital and a bit beside myself wanting to sleep. The nurse propped the two of
us up on our sides and I dozed while Ada fed all through the night. This
happened again on the second night at the birth unit. It was the possibility of
needing to feed all night that scared me about going home, I thought it may be easier to do that at the maternity unit with help. The less than
friendly night staff meant I wanted to go home anyway. On her third night Ada slept in
her wee bassinet next to us not needing feeding all night and nights have been OK since then.
Now feeding is easy and fun and she grins cheeky grins up at me mid
way through. Not in public darling.
What things surprised other parents in the first weeks?
