My biggest breastfeeding mistake

I had read up a lot about breastfeeding to prepare myself and some of the words that were ingrained in my mind were....


Breastfed babies do not need water.

Breastfeeding works on a demand and supply basis so don't feed baby with formula milk as that will decrease babies demand for breastmilk.


I had breastfeeding problems from Day One. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get baby to latch on. And no matter how much I pumped, most of the time I could only get 1/2 and ounce.


Despite this, I denied my baby water and formula milk because I was afraid, so very afraid that giving baby formula milk and other liquids will sabotage my breastfeeding efforts. I was adamant. No! No water and no formula for my baby.


I was blind to the fact that baby was not getting enough. I was starving my poor baby. She lost 25% of her birth weight during the first 2 weeks which is a scary thing. Her lips were dry and cracked. Looking back at her early weeks pictures now, I see a haggard looking baby with sunken cheeks whereas she was quite a big baby at birth.


What a stupid thing I did. She could easily have more problems from dehydration (fortunately she did not) due to my determination to breastfeed her.

To all new breastfeeding mothers, I have to this to say. Don't be afraid to relax a little and give your babies a little bit of formula if it is necessary. Your breastfeeding efforts will not be derailed. Your breastfeeding efforts will not fail if you don't give up. Don't give up your goal of fully breastfeeding your baby and you will succeed in the end. A little bit of formula along the way may sometimes be necessary. Just don't give up. You may perhaps need to give mixed feeds at first but little by little you will get your baby to take full breastfeeds. Don't give up! You will succeed in the end. And don't deprive your baby of proper nourishment if they're not getting enough breastmilk for the time being.

To check if your baby is having enough, you have to check how often she wets her diapers. You can read this article from : What Are Baby's Stools Supposed to Look Like and How Often Should Baby Wet? by Paula Yount. I got the link from kellymom which is an excellent resource for breastfeeding mothers.

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How to get some real sleep when you co-sleep

We co-sleep with the kids. This is a problem when we need some real sleep. Now, we've got a way to fix the problem. We have a little adjoining room where hubby uses to get some work done. So when we need some real sleep we would separate the kids.

When they are together they have so much to chat about, they don't want to sleep. So we separate them. The boy may stay with me, the girl goes with her dad or I would sleep in the study on days that we want some real sleep.

We sometimes do this sleep arrangement during naptimes in the weekends but most days we still co-sleep. I love to co-sleep with the kids. Its the best time of the day to unwind together and chat or read with them. Its the best time of the day to bond with them.

How does anyone else get some real sleep when they co-sleep? Care to share?

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