Alyson's Wonderland

2 months. Ainsley was 2 months old and breastfeeding was still not pain free. I did the math and that's approximately 610 feedings. That's like 2,440 latch-ons (figuring it took a couple tries to get it right). I would have thought with that much practice we would have had the act down to a science. By 2 months, I thought she would be taking a bottle part-time. I thought we'd be ready to go anywhere and do anything. So when things were still rocky, I started getting frustrated, really frustrated. At this point, I was still seeing the lactation consultant and attending her support group, and it was helpful. However, the group had a very small showing of moms and sometimes I was the only one. Good, because I got the one-on-one help I needed with latching and positioning, bad, because I started to feel like I was the only mother on earth with a 10 week old baby who was still having nursing issues. I had friends who also had babies about 1.5 - 2 months after me who were jus...

Ahhhh, my breastfeeding journey… I know it sounds silly, but this is one of the true reasons for starting my blog. I want to share my story because frankly, I'm so freakin' proud of myself for nursing Ainsley this long. Who would have thought that breastfeeding was going to be one of my life's biggest accomplishments? Not me, that's for sure. And that's why I want to make sure I remember all the challenges and joys I've experienced through nursing as a way to encourage myself to do the same for all my kids. So let's start from the beginning, actually no, let's start before the beginning: My mom breastfed all four of her children, all my aunts breastfed my cousins, all my cousins breastfed their kids, and many new moms around me were breastfeeding as well. So there was never really a question about whether or not I would do the same with my kids. Formula was foreign to me, and in my eyes, breastfeeding was the only option. I don't really know why, I...