Protected: The New Baby Guide 2021 Edition (for Pregnancy, Postpartum, and Newborn)
The New Baby Guide 2021 Edition (for Pregnancy, Postpartum, and Newborn)
Expecting? Have a new baby?
Thousands told us what they wanted in a pregnancy, newborn, postpartum, baby-feeding, baby-sleep, and baby-gear guide and everything they wished they had known before having their baby.
Listening to what our fans told us what every parent needed when expecting or had a new baby, we created first edition of The Leaky Boob New Baby Guide and it is the guide of our dreams. But don’t take our word for it, here’s what Kathleen McCue, PhD, CNM, IBCLC had to say about TLB’s guide:
“Single best guide currently available to new families. Honest, concise, informative and all around fun to read! Refreshing to have such a valuable resource by those truly in-the-know.”
At just $1.99, you can get your copy and support The Leaky Boob and see for yourself.
Not convinced? Keep scrolling for a preview of The Leaky Boob 2021 New Baby Guide.
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The Leaky Boob 2021 New Baby Guide is a resource for first-time-parents and new-parents-again with checklists, vital conversations to have for partners and with your health care provider, family, work place, and more. The guide provides information as a jumping off point of what collectively hundreds of parents shared they wish they had known before having a baby. With sections on pregnancy, newborn, postpartum, feeding, sleep, and gear, our guide covers the essentials of having a new baby.
Plus exclusive discount codes!
Ready to get your 2021 New Baby Guide?
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Tools such as our checklists, vital conversations, and product recommendations support you in making sure you have the important conversations and items you need for your new baby with expert information.
Get The Leaky Boob New Baby Guide here.
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The Leaky Boob New Baby Guide gets real about aspects of having a new baby nobody ever talks about, like postpartum bleeding, normal newborn behavior, normal sleep, body changes in pregnancy and postpartum, difficulties with breastfeeding, postpartum mood disorders, and so much more.
Think TLB’s New Baby Guide is for you? Don’t miss it! Download your digital copy now.
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Practical must-know information, realistic expectations, and tips from the most experienced parents just like you, The Leaky Boob 2021 New Baby Guide shares what thousands of parents told us they wish they had known before having baby without overwhelming you with boring irrelevant information.
See why our guide has received rave reviews and get yours here today!
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The Leaky Boob 2021 New Baby Guide supports new parents in preparing for their new baby not only with information but with vital conversations and checklists of what is really important to prepare when having a new baby.
What do thousands wish they had known when having a new baby? Find out here.
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The Leaky Boob New Baby Guide can’t tell you the best products for you and your baby but we can tell you some of our favorites and why without overwhelming you with options.
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Dark Chocolate Lactation Granola Bark
by Carrie Saum
In my house, anything I make or bake will get eaten either by family or friends. But it is a very rare occurrence that anything I bake goes in the trash.
When my son was born, I made plenty of lactation goodies (including this lemonade and these cookies) and it was impossible to keep them to myself. First of all, I didn’t WANT to keep them to myself because I’m a sharer by nature. Then I couldn’t because all of the people coming in and out of our house knew about the goodies and wanted to partake.
However, that became expensive. FAST.
I got smart about it. I made all of the treats I could that were inexpensive. I could buy oats in bulk for super cheap. My mom gave me a giant jar of local honey from a farm (also very inexpensive), and the rest is history. I made little crunchy granola bars that resembled Nature’s Valley but without any added junk.
But here’s the thing. I GOT BORED. Since I needed the fuel to keep my supply up while exclusively pumping, I tried my hand at different recipes. Because boredom is the master of invention. I think. No, that’s not the right quote. But it’s the right idea. I love trying new things, but I also have to try new things to keep the game interesting. And feeding yourself (and your baby) is always interesting.
So, when boredom struck, I struck back. I added sunflower seed butter. And chocolate.
Then I got a little crazy and instead of cutting them, I broke the granola into pieces that were pretty and irregular and made me feel decadent. And every new mama needs to be made to feel decadent, right? And maybe even a little fancy, too. They’re also a breeze to make, and very affordable.
Ingredients for Granola Bark:
- 1 1/4 cup rolled oats
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 Tbsp melted butter
- 1 Tbsp molasses (optional, but adds depth of flavor)
- 1/4 cup sunflower seed butter or peanut butter
- 1/4 cup honey
Ingredients for Chocolate Layer:
- 6 oz 90% cacao chocolate
- 2 Tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 Tbsp raw honey
Directions for Granola Bark
- Combine all dry ingredients, and mix throughly.
- Combine all wet ingredients and add to dry ingredients.
- Spread granola mixture in a 7×12 inch parchment-lined dish. Pack it down hard, leaving no breathing room.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes. Allow to cool completely in the pan.
Directions for Chocolate Layer
- Melt chocolate and coconut oil in your home-made double boiler
- Add vanilla and stevia
- Once melted and stirred well, pour into the pan of chilled nut butter mixture (Optional and delicious step: Spread a thin layer of peanut butter or sunbutter over the granola first, then pour your chocolate over it.)
- Allow to harden in the refrigerator for an hour, then break into pieces. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
For an extra milky boost you can add 2 tablespoons brewer’s yeast and/or 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal to the granola bark. Be warned that some tummies don’t respond well to the brewer’s yeast so if you or your baby tend to have sensitive stomachs, it may be best to skip it.
*Note: These do NOT keep at room temperature because of the coconut oil the chocolate layer. If you want the chocolate to keep at room temperature, consider using (sustainably and humanely harvested) palm oil instead of coconut oil.
You will be impressed with yourself when you make these. Better yet, make these for a friend who just had a baby and she will be forever grateful.
Barking up the Lactation Tree,
Carrie
If you love this smoothie recipe, you might like this recipe for Paleo Chocolate Chip Granola or these Gluten-Free Strawberry Shortcake on Our Stable Table.
*Note: It’s important to point out that most women aren’t going to need to eat food with the intention of upping their milk supply, if everything is working the way it is supposed to, your baby will know how to up your supply just fine themselves. Skin-to-skin and feeding on demand are the best ways to increase breastmilk supply to meet your baby’s needs. (Concerned you have low supply? Read this to help figure out if it is something you need to be concerned about.) For those women, galactalogues just happen and they don’t need to think about it. But some women, like me, do need a boost. As a mom who ended up exclusively pumping and indeed having low supply such that I ended up on medication solely to increase my milk production, I know what it’s like to look for anything, anything at all that would help my body make even just a little more milk to help feed my baby. With the support of my health care providers, we tried everything. It becomes “I will eat all the cookies, I will drink all the shakes, I will eat all the parfaits!” if it even just makes me feel like I’m doing something to address the low supply struggle, it is worth it.
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Carrie Saum brings a passion for wellness and over a decade of experience in health care to her clients. A certified Ayurvedic Wellness Counselor (AWC) from the Kerala Ayurveda Academy, she empowers individuals and families to achieve health and balance through time-honored practices and health knowledge.
Carrie has extensive first-hand experience in vast array of medical and service fields. With background in paramedic medicine, Carrie spent ten years serving in the non-profit sector managing organizations, programs, and orchestrating resources to meet health needs of people across the United States and abroad in countries such as Guatemala, Mexico, Kenya, and Zambia. As an AWC, Carrie currently coaches her clients and their families about topics including nutrition, weight loss, and stress management. In addition to her work as a wellness counselor, Carrie is a passionate “foodie” and author. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and young son and writes at OurStableTable.com.
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Lactation Cookies
by Carrie Saum
This post made possible by a partnership with The Leaky Boob sister community, Our Stable Table.
Photo courtesy of Gwyneth Colleen Photography.
Confession:
I am a cookie snob.
Lactation cookies are no different.
I found a recipe in my mom’s kitchen recipe box on a raggedy old index card. It wasn’t in her handwriting or my grandmothers’ handwriting. I snagged the card and kept it for a few years. But let’s face it. I made these cookies SO OFTEN that I committed the recipe to permanent memory.
When I had my son, we were too stressed and busy to think about lactation cookies while he was in the NICU for the first week of his life. We came home from the hospital, and I had to get serious about boosting my milk supply, especially since I was not sleeping or eating regularly, and pumping exclusively. (I know, I know. Not a great way to start motherhood, but those days were SURVIVAL. And it got better.)
My husband, who just happens to be an amazing baker, took over making the oatmeal cookies while I was working around the clock to feed my baby. My husband and I ate these cookies by the batch, a bright spot in a wild season, and I would wake up in the middle of the night to pump and feed my baby with a spoonful of the cookie dough in one hand and my newborn in the other.
These are ADDICTIVE.
Oh yeah. And the cookies totally boosted my milk supply. Which, let’s face it, was a bonus.
There are three versions of this cookie.
Version 1: The Regular Version. This version is perfect for eating in any form, raw, cooked, frozen, etc.
Version 2: The Lactation Version. This version gives extra milk-boosting power with the addition of flax meal.
Version 3: The You-Will-Never-Love-Another-Cookie-As-Much-As-This-Cookie Version. I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. And it will still make you milky. Is that even a phrase? It shouldn’t be. I immediately regret writing it.
I’ll give you the base recipe with the tweaks (which are minor) along the way.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups unbleached flour ( 1.5 cups for V3)
- 2.5 cups old fashioned oats, not instant (3 cups for V3)
- 2 cups milk chocolate chips (You can use dark or semi-sweet chocolate but it’s less awesome.)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 2 Tbsp whole milk (4 Tbsp for V2)
- 1/4 cup flax seed meal (ONLY for V2)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
Instructions:
- Using an elctric mixer or a lot of elbow grease, cream butter and sugars until fluffy and light. Beat in the eggs, milk and vanilla extract.
- Combine flour, (flax meal if you are making V2), baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a separate bowl.
- Slowly add flour mixture to the sugar mixture until it’s incorporated. Be careful not to over mix. Stir in the oats and chocolate chips.
- On a parchment paper lined baking sheet, put dough in 1 inch rounds, making sure to leave plenty of room to expand.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 10-15 minutes. I’ll let you decide what kind of doneness you like but I pull them promptly at 13 minutes.
- Remove from oven, and cool completely on cooling rack. Or until you can reasonably eat them without burning the crap out of your mouth.
- Skip baking them altogether and just eat the dough straight.
These are also pretty awesome to make and bring to your friends who have just become parents, so just go ahead and bookmark this recipe and plan to make them. You will be the favorite friend, possibly ever. This is also a great way to love your newly lactating Baby Mama, too.
If you like this recipe, head over to Our Stable Table for more great recipes and some great conversation.
Happy Lactating!
Carrie
Carrie Saum brings a passion for wellness and over a decade of experience in health care to her clients. A certified Ayurvedic Wellness Counselor (AWC) from the Kerala Ayurveda Academy, she empowers individuals and families to achieve health and balance through time-honored practices and health knowledge.
Carrie has extensive first-hand experience in vast array of medical and service fields. With background in paramedic medicine, Carrie spent ten years serving in the non-profit sector managing organizations, programs, and orchestrating resources to meet health needs of people across the United States and abroad in countries such as Guatemala, Mexico, Kenya, and Zambia. As an AWC, Carrie currently coaches her clients and their families about topics including nutrition, weight loss, and stress management.In addition to her work as a wellness counselor, Carrie is a passionate “foodie” and author. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and young son.
Ergobaby Postpartum and Newborn care chat and giveaway
Ergobaby knows the importance of those first few days, weeks, and months with a new baby and that taking good care of mom is part of taking good care of baby. That’s why they are sponsoring a live chat on The Leaky Boob Facebook page with postpartum doula and IBCLC Marcy Sauter. That’s also why they are giving away some carriers and their new Ergobaby swaddlers (designed to allow freedom of movement while still providing a safe, snuggly swaddle), because supporting families from day one is what they’re all about.
To check out our chat and the wealth of information and support shared there, check out these links:
Preparing for the postpartum and newborn period
Postpartum depression and mom care with breastfeeding
Postpartum and newborn care with older children and family
Postpartum mom and newborn care in special circumstances
What postpartum physical changes moms found surprising
The importance of rest postpartum and societal support
Moving beyond the postpartum and newborn phase
To be entered into the giveaways, click on the widgets below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
What is Skin to Skin Care?
by Kim Walls, mom and creator/owner of BabyTime by Episencial. This post made possible by the generous support of BabyTime Episencials.
As baby gets older, there are plenty of opportunities for parents to share increased skin to skin contact time, through baby massage, giving baby a bath, taking a nap together, or just playing simple games together (Peek a boo with baby in your lap and a board book!)
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Did you use Kangaroo Care with your little ones?
How do you enjoy skin-to-skin time with your little ones still?
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References:
Lozoff B, Brittenham GM, Trause MA, Kennell JH, Klaus MH. The mother-newborn relationship: limits of adaptability. J Pediatr 1977 July;91(1):1-12.
Lozoff B, Brittenham G. Infant care: cache or carry. J Pediatr 1979 September;95(3):478-83.
Morton D, Thierry B, Peretta G, Lankeit M, Ljungberg T, van Hooff J A R A M, and Scott L. The welfare of non-human primates used in research. Report of the Scientific Committee on Animal health and Animal Welfare. European Commission Health and Consumer Prtoection Directorate-general; 2002 Dec 17.
McKenna JJ, Mosko S. Evolution and infant sleep: an experimental study of infant-parent co-sleeping and its implications for SIDS. Acta Paediatr Suppl 1993 June;82 Suppl 389:31-6.
McKenna JJ, Thoman EB, Anders TF, Sadeh A, Schechtman VL, Glotzbach SF. Infant-parent co-sleeping in an evolutionary perspective: implications for understanding infant sleep development and the sudden infant death syndrome. Sleep 1993 April;16(3):263-82.
Laughlin CD. Pre- and Perinatal brain Development and enculturation: a biogenetic structural approach. 1991.
Schore AN. Effects of a secure attachment relationship on right brain development, affect regulation, and infant mental health. Infant Mental Health Journal 2001;22(1-2):7-66.
Bates E, Thal D, Finlay B, Clancy B. Early language development and its neural correlates. In: Rapin I, Segalowitz S, editors. Handbook of Neuropsychology. 2nd edition ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 2005.
Doussard-Rossevelt J, Porges SW, McClenny BD. Behavioral sleep states in very low birth weight preterm neonates: relation to neonatal health and vagal maturation. J Pediatr Psychol 1996 December;21(6):785-802.
Skin microflora and bacterial infections of the skin.
Chiller K, Selkin BA, Murakawa GJ.
Bioactives from probiotics for dermal health: functions and benefits.
PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e53867. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0053867. Epub 2013 Jan 16.
Probiotic bacteria induce a ‘glow of health’.
Levkovich T, Poutahidis T, Smillie C, Varian BJ, Ibrahim YM, Lakritz JR, Alm EJ, Erdman SE.
Potential Uses of Probiotics in Clinical Practice
Gregor Reid,1,2,3,* Jana Jass,1,2 M. Tom Sebulsky,2 and John K. McCormick1,2
Clin Microbiol Infect. 2005 Dec;11(12):958-66.
Probiotics: facts and myths.
Senok AC, Ismaeel AY, Botta GA.
Garcia Bartels N, Mleczko A, Schink T, Proquitte H, Wauer RR, Blume-Peytavi U. Influence of bathing or washing on skin barrier function in newborns during the first four weeks of life. Skin Pharmacology. 2009;22:248–257.
Babywearing chat with PAXbaby.com
TLB sponsor PAXbaby.com brought a live chat with our readers on The Leaky Boob Facebook wall, giving us the opportunity to chat about all things babywearing. It was great fun with great prizes (the randomly selected winners notified via email) and lots of information. If you have questions about babywearing, visit these archived threads to hear from other Leakies and Jillian with her PAXmommies sharing their experience and expert advice. So grateful for the support of PAXbaby.com!
Introduction and sharing favorite carriers
Breastfeeding and babywearing- which carriers and tips
Breastfeeding in a woven wrap hip carry video
Babywearing the newborn- carrier options and safety information
Babywearing past the newborn stage
Babywearing for plus-sized and large breasted moms
Why have more than one carrier? The benefits of a carrier stash
General questions for the PAXmommies
Babywearing and weather considerations- hot, cold, and wet
PAXbaby email sign up for more information
In Search of the perfect latch
Sugarbaby 1 week old. Photo by Kelli Elizabeth Photography
“I’m really scared of breastfeeding.” Pregnant with her first my friend subconsciously rubbed her 34 week belly as I made dinner and we chatted. Puzzled, I asked her why. She said she googled and learned that it can be so painful, particularly if they don’t have a good latch.
“How do you get a good latch?” she asked me. She went on to explain that she had read different blogs and forums about how hard it was to get a good latch, women with bleeding nipples, and babies not gaining weight. She wondered what was the secret to a good latch and what if it didn’t happen for her. It’s true that these issues do happen and probably far too often but here she was, weeks away from having her little baby, scheduled to take a breastfeeding class in the next couple of weeks, and worried that she was facing a world of pain if she couldn’t get this elusive latch and not find the secret for it ever to happen.
Earlier that same day I had coffee with a good friend, an IBCLC at a local hospital. The topic of the elusive perfect latch came up and she surprised me by telling me that she thinks we make too big deal about the latch.
“If mom isn’t in pain and baby has plenty of soiled and wet diapers, why do we need to mess with anything? Sure, if there’s a problem such as pain or a dehydrated baby then we need to fix what we can but so what if that bottom lip is curled in if it’s not bothering anything.”
In other words, if it’s comfortable and it’s working, it’s a good latch. There is a wide range of normal.
I love this woman, she often says exactly what I’m thinking.
In general, if everything is working right, babies are ready to breastfeed and mom’s breasts are ready to feed. It just works and we really don’t need to mess with it, it doesn’t have to be this complicated endeavor. Maybe it will be difficult but we don’t have to expect trouble. More often than not moms need support simply because breastfeeding isn’t so common in our society and women don’t see breastfeeding as a part of normal life making the learning curve steeper than it would be if seeing breastfeeding was commonplace. There would be less stressing about the perfect latch if more women saw what it looks like when a baby is at the breast as they go about daily life. Their moms, sisters, aunts, friends, coworkers, or even strangers breastfeeding would have already demonstrated a baby feeding well. The wide range of normal would be seen and experienced. Today a woman may never see another woman breastfeeding until she’s feeding her own baby for the first time. Seeking out support she may look online or join a breastfeeding support group, seeing breastfeeding dyads in a very specific setting that she had to find. If she is experiencing difficulty with pain or ineffective milk transfer for her baby, because she hasn’t been exposed to breastfeeding pairs, she may not even realize that the way her baby is latched could be what’s causing the problem or that it may even be a fairly simple fix. When there are issues such as poor weight gain for baby or bleeding nipples the first thing to consider is a poor latch. After I shared a few pictures of Sugarbaby’s latch on Facebook, there were several comments and I received several emails from moms stating that they never knew saw what a latch looked like and had endured pain in breastfeeding because they didn’t realize something was wrong. Side note: if you are ever experiencing pain with breastfeeding that is more than a brief moment of discomfort or lasts beyond initial latch please seek out help, pain is usually an indication of a problem than can be corrected. This doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong, it just means you probably need help.
I talked with my friend Star Rodriguez, IBCLC of Lactastic Services and WIC peer counselor for the following lists.
When do you need to consider latch issues and improving your nursling’s latch?
- When breastfeeding is painful beyond the initial latching.
- When there is tissue damage to your nipples.
- When there are weight gain issues for the baby.
What latch pointers can moms try?
- Mom is in a comfortable position and has brought the baby to her level to her instead of leaning down to the baby.
- Baby has wide open mouth.
- Baby’s body is facing yours and baby’s arms are not pushing away at you.
- It is best to let the breast fall naturally if possible.
- If large breasted or when milk first comes in, it may be helpful to hold your breast with your hand.
- Aim baby’s nose toward the nipple; if necessary to encourage a wider mouth, tickle the very top of the baby’s upper lip with your nipple.
- Latch should be asymmetrical. Chin will touch the breast, nose will be unobstructed. You do not need to push your breast away from your baby’s nose in a good latch.
- You will hear or see baby swallowing – short sucks/swallows at first, longer ones as milk starts to let down.
- If using a nipple shield, ensure that the nipple and surrounding tissue is being pulled into the shield.
What can a mom do to try to improve a painful or ineffective latch?
- If baby isn’t opening mouth wide enough, attempt to show baby by opening your own mouth wide. Many babies will subconsciously mimic this.
- Make a “breastwich” with your hand in the shape of a C behind the areola to help baby get a bigger mouthful.
- Get baby as naked as possible for skin-to-skin or lightly dressed.
- Hold baby securely, a snug, close hold will help.
- Pull baby in quickly when mouth is open wide.
- It is common to experience some discomfort at latch in the first few weeks of breastfeeding. It should go away as the feeding continues. If it does not end after around 30 seconds, you may need to remove the baby from the breast and reposition the baby. Break the suction by placing your little finger into the corner of the baby’s mouth and trying to latch again. Some lactation consultants can show you ways to fix a latch without taking the baby off the breast, but those are easier to learn from being shown rather than told. You may need to put the baby in a different nursing hold or position.
When should a lactation consultant be called?
- Repositioning doesn’t work
- If there is sudden soreness after there has been painless nursing
- If you feel stabbing or burning pain in breasts or at latch
- If you have cracked or bleeding nipples
- If your latch is not painful but your baby is not having a good amount of wet and dirty diapers
Check out these other resources on latch:
11 Common Pitfalls When Latching a Newborn
Latching and positioning resources
Latching: Thoughts on Pressing Baby’s chin down
Coming soon a photo gallery of latched on babies and their mother’s commentaries on their latch experience illustrating the wide range of normal and potentially problematic latches.
10 signs that your newborn is super smart
Photo by Kelli Elizabeth Photography
It seems that parents start worrying about their kids being super geniuses earlier and earlier. Programs for teaching your baby to read, your preschooler how to work complicated math in their heads, and your kindergardener how to engineer the world’s next tallest building are marketed to parents all the time as though their child’s future happiness depends on having some kind of early academic advantage over all the other kids.
But it turns out they usually are born with just the right amount of smarts to have their needs met, grow well, and find all the happiness they could ask for at that moment. It’s just that us adults sometimes don’t realize how incredibly smart our tiny bundles really are.
10 signs that your newborn is already super smart
1. She wants to ditch the pretty crib with the adorable bedding set and prefers to sleep as close to you as possible. On your chest, snuggled by your side, in a carrier, where ever as long as she’s touching you. Food, warmth, help regulating her breathing and heart rate, and you’re right there to snatch her to safety should a lion show up looking for a tasty baby snack. Hey, you never know!
2. Pooping just as soon as you changed him and put him to the breast- gotta make room!
3. Her answer to every possible distress (including her own sneeze) is to breastfeed… again. Just making sure you’re going to have all the milk she needs!
4. Screams bloody murder if you try to put clothes on him but is most content in nothing but a diaper cuddled up to your bare chest. Skin to skin contact promotes maternal-infant interactions, encourages the breastfeeding relationship, improved bonding, maintaining body temperature, keeps him calm, breathing more naturally, allows mom (or other care taker) to respond faster to early cues of distress or hunger, boosts immune system development, and is just plain nice, way better than even the softest pajamas. You can read more about how this all works here.
5. Aims to get poop on her outfit at least once a day, more often 5. She knows you have too many newborn outfits, she’ll never get to wear them all if she doesn’t have multiple outfit changes a day!
6. You feel stressed about something and he suddenly needs to eat, timing couldn’t be worse! But that glorious release of oxytocin means you relax while he’s feeding and though you get a bit drowsy, you’re able to think more clearly and focus on what’s really important.
7. She’ll let you set her down or permit someone else to hold her just long enough for you to pee and if you’re lucky, maybe get a shower. Anything longer is unacceptable though, everything in her says to stay close to your smell, your breasts, you. Good thing too, she spent most of her life inside you so far and she knows you as safe which helps her identify her food source and keeps her bonded to you. Her life depends on it.
8. Cluster feeding: feed, doze, feed, doze, poop, feed, poop, feed, doze, feed doze… repeat. You may think you have more to do such as house cleaning, keeping up with an older child, work, shower, or change out of your pajamas but when cluster feeding hits it means some serious growing time ahead and your baby doesn’t have anything more important to do. Make a safe area for your older child and let your baby get his work done.
9. Car seat = torture device. Or best friend. Either she hates not being with you or she loves the motion. Whatever it is, she’d rather be snuggled against your chest, best to just stay home and take your time recovering from giving birth anyway.
10. He can’t fall asleep without you and likes it best when he gets to breastfeed his way to the land of dreams. Once again, because of that lovely release of oxytocin, you get sleepy. Baby’s sleeping, you’re sleepy… just give in and surrender. That super smart baby of yours just wants you to catch a few Z’s!
Babymooning- 12 signs you are the mother of a breastfeeding newborn
- You finally get to take a shower and within 10 minute of getting out you already have leaked milk all over your clean shirt.
- As much as you like the longer, thicker hair you grew during pregnancy, hacking it off with a dull pair of scissors is starting to sound like a good plan between the frequency of showers you get, the death-like grip of a tiny handful of hair your baby is capable of, cleaning spit up out of it several times a day, and the nagging fear of a hair tourniquet.
- You wonder why you didn’t invest in more yoga pants and are certain you will never wear blue jeans again.
- Your favorite food is: “anything someone else made.”
- Any time someone hugs you any way but with a side hug you wince.
- The old adage “never wake a sleeping baby” doesn’t apply when your boobs are rock hard boulders crushing your chest. Yes, you will wake your baby for some relief.
- You wish you had jedi powers for every time you forget to grab a drink of water before you sit down to breastfeed… again.
- “Sleep when baby sleeps” seems like a good plan but you wonder when you’d get to pee or brush your teeth or eat. Then you realize that sleep trumps everything else and decide you’ll pee, brush your teeth, and eat while holding your baby.
- Something seems really funny and you laugh hysterically only to forget what was so funny 5 minutes later.
- Shirts are “clean” unless the smell is too bad or there is obvious spit-up or poop on them, dried milk leaks don’t count as “dirty.”
- The stash of reusable breastpads that seemed so impressive before giving birth is used up in one day after your milk comes in.
- You’d rather sniff your baby’s head snuggled on your chest than even your favorite flower any day.
The Leakies on The Leaky Boob Facebook page had plenty more here and I hope you’ll add your own in the comments below. Now back to my baby head sniffing!
