Breastfeeding Mama Series - Mum To A Monster


Hi! Tell us a little bit about yourself (how many kids, about your family and blog, etc.)
Hello, I'm Alyssa I'm nearly 28. I live in the North West with my husband and our two children, J who is 4 and C who is  8 weeks. I blog at www.mumtoamonster.com.

Why did you decide to breastfeed?  
I wanted to try and breastfeed C as I didn't manged to breastfeed J. I tried but we ended up expressing and having to cup feeding for two weeks. This time around I was more relaxed and put less pressure on myself. 
What is your top 3 breastfeeding essentials?
Nipple Shields 
Without these, we wouldn't have got past a few days breast feeding. We have just weaned off them at 8 weeks.

Feeding pillow/neck pillow 
I really struggled with getting C to latch correctly as first. I used a neck pillow as a feeding pillow, and it helped massively till we got use to it.

Electric Pump
Not everyone will need this but as I was going back to work when C was 6 weeks I wanted to build up a stash. At first, I was hand expressing but as C got bigger I moved to an electric pump. It's handy to express at the same time I feed her.


Do you feed in public? If so, was it hard to begin with? If not, why don’t you? 
Yes, it was awkward at first as we were using Shields, but I still fed in public as baby had to eat. It helped that I fed in front of extended family first at home.

Have you ever bottle fed your other children? Which do you find easier? Bottle or Breast? And why? 
I bottle fed my son purely because we couldn't seem to managed to Breastfeed. We made the change as I was so damaged from bad latching and my mental health wasn't great with all the expressing. 

I find breastfeeding much easier as I don't have to faff around with bottles and I always have a source of milk if we are out.


Please tell us the easiest and the hardest thing about breastfeeding
As mentioned the easiest thing is definitely how quick and easy it is to latch baby when they are hungry. No having to wait around counting out formula scoops in the middle of the night. I remember having to re count with my son as you are so tired you have forgotten where you are up to.

The hardest thing is definitely the first few weeks. C damaged me but I was prepared this time with Nipple Shields and just expressed the damaged side until it healed. Then we started trying to latch again. It's also hard to trust that your boobs are doing their job as you can't see how much milk your baby is having.  

If there was any advice you could give to someone who’s considering breastfeeding, what would it be?
Give it a try, don't pressure yourself. Trust your boobs. If you combination feed there is nothing wrong with that. 

No comments

Post a Comment

I appreciate every comment left on this site.
I do kindly ask no advertising brand websites. If you would like to know more about working together or just a friendly chat, please email me:
bethmiaelliw@outlook.com
Thank you