I reached my first goal!

I always had a plan that I wanted to breastfeed. There was never really any question about it. My main reasons for wanting to do it was because of the benefits, the bonding experience, knowing that I can provide for my baby and help her grow all from me, and because I'm lazy I liked the idea of not having to wash any bottles. Haha.

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against formula at all. If she had to have some I would have no problem with it at all. She had a little bit when she was a few days old in the hospital and when I had my surgery. But I set this goal for myself and felt really strong about reaching it.

I tried to prepare myself while I was pregnant. I read up on breastfeeding. Scared myself with the stories I've heard and read about the difficulties of breastfeeding. I told myself no matter how difficult it was going to be at first I was going to push through it and do it. I made my first goal which was 6 months. My next goal is one year and then after that is all up to Jessalyn.

About a half an hour or so after Jessalyn was born and they cleaned her off and checked her, they brought her to me to try her first feeding. I was ready for anything. I got lucky and Jess latched on right away like she had been doing it forever. She was a pro. She knew exactly what she was doing and all the nurses were so impressed. She was even the talk labor and delivery. I was so excited that it was so easy for us! I've never even had any issues with nursing in public either. It was came so natural to me. Even with a small battle with mastitis we're still going strong. We decided not to feed her any solids since nursing was just enough for her. And it's pretty obvious that my milk is good enough for her because of all her rolls. lol. All 18 pounds of my 6 month old baby girl.

It's funny because I have had to change my wardrobe to nursing accessible. I need to make sure I wear something out that is easy to pull down to feed Jessalyn in public. I've kinda gotten used to waking up smelling like spoiled milk. When I sleep I need to wear tank tops that I can easily pull one side off to feed her while we're both half asleep in bed. And that brings us to one of the main reasons why we co-sleep. Honestly co-sleeping never even crossed my mind until she was born. I was so sure she was going to be sleeping in her nice comfy crib with her cute butterfly bedding by the time she was a few months old. That all changed when she was a few weeks old. I was so sleep deprived from her not sleeping any longer than 20 minutes in her bassinet. I was so tired in middle of the night holding her and feeding her I would be falling asleep. I learned to lay down and nurse her so I would be able to sleep in the process. She would end up falling asleep in the bed with me so Jordan would be up and move her back to her bassinet. Not too long later she would be crying so I would move her back in the bed with me. I realized she slept better next to me and slept a lot longer too. Which meant more sleep for me. So I gave in and she started sleeping in the bed with us full time. Here we are 6 months later with a baby in our bed. She sleeps from about 9pm-9am and slightly wakes up to nurse about two times during the night. I'm not sure how long we will be co-sleeping but at the moment it's working for us. It just goes to show that you can plan on doing things before the baby comes but sometimes things don't work out the way you thought or something ends up working out better.

As far as breastfeeding goes, I couldn't be happier the way things have turned out so far. I absolutely love it and have no complaints at all. I love the bonding I have had with my daughter and love the fact that if nothing can calm her down I know I can. So here's to another 6 months!!