Breastfeeding and Co-sleeping..

So I decided when Sky was only a few days old, to preserve my sanity I would give co-sleeping a go. For those of you not familiar with the term, it basically means to have your baby sleep in bed with you rather than in a cot or moses basket. It seems that everyone you meet has an opinion on it. I've had friends tell me that i'm making a 'rod for my own back' and that she will never sleep in her own bed, and been branded a bad mother on forums for apparently increasing her risk of SIDS.

However, since she was 2 weeks old Sky has only woken for 1 feed during the night and then slept until Sam wakes up in the morning, making both my husband and I much more able to function during the day. In the early days it meant she could find the breast herself and so I didn't need to wake up every hour to feed her, and I don't think I would have been so successful with breastfeeding had I spent half my night picking her up and putting her down again. 

Breastfeeding was something that had worried me throughout my pregnancy, after I gave up with Sam when he was just 4 weeks old. He would feed every hour and fuss with my breast for at least 10 minutes before finally latching on properly, meaning I would only get a couple hours sleep a night, and that was usually achieved by Joe taking him into another room and walking around with him to stop him screaming. So out came the formula and we never looked back. I have been carrying around my breastfeeding guilt ever since. So when Sky latched perfectly from the moment she was born, I was so relieved. She continued to feed well every 2-3 hours while we were in the hospital, and we were discharged after 24 hours.

Getting home was when the cracks started to show, she would feed constantly during the evening going from 1 breast to the other for 3 hours (which I later found out was cluster feeding) My breasts were sore, I would dread every feed and bedtimes were a nightmare, Joe would walk around with her trying to get her to sleep so my poor cracked nipples could recover but it meant we were both like zombies by morning and Sam would spend his day having to entertain himself while we napped on the sofa whenever Sky gave us the chance.

So that night she fell asleep next to me after a big feed, and I drifted off next to her. When I woke 3 hours later I immediately started to panic, and put my hand on her belly to check she was still breathing. She was fine and looked so comfy and cosy wrapped up next to me, so when she finished her next feed I let her stay there, but padded out the edge of the bed to make sure she didn't fall out. The time between feeds gave my breasts a chance to recover and I stopped dreading the feeds so much. Oh and for the record no matter how good the latch, it is normal for it to hurt like hell at first. I call it the 'toughening up period' my nipples obviously had to get used to being suckled for the best part of the day, and for any of you ladies suffering out there, I recommend Lansinoh cream, it's ridiculously expensive but it is amazing! (and make's brilliant lip balm when your done using it for your nipples)

Last night was the first night that Sky slept all night (well from 11:30pm- 7am) and I am a very happy Mummy!

 

It's hello from me..

So here I am, my first blog post! I am a little excited, I've never done anything like this before so do please bear with me!

I'll start by introducing myself, my name is Lacey, and I live in a little seaside town called Cleethorpes in North East Lincolnshire. If you don't know where it is, don't worry you're not missing out on much. I married my husband Joe back in June of this year and we have two children. The first of these delightful little darlings is our son Samuel, who is 2 years and 8 months, and in the throws of the terrible two's. The second is the newest addition to the family, our daughter Sky, who is 8 weeks. We also have two border collie dog's, called Taz and Jake, and two pet rat's called Millie and Tifa (Tifa, for those not of geek descent is the name of some character in Final Fantasy, and not something my husband made up, or so i'm told).

To forewarn you now, my blog will most likely be filled with rants about my daily life as a busy Mummy of two, such as why my quietly sleeping daughter decides as soon as I start typing that she needs to fill her nappy, then not content with being clean want feeding too. I am currently breastfeeding my daughter so you should also expect a bit of boob talk. My life probably doesn't make good reading for the easily offended  i'm opinionated and I call a spade a spade, so don't expect anything to be politically correct either. (sorry).

I currently work part time at a well known supermarket, and while it's a far cry from being my career choice it brings in precious pennies with which to put food on the table (or as my husband would have you believe to spend on getting my hair done, and buying new things we neither need or want). However I am currently on maternity leave. I am also planning to start writing my first novel, I use the word first loosely as I have in fact started my 'first' novel at least ten times now but this time I plan to finish it.

So there it is my first entry. If you got this far then thank you! Now I must go resume my day job as a human milk factory...