breastfeeding Archives - Naptime Natter

Wendy August 16, 2019

Growing your freezer stash of breastmilk (the quick and easy way)

Life as a breastfeeding mum can be so relentless and demanding. Tilly is just over a month old now, I am right in the thick of breastfeeding a newborn and I had forgotten how exhausting being the only one who can feed the baby is! It’s only been five weeks but when I am feeding every 2 hours every day and night and sometimes every half an hour in the evenings when baby is trying to up my milk supply, daydreams of someone else being able to take over feeding duties have started to happen pretty regularly! If I want a break and want Tilly to have breastmilk in a bottle and not formula then I need to build up my stored breastmilk stash. I have started filling the freezer with expressed breastmilk (good luck trying to find the chips amongst all the Medela freezer bags full of milk!) and it has actually been no hassle at all. If you are a breastfeeding mama also looking to build up your freezer stash of breastmilk then here is a list of all the things you can do to get lots of milk stored up with very minimal effort on your part – no feeding mama has time to sit stuck to a breastpump for hours, do they? It’s totally understandable to want a break from breastfeeding, it’s like a full time job after all, I hope the tips in this post help you to get some much deserved time off. I for one can not wait for a date night with the husband and to have a night off from being pinned to the sofa with my baby stuck to me for hours. View Post

Wendy July 5, 2018

Help, my baby stole my boobs – what no one tells you about post breastfeeding boobs

Summer is here. The shops are full of gorgeous floaty dresses, pretty little tops, strappy sandals and the rails are jam packed with the summer wardrobe staple we all love to hate – the bikini. I have always felt a bit selfconscious in a bikini but never enough to consider not wearing one. I am naturally small and although I have some body hang ups, I have never despised my body. Since having kids, my body confidence has understandably taken a knock but every time we visited the beach last summer, my belly didn’t flip with nerves when I took my beach dress off and stood on the sand in just a bikini. Thanks to exercising regularly after the birth of my second baby and having a pretty awesome cleavage thanks to breastfeeding, last summer I felt the best I have ever felt about my body. I wish I could say the same about it as the summer holidays approach this year. You see, my body confidence has plummeted and it is not because my thighs are a bit squishier than they once were, or because I have a permanent ‘look who had a big lunch’ pot belly, I am not feeling as confident in my skin this summer because my babies stole my boobs. Yup, you read that correctly, my babies STOLE MY BOOBS! View Post

Wendy March 1, 2018

Breastfeeding diary – when you stop breastfeeding

Before I begin, just to warn you, I may cry all over my keyboard as I type out this post. After 16 months, Alex is no longer being breastfed. When I was pregnant I decided that I would try my best to breastfeed my second baby for a year and I was so proud and happy when we reached that milestone. I was sort of left in breastfeeding limbo after that though, I don’t know what I was expecting to happen after Alex’s first birthday but I kind of thought that he would just be over the whole breastfeeding thing the second he finished opening his presents and shovelling birthday cake into his face. Well, that didn’t happen. Turning one made no difference to Alex’s desire to breastfeed so we carried on, until last month that is. For my final entry *sob* in my breastfeeding diary, I am going to talk about how it feels when breastfeeding comes to an end, how it feels when something that has become such a big part of your life is suddenly over. Just like no one really prepares you for the emotional rollercoaster of trying to establish breastfeeding with your newborn, there is not much talk about how when it’s over you go for another trip around the rollercoaster track, not to mention the boobs you are left with (or not) at the end of it all! View Post

Wendy January 19, 2018

How to breastfeed with confidence

If you have chosen to breastfeed your new baby those first few weeks can feel really overwhelming. I know when my first boy was a newborn I often worried whether I was feeding him enough/too much or if my milk supply was good enough or if he was feeding long enough on both sides (and I stressed about a million other things too). My second baby is now 15 months old and as a second time breastfeeding mum I can say I feel a lot more confident this time around. I thought I would write a post for all new breastfeeding mums and share my top tips on how to feel confident during your breastfeeding journey. I also want to show mums to be and new mums that those precious baby days don’t need to be spoilt by worries over breastfeeding, it is totally possible to feed with confidence. You can do this Mamas! View Post

Wendy November 29, 2017

Breastfeeding diary – the reality of breastfeeding a one year old

Well, we did it! One whole year of breastfeeding. It was always my aim since I became pregnant with Alex to try my best to breastfeed him for his first year and I’ve only gone and done it. It’s not always been easy, we had latch issues and I experienced a lot of pain during those first couple of weeks but I feel so proud that we pushed through and our feeding journey is still going strong 12 months on. With the rise of the mummy blogger there seems to be a lot more honest advice and stories online about what breastfeeding a newborn is like, which makes a nice change from the very impersonal approach most nhs leaflets and antenatal classes seem to take. I’ve written all about it myself in previous breastfeeding diary posts and have even written a guest blog for The Bshirt all about how to breastfeed with confidence. When it comes to the realities of feeding an older baby though the stories from other mums on their feeding experiences start to thin out. Just as breastfeeding a newborn comes with it’s own challenges, breastfeeding an older baby is not as easy as you may think either. So, as Alex and I have smashed our feeding goals and are still going, I thought I would share with you what it’s really like breastfeeding a one year old, in case you too decide to keep feeding your little one into toddlerhood. View Post

Wendy August 9, 2017

Breastfeed with confidence with The Bshirt – review

Breastfeeding in public is not really something I struggle with now I am a second time mum. I am of the attitude that if my baby needs feeding then I am going to feed him, it doesn’t matter where I am or if there are strangers around. This was not the case at all when I had Leo, as a first time mum I found breastfeeding in public really nerve wracking to begin with and would go to great lengths to try and be as discrete as possible. There were numerous occasions where I would go and feed Leo in my car while we were out shopping or I would just try and time outings around his feeds in those very early baby days. Establishing breastfeeding can be really difficult and the last thing any new mum needs is to feel stressed out when feeding because her clothes don’t make her feel confident when feeding her baby. Recently I got to review a brand new nursing top by a lovely new brand called The Bshirt. If you are trying to get feeding established and don’t want the fear of breastfeeding in public to hold you back then get this top on your must have list now. Here is what Alex and I thought of The Bshirt .. View Post

Wendy August 4, 2017

Lansinoh Feed With Confidence Awards 2017 – what are your thoughts on breastfeeding in public? (Lansinoh giveaway)

As you may already know, this week (August 1st-7th) is World Breastfeeding Week, a week to celebrate breastfeeding, change peoples negative views on breastfeeding and to help people learn more about the most natural thing in the world. If you read my blog regularly then you will know I am passionate about breastfeeding and I share a very honest account of what breastfeeding is really like in my breastfeeding diary.

The UK has one of the worst breastfeeding rates in the world, considering we are a country that knows how beneficial and amazing breastfeeding is, for some reason, research from 2015 shows that only 0.5% of mums are still feeding their babies by the time they reach 12 months old. View Post

Wendy August 2, 2017

Breastfeeding diary – celebrating World Breastfeeding Week and 9 months of breastfeeding

This week is World Breastfeeding Week and with that in mind I have decided it’s time for another entry into my breastfeeding diary. Alex is now 9 months old and I am so happy and proud to say we are still breastfeeding with no intentions to stop any time soon.

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Wendy July 18, 2017

The best bottle for breastfed babies – yoomi self warming bottle review

Breastfeeding or bottle feeding, when it comes to baby feeding it can be very difficult at times for both mummy and baby to figure everything out. Alex is breastfed, we had a few issues to begin with (bleeding nipples being the worst!) but now he is almost 9 months old and feeding is pretty much problem free. There is one little issue though, I wouldn’t exactly call it a problem but it has caused me a fair bit of grief over the past few moths, Alex won’t take a bottle. If you are a breastfeeding mum you will understand how relentless breastfeeding can be and sometimes all you want is a break from it, to pop to the shops or go on a girlie night out or to just have your body back for a day. As a smaller baby Alex would occasionally take expressed milk from a bottle, we had a lot of success with the Lansinoh Momma bottle in those early months. For some reason though, probably due to the fact we weren’t giving him one regularly enough, Alex started to refuse all his favourite old bottles. Formula or breastmilk, he would just scream whenever the bottle went anywhere near him. Even if he was starving Alex wouldn’t let the teat be placed in his mouth. This has been going on until a couple weeks ago when we received a miracle in the post from innovative baby feeding brand yoomi. This may sound like a pretty bold statement but I believe the yoomi feeding system is the best bottle out there for a breastfed baby. Here’s our review of the yoomi self warming bottle so you can find out why.. View Post

Wendy May 8, 2017

Please, can we stop arguing about how we feed our babies?

Here is something I have often found myself wondering since I became a mum, why do parents argue with other parents about how they feed their babies? I mean, why do people feel the need to pass comment on how others decide to feed their child? I have tried my best to bite my tongue on the whole breast v bottle debate as I do not like arguments and, unfortunately, baby feeding seems to cause A LOT of arguments. I can’t keep quiet any longer though, I am sick of seeing mums online having a go at each other, judging each other and being pretty damn rude to each other over something as trivial as where a baby gets it’s milk from. View Post

Wendy May 3, 2017

Breastfeeding diary – 6 months of breastfeeding, we did it!

We did it!! 6 whole months of breastfeeding, I am so proud of myself and Alex for reaching this feeding milestone and I can’t believe how quickly it has come around . I haven’t updated my breastfeeding diary in a while as, to be honest, after the struggles we had in those first few weeks feeding has been going really well. However, now that Alex is 6 months old I couldn’t not write another diary entry to celebrate this achievement. View Post

Wendy February 3, 2017

Breastfeeding diary – How to survive a baby growth spurt

Welcome back to my breastfeeding diary. Since my last entry, written when Alex was 6 weeks old, breastfeeding has been going really well. Feeds are easy and painless and, although they are still very frequent, feeding times have become a lovely bonding experience for Alex and I. However, we have just been through a massive growth spurt which put me and my boobs to the test, if I thought Alex liked to feed a lot before I was very much mistaken. Babies tend to have lots of growth spurts in their first year, the major ones being at 2weeks, 6weeks, 3months and 6months. At 14 weeks old, Alex has been through 3 big growth spurts already and I thought I would share my tips on how to make it through a baby growth spurt when you are breastfeeding your baby. View Post

Wendy January 19, 2017

Pumping made easy with Lansinoh – Single electric breast pump review

Breastfeeding has pretty much dominated my life for the past 3 months. While I do love cuddling up on the sofa and giving my little man a feed, having a baby demanding milk every 2 hours or so can be pretty exhausting. Thanks to breast pumps, babies are still able to have the breastmilk they love and us Mums can get a break too – yay! I have been using a manual pump on and off since Alex was born but I just wasn’t getting on with it, the effort it took to get 4oz of milk out just didn’t feel worth it. I was delighted when the lovely people at Lansinoh sent me their single electric breast pump and some feeding bottles to try. Lansinoh are my all time favourite brand for breastfeeding products so I was feeling hopeful that their single electric breast pump would not disappoint. Here is what Alex and I thought of our new feeding time friends. View Post

Wendy January 9, 2017

How to breastfeed in public with confidence

I always knew that if I ever had a baby I would breastfeed, I have no problem with mothers who bottle feed but I knew that wasn’t the feeding method for me. Before I had my babies, one of the things that worried me about breastfeeding was how I would feel when it came to feeding my baby out of the house. Unfortunately, breastfeeding in public is still seen as a bit controversial and is a bit of a taboo subject, I have no idea why as women have been doing it forever. Because of this often negative view of breastfeeding in public places, nursing mums can often feel self conscious and nervous when feeding out and about. I know from my experience as a first time Mum at 22 how stressed and anxious I felt feeding Leo out of the house in those early weeks.

Now, I’m almost 3 months into feeding my second baby and I will seriously feed him anywhere. If he is hungry then I’m going to feed him whether that’s at home, in a coffee shop or on platform 3 at the train station. When it comes to breastfeeding in public I have learnt not to be self conscious and I am so much more confident now than I was as a first time breastfeeding mummy. If you are pregnant or a new mummy who is nervous about feeding your baby out of the house, here is my quick guide to breastfeeding in public with confidence. View Post

Wendy December 16, 2016

Breastfeeding diary – We made it to 6 weeks

Welcome back to my breastfeeding diary, the place on my blog where I am documenting mine and Alex’s feeding journey to try and help other mums and mums to be see what breastfeeding is really like. Alex is now 7 weeks old and I am still exclusively breastfeeding him. It is often said that the first 6 weeks of breastfeeding are the hardest and once you pass this point feeding becomes so much easier. Is this true? Well from my experience I have to say yes! The past 6 weeks haven’t been all milky cuddles and relaxing feeds, the first two weeks were incredibly difficult (you can read all about that here) but slowly things have got better. Now 7 weeks in I can say breastfeeding is just another part of our daily routine, it’s just something we get on with and doesn’t cause me any stress at all. I have been keeping track of our progress from week 3 to 6 so you can see how we have got to this point. View Post

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