Renee's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 5/8/02 -------------------- 7/11/01 4/26/01 4/18/01 4/9/01 3/13/01 2/1/01 1/24/01 1/11/01 -------------------- Renee's Introduction

Join Renee and her toddler, Kara, as they share their breastfeeding journey.

November 30, 1999

Wow! My own online diary! I am so excited to be starting this process. I have really enjoyed reading the other diaries here, and have learned so much from them! It's exciting to think that I can now share a little of my own life.

First off, let me introduce myself. My name is Renée and I am 30 years old. I have a wonderful husband, Scott, and an adorable 18-month-old daughter, Kara. I am a stay-at-home mom and love that I can spend so much time taking care of my little girl. Doing housework, however, is not my favorite thing in the world, so the role of the homemaker has not come easily! I was unprepared for the difficult transition from working professional to housewife (Ugh! I hate that term!). But, I am slowly becoming more domestic, and feeling more comfortable with my new "career."

I have always planned to breastfeed my children, and did a lot of preparation before Kara was born. I went to several La Leche League meetings while I was pregnant and received a lot of great information. It was also so much fun to see those cute, happy babies nursing away! Seeing them really reinforced my commitment to breastfeed my own baby. Another thing I did to prepare was to watch a video that covered breastfeeding basics. Even though I had seen women nursing, I had never looked closely at a baby's mouth latched onto a nipple. It was great to be able to watch the video and study, up-close, what a proper latch looks like. All of those ahead-of-time preparations made the early days of breastfeeding seem much less awkward, since I had some idea of what I was doing.

My labor with Kara was quite long, but fortunately free of complications. We were able to start nursing right after she was born. I was so thankful to deliver in a hospital that strongly encouraged moms to breastfeed. The nurses were great, and happy to help me get Kara latched on if I needed some guidance. We were also visited by a lactation consultant, and that was really helpful. Kara had a tendency to thrust out her tongue, which made nursing difficult, but I probably wouldn't have realized that on my own. The lactation consultant showed me ways to get Kara's tongue in the proper position before nursing, which made a huge difference.

We did have a few more minor feeding problems when Kara was a newborn. My nipples got a little bit sore, and Kara spit up quite a bit. It was amazing how much milk could come shooting out of that little body! It scared me at first until I saw that it didn't bother her at all, and that she was growing and thriving. All in all, I have had a really positive experience breastfeeding right from the beginning. It is such a wonderful way to nourish a baby!

I am proud to say that Kara has never had a drop of formula. She was exclusively breastfed until she was six and a half months old, when I slowly began introducing solid food and teaching her to drink from a cup. Her transition from being solely breastfed to eating solid food was extremely gradual. But, by her first birthday, she was eating three meals a day, although still nursing quite a bit. Now, at 18 months, she nurses two to four times per day-first thing in the morning, right before bed and sometimes before and after naptime. I never thought I would have a breastfeeding toddler, but now that I do, I'm really happy that she still nurses. We both enjoy the closeness that goes along with breastfeeding, and I know I will miss that connection after Kara is weaned.

With that being said, however, I am starting to get a little anxious since my husband and I are about to start trying to conceive our second child. I worry that it will be really hard on my body to be pregnant and nursing at the same time. During the first trimester of my pregnancy with Kara I was very rundown. I felt really ill most of the time and it took an incredible effort just to be able to function normally. I'm afraid that this time it's going to be much worse since as a mom, I won't be able to take the day off or collapse on the couch all weekend if I'm feeling icky. Also, my body will be working even harder since I'll be nursing too! I know it's perfectly safe to nurse while pregnant, and that other women have successfully done it, but I still worry. I'm afraid that I'll be forced to choose between my own comfort and that of my daughter's. I really don't want to wean Kara before she's ready, but I also don't want to be so exhausted that I can't play with her, or take her to the park, or just giggle and be silly together.

Still, one thing I'm really good at is worrying about things that might never happen. Who knows? It could take me months to get pregnant, and by that time Kara could be weaned. Or maybe I'll feel great this pregnancy and the fact that I'm nursing Kara won't make a bit of difference. In fact, it might be nice to have some quiet, relaxing nursing breaks when I'm especially tired. One thing that being a mother has taught me is that while there can be a lot of fear and anxiety about the challenges ahead, when the next phase inevitably arrives you just deal with the situation as best you can and it usually works out just fine. So, all I can do is go forward and see what happens!

I'll be sure to keep you posted!