Baby Boy - First experience as a mother - Breastfeeding

We had a Baby Boy!!!
Its been two weeks now that God has Blessed us with such a beautiful soul.
My husband and i are now proud parents of our son who we named Mario after my father.

For those who have read a few of my other posts, you may know that we did not find out the gender of the baby util baby was actually born...
You would imagine that after 9 months of suspense the gender would be the first thing you would want to know as baby comes out; but at that moment to be honest i forgot that i did not know the gender and just help my baby in my arms thanking God that the delivery went well and that baby was ok.

It took me several minutes to remember and ask what the gender of the baby was. I asked my husband who was sitting at my head and he already knew. So i suspect that the doctors must of mentioned it before, but with my confusion i did not even hear them.

Nevertheless i am super happy to have my beautiful boy  here at home and its been an unbelievable two weeks; full of surprises, mixed feelings, nerves, challenges and many many rewards.

Night 1:

The first night with baby was at the clinic. Most of the other mothers who gave birth on the same day (2nd of November by the way) had left their new born in the care of the midwives. But then again i was supervised to find out that most  of the mothers were not planning on exclusively breastfeeding their baby's. After the first night with baby by my side i kind of figured out why the other mothers decided to add formula to their baby's diet. Baby would wake up and cry for food every 10 minutes or so. At this point i was scared that i was starving my baby; but i just kept getting up and giving him the little breast milk i was producing every few minutes.

In the morning when the pediatrician came to check on baby i asked if my last nights experience was normal and he confirmed that it was. He advised to be  an option if patient and that slowly but surely more milk would be produced on baby's demand. The doctor also reassured me that giving formula would be only an option if baby dropped weight radically and more that usual ( it is normal for baby's to loose some of their birth weight in the first days).

Night 2:

Night 2 was not much different from night 1 and on that day i asked my husband to run to the supermarket to get some formula just for in case. Having the formula around gave me the safety that if needed it was there. 2 weeks later i still have the unopened-unused formula and proud that i have not been tempted to use it even during the sleepless first nights.

Day 3 - Night 3:

After day 3 i seem to have more breast milk coming down and baby seems more satisfied. He does not wake up so frequently and has made a routine of waking very 2-3 hours for a feeding.

At this point i must worn you about a few breastfeeding related discussants... 

• Sensitive and painful nipples: This starts immediately when first breastfeeding the first week is quite painful but it does get better and by the second week the pain is no longer an issue; Although nipples still are quite sensitive in week 2 also. 
• Leaking: Once the milk starts coming down you will experience some leaking. I use breast pads from NUK which are quite comfortable.
• Hard breasts: You may notice that your breasts start to harden when the milk comes down. This can also be painful. I managed to keep this under control by applying the shower head (with warm water running on to my breasts every time i would take a shower for a few minutes. This was a helpful tip from m sister which i find totally worth sharing with other new moms.

Night 4 and so on:

Breastfeeding has become much easier and baby is content with his meals. We have taken Baby Mario to his first check us at the doctors since the clinic and he has gained 500 gr which the doctor was very pleased with.  Dr. said there is no need to give my baby formula as his development seems to be good just with the breast milk. 

Helpful gadgets:

I have a breast pump at home which is very helpful! I recommend that every breastfeeding mom have one. This is very convenient to have a bottle or two pumped out for when baby is strapped in the car seat and gets hungry. This limits crying in the car or having to stop in random places to pop out the breast.  I am using the SWING MEDELA breast pump which i am very happy with and find easy to use.