My Top Five Products for a Feeding Mum

I have been the mum that would try breastfeeding with no pressure. I have been the mum hiding in a toilet, worried about breastfeeding in public.  I have been the mum that weaned onto bottles.  I have been the mum who knew she would breastfeed before her baby was even born.  I have been the mum proudly breastfeeding.  I have been the mum who breastfed a toddler.  I have been the mum that cup fed.  I have been the mum that bottlefeeds.  I have been the mum that does her very best for her babies, and makes sure they are fed, happy and growing.

I have breastfed, cup fed and bottle fed, and whilst there are some products brilliantly designed for a certain way of feeding, there are also a lot of products that are just fantastic for those mums that regularly feed their children.  Here are my top 5

-Muslins.

Muslins are genius things, so simple, so underated until you have a baby to feed, and then you realise their worth.  I used them as a light cover when I felt nervous feeding in public, I have used them as a burping cloth, and as a makeshift bib for a baby with reflux.  However I feed my baby, I make sure I have a muslin close at hand.

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Our Feeding Journey

It is fair to say that Finn's first three months have been rocky.  After being born with a virus, he has undergone all sorts of tests and procedures, and we have found a second home in the hospital. We seem to finally be coming out the other side of the newborn blur though, and I have discovered that we are going to have to do things Finn's way rather than mine.

I knew way before Finn was born that I wanted to breastfeed.  I had fed both of his brothers, for 9 months and 16 months and it was what felt natural to me.  I had enjoyed it, both my children were born already seeming to know how and it was certainly easy, especially once you got past those first few weeks.  Finn latched on well after birth, and we had 48 hours of breastfeeding on demand.

After his admission to special care, the testing started, and to rule out a rare disease called galactosaemia, we were told Finn must stop breastfeeding, and instead have a soya based formula until we had the all clear.  I was so determined that we should do everything we could to establish breastfeeding, that the nurses and I decided he would be cup fed, to avoid the nipple confusion of a bottle, and I was set up with an electric pump and a space in the freezer.  The results took far longer to come back than we expected and it wasn't until 8 days later that I was finally allowed to breastfeed again.  Finn was 10 days old, the freezer was so full after 8 days of expressing every 3 hours and I didn't realise how hard it would be to teach a baby to breastfeed again.

We struggled, and he was topped up via his nasogastric tube when he didn't seem to be taking enough, but after 12 hours a lovely nurse told me he could come into my room, and we would stop topping him up for 24 hours to give him a chance to really 'get it'.  He seemed to get back into feeding, and I prioritised getting milk into him over anything else.  I ended up very sore, but after 3 days and lots of work his latch started to right itself and he was putting on weight.

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