Perfecting the Art

No one tells new moms generally a lot of things you assume will come naturally actually take a lot of practice. Breastfeeding sounds like the most natural thing in the world, but I found it comparable to the time Michael and I tried to learn to do a very basic waltz for our wedding day. Only this time, I get to be in the normal guy role and take the lead.

Liam and I got off to a great start nursing, and probably at least 75% of the time he is latched properly. I haven't had a lot of soreness because of this. All the classes, the preparation, my doula, and the lactation consultants at the hospital really did help. But I learned that even when you start right you still have to be careful you don't slip into bad habits carelessly. Like dancing, you really have to practice and check your techniques constantly as you are learning (at least I do, because dancing is NOT one of my natural talents!). I reviewed the proper latching techniques again yesterday, not because I knew of any problems but just to be sure we were still on track. To my surprise, I discovered sometimes we were not doing things as well as we could have been, which probably explained why sometimes I would start to get a little sore at times. This primarily occurs at night when both mom and baby are sleepy.

I now am making the following corrections to prevent habits. First, always support the baby properly so he isn't sliding down my tummy as we feed. Often this means extra pillows or blankets to help. Second, make sure the baby is more awake as sleepy babies also tend to be sloppier and more likely to slip into a painful position for mommy. Also, I learned to make sure his botton lip is always flared out like a fish's mouth and that he opens wide enough. Sometimes, it looks like his is latched fine, but when I check I can see the botton lip is pointed more inward and this will make me a little sore after awhile. Since I started correcting these things, I found that his is eating more smoothly and I am feeling even better!

The other thing I found a bit tricky to learn is how to properly burp a baby. Sounds easy, right? Well, when you have a squirming newborn in your hands with a floppy head it can be a little intimidating. I let various moms in the family show me their techniques, but I found some of these were not really working for us. Last night I looked up other techniques and found a ton of useful information (particularly on the Dr. Sears site a lot of friends recommended to me). Upon trying some other burping techniques, Michael and I both found ways to get big burps out of our little "gas man." I learned the key is they need a little pressure on their little bellies to help push the gas up. It is amazing what a difference makes after I started trying to get him to burp with no pressure at all on the little tummy. The across the lap method works great for him, and sitting him up with my one hand supporting his head (heel of the hand on his little belly as I lean him forward also does well. I also learned (actually by observation first, but didn't put two and two together) that pulling their little knees up to their bellies helps babies gets toots out the other end! I now do this for him time to time too. Since we have been trying these methods, little Liam has been spitting up a lot less and has seemed a lot less gassy!! He slept in 2-3 hour intervals again last night.