Made To Mommy

Documenting my millennial mom life

What I’ve Learned About “Mom Guilt”

Mom guilt. They’re two words one may hear while pregnant, but in reality won’t ever experience until your little one arrives. Sure, you prepare your home, family, your body for your baby’s arrival. You make sure you’re nourishing yourself properly to grow that little seed into a majestic human being. You give up caffeine (or if you’re like me, switch to decaf), walk for 30-minutes every day, take your vitamins and listen to your doctor’s advice and guidance to ensure your baby is growing as they should.

But what happens when your little nugget arrives? Well, you’ll lose sleep, forget to feed yourself since you’re so consumed in your baby, basic hygiene may go out the door for a week or two (granted, at some point you have to shower), make sure your animals that shed are kept in a separate area, if you have a winter or summer baby rack up that heat/air condition bill and you figure out your rhythm when it comes to nourishing your child.

Let me be clear. Mom guilt can happen to any mom for any specific reason. Your hormones are through the roof the first two weeks postpartum (you thought pregnancy hormones were bad, guess again…) that even a Pepsi commercial can make you cry.

What I personally have learned about mom guilt is that it’s 100% in my head. I am playing the mom guilt card in many different situations, and for me, it’s been mainly associated to figuring out the best way to feed my baby.

Since birth, my little girl has had a hard time latching. Every time we’d try, she’d get frustrated that she couldn’t latch onto my boob. She has a very small mouth, which can be part of the issue, but I blame my nipples. They aren’t the most ideal for breastfeeding. At the hospital, my body had to heal itself a bit before it could really think about nourishing my child, so I was self-expressing colostrum and finger-feeding it to her. Once we arrived home, I was pumping and trying to get her to latch. I was pumping every hour and a half when I got home that I had cracked and bleeding nipples and have since discovered a bruise on my right breast from the intense suction (a hospital-grade pump will do that to you).

I try and get my little one to latch every time, but in all honesty, we’ve had to supplement her with formula. The formula I’m using is from Happy Family Brands and is the Stage 1 Happy Baby Organic Formula. The reason I love this formula so much is that it’s modeled after breast milk and doesn’t wreak havoc on my little one’s digestive system. She handles this formula really well and I feel good when I feed it to her. At this point in our breastfeeding journey, it looks like my supply is dwindling down no matter how much I pump or how much Fenugreek I take.

Enter my main “mom guilt.” I keep beating myself up that I can’t provide more of my breast milk to my child. At this point, she is a formula baby.

While I know that the first month of life is the most crucial for my little one so she receives the antibodies in my milk to help build a strong immune system, potentially having to stop because my supply is getting smaller was never part of my plan.

Society puts a lot of pressure on moms to breastfeed their child. “Breast is best” they say. True, it is, but what about those moms whose supply isn’t there, or moms who just don’t have any milk at all? They give them formula. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact, I envy those moms because they never had to even go through a bout of mom guilt related to breastfeeding.

When taking my breastfeeding class prior to giving birth, the instructor mentioned that it doesn’t matter what type of nipple you have (inverted, flat or pointy), you can breastfeed. What they fail to mention every time is that it’s not easy. There are so many situations that may come up that prevent successful breastfeeding:

  • Your baby has a hard time latching due to a small mouth, lips, etc.
  • Your nipples just aren’t erect enough for them to hit the roof of your baby’s mouth in order to stimulate suction (this is my problem).
  • You have little to no milk supply (granted, you won’t know this till the time your milk is supposed to come in). This is also my problem.
  • It’s a frustrating experience trying to get your baby to latch. You get stressed out and they get stressed out, resulting in nothing.

All in all, it doesn’t matter how you feed your child––whether it’s breastfeeding, pumping and bottle feeding, or straight up formula––the only thing that matters is that your child is fed, growing and healthy.

If you’re happy and not stressed, your baby will be, too.

Did you have any issues in the breastfeeding department? I’d love to know which route you took for your child. Let me know in the comments!

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Heading Back To Work: Bottle Feeding to the Rescue

This post originally appeared on RedTri.com.

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There is nothing in the world like the smell of a newborn baby, especially when it’s your own (and your first!). Basking in the glory of your new bundle of love never gets old and as the days turn into weeks and those weeks turn into months before you know it, you have to get ready to go back to work.

As a breastfeeding mom who also works full time, I’ve needed to figure out how I can still give my little one my milk, all while still being able to maintain a successful career.

Since bottle feeding is my only choice when it comes to feeding my child while working, I didn’t want to use a bottle that would lead to nipple confusion. I still want my baby to latch and continue feeding at the breast when possible.

Finding bottles that wouldn’t result in nipple confusion is a trial and error experience. I’ve tried so many bottles from AVENT and Dr. Brown’s to Evenflo and Tommee Tippee.

Either my little one won’t take the bottle or she mimics bottle feeding on the breast, which is somewhat unpleasant. The nipples on the bottles I’ve tried are either too short, too thick, too thin or provides so much flow that my baby can overeat.

Enter nanobébé. Not only do these bottles mimic the breast, but are the first on the market to preserve the nutrients found in breastmilk, so you know your little one is still getting everything he or she needs. It’s nice to know that I can warm up stored breastmilk and not lose any of the antibodies and nutrients. (You can learn more about nanobébé here.)

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Bottles Made for Pumping Moms Like Me

Like I said before, the shape of this bottle makes transitioning from breast to bottle and back super easy for my little one. There is little to no nipple confusion as the shape of the bottle mimics the breast.

What I also love about these bottles is that there is an attachment so you can pump directly into the bottle. Gone are the days of having to pump in separate bottles and then pour out the appropriate amount. It’s a one-stop-shop with these bottles.

Nanobébé also offers breastmilk storage bags and a little storage bin to go along with it, so keeping accurate amounts of breastmilk to then transfer to a bottle makes things easy when you’re working or on-the-go. This has been especially convenient when I’m having to have someone watch my little girl while I attend meetings or on a conference call.

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Fast Warming

I’ve noticed the nanobébé bottles warm up so fast! It’s super convenient, especially when my baby is crying at night and I can’t feed her fast enough. With the way these bottles are shaped, overheating is prevented, making sure all the nutrients are maintained.

Before using these bottles, I had no idea that when you warm up breast milk in other bottles it depletes it of its nutrients! New mom brain, for sure on that one.

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Quick Cooling

According to nanobébé, “The FDA states that bacteria in fresh breastmilk doubles every 20 minutes that it does not reach storing temperature (fridge or freeze). nanobébé’s unique surface area is geometrically designed to spread the breastmilk into a thin layer allowing it to cool twice as fast as standard bottles on the market, which prevents bacterial growth.”

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photo by Leigh Weinberg

Easy-Peezy Cleaning

You’d think that with constantly going back and forth between bottles and breastfeeding that the cleaning and sterilizing of the bottles would be a pain. I have found that the nanobébé bottles are actually really easy to clean. They come apart smoothly (and not many parts to them, thank goodness!) and fit easily on any drying rack.

I do have to say that the nanobébé Slim Drying Rack makes things even ten times easier since the bottles fit the rack like a glove. Perk: you can store it anywhere when not in use as it’s so skinny! Keeps my kitchen organized, for sure. They can also easily stack in your refrigerator or, when not in use, in your cabinet.

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My Husband Loves It, Too!

When my husband is home and I need to get some work done, all he has to do is take one of the breastmilk storage bags out and put it in a bottle, heat it up and voila! Our baby will have her meal.

If you’re like me and have already transitioned back into work after having a baby and are looking for bottles to make your life easier when you have to catch a meeting or a conference call, don’t overlook the nanobébé bottles.

Or, if you know a new mom that would greatly benefit from these bottles (and other products), nanobébé has a whole starter kit just for newborns. I know I’ll be heading to Babies”R”Us or buybuy BABY to grab some more of these to keep a constant ready-to-go stash for my little nugget!

Head to nanobébé to purchase a Newborn Starter Set or a Starter Set and receive 20% off + free shipping when you use code RedTri20 at checkout!

–all photos courtesy of nanobébé