Ouch!

Warning: boobs and breastfeeding mentioned here.

I am exclusively nursing Tessa and so far it is going great. She is a great eater and I am providing plenty for her. However, there's a lot of things I've learned that most people fail to mention about breastfeeding.

1) Sometimes it hurts. When she goes through a growth spurt, she wants to eat every hour or two, and all that sucking starts to hurt.

2) Your supply might be uneven. In fact, it's pretty common. However, they didn't tell me how uneven. I have developed a superboob, one that is mass producing milk and has astronomically grown in size. Seriously, we're talking a B to H ratio here. When I pump, I pump 5-6 ounces of the superboob and .5-1.5 ounces out of the other. See what I mean? The term superboob has become a common term around our house, so much so that it has gone from an adjective to a noun and now a verb. The other day this conversation occured:

Joel: How long will it take her to eat so we can leave?
Me: It depends on which side I feed her from.
Joel: Well, superboob her so we can leave sooner.

She eats quickly when she gets superboobed because it comes out so fast and there's plenty there.

3) Pumping sucks! I know it's a necessary part of life and in order to continue to feed her breastmilk, I need to pump when I'm away. But I hate it! I hate being hooked up to the machine with the constant noise of whoosh-whoosh, whoosh-whoosh, whoosh-whoosh. I hate that it causes me extra dishes everyday. I hate that I have stop, hook up, and sit there for 20 minutes while a machine sucks at my teet. It's weird. But, it's worth it to give her breastmilk.

4) When you wake up in the morning, you will be engorged and probably in some pain. I've had 3 clogged ducts so far, but luckily, no mastitis yet. Since Tessa is sleeping through the night, I go 8-10 hours without nursing or pumping. I feed her at 8:30 at night and then she goes down for the night. On the days I'm off, I don't wake up until she does, which is usually between 7 & 8. That's 11 hours. When I do work, I get up at 5 so that's about 8 hours. But holy cow, I'm engorged, they are huge, and usually I wake up to find I've leaked through the breast pads and onto my shirt.

But, for all the little negatives that exist, there are many more positives, and that's why I'm going to try to make it a year. I don't want to buy formula, so I am dedicated to nursing, the stupid breast pump, and all that comes with it.