I chose to breastfeed my baby. And not only that. I chose to breastfeed on demand.
I’m a single mum and live far away from my family, so I was exhausted from all this on demand breastfeeding, especially that my baby was waking up up to eight times at night. BUT, my exhaustion wasn’t any greater than when before my motherhood era, when I was working full time and often suffered from insomnia. In fact, I felt less exhausted breastfeeding .
While breastfeeding, a woman releases hormones into her own blood stream, which help induce sleep. So there I was, breastfeeding and then falling asleep faster and easier then ever. This was the case after a night-time feed and also when breastfeeding for a nap during the day. So I was getting short periods, but of good quality sleep.
What’s more, every time I breastfed my baby, he was as if he has never eaten before. I mean, he drunk very fast. My own mother was terrified seeing this. The baby was literally gulping. But I just smiled at her, he has breastfed that way since he was born and, I appreciated it big time. Why? Because he only breastfed for up to 10 minutes at a time. He probably knew that the next time he asks for food, he’ll get it, so there was no need for him to feed for very long. So 10 minutes of feeding and he was done and I could go back to sleep and I was falling back asleep with no problems.
Ok, being woken up every night up to eight times in the night was not fun but trying to teach him not to breastfeed usually ended in long breaks in sleep that were extremely exhausting for both of us. Therefore, I chose the eight times wake-up call. On a good night he would wake up only twice, on average, four to five times, but 10 minutes later we were both fast asleep whether it was a good, average or a bad night.
Would I do it again the same way? Oh yes. I am not a rigid routine worshipper. It suited me very well to be on demand, as I could get on with my life pretty much normally, didn’t have to plan nor prepare for the feeding time. Breastfeeding itself and breastfeeding on demand was so convenient.
I didn’t have to worry about extracting milk, freezing it, or sterilizing bottles. In fact, I never used bottles. I never used formula either, so I saved a great deal of both time and money.
What’s more important, neither of us were stressed – me because I didn’t have to watch the clock and do all the extracting, freezing etc, and the baby, because he knew he’d get the milk when he wanted.
Not only not stressed, we were both happy. The baby was very happy so was I. Was he happy because of my breastfeeding on demand? I don’t know for sure, but I would like to think it had some part in it.
Conclusion
If you want to breastfeed on demand, I’d say – great, do it. There will be times when you have enough, but that smiley face of your little one, who has no reason to cry is just so rewarding and relaxing. A chilled and a happy baby is worth the effort. Not to mention the health benefits to you and the baby related to breastfeeding, but this is a subject for another post.
I’d love to hear how you approached the breastfeeding, whether you chose it at all and if so, how did you find it.
