Episode 4 The Things I Wish I Knew Prior to Breastfeeding. Tips & Tricks That'll Save Your Nipples

Chloe Sacco  0:01  
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Hi, guys, welcome to Episode Four of good as gold. I'm super excited to bring this episode to you. We're talking about breastfeeding today. So this is a topic that I hold close to my heart. I breastfed kaseya for 20 months. I'm still breastfeeding Charlize at the moment. She's almost one next month. And I feel like there were things that I wish people told me prior to breastfeeding Cassia I mean, breastfeeding Charlize has been a whole different journey because obviously I had the experience with Cassia or I sort of knew what I needed from the start. 

And I thought I'm going to share these with the new moms out there. All mums that didn't know with their first that may help. But before I begin this episode, I wanted to make sure that you are all aware, I have been very fortunate to breastfeed both my children. I don't take this for granted at all. I never have I know that this can be a difficult experience for some moms, I understand the guilt attached to it. Because prior to my kids being born, I felt that guilt. And I thought if I can't feed or if it if it doesn't work the way I wanted it to. And my failing as a mom, I totally understand that. And for those who haven't been able to breastfeed, I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way at all. This episode is purely my journey with my kids. 

At the end of the day Fed is best, it doesn't matter whether they breastfed or not. It doesn't matter whether they formula fed because I can tell you now, once they're in primary school, when they're sitting in the classroom, nobody's gonna have any idea whether one kid was breastfed, or one kid was formula fed or one kid who hadn't mixed faith, it doesn't matter as long as your child is fed. That is the important thing. So I just want to make sure I put that out there Fed is best. This is purely my journey. And I wanted to help some new moms with some things that I wish I knew prior to breastfeeding. So first of all, I will talk about my experience with Cassia. So as I said, I breastfed Cassia for 20 months. My aim was actually six months. So I don't know why I came up with that six months number. I think it was because my mom told me that she breastfed me and my sister for six months each. When it got to my brother, he was just hungry. And he wanted to be fed all the time. 

My mom was uncomfortable with that. She felt like she wasn't producing enough for him. So after I think it was a couple of weeks, she went no formula for you. And say we don't know whether, you know, now Jordan is a very successful electrician very smart in his field. My sister and I both became teachers, I can tell you now nobody's gonna know whether he was breastfed for six months or two months or us or, you know, so it doesn't matter. So I had this magic number of six months in my head because of her experience. And I think all of you will agree with me that when you've got Keine six months comes and goes very quickly. So I exceeded the six months and so Okay, let's go to one year. And again, like the first year I'm coming up to chalets is first year next month. I don't even know how that happened. I don't know what happened this last year. But that year just flew so I got to the 12 month mark and I thought okay, anything after this is a bonus. We kept going casier and I we were both happy Cassia actually weaned herself off her dummy when she was just before one. She just kept throwing a dummy away. So her comfort was breastfeeding. It wasn't hard for me to get rid of a dummy breastfeeding on the other hand, that was hard. So it was actually be difficult to get rid of breastfeeding. So I just kept going and going and going because it was just easier. It was too hard to stop. So the way I actually didn't stop and It was funny. 

It wasn't funny at the time. But now that I think back, it is funny. Vanessa got married in mid August in 2019. And I thought, right, I better feed her up until the wedding because Cassia was obviously a flower girl. I better feed her till then just in case she needs some comforting during the night or I need to calm down, or anything. Of course, she lost the plot at the wedding. And I needed to feed her so lucky. I continued up until then. Fun fact, when they actually introduced me as maid of honor Oh, my god, that was a disaster. I can't even think about it. It drives me insane. So when they introduced me as maid of honor at Vanessa's wedding, my partner and myself, were sort of behind this wall, waiting for our names to be called out. And of course, my daughter bless Cassie, his beautiful heart decided that she throw a tantrum about two minutes before they called me out. Please don't child like any other time, but now and she was crying and she was so upset wanted to get out of my arms. And of course, I called us out so we had to walk out.

To my astonishment, she was in the middle of her tantrum smacked me across the face. I had red lipstick on the red lipstick ended up all over my face. I was mortified. I when I walked past the table that my mom and Morris was on. I think my mom was closest to me and I was just like, take her and so I could walk up to the bride or table and just sit for a minute I was people were just laughing and they were laughing at Oh my god. Haha that would just I could see all the moms in the room saying I and I feel you I've been here. I died. And after that I was so upset and I was so angry with her that I went you know what that is it tonight is the last night I am breastfeeding me because I'm done. Like in my head. I was done anyway, my milk supply was quite low. I was I my body was done at this point. So I was happy to stop but that the way she she threw her tantrums at Vanessa's wedding that night, I just thought was my Porsche. And that's it. I've had enough. 

At that point, Maurice and I had been trying to have another baby for the last six months, and it just wasn't working. So I thought I needed to stop breastfeeding just to give my body a break. For those who haven't breastfed before, it is quite hard on your body, not just physically but it takes all of your nutrients. So your baby is literally taking everything from you. Which when you're happy to give it to them, and that's fine. But after doing it for you, 20 months I was done. And that was a nice push me to say that each child made you and done. So I went cold turkey I stopped after that night that next day, I was like No, I actually fed Cassis to sleep because she didn't have the dummy. That was her comfort. And I know that goes against all of the advice that every maternal health nurse gave me but you know what it worked for us? And I didn't care. So I that's how I got her to sleep. 

I remember the next day that I stopped feeding her at the old factory. I was sitting in the playpen with her trying to get her to sleep. She was just crying. Like for half an hour straight. She was losing her mind. And I just I was sitting there sobbing I was crying with her because I was like number one. I don't know how I'm going to ever get her to settle with no breastfeeding, no dummy. And number two, I just felt helpless. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't I had nothing. So I pretty much just kept rocking her for about half an hour. 40 minutes. She eventually cried herself to sleep I pretty much cried myself to sleep with her. And eventually she fell asleep. So after the first three days, we sort of started breaking that habit of feeding to sleep and new habit was just giving her a cup of milk. So she just bypassed bottles. She went straight to a cup of milk and that was her comfort. She'd have a cup of milk and go to bed. 

So it was a hard yet three days with a worst by the fourth day it was getting easier. But after the first week, we were back into a good place. I a few people have asked me how I stopped breastfeeding and I've shared that with them and they've actually done it as well. And so far everybody has said it's been successful with them too. I don't know any other ways of stopping breastfeeding, breastfeeding. Cuz that's the only way I did it, I just went cold turkey. But I tend to do that we things, I feel like it's just easier to just do it. Because if you I don't know, if you start slowly waning or you replace, I think it's just easier to replace the habit. So just use cold turkey replace a habit, the quicker you do that the quicker it's easier to just start the new habit and create a new habit In saying that, if you obviously still have a big milk supply, be careful you lossing you don't you don't want these mastitis. So just make sure in the shower that you are getting rid of some of that milk slowly, slowly and then eventually your body won't produce won't produce it anymore. So just be very careful at that stage. I didn't have a lot left. So it was easy for me to sort of get rid of what was left. But yeah, just be wary, if you do have a big supply still, you might have to do the weaning like just slowly drop your feeds each week or day. Because you don't want mastitis. 

So when we, when we talking about breastfeeding, I'll go back to the physical elements that I struggled with when I was breastfeeding, because I love chili. And I still eat a lot of chili, but not as much as I usually would, because I found that that would give cassiar reflux. And so you've got to watch what you eat. You can't obviously drink some people still have a wine. And if you that's what you're happy to do, then go for it. But you can't drink a lot of alcohol. You can't take a lot of medications. So it's really demanding on your body. So you just need to keep that in mind when all before you start your breastfeeding journey because I knew that but I didn't. So I actually didn't realize even with medications, I didn't realize I know when you're pregnant, there's a lot of medications you can't take. But next pregnancy the way they say you can't take. If you're pregnant, he usually says off and breastfeeding. So pretty much it's like you're pregnant. And I didn't know that. So keep that in mind. But you know, you're fine. It's fine. It's not a big deal for some for being able to feed your child if you can do that. So I'll start with the things that I wish I knew. Number one, no matter what you do, breastfeeding freaking hurts. 

The first month is excruciating. I don't know. I don't think I've met anybody that says breastfeeding is not painful. The first month it hurts it bloody hurts a lot. I don't think it really matters what there are some things that help but it doesn't really matter what you do and to your nipples get used to the baby latching and until the baby sort of finds the groove and latching with you, it hurts, it's painful. But if you can get through that first month, it's been second nature and it doesn't hurt at all. Nobody told me how much breastfeeding hurts at first month, because it hurt the same both times. And I'll go to my second point now. Even though you breastfed a first child, the second one in that first month still hurts like health. Nobody told me that because I had chalets and I thought, well, I've breastfed before, so it's not gonna hurt about it hurts. It hurts just as much. And again, it's that first month that you got to get through that painful period. And especially the men the letdowns and milk, let downs, they hurt as long as as well as the baby latching. 

So it's all just a very painful experience the first month after that you arrived. So just know that it is a painful four weeks, but after the four weeks you go and you just got to get through that first month. Point three using midwives at the hospital. I didn't use them enough with kaseya. But the few times that I did, because I was embarrassed. I didn't I didn't want to look like I didn't know what I was doing. But that's what they they for. I was too embarrassed to ask for help. I thought no, I can do this myself. But a couple that came in and sort of just went look let me help you without me having to ask once they actually helped me latch I could feel a huge difference of when Casio latched properly and when kaseya didn't match properly. So make sure you use the midwives and if it's not just midwives like when So I was in hospital for instance, because I had breastfed before. I knew what a good latch look like. And she didn't because she'd never done it before. So I just helped with the latching and it makes a big difference if you've got somebody around you that can help with the latching at the start because I didn't do that a lot and my nipples were dead. I have to cast here that first month a lot they'll bleeding. And that will all cut it was painful. The other thing you must have only if you don't have a pen and paper, go and get one if you haven't breastfed or you're about to go into hospital, you need to go and buy hydro gel pads, you can buy them from the chemist, I got mine from a store called Bub zest she does. She does a whole breastfeeding packs, actually. So she's on Instagram, you can have a look. They wherever you are, whether you get there from there, whether you get from a chemist, you need 100 gel pads, the first thing your partner needs to do when you get to the hospital room

is get the hydrogels out of Hydra gel pad sorry, back out of that packet and you put them in the fridge and you leave them in that fridge until you're ready to use them. As soon as you finish fading every single time. Make sure you always have a Hydra gel pad on. They keep your nipples moist, they stop them from cracking. I use them when it sort of became too late with Cassia but they still helped with Charlize's I use them straight from the start and it made a big difference. hijau pads are a godsend. You absolutely need them straight in the fridge. When they're in the fridge and they cold and you put them on. It's just like, hallelujah. I use them in conjunction in conjunction with lanolin. And that's also brilliant to keep everything moist and make sure there's no cracking. So between the two of them, they're both great to use. The other thing I didn't really line up but I didn't know babies will wake up anywhere between one and three hours for the first three months for feeds. Nobody told me that I had kaseya up every single hour for the first three months in saying that she hated sleeping. 

So I don't know if it was because she was hungry or she just hated to sleep. So just be mindful during the night you'll be up between anywhere between one and three hours. I found that number one having a dummy on my bedside table number two having some sort of cloth because they'll usually throw up some sort of milk and having hydro gel pads in the fridge helped. So just make sure they're all organized ready to go. I use my torch on my phone quite a lot. Because you can't really see what you're doing. I didn't want to wake up Maurice I didn't want to move too much. I usually fed her in my bed and then I put her back to sleep because I was called during the night so if you are sleeping or you are trying to feed in your bed, I also had one of those triangle pillows. And I still to this day use the triangle pillow pop that behind my bed behind my head sorry and it just helps with my head back and keeping me straight. So I would highly recommend a triangle pillow if you are going to feed in your bed.

So those things are things that I wish I knew before I fed my gills, especially the hydro gel pads. Nobody told me these things and it made a big difference from when I had kaseya to when I had chalets. My nipples were wrecked once I had kaseya after the first few weeks with Charlie's, I didn't have that experience. I would also recommend having some sort of swaddle in your bag. When you're out. You if you need to feed. If you if you are uncomfortable fading in public, then a swaddle is great to to throw over the top of the two of you because it's lightweight. In saying that I have been very fortunate that nobody's actually ever said anything to me during both my breastfeeding journeys and God help anybody that did because I would give them an info. And I am absolutely. I've never covered myself. I'm comfortable in breastfeeding. I want to put it out there because it's normal and it's natural. This is personal. I guess if you're uncomfortable, then you absolutely do your thing. You put a cover on if you like, if you don't want to you don't do that. So it's up to you, but pakka swaddle just in case because you don't know how you're going to feel at the start again. When you're out, but if you've got one in your bag then you can make your decision. Some things that helped with my milk supply were breastfeeding cookies. I got mine from milk and cookies. I have spoken about these on both CMC Gold Instagram and ChloeSacco.CMC. And milk and cookies. They do breastfeeding cookies they've got some of them have Italeri in them, they actually delicious. I found these definitely helped with my milk supply as well as lactation hot chocolate, I got mine from non Metapod. It's the Mater milk brand. But between both of those things are cookies in the lactation hot, hot chocolate that were both really good for my supply. Again, something that I didn't really use too much or know too much about when I had Cassia. 

But I've used with my breastfeeding journey with Charlize's. So these are a couple of things that I really thought would be helpful for new moms, or for moms that plan to breastfeed one day. So I hope you have gotten some value out of this episode. And I'm looking forward to bringing you another episode next week. Bye. 

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