Hello I’m back in the blogosphere! Well perhaps. I’m back for a bit anyway, probably sporadically and unreliably…so no real change there. The big news is that I wasn’t waiting long and I gave birth to my second child a few weeks ago.

The result is that breastfeeding is fairly high up on my activity list at the moment and I thought I would keep a little record of this final breastfeeding adventure with Breastfeeding Bites, a pleasingly alliterative but otherwise really rather unpleasant title.

I should point out now that this series is very much a record of my personal experience and is entirely unofficial. All advice or opinion is unendorsed and merely a ‘take it or leave it’ byproduct of my newborn-addled brain! All I can promise is that there will be biscuits. And bracelets. Oh and breastfeeding.

So onwards, and I’ll start with my first ever first feed with my son just over three years ago. The birth was long, hard and I was in hospital with an epidural (neither of which I wanted, both of which I’d made peace with at the time). The birth wasn’t a negative experience at all but I was a little shocked and exhausted…and then I was passed a baby. An actual baby…one that I didn’t recognise and felt very numb towards – it was a feeling that didn’t last fortunately but was a far cry from the rush of love and maternal joy I’d been led to believe you were supposed to feel upon meeting your baby.

My son had a natural flair for breastfeeding, but it very quickly transpired that I didn’t. Who knew breastfeeding was potentially something the mother and child have to actually learn!? My memories of the first feed are a little blurry but certainly involve him and me being mandhandled by various midwives to facilitate feeding. Not quite magical.

And now onto this one, entirely different and definitely the winner…not that it’s a competition…is it!? My second child was born at home a few Wednesday’s ago. She emerged and was straight into my arms. Four minutes later, after a quick cuddle and (fairly one-way) chat, she latched on having inherited her brother’s natural talent for feeding and being partnered with a mother who, although still clumsy, had at least done it before and was, this time, full of all the right sort of hormones. Magical.

I think if there is any conclusion to be drawn it is that the first feed can be all sorts of things with so many factors coming into play, not least the birth experience, the ease with which the mother and baby get the hang of things and whether immediate skin on skin can be facilitated. It might be lovely or it might be difficult, painful and stressful but with the right support it could be just the first feed of many with plenty of times to come for you both to achieve a pleasant feeding experience.

See you next time for: Colostrum – The Calm Before the Storm!