Before I had my baby, I expected my house to smell of poopy diapers.
Turns out that my baby’s poop didn’t even smell until he was about one month old. That, I didn’t expect. What I also did not expect was how little I cared about his poop smell when it did start smelling. I don’t mean that “my kid’s shit don’t stink.” There was another smell so much worse that followed me everywhere not like the poopy diaper smell. That would go away the minute I threw the diaper into my Dekor Plus diaper pail.
The smell? Sour milk. More specifically, my clothes that get soaked in my own breast milk.
I am so glad I bought 4 nursing sleep sets and two soft bras (one seen in the picture above). I sometimes wake up soaked. My son and I sleep on a large burp cloth so it doesn’t mess up my bedding and so he doesn’t spit up on the bedding, either.
Treat yourself to multiple bras and tops. I started throwing my nursing clothes in with my son’s daily laundry load. I’ve gone through two outfits in one day before.
For those of you becoming first time mothers, the feeling you get when you are enlarged and leaking is similar to when your foot falls asleep and tingles, except it hurts more because, well, they are your nipples. I get enlarged a lot because I also pump on top of breastfeeding straight to my baby. It can be a huge pain in the ass, but it makes it possible for me to store a lot of milk for date nights or days I just need to get out of the house and I leave my husband alone with our son.
I was hesitant to start pumping at first because I didn’t want to take away from my son’s supply and he ate all the time. Every hour sometimes. I learned that, for us, he worked better than my Medela In Style Advanced pump. I would just pump after he ate or when he started to drift off for a nap. If he woke up, I would just stop pumping and feed him. There was always more for him. I even message the crap out of my boobs to squeeze out all the milk I can. I’m sure I squish them more than a mammogram machine would.
I love breastfeeding. It has given me and my husband many laughs and I love just staring into my son’s eyes while he is eating. It is also pretty awesome to think that my son’s body is growing because of me. It is my body feeding him. It makes me feel like a superhero.
Future moms: get ready to smell milk all the time. It’s all part of the journey! I’ve even dripped through my clothes. Not to mention when my son sometimes yanks off and I am spraying a solid stream making an absolute mess. I remember my mom’s milk could squirt across the room.
What are some of your funny leaking moments? Share in a comment below.