THE BABY FEEDING SERIES WITH CAPTAIN BOB CAT

Welcome back to another instalment of The Baby Feeding Series, where we spotlight real stories from real parents navigating the messy, emotional, and often confusing journey of feeding their babies. My hope is that this space becomes a comforting corner where others who feel lost or overwhelmed can read these experiences and feel a little less alone. Parenthood is hands-down the toughest role out there, but it’s also the most beautiful. Through these stories, I want to honour both the struggle and the joys.

 

I’m thrilled to welcome the lovely Eva from Captain Bob Cat as our guest for The Baby Feeding Series. Eva has generously shared her breastfeeding experiences with both of her children. Reading her story, I couldn’t help but feel that many women will relate to those early days of parenthood. There’s so much to navigate, even without the additional challenges Eva faced. However, in time, she found a way that worked well for both her and her children. So, without further ado, here’s Eva.

 

MY BREAST FEEDING EXPERIENCE

 

I was devastated, when my firstborn refused to breastfeed. We had a classic case of starting off well, then jaundice decided to strike, he was just 2 days old. Along with everything else a new born has to deal with, the sleepiness and not feeding. Then on day 5 - still in the hospital - the nurse suggested that "we really need to top him up. Here's some formula, mum." What's a first time mum to do? Scared to death that my baby is starving, I gave him formula. The jaundice eventually cleared, but it turned out, that he was also tongue tied. Racing with the time, he got his tongue tie snipped when he was 14 days old. Privately. This, honestly took some time to wrap my head around.  How on earth can it be, that there was no possibility to deal with the tongue tie right there on the spot, in the maternity ward? How? See, I know other mums in the same shoes and about 50% of them, like me, never was able to breastfeed their baby. How is this not a priority? Especially when there's such a big campaign and pressure on new mums to breastfeed. Just how? Meanwhile, I still tried my best to get him on the breast. We went on a "breastfeeding holiday" (basically you do nothing, but breastfeed 24/7), which resulted him losing weight. Panic, tears, back on formula. During the 2 weeks my son couldn't latch on, I kept pumping. He got around 70% breast milk and 30% formula in the first 4 months (all from the bottle) but no matter how much I pumped, my supply started to decline. For the first month, at every feeding, 6-8 times a day, I had the following routine: first tried to breastfeed him, then gave him pumped milk, then pumped again for the next feed, then prepared a bottle of formula to top him up. He was a hungry baby. My milk supply gave up when he was 7 months old and we moved to formula completely.

 

I believe, I'm not alone with this scenario. I felt pretty crap in the first few weeks, having thoughts like: I'm not trying hard enough, there must be a solution but I'm not finding it, etc. Health visitors, breast feeding support specialists, midwives, friends, family all gave me sometimes unwanted and controversial advice. I felt relieved when we switched to formula completely. The pressure was gone and I stopped blaming myself. I was lucky, I managed to more or less accept that I couldn't breastfeed him. But, until my daughter came along, I never fully made peace with myself. 

 

Second time around the story gets shorter, although my baby girl didn't take breast milk for the first week or so (unlike my son, she didn't even try, just pushed me away from the very first moment) but then I did the same thing again: just fed her all the time. This time it worked. Every 3-4 hours, including night time. I'd wake her up and feed her. It helped to boost my milk supply (milk production is better night time) and for her to learn to feed more effectively: during the night she wasn't as fussy and distracted as in the daytime. Within a week after getting home she was weaned off the bottle and fully breastfed. She's now one year old and still gets two feeds a day. She doesn't want to stop, but I know that we're coming to the end of our breastfeeding days, as my supply is getting very low. The only thing is, that she never took the bottle again. She refuses to drink any milk or formula. She went straight on the sippy cup, it was a huge battle, but now she drinks water from cup. She gets some yogurt and cheese so I'm not worried. With her taking breast milk from me, she also brought peace. Peace with myself for not being able to breastfeed my boy. She helped me massively to get over it.

 

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About Eva

 

Eva is a mum to Captain Bobcat, who came up with a cute nickname when he was just a few days old. Originally from Budapest, but lived in Australia, cleaned beaches in Ibiza and ended up in London. Eva mentions that she has a green heart on her blog, and even considers herself as an environmentalist. A vegetarian, who prefers the eco-friendly version of everything. A firm yoga-believer who loves tennis! Well, nowadays Eva cooks with meat for the carnivores in her family – you’ll find great vegetarian toddler and family friendly recipes, weaning diet ideas and some meaty recipes on her blog. As well as being an avid environmentalist she is also a former hotelier and travel expert too, where she love to blog about their journeys, share experiences and add reviews. Eva still feels as if she's a new mum even tough Bobcat is nearly three years old, especially that now he has a baby sister.

 

 

You can find Eva over at Captain Bob Cat