There is always one question I get asked... breast or formula?
I've done both and both have had their pros and cons. When I was pregnant first time around I decided that I would try breastfeeding and if it worked out for me great if it didn't I’d use formula.
So I was pretty relaxed about it all and baby latched on and fed great. When Eva was one-week old I started to feel really ill. A friend came to my house to watch Eva and I drove myself to the doctors.
My partner Shaun met me there from work. When I stepped inside the doctors a nurse brought me straight to a room I looked that sick. The doctor came in and asked me had I been carried in. I had a temp of over 40!
Shaun arrived at that moment and I had to be taken straight to the hospital. I sobbed the whole way up the road. I was admitted to hospital with an infection ( retained a teeny tiny piece of placenta they thought.)
As I was feeding myself they gave me a private room for me Shaun and Eva. I kept feeding but by day two I needed stronger antibiotics and they weren't compatible with breastfeeding. I was too weak to pump and dump so formula it was and I was glad of it.
Sarah Jane was born two years later. She cried from when she was born and didn't stop for around four months. Poor Sarah Jane had colic, reflux and also needed lactose free milk. She wouldn't latch and I needed the break from crying so formula came out again. Lactose-free milk and a chiropractor changed my life with SJ.
Leah was born just 11 months after SJ and life was busy. I combine fed her after a week or so...another week after that I felt overwhelmed by it all and bottles meant more help. The formula again took over.
Beth came the following year and apart from the first few days, she was bottle-fed fairly soon too.
Ellen came the year after that. I was determined to make breastfeeding work for me. Two weeks later, I have crippled with mastitis and the threat of hospital loomed over me for Christmas. I got through it but was so scared to get it again that I finished up with her when she was seven weeks old.
I never felt defeated by my choices with feeding. Let's be serious, breast milk is on another level of what is good for your baby, but that doesn't always mean it is best for you. A fed and content baby is what is best for everyone.
Shaun Óg was born two years later and this time I was taking time off from work and life in general as I was spending as much time as possible with my mum who was terminally ill.
Sitting and feeding him centred me, it made me sit back and say , ‘Sorry I can't do that right now, I’m feeding.’ I fed him until he was nine months old despite being marred with mastitis and ductal thrush.
I do wish I had tried harder with my older kids to feed for longer. It is such hard work at the start but once you get over that hump it is a breeze. It suited my inner lazy girl so much! No sterilising, remembering the formula, remembering to boil kettles in time and the making up of bottles during the night...that's a fresh level of hell when you're completely sleep deprived anyway. Boob was much easier.
On the other side of the coin, bottle feeding suited my inner social butterfly, life's a little easier when you can leave a bottle with granny and get on with your day or take your older kids out and about. Sleep comes a tiny bit easier because they are full to the brim of formula.
Support is key, find your local breastfeeding group but also go to mammy groups to get yourself out and about. Talk to your nurses and doctors about all feeding, boob or bottle. They are there to help. I have been so lucky over the years that all my public health nurses have been a fantastic help.
I also found as I got older I had far more confidence in myself and wasn't as self-conscious feeding baby in front of people.
There is no right or wrong way to be honest...just your way, what suits your family and your life. They all end up eating dirt at some stage anyway!
