ok im stuck on if I should breastfeed or not...!?

A:

First of all, I am not going to go all breast-zealot on you.

That said, I am very pro-breastfeeding, and it's not for all the gushy 'OMG its soooo beautiful AND SPECIAL AND OOOOH" reasons you probably don't need to hear, since this is clearly something you're experiencing conflict about. I am pro-breastfeeding because of hard fact, research data, and quite frankly.. it's been a heck of a lot easier and cheaper.

I know it sounds trite, but you will be more comfortable with the idea when the baby is here. Sounds like something that people just say and that it probably won't apply to you, but most likely, the discomfort with the IDEA of nursing will fade after the baby is born.. if for no other reason than that your body is going to be hormonally-charged to breastfeed your baby. It can be a little bit uncomfortable over the first month. I'm not going to sugar-coat it for you, because I think that when you're not honest about pros AND cons, then its unfair to the mother and probably more motivation to NOT breastfeed. HOWEVER, if positioning/latching on is correct (and that takes a little practice for the baby and practice for you to recognize it) it won't hurt much and it won't hurt for long.

As far as it not filling up the baby as well, that's not entirely true. The baby is fed BETTER with breast milk, but full on bulk material longer on formula, because the formula doesn't digest as well as breast milk. Because of the lower digestibility, formula fed babies get more gas, more constipation, more colic, and other painful digestive problems than breastfed babies do. Essentially, the baby is "fuller" for longer because its got a volume of material in its stomach that its body takes a long time to digest, and it won't get as much nutrition from as breast milk.

Formula fed babies are also at a highly increased risk for ear infections, digestive problems, allergies, food intolerances, asthma, eczema, and a variety of other problems that don't occur nearly as often in breastfed babies. Not to mention the fact that mothers who don't breastfeed are also at a greater risk for postpartum depression and anxiety. Your body will burn (at LEAST) 500 calories per day just from lactating, and your metabolism will more easily return to its pre-pregnancy state by breastfeeding. I personally don't feel exhausted. I DID, but that was before I reclaimed my senses and started eating enough to support my lactation, which was impossible for me to do with the dietary restrictions you're afraid of, that I tried to implement in my own diet when I first started. Bad and unnecessary decision, there.

I drink coffee with chocolate EVERY DAY. It's how I wake up and manage to be merely "Mommy Monster" and not "Haggard Grizzly Bear". My baby has been fine with it. I eat anything I want, including all of the things you're worried about giving up, and my baby (still nursing at 14 months) hasn't had a single issue. One of the first things my baby went crazy for when she started eating was HUMMUS, of all things.. and that's nothing but chickpeas (a legume, like peanuts) and tons of garlic. She managed to swipe some away from me and that was it. Her pediatrician said it was fine for her to have a little if it didn't bother her stomach, and that if I'd eaten a lot of garlic while pregnant/nursing, it might be why she's so into it now. (For the record, my girl is weird.. probably due to my varied lactating diet. The kid likes liver and onions, hummus, mangoes, guacamole, sour cream, dark green vegetables, but DETESTS apples.. go figure, huh?)

When I went to buy my child's diapers the other day at Walmart, I happened to sneak a peek at the containers of formula. I didn't want to buy them, but I was curious at how much money I was actually saving by breastfeeding. What I saw, was that by package size and contents, if I were feeding formula to my child it would be the equivalent of buying TWO packs of diapers at once. Essentially, doubling my basic baby care costs. If you're really on the fence, that's a good point to consider.