On Breastfeeding.

At 9 months of age, my son has never even tasted infant formula. I am justifiably proud of this fact, and so will be blogging about the remainder of our breastfeeding journey (hopefully another year or so!). There is a wealth of breastfeeding information out there. Most of what I'm going to say here won't surprise you. One thing definitely will, so I'll get it out there right now:

Feeding on demand is for crap.

At least, it was with my kid. My nipples would have chapped, dried out, cracked, and eventually fallen off by the time Tristin was 2 weeks old had I nursed him on demand. Demand, for him, was 8-12 hours a day. Not 8-12 times, mind you; 8-12 hours. He wanted to be latched on every second that he was awake. It was so bad that by the time he was 4 days old I'd broken the first cardinal rule of breastfeeding and bought him a pacifier, for all the good that did - by that point it was too late for him to start using one. So, I gritted my teeth and put him on a nursing schedule, and stuck to it until he was 5 months old. It was a pretty generous schedule, as feeding schedules go; at each feeding, he was allowed to nurse until there was no milk left, or until he spontaneously let go, and feedings started every 3 hours. Our days looked something like this:

6 AM: Wake up, nurse, hang out singing/reading/playing/watching the news.
7:15 AM: Dirty diaper. (This diaper was usually epic, as Tristin got the hang of not pooping overnight by the time he was about 10 days old.)
7:30 AM: Nap.
9 AM: Wake up, nurse, change diaper, hang out.
10:30 AM: Nap.
Noon: Wake up, nurse, change diaper, walk.
1:30 PM: Nap.
3 PM: Wake up, nurse, change diaper, hang out.
4:30 PM: Nap.
6 PM: Wake up, nurse, change diaper, hang out - this hang-out lasted quite a bit longer than the others all day long, because Tristin settled into sleeping longer hours at night by the time he was two weeks old. I think it was because of the nursing schedule, in all honesty.
8:30 PM: bath, pj's, book.
9 PM: Nurse (to sleep)
3 AM: Nurse.
6 AM: Lather, rinse, repeat.

I started him on the feeding schedule when he was about 4 or 5 days old. It sucked at first; he was fussy all through the evening, and the only way to appease him was to keep moving: dancing, walking, bouncing, rocking, or (as a last resort) buckling him into his carrier carseat and swinging him, since he didn't have much use for the actual baby swing we got (for free, thank goodness!). He got used to nursing by the clock within 3 days, and typically only started fussing about 10 minutes before feeding time. By the time he was 8 days, he started sleeping more at night than during the day. By 2 weeks, he was sleeping for 5-7 hours in a row, from 9 PM to 2-4 AM, consistently. I credit the schedule; it is well-documented that a bedtime routine is important to establish good sleep habits. I am of the opinion that it is equally important to have a routine pretty much all day.

And for those who argue that breastfeeding on demand is the only way to ensure your baby is getting enough to eat when exclusively breastfed, I leave you with Tristin's monthly weight gain to date:

Birth Weight: 8 lbs, 7 oz
7-day Well Baby Checkup: 8 lbs, 4 oz
9-day weigh in, prior to circumcision: 8 lbs, 10 oz
1 month: 11 lbs, 12 oz
2 months: 15 lbs, 2 oz
3 months: 17 lbs, 15 oz
4 months: 21 lbs, 1 oz
5 months: 22 lbs, 4 oz (began solids at 5 months, 2 weeks)
6 months: 23 lbs, 7 oz
7 months: 24 lbs, 5 oz
8 months: 24 lbs, 14 oz
9 months: 25 lbs, 4 oz

(9 month weight added Feb. 8, 2009, after today's doctor's checkup!)