Modern Mom Life

I'm still a new mom and still new to breastfeeding. My son was born in early November 2018, and he has been exclusively breastfed. I researched everything I could find when I was pregnant to best prepare myself for what breastfeeding would be like. Like most moms that plan to breastfeed, I was worried that my baby wouldn't latch correctly or that I wouldn't produce enough milk for him in the beginning. I really wanted to try my best to breastfeed, but if anything happened that wouldn't allow me to nurse him, I would supplement or switch him to formula if need be.
I definitely came out lucky when it comes to breastfeeding. Within the first hour after giving birth to my son, he was already nursing with a deep latch. The lactation consultant in the hospital told me that I had nothing to worry about when it came to my son latching. I had minimal pain while in the hospital and was able to feed my son whenever he showed signs of being hungry.
Things got a little tougher once I got home; he wanted to nurse every hour or so, and my left nipple started to crack because his latch started slipping. And once my milk came in, I was very engorged and sore. The pain got very intense for the first couple of days home, and the crack got worse. It got to the point where I dreaded nursing him on my left side because it hurt so bad. There were several times when I would cry or get a bottle out just to avoid having to nurse him on that side. I felt like I was giving up, so I powered through it, and it eventually healed.
I used Medela Lanolin and Medela Tender Care Hydrogel Pads to help with all of the pain and to help heal my cracked nipple. What worked the best for healing was to express some breast milk and rub it onto the nipple and then led it air-dry; the more I left it out, the better it felt. It did take a while to heal completely though, with no pain. I did mention it to a lactation consultant and she said it wouldn't heal until I fixed my son's latch, but his latch was fine. One of the things that I had to learn on my own is that there can be pain in the beginning even if the latch is perfect.

Welcome to the Modern Mom Life blog. I am Ashley, a new mom that wants to talk about her experiences and insight when it comes to different aspects of motherhood. Something I did when expecting my son was research, research, research. I wanted to be as prepared as possible for pregnancy, labor, birth, and taking care of a new baby. Of course, there are some things you can never fully prepare for, but it still helped to read as much as possible. My hope for this blog is that I can share the things I learned through my research or through experiences with other moms or soon-to-be-moms.
A little bit more about me is that I am a younger mom; I am currently 22 years old. I got married right before my 21st birthday to my husband Josh on our 5-year anniversary - December 20th, 2017. A couple months later, we found out that I was pregnant. It was something both of us wanted to wait for, at least a few years, but we quickly got excited about. Our son was born on November 5th, 2018, full term and very healthy. Becoming a mom is easily the best thing that has ever happened to me, the reason for living.
Some specific things I would like to talk about are all the aspects of pregnancy, labor and birth, living with a newborn, breastfeeding, and everything else related to becoming a mother and having a baby. I hope that I can answer questions and reassure anyone who may need it. Feel free to subscribe to my blog, comment on posts, and directly contact me for any other questions, comments, or concerns. I appreciate every visit, comment, and subscription. Let me know what you think, your experiences, and if I was able to answer any question or help in any way!

With love,
Ashley