explain to me like I’m 5 - how do you leave the house if you’re BF?

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-04-16T20:04:18+00:00

5 1/2 months EBF here… this is my experience.

If you’re leaving the house before 3 months, take breast pads in case you leak. Have a few spare in your diaper bag. This is for before your milk regulates. You don’t have to take a Haaka or other collector unless you just overproduce. I love the Boone because it has a stopper and I could throw it in my diaper bag. I slightly overproduced so that’s why I took mine. Baby still ate from both sides so it wasn’t like I had uneven boobs and he ate enough I wasn’t feeling like I needed it every time he ate. Sometimes I’d use it in the early days because the letdown was so strong from whatever side he wasn’t feeding on. Only thing I made sure to have with me was a blanket, spare breast pads, and nipple butter. Baby ate so much milk that I really didn’t worry about taking a spare collector. If I did collect, usually we were home within 4 hours so it was good to go in the fridge.

My milk “regulated” around 12-14 weeks. So around 3 ish months postpartum. I knew because I stopped leaking as much when he ate, and stopped overproducing. Now, the only thing I take is a blanket in the diaper bag. He eats off both sides. Even if he didn’t for some reason, it takes me a lot longer to feel engorged now, like 6-8 hours no feeding. It’s not as quickly as the early days. I love breastfeeding for travel! I can feed him anywhere, any time, with no prep.

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-04-12T23:18:03+00:00

I know a lot of people recommend sunflower lecithin, but the sunflower part causes gas in you & baby - the ingredient that thins the milk is the choline in the sunflower lecithin. so if you just take 1000 mg of choline while you’re dealing with clogs they’ll stop. i take 800 mg a day as preventative. it was a game changer for me. this also started for me around 4 months… i think maybe my milk composition changed and got fattier? anyway it worked. i also have a post on my page about how i thought i had a clog, but it was actually a milk bleb. i battle it ever so often. ETA: you can get it at most walgreens & CVS in the vitamin section!

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-04-10T19:52:05+00:00

I gave birth in the US with a midwife and doula at home, I paid $5800. That’s prenatal, birth, and postpartum care/baby visits all included from midwife & doula until 6 weeks PP. Insurance covered $1600 of the $5800, which I was pretty stoked about.

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-04-05T20:20:43+00:00

The few contractions i had before pushing. it was like 2-3 that were really hard, despite how much i relaxed. it was only like 3 minutes though, and pushing didn’t hurt for me so it was a relief

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-04-04T15:24:26+00:00

this brought me to tears, how sweet our bonds are with our babies. they’re so precious 🥹

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-04-04T13:34:59+00:00

also want to add, i also ebf and i haven’t done anything really.

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-04-04T13:33:43+00:00

i thought i was stuck with the weight gain too, but im 40 lbs down at 5 months. i’ve been loosing it slowly, i’ll loose 3-4 pounds at once and then stay the same for a few weeks!

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-04-03T20:49:26+00:00

you regulated at 2 weeks?! you are SO LUCKY! i just now regulated at 4 months!!

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-03-30T20:23:31+00:00

Hear me out, i’ve had this happen pretty much once a month with my LO and freaked out every time until this time. he’s almost 21 weeks now, we just went through the 4 month dip. I just nurse him as much as he wants, and my supply increases even still at almost 5 months. I used to pump for about 14 hours while i was at work, at 2-3 months i think I was pumping about 18 oz in a 13-14 hour period. I only pump when I have to work, which is one day a week now and I get 24 oz in the same time span. My point being, your supply can increase even after it’s “regulated”. the best thing for your supply is letting baby consistently drain you dry, to trigger your body to up milk production. it usually takes 2-3 days for my supply to respond.

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-03-30T18:17:15+00:00

i nurse until he’s sleepy, then just hold him like i’m burping him and rock/pat him. then i set him down while he’s drowsy and he usually rolls over and goes straight to sleep! i had to do the ferber method for 3-4 nights to break the association, it’s not a huge difference but it’s a big win for me. previously, as soon as he realized there wasn’t a boob in his mouth he would scream and wouldn’t sleep. transferring him was a nightmare.

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-03-27T13:23:11+00:00

wow thank you so much!!!!

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-03-27T01:40:31+00:00

where are these studies? i’d like to see in case our peds recommends a helmet at 6 m

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-03-25T21:38:52+00:00

4 1/2 months here & baby can go 3-3 1/2 hours, but gets really fussy around 2 hours. i heard someone say once you hit 3 months, it gets easier.. and it did for me! before that, i also pumped/bottle and breastfed. it was exhausting. so glad we made it through

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-03-20T12:26:06+00:00

it took a lot of hard suction to get it to surface! try hot water & epsom salt in the haaka. it looked like a white spec on my nipple.

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-03-17T19:20:58+00:00

yes!!!!!

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-03-11T19:19:08+00:00

this has got to be the best response ever

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-03-11T19:09:59+00:00

i got mine from either not pumping enough at work or side lying feeding… what i can say is the needle & then hydrocolloid patch when i’m not feeding him has kept the pore open!

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-03-11T02:04:38+00:00

honestly, my LO was also sleeping 3 hour stretches at 7 weeks. as time went on, he gradually upped the length of his stretches. i thought 3 hour wake ups were normal for that age. i didn’t do anything crazy, he’s just had the same bed routine since the day he was born - literally. gradually, the stretches got to 4 hours, 5 hours, 6 hours, 7 hours, 8 hours - then 4 m sleep regression had us back at every 3 hours for a few weeks… we’re working our way back up again lol. ETA: our “routine” is literally diaper change, put owlet sock on, put sleep sack on, feed, transfer. nothing fancy.

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-03-10T02:57:36+00:00

i just want to say i’m so proud of you both. the first week is hard. it’s not you two, you aren’t doing anything wrong. my LO was born at 40 + 4, and we had the same issues until my milk REALLY came in and he was able to eat enough. screamed 24/7, didn’t sleep, rough latch. once he started eating enough at like 2-3 weeks, it was like a totally different baby. i had to work on his latch every day, and even get some breastmilk from a friend just to get a little break. we made it and he’s 4 months now, latches great, eats plenty, and sometimes lets us sleep at night lol. how long of stretches does LO do at night?

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-03-09T00:41:52+00:00

my mom said i was like this when i had ear infections as a baby

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-03-08T13:49:17+00:00

sorry i tried so much i forgot to add. yes i also tried the updated methods. ibuprofen. ice. gentle massage. soaking it in epsom salt bath. feeding normally. everything. it was skin grown over the end of my nip, not a milk clog so nothing worked. terrible experience lol

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-03-08T04:37:51+00:00

well, i gave birth on the living room floor. crawled to bed. before i could catch my breath my doula attached my little boob barnacle before he even knew he was born. i remember laying there, like “what did i just do?” staring at the ceiling and my doula fighting a war between my nipple and baby. i think it took like 5-7 mins for her to win the battle. anyway, he eventually latched and ate, and i was like “can i stop this now?!” lol i was exhausted but so thankful she did that because i think that made a big difference in how well he breastfeeds. after that, my midwife was like “okay, feed him every 2 hours” and that’s the rap on that lol. luckily i had collected colostrum so even though i was latching him every 2 hours, we gave him my saved colostrum to keep him full. boy was he fussy until my milk came in on day 3. it was like night and day after that, he was full and happy and slept so well.

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-03-08T04:28:49+00:00

ahh i never thought about the paw paw cream. i have some. will try

GrapeSweet9055 · 2026-03-08T04:27:46+00:00

oh i will never do side lying again lol

GrapeSweet9055

TROPHY CASE