|

Breastfeeding Tips For First Time Moms That are Absolute Sanity Savers

Share this!

Here you will find priceless tips for breastfeeding for newborns as well as breastfeeding tips for new mothers. These breastfeeding tips and tricks will make it so much easier for first time moms. There is so much to learn about breastfeeding and so much can take you by surprise and cause exhaustion quickly. These breastfeeding tips for beginners is everything I wish I knew beforehand.

Breastfeeding is all natural… so why is it so hard?

Congratulations on your newborn or soon to be! Get ready to undertake one of the most important, rewarding, and exhausting parts of being a new mom- breastfeeding! If you are looking for tricks and tips for breastfeeding a newborn you’ve certainly landed in the right place.

Why should I choose breastfeeding?

Breastmilk is completely natural. It is free. Plus it is loaded with easily digestible healthy fats and antibodies that your new baby will require and thrive with. Not everyone is blessed with the ability to breastfeed. But if you are undertaking this huge responsibility I want to help make it a bit easier for you.

When your new baby comes you are flooded with hormones and excitement. This tiny person that you’ve gotten to know from the inside for months is finally here! They are beautiful, perfect, and exhausting. In the first few months every second is allotted for just keeping this tiny human alive!

Breastfeeding comes naturally to some. Others need the guided assistance of lactation consultants and La Leche League. However breastfeeding is coming along for you I am so proud of you as a new mother for taking that huge leap of continually giving of yourself for your baby.

**This post contains affiliate links to products I own and love and am confident you will too. Please read full disclosure here.**

There are a lot of things I wish I knew my first time around with breastfeeding.

I have two little girls, 7 and 2. (And I’m still breastfeeding my youngest!) I was so blessed that latching came easy for me and both of my children wanted to breastfeed constantly. (Lucky… and drained.) But even with all those stars aligned breastfeeding can still be hard!

RELATED: Pilates with Baby Safe for the 6 Weeks Post Partum

It can be uncomfortable, exhausting, and frustrating. These are the life changing tips I wish I had read before beginning the huge journey into breastfeeding and I hope they offer you some help if you’ve already started; or help you prepare if you are about to!

repair after all they’ve been through!

Postpartum Weight Loss While Breastfeeding

There is one struggle that so many moms have postpartum, knowing how to lose the baby weight safely while breastfeeding. Can you even do that? How can you diet and breastfeed? How can you lose the excess weight and not lose your milk supply?

For years I’ve been asked by my mom clients these same questions in different ways again and again. So as a certified online health coach, fitness trainer, maternal nutrition specialist, and mom of 3, I decided to compile the proven successful postpartum diet and exercise plan that I created for my breastfeeding mom clients into a program that now anyone can have access to!

It’s called the Milky Mama’s Postpartum Plan and it is built for you! To teach you everything you need to know to be successful at postpartum weight loss while breastfeeding!

Check out my 28 day plan now to help you regain strength postpartum with short effective workouts, increase your milk supply with loads of delicious recipes, and finally lose that excess baby weight at the same time!

Priceless Breastfeeding Tips for New Mothers

breastfeeding tipsfor new mothers

1. Have Enormous Water Bottles at the Ready

You will be breastfeeding seemingly around the clock for the first few months. Every second you think you’ll get a chance to breath the baby will wake up hungry. You will spend a lot of time sitting down nd nursing and you will be more thirsty than you know what to do with. I mean, walking through a desert for a week kind of thirsty.

Have a giant water bottle in multiple rooms. Breastmilk is mostly comprised of water and healthy fats. Your new bundle of love is essentially draining the liquid out of you. While we mostly hear that what you eat and calories will convert into breastmilk, let me assure you that your liquids will become depleted much quicker.

There were so many time that I couldn’t drag the baby around when I had to have others fetch me another drink. Eventually I began having multiple enormous bottles of water readily available and it helped so much.

I always had the giant 32 oz. cup that I got in the hospital at my side and even that was often not enough. Fill your body with healthy drinks (water is ideal) and OFTEN!

2. Learn Side Lying Breastfeeding

This is the lifesaving breastfeeding position for new moms. But it does take a while for baby to learn how to breastfeed while you both are laying down. It is pertinent to learn if you plan on getting ANY sleep though.

Every time my child learns how to feed while we both lie on our sides an enourmous relief has been lifted from my shoulders.

My second child didn’t take to this position for a few weeks! I KNEW how important it was, so continued trying every day until we had success. It helped to begin practicing by slouching in the corner of the couch and slowly feeding her in a lower position each day.

Here’s a great video and explanation of this essential breastfeeding position.

REALTED: If you haven’t given birth yet and are searching beforehand to get totally prepared you NEED to learn how to protect your perineum and not tear during childbirth as well as how to soothe post partum with DIY padsicles and more tips.

milk boosting recipes to increase supply with lactogenic food

3. Find a Safe Place You Can Sit Up, Breastfeed, and Sleep

So much easier said than done; however this is absolutely essential in the first month. You will be so exhausted throughout the nights and running purely on adrenaline. It is pertinent that until baby masters the side lying position of breastfeeding (and honestly still super important even well after as they won’t take to that position every exhausting feeding every night) that you can be sitting in a safe place for baby, while breastfeeding, and possibly sleep.

Because there is a good chance that you will fall asleep eventually. For me, this location was the corner of an L-shaped couch with only a firm pillow. There can be a huge suffocation risk for newborns with too much padding so your full comfort is out the window.

Try out different locations in the house during the day until you find the perfect safe place for yourself and baby. I STILL spend nights sleeping sitting up on the couch cuddling my toddler after nursing to sleep.

You will adapt and learn, and maybe you’ll get lucky and your baby will soon sleep wonderfully! The first month however will be hard and that special place (ideally with an additional nearby space to place baby safely after they drift off to sleep) will be very helpful.

RELATED: How to Get Baby to Sleep and Yourself Too

4. Use Coconut Oil on Chapped Nipples

This is an all natural breastfeeding tip for new mothers. There are quite a few products on the market for the soreness you may experience as you adjust to breastfeeding. (Like Lanolin.) But I try my best to keep everything all natural, especially when it comes to my newborns!

Coconut Oil has amazing moisturizing properties for skin and it is completely safe if baby consumes some. (It actually has the most similar healthy fats to breastmilk of any food we currently know of.)

I found it to be the most soothing when combined with a few drops of lavender essential oil. 3 tablespoons of unrefined raw coconut oil combined with 5 drops of lavender essential oil works wonders on raw nipples.

breastfeeding diet plan postnatal

5. Boost Your Milk Supply

Babies’ appetite will increase dramatically so quickly that you will be amazed. The breastfeeding trick of increasing your milk supply naturally with supplements will make the journey of breastfeeding so much easier.

If your supply is low, breastfeeding can become painful. With the aid of teas, supplements, and delicious lactation cookies you can increase your supply overnight to keep up with feeding on demand and growth spurts. One amazing aspect of the Milky Mama’s Postpartum Plan is that all the recipes help you increase your milk supply, while losing the baby weight at the same time.

milk boosting cookies

RELATED: The Best Protein Powders for Breastfeeding Moms

6. Always Carry a Blanket or Scarf with You

If you go out with a new baby you will inevitably have to end up breastfeeding in public. There are all kinds pricey (for my ultra frugal taste) but super cute breastfeeding cover ups you can purchase, but I never did. Instead I ALWAYS kept either a baby blanket or large scarf my mother gifted me on hand. The weather determined my choice of cover up.

TIPS:

  • If using a baby blanket: tuck it under your bra strap to secure it into place.
  • If using a scarf: Tie is around your waist for a cute look and so that in reality you are carrying one less thing!

You will have to pull out the girls on demand ALL the time and having something on hand that you can cover up with and feel comfortable will be important.

Never leave home without a blanket or scarf!

7. Wear Layers

Another amazing trick I learned with breastfeeding my second baby was to wear layers. I’d typically wear a camisole with another shirt on top. This adds lots of variations as to how you can easily remain concealed while baby has access to the breast.

Slide the top layer up and the camisole slightly down and almost nothing except what baby needs is revealed. (Which is then totally covered by babies’ head.)

Baggy top layers of shirts make for easy concealing as well. Try out a few different outfits in layers. For 2 years my wardrobe consisted ONLY of what was breastfeeding friendly. If I couldn’t pull the girls out comfortably and was going to have to pull my entire shirt up, stomach revealed, it went to the back of the closet.

With these breastfeeding tips for new moms you are well on your way to a successful breastfeeding journey.

If I was aware of all these breastfeeding tips and tricks for newborns I would have felt so much less overwhelmed at the beginning. Listen to your body. Rest when you can. If it’s to your liking babywear when possible. It just makes it so much easier to move about your day and bond with baby. My favorite wrap for newborns is the Moby Wrap.

I have a lot of babywearing devices but for a newborn, the Moby Wrap is my absolute favorite. I never really mastered all the intricate ways to wrap a newborn, but with mastering just the basic wrap I was given so much of my time and sanity back that it was priceless.

Imagine… washing dishes with 2 hands again!

More New Mom Help From Vigor It Out:

Share this!

Similar Posts

5 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.