Top 5 most irritating things about… breastfeeding

Breastfeeding is brilliant and all, full of benefits, but also undeniably hard work. Even once you’ve got through the first few gruelling weeks, when you’re confident it should be plain sailing, it often just… isn’t. Which is incredibly irritating, as on an evolutionary level this is the baby’s ONE JOB. And on a practical level, you’d think doing something approximately a million times per day since birth would make a 7-month old pretty damn good at it; and then something like a heatwave or a leap or weaning happens, and it’s back to square one.

5. Snooze Time

You might think you want breastfeeding to make the baby to go to sleep, but no! What you actually want is for the baby to feed until she’s sated and “drowsy but awake”, then agree to being lifted off you, shifted into a suitably safe sleeping arrangement, and then be left to “self-soothe” to actual sleep.

Neither of my babies have been amenable to this. Whatsoever. Both enjoy a nice long feed, then pass out in a happy milk coma, blissfully asleep unless I do something radical like attempt to extricate myself from beneath them. Then: the breaking loose of all hell may commence. They were NOT actually asleep, thankyouverymuch – they were just resting their eyes and taking a break between courses like civilised little human beings! How very dare you for interrupting! And now they are still horrendously hungry and nothing will do but to resume feeding at once in exactly the same position and… zzzzz…

#babytrapped!

4. Distractible baby

This is a new thing since the babies were about three months old. Previously they were very single minded about feeding. They would root around, chomp down, and get on with it until they were sated or fell asleep (see previous).

But now! Unless it is pitch black, they are all about entertainment during dinner. Peering around with massive cartoon eyes at any nearby movement. Breaking off to give me a gorgeous big grin (Hello mummy, I did not expect to see you here! What a nice surprise!) while the boob pings free and milk splishes everywhere. Startling dramatically at the tiniest of noises across the room; breaking off to gaze doe-eyed at her sister on the other boob; or pawing at jewellery and fabric and even the most sensitive areas of skin with their scratchy little kitten claws…

NOT focusing on the task at hand!

3. Banshee Baby.

This baby is hungry, yes. She wants to feed, yes. But put her on the boob? Cue: screeching, arching of back, gnashing of gums, scratching, kicking. Pull away from boob: hungry howling! Put back to boob: it’s like you’re dragging a mad horse to boiling water. Why in hell would you do that? As if it will drink!

Sometimes someone helpfully points out that this behaviour looks like wind, and very occasionally winding does improve things. But often it is not wind, it is the baby being capricious. The baby is hangry… #hangrybaby. So hangry it will self-sabotage its ability to feed. (A bit like when I am so tired I drink so much coffee I can’t nap.) Often the only thing to do is stand up, energetically rock the baby in cradle pose, whilst humming or shushing, with boob hovering near enough to her mouth that she essentially latches on by accident. Stop standing / cradling / shushing at your peril. (Yes this is really difficult with two.) Alternatively, believe it or not, being on a swing often works! A weather-dependent solution obviously.

Just. Keep. Swinging…

• 2. Comments in public that aren’t explicitly positive. (By which I do not mean X-rated. I mean unambiguous.)

• Yes, I am feeding my babies whilst out & about, because if I did not they would scream and scream and scream until they, I, and possibly indeed several unwary passersby, would be sick. I am not feeding in public because I want attention. If I look casual that is me succeeding at feigning nonchalance. The kindest thing you can do is pretend not to notice. If you must comment? “You make it look easy” is always a winner.

If you say anything with even a grain of criticism, if it is possible to extract even the vaguest of negative interpretations from your words, my subconscious will pounce upon it and amplify it until it’s all I remember of the whole outing. That’s a tad over sensitive? Why yes, yes it is, but my boob is out and I am using it to try to prevent two tiny timebombs from going off and I am very very vulnerable right now. Be unambiguously nice to me, or be off with you!

YES I have got my hands full

1. Vomcano.

For me, this is hands down the most irritating thing about breastfeeding. Or bottle feeding for that matter. After all that effort, at long last, the baby is full! Happy, glowing, a dewy plump milk-glazed bun of a thing, warm and satisfied. You feel happy, she looks happy, she gives you a big dreamy smile and then–there it is. All the milk. All of it! Issuing forth from the baby’s mouth in a terrible white fountain, all over her, you, nearby soft furnishings, the floor, anything expensive or delicately homemade or handwash-only you happened to have been given…

Now everything smells of sour milk, is stained with sour milk, and the baby? Well obviously the baby is hungry.

🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

A random image of a volcano from the internet

I’m sure it’s not just me… feel free to comment with any memorable irritations re feeding your baby. I figure it’s better to accept the ridiculous difficulties and persevere than pretend it’s always enjoyable!