Knowing is half the battle

That PSA is about the only thing I remember from all the years of countless GI Joe episodes we watched growing up. Maybe my brother got more out of it... he was the one who ended up in the army.

But, his Army carrier is not the real topic for this post. Instead, I will be touching upon the upcoming battle: nursing the baby.

Why do I label this a battle? After some of the things I've heard and seen I think we need to give it some respect. Without a healthy perspective on this topic, a naive mother may enter the battle ground not knowing what she is up against.

Yesterday afternoon the Garel family had an appointment with a lactation consultant. We decided it might be worth the time to find out some information before Baby G arrives. At this point I feel the 2 hours was time well spent, we learned a lot about poop diapers, feeding, and other lovely new baby experiences.

Note: If anyone is interested in learning about these experiences first hand I will be happy to arrange a diaper changing schedule for you. But act fast, there are fewer diapers in the first couple of days and those ones sound too exciting to miss.

The consultant was there to inform us of what to expect and she didn't let us down. Upon arrival in her office she handed us a folder with information. She went through the contents and eventually got to the color handout of, "What we are trying to prevent."

I'm going to be blunt, it was a bit horrific to look at some of the pictures of bleeding, scabbing, cracking, and shape distortion which can result from a bad latch between baby and mother. After about 10 s of utter horror the consultant placed the paper at the back of the folder, "It's not a good idea to look at that one too long, it'll scare you."

Good idea, let's just put that one out of sight and pray we never need to use it as a reference chart!