The Boppy

When I became pregnant I heard raves over the boppy. I was told it would be a lifesaver, it was wonderful, one of the BEST investments people made. Thanks to craigslist I found a boppy at an amazing price and was sure it would help me just as it did others!

I didn't bring it with me to the hospital (we already had too much stuff as it was) however the second I got home I used it. I was excited because in the hospital we had been having various latch issues and some of the positions honestly hurt my arms after a while! It was okay to use, but I found it a little frustrating at times. it would slip positions and depending on where I was sitting by the time he was half way through nursing the pillow would be doing almost nothing.

As I said above, we've been having some latch issues, especially on one side. The only hold i've found that hes really good with is the football hold. I had been using a regular pillow to do this hold but yesterday I thought "Ah ha! The boppy!" And sure enough, it was MUCH more comfortable for me! I thought to myself "This is great! He is more comfortable, I am more comfortable, this will make things easier". Riiighttt...

All afternoon yesterday he would nurse and nurse and not sleep. At 9:30 when my husband came home I was almost at my wits end becuase he STILL hadn't gone down for any significant sleep. He just wanted to nurse... and to make matters worse he was getting fussier every time. He was thrashing and kicking and acting like something was wrong, but I could not figure out what! I burped him, I soothed him, I swaddled him, I tried just about everything, but all he wanted was to eat and even then he wouldn't settle down. Finally at 11 my husband took him away from me and told me to sleep for a few hours, he'd be fine.

At 1:30am when my husband came back into the room with him I suddenly had an "AH HA!" moment... one that would have saved me many hours of frustration. While he latched great on the boppy and it was more comfortable, my flow was reduced to almost nothing so he was getting practaclly NOTHING out! I don't know why my brain hadn't put the fact that he wasn't taking deep sucks with this conclusion hours earlier...exhaustion? Heat? The fact i'm a new mother? Needless to say the boppy went in the corner and my regular pillow came out again. A quick 45 minutes later he was passed out in his cosleeper happy as a clam and there he stayed until about 5:30 this morning.

I'm not saying the boppy is bad... as I said above, I know so many people who rave about it! Maybe when he's a bit bigger and we have breastfeeding down better i'll go back to the boppy and it will prove useful for me. Until them i'm just using a regular pillow!