The Yankowski Triplets

**Warning, Blog Contains Breastfeeding Pictures. Proceed at own risk ;) Pumping suck. There, I said it. I knew I would have to do some pumping, but I didn't think I would be doing this much. It makes me feel bad for cows, really. And not only does pumping suck, but so do bottles, and the mountain of them I seemed to be buried by every single day. I call this my bag of tricks ;) So I somehow got stuck in this downward spiral, and while my birth was about as close to perfect as I could have envisioned, our breastfeeding journey has not been. I know it's unrealistic to have this perfect image in your head and it actually happen, but we are getting there... it just didn't happen right away. I had lovely babies with great latches from the beginning. Yes, sometimes we had to fix a shallow latch, but they were preemies. And for them being early, we were all amazed they wanted to latch and they wanted to breastfeed, despite their sleepiness.   Sometimes, y...

We were really lucky to have such healthy babies. All three were able to room in with me immediately, and all three took to breastfeeding like little rock stars. Believe it or not, I had a doula. Unfortunately, because of space constraints, she wasn't able to come into the OR. That, and I told her to hang out until we got closer to delivery and then suddenly they were rolling me in to push. It all happened so fast she didn't have time to get there. But, she was waiting for us when we got back to our room. She helped get the babies latched for the first time, and took some pictures for us. Seriously, if you're expecting and haven't considered a doula, get one. I had a wonderful doula when I had Charlotte, and knew with the triplets I wanted one again. She offered so much input while we were preparing for delivery, it was nice to have another birth junkie to bounce things off of and get a second opinion that wasn't emotionally involved. Thankfully visitors were ...

Women don't want vaginal births so they can receive an award, or a trophy, or acknowledgement. Women want vaginal births because their body was made to birth a baby. Or two. Or three. The first thing I said when we learned we were carrying not one, but three babies, was that I didn't want a c-section. It wasn't that I had anything against c-sections...they are an amazing thing that when needed saves lives. However, I knew I would be essentially forced into one and that didn't sit well. I had dreamed up this amazing birth like the two I had before. My support system around me as we gently welcomed our new baby into the world. Tears, happiness, togetherness. Suddenly, that came crashing down. I would have to leave my midwife, whom I trusted and loved, and switch to an Ob who wouldn't give me the time I was used to. Who didn't know me or my body and how it delivered babies. When I first began looking for a new provider, I was right in my assumpt...