Hello, and welcome to yet another blog all about mothers and their experiences with, well, mommy things. For this blog, for the time being, the primary topic will be breastfeeding and the unbelievably difficult journey that it can be, yet is so very rarely discussed. 

My name is Katie and I became a mom to an earth side baby in late 2021 at the ripe age of, well, old enough that for the past 10 years people have been telling me I better have kids too before I’m too old. 

Anyway, I feel like I went into motherhood prepared. I was prepared for the way life would change. Prepared for my days to be driven by someone else for once. Prepared to embark on a new journey with my amazing husband. Prepared for all the pee, poop, and puke to come my way. I was ready! 

What I was not prepared for was the incredibly difficult journey that breastfeeding can be. I mean, I went to a 2-day breastfeeding class. I learned everything I needed to know and it was amazing! The trainer was amazing. The information was amazing. The entire class and experience was amazing. I learned how breastfeeding works, how to problem solve some basic things, and how to recognize if your baby was or wasn’t getting milk. By golly I had notes and I had my husband with his ability to absorb new information (who was also super into the class), so how on earth could breastfeeding ever present a challenge. 

Well, I will tell you, what I did not learn was information about tongue ties, vasospasms, engorgement, over production, what milk coming in feels like, that nursing pillows are not created equal, that pumps and milk storage are not created equal, what blebs are, and that nursing can push you to the limits of testing your sanity. 

I went into motherhood ready to knock its socks off with my overachieving ways, only to be knocked down and broken into a thousand pieces by “the most natural thing a mother can do”.  I had to become someone to ask for help, repeatedly, to put trust in people that I didn’t know, and to ignore outside voices that were asking me if the struggle was worth it. 

So, grab a glass of milk and follow along as I not only recount the journey to breastfeeding success, but the new and wild breastfeeding situations that just keep showing up as my baby (now toddler) grows.