Netflix and Breastfeed

Very recently I was surfing the web while breastfeeding (as I quite often do) and I came across this article on brexting. I couldn’t tell if my blood began to boil because this was yet another way the modern mom is ‘doing it wrong’ or because I was caught red handed. To be fair, I didn’t text a lot when I first started my breastfeeding career but that is only because you still had to type in numbers to get the letters you wanted and it was too much work with one hand. Had I had access to my sweet little iPhone back then, my thumb would have been all over that keyboard and my friends would have swiftly blocked my number.

During a late night “brexting” session I also came across this article on ‘Netflix and chill; something I had clearly never heard of but provided me with minutes of entertainment. The Netflix thing (not the chill-ing thing) was certainly something I did a lot of when I first started breastfeeding, so much so that I began to wonder how anyone survived breastfeeding without Netflix. I plowed through seasons of shows, sometimes in the span of 24 hours. It wasn’t pretty but it got me through.

My daughter was what many people call a ‘high needs baby’ although I think she was just a normal baby who really liked her boo boo’s (that’s what she calls breastfeeding now). She needed to be on the breast and held all the time or she would be screaming in a fit of rage, a phenomenon many new mothers face but no one talks about. I had two choices, roll with it or go crazy. So I rolled with it, made a nice ‘nest’ in the corner of my couch and turned on the telly.

Do I feel bad about it? Not really. Shouldn’t I be spending that time staring into her eyes and securing a strong mother daughter bond? Sure, and I do that too, I was all over the cuddles and hugs and baby talk, and a lady could surely go crazy on the monotony of the early days of the breastfeeding routine.

Eventually, I became a seasoned breastfeeder. I was able to do other things while breastfeeding, like sleep. I was even able to breastfeed with her in her carrier all day long while I was out and about, which led to my breast being exposed only once on the public transit. And eventually she became better at breastfeeding so she gave me more breaks between sessions and allowed me to do other things. Check Toddler Nursing 

But at first it was Netfix and Breastfeeding – and that is fine!

Top 5 shows to ‘Netflix and Breastfeed’ to:

1. Breastfeeding while terrified you are not feeding your baby enough:
It’s a common scenario, you’ve had your baby and within 24 hours (maybe less or maybe more) you are home, with no professional support, trying to navigate breastfeeding. Your milk hasn’t come in, or maybe it has but you’re convinced it’s not enough and you are writing every single feed, pee, poo, down in a special notebook. The pressure of keeping a human alive while your own hormones plummet is enough to make random bursts of crying a reality. You are going to need something calming, yet inspires you to keep pushing on!

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Ok, maybe not calming, but inspiring?

2. Breastfeeding through clusters and growth spurts.
Do you want to know how babies tell the milk to come in other than by crying? They cluster feed! They feed nearly continuously to tell your body that you can start producing milk now. It usually happens on the 2nd or 3rd night with your baby. Don’t worry you don’t have to say goodbye to cluster feeding just yet, it happens again when it’s time for a growth spurt. You will need something that keeps your attention because let’s face it, you will be up most of the night. You need something that is not nothing too anxiety provoking because as moms we’ve got that part down pat!

Orange Is The New Black

3. Breastfeeding for the marathon nursers:
Did you know that some babies use breasts as pacifiers? That means that once they are done drinking, they want to keep sucking for comfort. I’m not going to get into the different schools of thought around this, I’m just going to say that if you are ok with comforting your baby this way you might need a series with many episodes and many seasons. So here it is, hands down the most seasons – and still good too:

Grey’s Anatomy

4. Breastfeeding the sprinter:
Just as some babies nurse for hours on end, others get in as much as they can and take breaks to be busy. You might find you are breastfeeding often but for short periods of time. For this you will need a comedy because they are often only 22 minutes long. I had a hard time picking just one because comedy is my favourite, I love ‘The Mindy Project’, ‘Always Sunny in Philadelphia’, and of course an old time favourite (that I actually did watch when my daughter was newborn) ‘Freaks & Geeks’, but this top 5 just wouldn’t work without:

Happy Endings

5. Breastfeeding through friends’/family’s well meaning advice about breastfeeding:
You know how it goes (or if you’re pregnant right now, buckle up) instead of offering help, well intentioned friends and family members give advice that makes you want to pull your hair out, especially if it is outdated advice or something way off the choice you made for you and your baby. I thought about listing ‘How to Get Away with Murder’ for this one because, well the name, instead I chose ‘Scandal’. Plus, as your baby gets older the on again/off again relationship between Olivia Pope and the President will be much like the relationship between your curious baby and your breast.

Scandal

So there you have it, my top 5 shows to ‘Netflix and breastfeed’ to. If you have any shows/series that you love or that you used to support you through many hours of breastfeeding, let us know in the comments below!