10 Productive Things To Do While Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding is a wonderful thing. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing that you are capable of providing nourishment to another being. And the ultimate bond between new mother and the baby starts from breastfeeding. Spending hours gazing at the little one not only acts as a building block for your relationship but also those gentle strokes & soft touch helps you understand the baby better.

Before our babies arrived, I had read and heard about all sorts of things about breastfeeding- various positions, the duration & all. But what I was not prepared for was sitting in one position for 40 minutes every 2 hours.

While there are some definite perks to breastfeeding, let’s admit, there are some not so great things about the process. When it comes to exclusively nursing the baby, well, things get a bit boring at times. For some, it might get a bit isolating too. But guess what, Breastfeeding gives you immense opportunity to multitask! And this is how I discovered these 10 Productive things one can do while breastfeeding.

Read those eyes

Since part of nursing is bonding and imprinting, eye contact is highly recommended. In several recent studies, ‘attention disorders’ have been linked to a sum total of “inattentiveness”. It’s no one’s fault…technology is growing faster than our understanding of the long term effects.

Express Milk

Nursing is the best time to pump milk from the other side. I have done this for over a year and trust me- the results are great. You just need to get a hang of the posture and the right pump. Avent Manual Pump worked great for us.

Also read “Twins & breastfeeding- How I breastfed my twins for over 12 months”

Trim the baby’s nails

Now is the time Mommies! Trimming those sharp-edged spear-like nails is one of the trickiest tasks that needs a lot of attention and precision. A good feeding pillow would make things easier.

Brain Teasers- Play Sudoku/ Puzzle

I was always a bit paranoid about the postpartum effects on brain. Slow senses and foggy memory are a few of the most common changes that most new moms feel. To combat that, I used to grab Sudoku puzzles to keep my mind up and working.

Read/Sing/Talk

Ah, nothing like it. This is the best time to grab a magazine (something light else you would need to fix those twitchy fingers) and read through. Nursing is also a great time to read or sing to the baby or simply converse with the little one. After all your voice is no less than music to your munchkin. I used to read Goodnight Moon or rhymes from The Nursery Collection mostly.

Also read ” Five must-have Books for infants”

Take a Foot Massage

Nothing elaborate required here- just soak your feet in warm water and sit back & relax. Top up this experience with a 10 minutes power nap….Aaaahh…Bliss!

Also read “10 Self Care Tips for Busy Moms”

Update your Baby book

We bought a Baby journal for jotting milestone moments and tracking their growth. Nursing time seemed the best time to update it. You know how it goes with these Record books- once you miss out updating it, you would end up trying to recollect the dates and moments.

Also read ” Five must-have Books for infants”

Drink warm coffee/Eat

You read it right- it’s ‘warm’ and not ‘hot’. Better get prepared for the next stages when having a cup of coffee itself would be a task for you. As such, drinking a glass of water while nursing is always recommended.

Shopping

There’s something about that one-click shopping- it’s addictive! Use that one hand to browse through – from grocery to diapers to new clothes for yourself- bring it on Mommy!

Also read ” Five must-have toys for infants”

TED Talk

These being similar in length to that of a nursing session and covering topics on almost everything under the sun, work great for killing time. There is nothing like learning something new from these wonderful talks.

Of course once you get a hand of baby wearing you can socialise, take a walk outside or monitor work at home while feeding the baby placed in Baby Carrier.

But all that being said, it is important to know that becoming too distracted and not fully engaged while nursing can effect your milk supply. Plus you are missing out on all that special bonding! All of the studies that say breastfed children have higher IQs & logical sense, isn’t simply because breast milk is amazing- it’s a combination of the milk and all of the intimate bonding they get verses propping up a formula bottle and walking away. The bonding is a huge factor and you can’t give your child that special sense love and security if your busy doing other things.

So just zone out and think ‘how lucky I am’ !

Go Mommy!