Pillow Wars

So nursing a preemie is hard enough. In the beginning a preemie's jaw muscles are very weak and as they are so sleepy, they have to be nudged to stay awake long enough to feed. After a few weeks, they get the hang of it, and even though my daughter is 5 weeks old, she is now the size of a typical newborn (i.e. small!).

Some sort of pillow to prop her up to me is necessary. I have two of the commercially marketed nursing pillows: the Boppy and My Breastfriend.

Boppy with Monkey Slipcover

My Brestfriend with Sunburst cover

While I own the Boppy with the monkey cover, I have a different cover than the Sunburst pictured above on the Brestfriend. However, this picture shows the two raised bumps better. On the right and left side of the top of the pillow are raised bumps that help position baby's head while nursing. I also use a pillow that came with the sofa.
It took awhile to figure out how to use these pillows best. The way models hold baby on the Boppy (directly in front of your belly) just wasn't working for me.  A neighbor told me about turning the Boppy so it hugs you around your side. This way, the baby's head rests on one end and your arm on the other. Genius! I was so ready to toss this pillow in the back of the closet. I figured out the Brestfriend on my own- it didn't take anything special other than using it. When I first received it, I stripped the cover off to wash and saw the disgusting foam that it is made of. Definitely not a material that is on my non-toxic list. So I did toss this one in the closet. (Okay, it never made it to the closet.  It stayed in a pile in the guest room). But before I found out how to use the Boppy, I tried the Brestfriend out of desperation when my regular bedroom pillow wasn't cutting it. Those little bumps are amazing! I was able to have her nurse and keep a hand free to hold onto a book, my water glass, rub my neck. This made up for the gross foam that I knew was underneath the cute cover. Plus, I had this sitting in the guest room for a few months, so some of those toxins had to have aired out by now.
As soon as we get into a groove with one of the pillows, that pillow stops "working" so I would switch.  I have found that depending on the baby's mood, the surface I am sitting on, and the position of the moon (seriously, I don't know why) these pillows don't always cut it. This is extremely annoying, especially in the middle of the night and when she is fussy during nursing. Up until now I nurse on the sofa during the day and in our bed during night. This has led to a lot of extra tension and strain in my neck and back as well as hip pain from sitting  criss-cross.

What I need is a rocking chair! Since my darling daughter arrived 5 weeks early, we hadn't settled on a nursing chair. It took until she was a month old for me to find and purchase one. Well, I found lots but they were all out of our price range. Last week, while rocking chair hunting online, I found one that I have been looking at for months for a whole lot less!

Sleepytime Rocking Chair in Taupe

This chair is made by Nurseryworks which is owned by Million Dollar Baby (MDB) (parent company of our Hudson crib which is made by Babyletto).  This chair is made in America and made with less toxic materials. This chair retails for $499. However, Walmart has some deal with MDB because they have a line called Baby Mod, which are the same products by Nurserworks and Babyletto under that name. So, last week I decided to check out Walmart's rocking chairs online. Lo and behold, here was my dream chair, entitled Baby Mod Rocker for the set price of $299!!! I waited a whole three hours till Bryan came home to order it. It came a week later (in a Nurseryworks box :0) and needs to be assembled. It is going to go in our bedroom for now because that's where Delilah sleeps and I enjoy a painless middle-of-the-night nursing session just as much as the next mom.