Hey Mamas, as many of you saw on my Instagram this week, I posted a raw account of my true breastfeeding journey. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, while having a baby is one of the most magical experiences, that doesn’t make it an easy one. There are many ups and downs during pregnancy and postpartum, but seeing that beautiful baby learn and grow every day is totally worth it!

My Breastfeeding Journey  

Breastfeeding is important to me as anything that I feel we are capable of or that God has created within us to do. With both Kya and Amara, I wanted to make sure to at least try to breastfeed. I shared the same feelings about unmedicated birth.

Mamas, let me be clear, however YOU choose to give birth or YOU choose to feed your baby is 100% okay! We all have different issues that may have come up during these times or have different opinions on them and we should all be in this together and support each other no matter what. Every mama’s journey looks and is different - we need to embrace and support these differences to help each other.

When I was breastfeeding my first daughter Kya, for 2-3 weeks, my nipples were bleeding and cracking, plus she had a shallow latch and I believe a small tongue tie. It was rough! I remember just fighting through the pain.. and honestly I still had some pain on and off through our whole breastfeeding journey. Around 3 months in is when I came up with the idea of the nursing sports bra during one of my workouts with her when I had to stop to breastfeed. So Love and Fit was born out of my first breastfeeding journey! We did “okay” with nursing until around 6 months when we hit another roadblock, my supply tanked! I did everything I could to get it back but sadly our journey ended at 7 months.

This time around, with Amara being one week old I wanted a different experience. I learned from my experience with Kya and told myself to concentrate more on her latch, which I thought would help my supply in the long run. But at just 4 days in, the bleeding nipples and cracking appeared again. Even though I feel she latched better than Kya ever did, my spirits were crushed, I felt like I was at a loss again! I was pretty much crying on one side when feeding and decided it was time to call in reinforcements!

I called my friends at @goldilacts and Candice who is a long time friend came to the rescue! She was so helpful in fixing my positioning and gave me a breakdown on additional nipple care that I was not doing. One day after our appointment together, I was feeling much more confident and my nipples are slowly starting to heal. I know there still may be some bumps in the road ahead on our breastfeeding journey but I feel so much better after my session with Candice! She brought me back from the verge of giving up, if you are in need of some help breastfeeding or are pregnant and want to prepare, reach out to @goldilacts.

I wanted to share my story because even though I’m the owner of Love and Fit, a company that sells nursing sports bras, doesn’t mean I am any different from our customers. I share not only your amazing motherhood moments, but your frustrations and struggles, too! I design the bras that I would want to wear, that I feel comfortable in, and that make me feel good! The Love and Fit brand was created because I was having a hard time during my postpartum journey and needed a bra that would work for me and leggings that wouldn’t roll down!

I hope my story helps give all you mamas out there experiencing these struggles some hope. Hang in there - we’re all in this together!