Our Feeding Journey With Maya + The Formula Our Family Trusts
When it comes to parenthood, opinions run rampant as everyone believes their ways are the best ways! Myself included, I’ve occasionally caught myself comparing and thinking that my method is somehow better than others. The reality is, every child is different. Every family is different and what works swimmingly for one, may drown another. A hot opinionated topic is ‘feeding babies’ as there are only two options; breast or formula. Luckily, or maybe not so, depending on who is looking, I have one foot in each camp. I’ve had my feet firmly planted on both sides now with all three of my children and see the benefits of both breastmilk and formula clearly. In all honestly, feeding our babies is quite personal and in the beginning for most, a downright struggle. I’d like to share my feeding story here and open it up to all of you to share as well. Your ups and downs, any helpful insight is worthy! Let’s pull back our opinions and share in hopes of helping other parents our there that are in the thick of feeding their babies.
Our family is beyond thrilled and honored to be partnering with Enfamil while sharing our feeding journey. I’ve been using Enfamil now with all three of my children, first using it ten years ago with my son Ryan. When the brand reached out to us earlier this year I was floored! Enfamil has quite literally pulled our family out of a sleepless haze as first time parents. It settled an issue we were at a loss with when our son Ryan was just two months. Working closely with Enfamil now feels incredible and I’m overjoyed to share our story alongside them.
At the start, I thought after having my son Ryan my breastmilk would come in flowing and I’d happily nurse him until he weaned himself off. My own mom told me stories about how she nursed me until I was past one year old. I was looking forward to those tender moments of nursing my baby. I’m not exaggerating when I say, a few hours into breastfeeding the pain was reeling and I felt beyond discouraged. When my milk finally came in, my nipples were cracked and I was lucky if I produced a few ounces through out an entire day! As a first time mother I relied on lactation consultants who told me to “just keep nursing.” “My milk production would grow the more I nursed” they said. The pain turned into calloused nipples that learned how to weather a hungry baby’s latch. A month in, two months in, my milk supply was still small. Leaving our newborn ‘hangry’ for lack of a better word. Nursing him every hour it seemed wasn’t healthy for either of us. I was overtired, not really able to be the best mom I could since I was driving myself insane nursing on such demand. Whatever I had envisioned as myself being a beautiful first time mother, evaporated into a mostly topless mess with a baby who cried all the time.
I remember this so clearly, I was sitting on our futon couch in our tiny apartment holding Ryan. One side of my nursing tank unhooked. My husband (who at the time was my boyfriend) was laying on the floor. All THREE of us confused and sleep deprived. I was crying, the baby was fussy. It fully dawned on me that my baby was indeed, hungry. We decided to go buy formula at once, because my milk wasn’t sustaining him longer than 45 minutes! We consulted with our son’s pediatrician and he advised us to try Enfamil. Knowing what brand to look for, I immediately grabbed it and proceeded to check out. From then on we supplemented with Enfamil until my milk eventually went away around six months. I’d nurse Ryan in the mornings and once in the later afternoon. He’d enjoy Enfamil in between. He finally was a happy baby longer than an hour and best of all, he started to sleep longer stretches of time! Five years later when we had our daughter Mila, we bought Enfamil NeuroPro before she was born just in case we’d need it. That time around I researched formulas since I knew we’d be supplementing. After looking through a ton of leading formula brands, I chose Enfamil NeuroPro. Not only because I found that it is the ONLY leading formula brand that has the global expert recommended amount of DHA which is important in babies brain development. I felt confident and when Mila arrived, sure enough my breasts did the same thing and we started supplementing with Enfamil NeuroPro sooner than we had with Ryan.
The thing is, maybe had I been more disciplined and continued nursing 24/7 my milk supply would have grown. Maybe not. I just had zero energy left in me to continue trying and once we started to supplement, the three of us were so much happier. Looking back I sometimes wish fiercely that I could have exclusively breastfed Ryan and Mila. I even had the notion that I’d try to do so with Maya. But really, when she came out a few ounces shy of ten pounds, homegirl was hungry and my milk was just a drop compared to what she really wanted. I chose Enfamil NeuroPro again because it is a brand I fully trust. I personally feel really passionate about the fact that Enfamil NeuroPro has a blend of MFGM and the global expert recommended amount of DHA. MFGM stands for Milk Fat Globule Membrane and is also found in breast milk. In my mind, if I can’t exclusively breastfed, then at least our formula has an important blend of MFGM to help develop cognitive skills in my baby’s rapidly growing brain. DHA is an important omega-3 necessary acid compound that supports brain development. More than that, I feel confident feeding Maya Enfamil NeuroPro as it has zero table sugar added as a carbohydrate, no artificial growth hormones, and is non-GMO. While those words seem to be on just about anything we consume in efforts to deliver a healthy lifestyle, they really ring true here and when it comes to my children I personally wouldn’t choose another formula.
Maya, is now five months old and we are happily on the same feeding schedule as her older brother and sister. I nurse her in the morning and one more time in the late afternoon. Right now she gets three bottles a day and one in the middle of the night and is happily content. With our children all being so wildly different, I am very grateful they all have fallen into the same feeding schedule. Right now we are focusing on having her older sister Mila help as much as possible when feeding baby Maya. I’ll often have Mila help me scoop formula into the bottles and her favorite is shaking it all up! Now that Maya has a bit more head/neck control we can have Mila actually hold and feed her. (While still being extremely close by.) You all know that Mila had a really difficult time adjusting to her baby sister. Watching Mila light up when helping bottle feed Maya is really heartwarming! Hopefully it is the beginning to their strong sisterly bond.
With Enfamil NeuroPro supplying complete nutrition for babies 0-12 months, we’ll happily be feeding it to Maya until her first birthday. This is only the beginning! I am so honored to be able to share our formula fed journey with you all alongside Enfamil! I look forward to reading your own journey and personal stories below. As I mentioned before, I want to keep this conversation going and open in hopes of helping others nail down a healthy for them feeding routine. What works for our family may not work for yours. Which is why I’d love for you to share in the comments below if you exclusively breastfed, formula fed, or both like us. Though our family is dedicated to using Enfamil NeuroPro, I’d never want to come across as our way is the only way. I’d love to just talk “mom” and vent our feeding stories, the good and bad! I will ask you though to join me in signing Enfamil’s petition to #RaiseTheDHA in all formula’s, no matter the brand, so that all babies get the expert recommended amount of DHA! Click HERE to learn more.
Breast or bottle fed alike, currently I am trying to get Maya off her middle of the night bottle, any tips or tricks?!
While Enfamil NueroPro sponsored this blog post, all words and personal stories are my own! We are thrilled to be able to partner with a brand that we have been using for nearly a decade. Thank you for being here with us as we share!