One of the most frustrating aspects of having a baby is what happened to my partner’s boobs. When we first found out that we were pregnant I thought – cool … at some point the boobs are going to get bigger and I get to play. Well that lasted all of a few days because as they were getting bigger they also got more and more sore. DOH.

Immediately after birth we had the cracked nipple situation and even more pain as our little fella was feeding every 2 hours. We stuck with the breast feeding though and after about 5-6 weeks of pain management (well apart from putting on Lanolin which didn’t help much you really have to put up with it or stop) we finally got to a situation where breastfeeding didn’t involve immediate pain anymore.

That lasted for about 3 weeks … then our little man started teething and as a result started chewing around on the nipples, or even worse, pulling away while he was still sucking. More pain. This has now been going on for the last 2 months and I’m not sure when it will stop. At some point we tried out “nipple guards” but that didn’t work either as it disturbed the sucking action. Thank god we’ve been spared mastitis though!

So now we’ve started introducing solids but there is still a fair bit of breastfeeding to do – and for a bit of extra fun he is now refusing formula so that breast milk seems the only option to keep him going.

By now I have of course already given up on the idea of playing with non-sore boobs … even looking at them has sort of lost its appeal a bit (as they pop out of the ever-present maternity bra). We will gradually reduce breastfeeding over the next few months and hopefully stop altogether around month 12 after which there is the possibility of a “soggy boobs” situation.

Well, as a mate adequately summed it up when I told him my wife was pregnant, he said “one other thing about having kids … boobs – they are no longer yours”.

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