Starting Solo Parenting: A Story About Breast Pumps.

I finally started solo parenting, and I hit a wall right away!

Husband's Paternity Leave Ends

My husband, who worked hard with me for nearly two months, has finally returned to work. It's strange how, when even one person's support disappears, your anxiety grows, and you feel lonely even with your child right in front of you.
While breastfeeding, I have no one to talk to, so I find myself thinking about things I don't need to worry about right now, like whether I'll be able to manage everything properly in the future.
Looking back, I realize I was overthinking things.

Andwhen you're parenting solo, you can't sleep even more.When my husband was here, I could take naps, but now, even when the baby is sleeping, I worry about whether they're breathing properly, or I think, 'I should do the chores I couldn't get to while they were awake!' and
I end up draining my own HP even further...
Let me tell you this now.

When you can sleep, put all your chores and everything else aside and just sleep.

Think of it as time to recover your worn-out body and just sleep.

Seriously, I mean it.

Breast Refusal

As someone who is constantly draining their own HP, my body is still far from being in top shape—my stitches hurt, my lower back hurts, and my breasts have become hard as rocks.
I was just pumping away using a breast pump.

Breast pumps are convenient, but little did I know they were
dark items, and I ended up using one every time my breasts felt engorged...

Since the engorgement was painful, I pumped every day until the tightness
softened up.
At one point, my son startedrefusing the breastand wouldn't drink at all.This breast refusal is truly painful.

Maybe it's maternal instinct, but I want to feed him,
and since I'm engorged, I want him to nurse,
but he won't drink at all.

Seeing him drink milk with such a happy expression
made me fall apart—I just cried.

Even so, my breasts were eager to keep making milk, and as I desperately used the breast pump, they finallybecame uncontrollable.

At first, it was fine to pump to get relief
and then pump again a few hours later, but

every time I pumped, more milk was produced,
and they became tight and hard in a short amount of time.

The result of fully utilizing the breast pump...

As a first-time breastfeeding mom, I didn't know anything, but
I understood later that

if you pump until your breasts are empty,
your breasts get confused and think they need to make
even more milk!!

The more often you empty them,
the more milk is produced...

And that's how I ended up with
hard, rock-solid breasts☆☆☆

That was the state I was in.
Breast pumps are very convenient, but
when you use one,I recommend pumping only until the
tightness is gone.

By doing that, the speed and amount of milk production gradually stabilized, and the rock-hard feeling in my breasts began to ease.

I realized this around the three-month mark, but I wish I had known about it sooner...

Thank you so much for reading until the end!!