Stacey Solomon has shared a photo of herself breastfeeding her son Rex, celebrating the fact that “it’s become easier, and almost painless”.
The 29-year-old mum said she used to dread breastfeeding, so it’s nice to be able to “uncurl my toes” and not be soothing “my bleeding nipples”.
“I actually get excited for the times that Rex wants to feed on me now,” she wrote on Instagram. “I never managed to exclusively breastfeed. He has bottle and boob, and that works for us!”
Rex was born in May, and is Joe Swash and Solomon’s first child together. Solomon is also mum to seven-year-old Leighton and 11-year-old Zachary.
[Read More: Stacey Solomon Shared Her Spectacular Parenting Fail – And We Applaud Her]
Solomon said looking at the photo reminds her of how much pressure she put on herself in the early days. “I wanted to love it so badly and had imagined how ‘easy’, ‘convenient’ and ‘blissful’ it would be and it wasn’t any of those things,” she wrote.
“I never believed anyone when they said it will become easier and almost painless eventually, but it has. I can’t even remember when it changed. But 10 weeks in and it feels so much better. It feels like how I imagined it in the first place.”
She said if she could offer any advice, it would be to remind mums that “fed is best” and to do whatever works for them.
“I never believed anyone when they said it will become easier and almost painless eventually, but it has.”
Her post encouraged other mums to come forward and share their own stories of breastfeeding struggles. “It took eight weeks for it to suddenly become good for me,” one mum wrote. “And it literally did overnight. Those first eight weeks were just horrific. I would sob my heart out with the pain and the stress with every feed. Your posts are helping more people than you probably realise!”
Another mum commented: “That is a gorgeous photo! I remember the day when I realised I didn’t hurt anymore and was so happy. Now we are six months in.”
And another wrote: “This is a great post. I tried for 16 weeks and it was too painful so I stopped. But your words remind people that it’s different for everyone and they should do what is best for them.”
Find out about breastfeeding support available near you here.