1 - It's an excuse to buy more clothes. Ok, so you can manage with the ones you've got, but it's a lot easier sometimes with special nursing tops and dresses and if you have a special occasion you will almost certainly need a new outfit for it. So make the most of the opportunity and splash out on some lovely post-maternity things for you as well as more cute babygros.
2 - Catch up on your telly! Establishing breastfeeding can take a while, and those teeny people do like their grub, so you'll be sat around a lot. Now is the ideal opportunity to stock up on DVD box-sets and lovely trashy novels to while away those long hours on the sofa. And make sure the cushions are well fluffed!
3 - Eat some cake. And a little more. And just one more slice... Breastfeeding can burn up to 500 calories a day, apparently, and those disrupted nights only encourage your need for sugar, so just go for it. Eat whatever it is you fancy. You need to keep up your strength and there is plenty of time to lose weight once you've got to grips with your new baby, so you may as well enjoy the guilt-free snacking.
4 - Some of us need no help with our busts, but plenty more of us actually enjoy our new-found milk-filled cleavage, so flash a bit of it and maybe you'll distract yourself from that slightly wibbly mummy tummy you'll be blessed with just at first.
5 - Leave the washing up; and the hoovering; and the dusting. See point 2. You'll be sitting on your sofa watching TV and feeding your baby. The housework can wait for someone else to do it. After all, you'll have heaps of people coming to visit the baby, we're sure they won't mind sticking a wash on for you! Also great for getting you out of cooking the dinner. One of our staff (who shall remain nameless) has even admitted to sticking a sleeping baby up her jumper and swearing blind he was feeding so her husband had to cook...
6 - Hormones! Normally these are horrid little things that rule our lives as women and make us miserable, but this is the exception. Oxytocin is amazing. Just look at your baby's face when he's finished his feed. See that glassy-eyed milk-drunk grin? That's a hearty dose of the same hormones you're getting too. Nature's own high. Enjoy them. They're lovely stuff.
7 - It can feel good! Honest. If you're new to breastfeeding that may seem impossible, but if you get the positioning and attachment right then suckling your baby is a pleasant sensation. Nobody ever told us that but it's true.
8 - Hormones! Ok, so we've already touched on this, but the look on your baby's face when he's finished a feed is priceless and you only get that from the hormones in breastmilk. Formula just can't make your baby look milk-drunk like that and it has a never ending scope for amusement and cute baby photos. Here's a pic to illustrate our point!
Thanks to The Organ Family Blog for the photo
9 - It smells amazing. Really. Breastfed babies have the best breath. they smell of caramel, it's just delicious. Even their poo smells good, like toffee yoghurt. And when you're changing upwards of ten pooey nappies a day that makes it a damn good reason!
10 - You can get your baby back from well-meaning relatives when you're in need of a baby cuddle. It's amazing how soon you miss cuddling that tiny little body when half the time you seem to be wishing you had your hands free, but as soon as someone else takes them you want them back and breastfeeding is the best possible excuse to be selfish. Who can argue with that?
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