Ah, the challenges of breastfeeding. I had been told by everyone that breastfeeding was hard, but like anything else, didn’t really KNOW until I got there. Those early days with baby boy were rough. I had tiny nipples, he had a tiny mouth, we were both inexperienced, and we just couldn’t figure out the latch reliably. I literally pinched my boobs black and blue in the first week postpartum trying to squeeze them into the requisite shape to stuff into my baby’s mouth. After that, I worked with an awesome lactation consultant who helped me figure out how to pinch them more effectively (haha), and baby and I could get an efficient latch and feed some of the time. Then, I discovered nipple shields.