Gretchen Rossi Opens Up About Her Breastfeeding Struggles: 'I Have Cried So Many Times'

Gretchen, 40, posted an Instagram photo of her breastfeeding Skylar that included a lengthy caption about her breastfeeding struggles.

"This pic right here is how I imagined in my mind that breastfeeding would be, beautiful, peaceful, maternal, and glorious....me just calm and relaxed, looking and feeling great all the while bonding with my precious baby girl staring into her eyes while she feed from my breast," she began. "Boy was I ever wrong."

"Breastfeeding has been no where near this magical as I imagined in my head," Gretchen continued. "I have cried so many times from being frustrated, from being beyond exhausted, from the pain and horrible sore nipples (as they literally scabbed over and or were bright pink from all the skin being rubbed off), from the guilt of feeling like 'I don’t want to do this anymore because it is uncomfortable, exhausting, painful, takes way to much time, and quite honestly was not anything like I imagined in my head.'"

"I took every class you could take, read so many books, did so much research and was determined to 'push through' the tough parts so I could give my baby girl the very best. But I quickly realized it just wasn’t that easy, and if I wasn’t at 'my best' I couldn’t give her 'the best' because my body wouldn’t cooperate or produce enough milk etc."

Gretchen then talked about how she's written a whole blog about her breastfeeding issues in order to "help open the conversation for any other new mommies out there who have gone through the struggle, and or who will be going through what I have this past month."

Gretchen has previously opened up about the ups and downs of being a new mother since she welcomed Skylar into the world on Wednesday, July 10.

The former RHOC star talked about being sleep deprived many times on her Instagram to the point where she asked her followers if this motherhood thing gets any easier.