Breastfeeding
was very hard for Noah and I. Breastfeeding is hard for all women I believe;
you really have to stick to it. We tried everything; the plain breast, the
shield, an eye dropper of formula to trick him (at hospital) and eye dropper of
colostrum (at home). Nothing seemed to be working; we just couldn’t get the
hang of it. Noah was born at 6:33pm and around 10pm I was finally allowed to
try breast feeding him. I had a c-section and was able to hold him but only for
like 15 minutes or so before they took him away to put him under the lights. The
nurse on staff, not very nice I should add helped me a little bit throughout
the night with it but he really didn’t eat anything for the first night. The
nurse said that was okay at the time. Come morning though about 12 hours later,
Noah still was not nursing so they had me supplementing with formula. At this
point I was so bummed and discouraged. Everything in me wanted to breast feed
my baby so I was determined to keep trying. The nurses that I had throughout my
hospital stay gave me a different technique every single time. There was so consistency!!
You would think that they would have some kind of the same plan. I mean one
nurse would just shove Noah onto my boob and he would latch for 2 seconds
before stopping and screaming. In those 2 seconds the nurse left the room
thinking that he was eating and fine. But he wasn’t! Another nurse tried having
me trick him with a little bit of formula on my breast to see if that would
help. And the whole time they had me using the shield which I absolutely
hated!! It just seemed like no one was on the same page and we were getting
nowhere! Noah was losing weight like crazy so that me supplementing with
formula in a bottle. He weighed 7lbs 14oz at birth and by the time we went home
he was 7lbs 2oz. The lactation consultant was helpful but still had me
supplement.
When
we finally went home on Saturday, things didn’t get any better. My husband and
I tried so hard to get him to eat and latch on. We were both a wreck! We had to
go to the pediatrician on Monday to check on his weight (7lbs .5oz) and our
doctor that day told us that the hospital should have never had me
supplementing. That I was just confusing Noah more than anything with the boob,
the shield, the bottle and then the formula. She told me to just keep trying to
breast feed, come back in 2 weeks and we will see how his weight is. I called
my Mom right after the appointment and asked if she would come help me. She had
5 natural births and breast fed all of us successfully! She was there by the
end of the night. Yay! I just kept praying and hoping that one day soon we
would get the hang of breast feeding. My mom had me pump like crazy, like every
hour to get my milk to come in. We kept trying to get him to latch on the boob
and he just wouldn’t. He would get so upset!! He wasn’t eating anything so I
chose to supplement with formula. Noah wasn’t eating much of anything and the mom
in me just couldn’t let him starve. My mom picked up fenugreek and brewer’s
yeast. Finally with all the pumping, my milk came in almost a week and half
later. I gave up on the breast for the first week; I just pumped the colostrum
and milk and gave it to Noah in a bottle. I figured as long as he was getting
the milk it was okay. It finally came time for my Mom to leave and my husband
to go back to work. I was overwhelmed and just kept thinking “how on earth am I
going to keep pumping and giving Noah bottles?” It was so time consuming and he
was eating like every 2 hours. I just kept praying and finally I thought I
would try one last time to put him to the breast and guess what? He latched
right on and ate for 20 minutes straight. I was crying and in complete shock! I
couldn’t believe that he was finally breast feeding. At Noah’s 2 week
appointment he weighed 8lbs 10oz. The pediatrician said he was in the 75th
percentile for his weight. He was gaining twice as much than the normal! From
that day on, he has breast fed ever since. We are going on 5 months!!
So
I want to let future Moms and struggling Moms know that you can do it!! It was
the hardest thing I have ever done but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It is
the most amazing feeling ever. I wish I would have done more research going
into labor. Next time I’m going to have a birth plan for the hospital and it
will say that I want my baby trying to breast feeding right away! I feel that I
missed out on some things having the c-section and then struggling so much with
breast feeding but now we are doing great! Now I know what I need to do
differently the next time. So ladies you can do it!
