What made you decide to breastfeed your child?
Before my son was born, I knew I was going to breastfeed. I was swayed by the physical benefits and the financial benefits.
My hospital offered a breastfeeding class so my husband and I took it together. It was only two hours long and we "practiced" with dolls. But, I still got good information.
Is this the first child you've breastfed?
Yes. I breastfed for 19 months. My son self-weaned.
What did you enjoy most about breastfeeding?
My husband learned so much and was so helpful and encouraging. Around six or seven weeks, everything just totally clicked. We finally got all of our kinks worked out.
With every day, it did get easier. I admit to taking a lot of me time those first few weeks. I made my only job breast-feeding. Everyone else took care of baby's other needs.
My son did lose some weight. At birth, he was 8 pounds and 5 ounces and I think he got as low as 7 pounds and 8 ounces. But by his 3-week appointment, he was over 9 pounds!
What was the hardest part of breastfeeding?
When my son was born at 42 weeks, he weighed 8'5". I put him to the breast immediately but he was not interested. He didn't root around at all. The staff tried to help during my 20-hour stay after the birth. My nurses were OK and we were able to get him to latch on and suck a bit. The lactation consultants, though, were terribly unhelpful! They seemed very rushed, as if they had 10 moms waiting after me. One spent 2 minutes with us and said that things were OK and left, leaving me with many unanswered questions. The other lactation consultant was not much better, even though she spent 10 minutes with me. She spent most of that time working on positioning.
Baby and I were given the green light to go home at 7 p.m. I was able to get him to latch on a bit once we got home but he still didn't care much. We actually called the pediatrician around 9 p.m. because he wasn't latching well. While we were on the phone with him, he did latch on and nursed for about three minutes. It was a long night for all of us but we made it.
The next morning we had a pediatrician appointment. I told him how I was still super overwhelmed, confused and didn't think baby was doing a good job. So, he sent me over to the hospital for a one-on-one with a lactation consultant. That was so helpful! My pediatrician wanted us to get a supplemental nursing system (SNS) but the lactation consultant didn't think that was a good idea or necessary.
My husband, baby and I spent an hour and a half with the lactation consultant in a comfy, private room. We worked on positioning. We worked on his latch and how to encourage him to latch well.
We went back to the lactation consultant two days later just to see if everything was going well. She thought everything looked really good.
Breastfeeding is a "natural" thing to do but it is learned. Even though we could do it, it wasn't easy and still took a lot of work.
Over the next few weeks, I really struggled with it. Bottle feeding was never something I considered though. I wanted to make this work and I knew I could.
Later I got thrush, and my son had some jaundice. I also got mastitis and that was painful. After 12 hours on antibiotics, though, I felt so much better.
It really wasn't a smooth road. But I don't think that any part of having a newborn, especially a first, is easy. I think that breastfeeding has its own share of problems (which one to use, when to switch, gas, choosing bottles, obsessing about quantities...).
Tips and Tricks
- Get help and support
- Seek out good information
- Just stick with it
- Take a nursing pillow to the hospital with you so you can duplicate the positions the lactation consultants show you when you get home
- Reading a good book only during feedings helped me look forward to them and be less impatient during them
- One thing that really helped was learning to nurse lying down
- At night, my husband would bring our son to me to nurse and he also took him back and changed his diaper
- Cloth diapers make it easier to count diapers and know how much you're feeding
- Get rest and drink lots of water
