Reply to Breastfeeding is kicking my ass...

Forum Index » Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers

Reply to "Breastfeeding is kicking my ass..."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Mine wouldn't latch either. I tried for 6 weeks, saw 4 different lactation consultants, used nipple shields, and still had to supplement with formula and pumped milk. I think I cried almost every day about it.

At 6 weeks I moved to pumping exclusively, and while it wasn't fun, it was much less stressful for me. Did it for 6 months and then switched to formula. I'm currently pregnant with #2--and if it's this much of a battle again I'm not going to feel bad about formula at all. [/quote]

To this PP and OP,

I've totally been there ladies--twice now.  The first time, I had an unplanned c-section after 24 hrs of labor.  I was so filled w/ fluids that I looked like Shrek and only weighed 4 lbs less leaving the hospital.  Due to poor supply and a very squirmy baby--positioning w/ my daughter after my c-section and my let down issues made nursing a nightmare.  We did pay for consultations w/ several LCs--after $1000s of dollars, it never quite worked.  It would work temporarily while she was there, but then it would stop working a few hours later after she had left.

I ended up renting a hospital grade pump and exclusively pumping for 10.5 months.  At first hardly anything came out.  I felt like such a failure and it didn't help that DH seemed to think that formula was poison.  He stepped in to take over all of the night feedings and told me to just keep pumping.  Eventually after 3 months, I built up enough supply to get rid of all supplementation.  I also tried everything else to build it up (i.e., dom, reglan, fenugreek and other foods, etc.) but it didn't seem to increase my supply.  I literally pumped drop by drop to build up from less than an ounce for 20 minutes of pumping to 4 to 5 ounces per pumping session.

I told DH w/ pregnancy #2 (child is now 3 1/2 weeks old), I would not put myself through it if nursing did not work.  At the hospital it seemed like it was working.  Only thing that was shocking was that DC would nurse from 8 pm to 7 am straight.  For 3 to 4 days I literally got one hour of sleep.  I became near psychotic.  We decided to supplement and I started pumping again.  This time around, my supply is better than last time.  I am making enough for at least 1/2 of his daily feedings.  It's hard though b/c he eats a lot and is a big guy.

I was thinking that once my supply got better I might try nursing again, but then I came down w/ thrush and now it appears I have a bacterial infection so I am on antibiotics (SIGH).

The point to all of this is that no one tells you just how hard it will be.  They also just tell you to keep at it, but I could not function (we also have a very active toddler at home) on an hour of sleep while DC nursed for 11 hours.  Also, I never got a chance to really bond w/ DC#1 b/c of all the time I had to pump.  This time, I have told myself that it goes by too quickly to be consumed by the nursing issue.  I don't know how long i will do this for, but it's not worth beating yourselves up for it.

DH and I did not want to shell out another $1K, given our lack of success last time.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics