This isn't a subject I write a lot about. I want to touch on the subject of breastfeeding. It has been a very important part of Abigail's life so far and I just wanted to share my experience a bit.
It was pretty easy from the start. She had trouble latching on just a bit the first or second time we tried but she soon caught on. I occasionally used a shield to help her for the first week or two of her life.
Our biggest trial came on Wendesday, the 6th of February. Oh my! My milk had finally come in and the poor girl could not figure out what was going on. We all suspected she was hungry but when I tried to nurse her, she'd just scream. It was truly the night of terror! After about 4 hours of crying, she finally fell asleep in bed with me but that only lasted about an hour. In desperation, I called the LLL hotline. At first the lady was groggy and I was panicked but she soon came around with some suggestions. She recommended that I pump a little to relieve the pressure.
Bingo! That worked. We all (husband, mother-in-law, and me) watched and held our breath as she lactched on and finally at after 5 or 6 hours of crying! I fought with a little fear at this point that we'd relieve that night of terror but we never did.
After that things really went smoothly. When I first started pumping I was so concerned that I couldn't only get 1 to 2 ounces at a time. I was a nervous wreck thinking that I wouldn't be able to successfully go back to work and breastfeed. However, time and practice paid off and I was able to still pump and work.
However, my transition to work was also a bit of a challenge. At first, I could pump so much more than she was eating. It was wonderful to have the assurance that she wouldn't go hungry but when the weekend rolled around and I wasn't pumping but only feeding her, I had terrible engorgement like I'd never had before! I soon learned to regulate and only pump the amount she was eating each day and things got better.
She has grown since then (obviously) and at one point I realized all my freezer supply was being used up. Oops! This means that I wasn't keeping up with her anymore. I've been working hard over the last few weeks to keep up. This means that on days when I don't have her with me at work, I'll pump 4 maybe 5 times to keep up and increase my supply a bit. Sometimes if she eats and I don't think she at a lot, I will take her into my little pumping room with her and pump what she missed. It's not often that I can get a lot that way, but it helps, I think.
I have also been pumping on the weekends when I'm exclusively nursing her. For me, the hardest part of breastfeeding is the pumping. I am thankful that I am successful at it but it can be painful, lonely, boring, and time consuming!
Needless to say, I have found breastfeeding to be one of the most challenging yet rewarding things I have ever done. It gives me great satisfaction to know what is going into her body (because it's what went into mine) and to keep her as healthy as I can. I also look at my strong healthy girl and am proud that it was my body that did that. I not only grew her inside of me but for the past 5 1/2 months, she has only received nourishment from me! It has definitely changed the way I think about myself. I understand there are medical reasons why some women cannot breastfeed but if you get the chance, I highly recommend it. It is hard work but is an extremely satisfying and empowering experience.
Sleep Update:
She has been such a bear to get to sleep lately. She fussed, cried, etc from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm last night. Someone suggested that perhaps she wasn't tired but that was not the case. She was asleep at certain points during this time period but just woke up screaming. When I went to bed at 10 pm, I was very restless listening for her cry and thinking that we were in for a bad night. Fortunately, she only woke once and went down easily after she ate. I am so thankful she is sleeping better at night. . . once she gets to sleep. Also, for her afternoon nap, she fell asleep WITHOUT TEARS, in her bouncy seat, which she hasn't done in quite a while for me.
My parents, sister, and her fiance are coming this weekend to see us. We're so excited to have them visit and for them to see Abigail in all her cuteness! I hope they don't mind that things will probably be a bit boring, since we'll be cleaning and doing laundry in preparation for our trip to Hawaii! I am hoping we'll find the time to sneak away to the Dayton airshow or the bodies exhibit downtown. We'll see what they want to do.
2 comments:
I'm so glad that breastfeeding has been succesful for you! It was not easy for me :( With Anna being 3 weeks early it was a BATTLE to keep her awake long enough to eat much. Then when my milk came in, I didn't have a pump to help so I think that hurt things, too. And when she hit her due date she was eating every 30 minutes. So I started supplementing and once she got that bottle, it wasn't long before she weaned herself from nursing (b/c she was lazy, the bottle was so much easier to eat from)--by 3 months I think. I wasn't devastated, but I do wish I would've been able to nurse her longer. She also had stomach issues from birth, so in some ways it was better that she took a bottle. Jacob was a lazy sucker too. I didn't think he was latching on quite right and could tell he was being lazy before we even left the hospital. So I asked the lactation consultant about it and you know what she told me? She said "Just make eye contact with him and open your mouth making a big "O" and he'll catch on." I know. I looked at her like she was from Mars. So I didn't get much help from that side. This time around I did have a really good double pump, so that helped big time. But again, he was so lazy I ended up pumping more than nursing. I spent more time pumping than doing anything else-every day. And to me, that just wasn't worth it. Esp. having another child to look after, I just couldn't do it. Again, I wasn't devastated, but I really do wish I could've done it longer. I see my SIL and others that seem to nurse effortlessly and I'll admit--I'm jealous!
Sorry to post such a long comment! But I wanted to tell my story (not really on my blog tho--a lot of family reads it and that would just be weird to me!!). And thank you for not making me feel like I'm a bad mother for not nursing longer. I hate it when people whose babies breastfeed relatively easily assume that all babies do so!
It's not easy and I think a good lactation consultant makes a big difference. Mine was a bit of a goof too but I'm thankful that I had a lot of knowledge and encouragement from our birth instructor, a friend of mine and from Andrew's family and my family. Thanks for sharing your story! I hope more people do as well!
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