World Breastfeeding Week

In honor of World Breastfeeding Week, I thought I'd share my breastfeeding story.

When I found out I was pregnant, in December of 2002, I quickly started reading everything I could about pregnancy/birth/babies. I knew nothing. I'd babysat some here and there, but I knew pretty much nothing about being pregnant, giving birth, or taking care of babies. One thing that I realized early on, was that I wanted to breastfeed. Nutritionally, it's hands down the best thing for babies. I didn't expect it to be a walk in the park, but I figured if I was well prepared, I could do it. I enrolled in a breastfeeding class, along with the usual childbirth/taking care of baby classes that the hospital offered. I read a lot of literature on the subject. I bought nursing bras, lanolin, a boppy pillow, nursing pads, and anything else I thought I might need. Eric was completely supportive. I was set. Then on August 7, 2003, little miss Natalie Elizabeth entered this world. They had me nurse her within her first hour of life, and she did great. In fact, she nursed A LOT that first night, and next day. So much so that when the pediatrician on call checked in on us the next day, he said to me, "All you're gonna get from nursing her so often is sore nipples." I cried. No, I bawled. Here I was, a brand new (hormonal mess of a) mom, doing what I thought was best for my baby. And a MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL, who I was putting my trust into, basically told me I was doing it all wrong. I was naive then, and thought "they must know better than me, I have no idea what I'm doing". So, I nursed her, but only for x amount of time, every x hours. When she "wasn't getting enough", I caved and gave her some formula in the hospital. When we went for her 2 week checkup, she had not gotten back up to her birth weight. Instead of giving me tips to get her to nurse more, or to increase my supply, my pediatrician just told me to start supplementing with an oz. of formula after each feeding. Of course, who was I to argue with the dr, so we did just that. It didn't take long before she was needing more and more formula supplement after each feeding. And by 6 mos old, she had stopped breastfeeding altogether.

When I got pregnant with Erica, I wanted it to go differently. I read even more. I didn't even keep formula in the house because I didn't want to be tempted. I was going to nurse her around the clock if I had to. And that's pretty much what I did. At her 2 week check up, she too, had not gotten back up to her birth weight. The dr (a different pedi) did suggest supplementing as a first course of action. I told her that I would really rather try harder to breastfeed and see what happened. She agreed and said we'd check her again at 1 month. So I took fenugreek, I pumped after feedings, I ate oatmeal, and I nurse her all.the.time. If she was awake, I was nursing her. When we went back for her 1 month checkup, she had passed her birth weight, but still not gained "enough". I was exhausted. I was getting next to no sleep, and was having a heck of a time keeping up with an active toddler (Natalie was a little over 2 years old at the time) and nursing nonstop. So I caved and started giving her formula after feedings. And then we met the slippery slope again, and by 4 mos old, Erica was done with nursing.

As many of you know, after I had Erica, I suffered 2 miscarriages. After the second one, my dr. ran all kinds of test to see what was going on. One of the things they discovered was that I had hypothyroidism. That can dramatically affect your milk supply, so there is a good chance I'd had it back when I was nursing the girls, but it was not discovered. Once I got that corrected, with medication, I went on to get pregnant with Graham.

I was more determined than ever to make breastfeeding work this time around. I was hopeful that I would not have the supply issues I'd had in the past now that my thyroid was being regulated. When he was born, I nursed him right away. Well, I tried nursing him right away. We had a bit of a problem getting him to latch properly. I never thought this would be an issue, because neither of the girls had a problem with it at all. And of course because he was born on a Friday night, there was not a Lactation Consultant there for the weekend. (and this was at a big hospital in the Houston medical center!) My nurse was so nice though, and she did everything she could to help me get him to latch. We did get him nursing, but it was very bumpy. I ended up taking him in to the pedi (a different one again) before he was 2 weeks old, because his jaundice was not getting better. I told him how often I was nursing (all the time) and he did not suggest supplementing at all (YAY!), but to keep nursing often. I had to take him daily to get his bilirubin levels checked. At around 10 days old, I headed to a local lactation center for some help. He was still not latching great, he was not back to his birth weight, and his jaundice didn't seem to be clearing up quickly enough for my liking. I just had a feeling something wasn't right. After an assessment, she concluded that he had a minor tongue tie (where the frenulum that attaches your tongue to the bottom of your mouth, is too short/tight and causes you to not be able to move your tongue enough). She suggested that I pump after each feeding and give him what I'd pumped as a supplement. He was not removing the milk effectively, and if we continued on like this, he would not gain weight and my supply would diminish. We had an appt. 2 days later with a pediatric dentist to get a laser frenectomy, to clip the frenulum. The LC said that once that was clipped, he'd be able to nurse easier and things would hopefully get better. At 11 days old, we took Graham to get the frenectomy. It was very quick and easy and had pretty much no recovery time. However, I still couldn't get him to nurse. By this point, he'd been latching ok, but taking really well to the bottle supplements. I kept pumping, nursing, feeding. Eric went back to work, and I had 2 other kids at home to take care of as well, and I just couldn't keep up. At around 3-4 weeks, I gave up on trying to get him to nurse, and I started exclusively pumping. At least he was getting breastmilk, right? I took some mega herbs to help my supply. I had even rented a hospital grade pump from the LC. But it didn't help. Finally, at just shy of 6 weeks, I was pumping no less than 8 times a day, and only getting enough for one feeding using the rented pump, and not getting ANYTHING using my own (Medela Pump in Style). At that point, it wasn't worth it. I threw in the towel completely. It was devastating for me because at that point, I didn't know if we were going to have any more kids, and I felt totally robbed. I had worked SO HARD to make it work. There were women out there who didn't even WANT to breastfeed, and I wanted it SO BAD. WHY couldn't I make it work?

Then, when Graham was 7 months old, I got pregnant with Leah. I was cautiously hopeful that breastfeeding would be successful this time. I knew I was gonna give it all I had, but I was scared of being crushed again. I knew I wanted to pump more in the beginning, to help increase my supply, and also to build a stash so that if I did need to supplement, I could use my milk instead of formula. She nursed great in the hospital. Once we got home was another story. She was a lazy nurser. She fell asleep almost immediately when I put her to the breast. We did all the usual things to keep her awake (undress her, tickle her feet, use a cool washcloth on her etc) but it didn't help. I was pumping a lot because the milk was there, but she wasn't getting it. We started giving her bottles of my milk, just so she'd eat *something*. At one point, I decided I was going to give up trying to get her to nurse because with now FOUR kids to take care of all day, I just couldn't keep up with the nurse/pump/feed every 2 hours routine. I figured I'd just pump as long as I could, and that was that. I had actually accepted that. Then one night, a friend from church brought us dinner. She was pregnant with her 2nd son, and we were talking about breastfeeding and the struggles I was having. She said something to the affect of "well, I'm sure she'll nurse again. And she'll probably even get to the point of only nursing." Yeah right, I thought. By then, it had been at least a couple days since I'd attempted to get Leah to nurse. But what she said just kept ringing in my head. Over and over. Maybe she was right? And what harm could come from trying to put Leah to the breast a couple times a day? Worst case, I'm in the same spot I am right now anyway. So that's what I did. I tried a couple times each day to get her to latch on and nurse. And lo and behold, one day she did it! And then after a few days, she was actually nursing several times a day. And actually getting milk! Before too long, she was taking full feedings at the breast and the supplements was getting fewer and farther between. By 6 weeks old, we had dumped the pump, and she was exclusively breastfeeding! I couldn't believe it. She was gaining well - our first to ever get back to their birth weight by 2 weeks - until her 4 month checkup. Her pedi (yet a different one again) was concerned about her slow weight gain at that point. At first, I just tried to get her to nurse more and tried to increase my supply. But when they reweighed her a week later, she said we really needed to get her to gain. We actually TRIED supplementing, but the girl would not take the bottle. We tried breastmilk (still had a stash in the freezer) and we tried formula (because she wasn't taking it and I didn't want to waste anymore of my milk if she was just refusing it anyway). We even tried using a supplemental nursing system. But nothing was successful. She didn't want anything but boobs. So I continued to take herbs to increase my supply, and I offered the breast to her constantly. I am proud to report that we had a follow up with her pedi today and she is gaining beautifully again! She's no longer worried about her weight gain, and we can stop trying to force the supplements! We are just a few weeks shy of our 6 month milestone! And now there's no looking back!!! :)