I got 6 wonderful months of breastfeeding with Allen. Due to working full time and an inconsistent schedule allowed to breastfeed him my supply ran dry. He was on formula for 6 months and turned out just fine. This time around I am a stay at home mommy and started thinking about what would be different this time around. I would like to accomplish my goal and breastfeed for a full year. Things thus far look like this could happen, but could things change I'm sure they might. I guess I thought that the second time around in my breastfeeding journey that things would go super smooth. I've done this once, things should be fine. Ha when they say that every pregnancy is different, they mean it and every baby is different too.
With Allen I had to use a shield, and before you put your judgement in I had to use one due to having somewhat flat nipples. This helped with his latch greatly and he self weaned himself from the shield within a couple months. Was the shield a pain in the butt, you better believe it. I feel like there are a lot of people out there that are anti-shield and I can't really understand why. What's the negative to using one?? Well I found some negatives when using one with Abram.
Again when we were in the hospital I really struggled getting Abram to latch. I was the first one to jump at having a lactation consultant come and help. Of course the second she walked in he would latch and she would say we were doing great. Thanks Abram. I did go on to tell her that I was having problems with him latching. She suggested that I could borrow a hand pump to help pull the nipple out for him to get a better latch, or she said that since I had used a shield before that I could get one to see if it might help. That night after Abram had really worked himself up I requested a shield and he latched.
Now what negatives did I find? Well I didn't find them until we went home and within a few days of being home it seemed as if Abram would choke every time he would nurse. That will put a mommy on high alert when the best thing for your child is to nurse and now all of the sudden he's choking and in my gut I feel like things are going well. The next day I wrote off the shield. I had figured in out that the excess breastmilk was sitting in the shield and when Abram wasn't sucking the milk was still running down his throat causing him to choke. Since about day 2 or 3 we haven't used the shield and it takes a bit for him to latch, but we get a good solid latch and away he goes.
I got a little confirmation that breastfeeding is going well at Abram's 2 week checkup where he weighed in at 7 lbs 7oz. The doctor was impressed. He has surprassed his birthweight and I was told to keep up the good work.
Abram is a different eater than Allen and that took me for a loop. I'm pretty good about catching onto his hunger signs way before he's waking himself up, but once I get him in a good position to nurse he gets overexcited searching for the breast that I have to slow him down. He also seems like the baby that wants to do it on his own, which seems insane since yes he is only 12 days old. When I'm trying to calm him down he sometimes stiffens and restrains his neck and makes it difficult for me to help him. Lastly, he's a lazy eater. When he gets a somewhat full belly the boy is knocked out! And when I mean knocked out I mean it. The only thing that Adam and I have found that works to wake this boy up is cold. So we have on mulitple occassions put him down on our cold bedsheets as a method to wake him up so he can get a full feed in so he can get some good sleep. He's an awesome sleeper which I'm not complaining about one bit. Which means I have been pumping as well and that is going way better than what I thought it would. My turnout from pumping has been way more than what I thought I would get and slowly but surely I will have a full freezer and Daddy will be able to help feed.
Adam has been the greatest support system along with the mama's that I have been questioning constantly. I couldn't ask for better friends and a better husband to help me along this journey because it definitely isn't easy, but it's something I want to do for Abram. A really good friend of mine suggested the book The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding which is a book I had never heard of. It is by the La Leche League which I have heard some things about them. I will be looking more into this. They also have a facebook page which could be very helpful. I'm going to be looking more into this and see if I can grab any helpful tips from it. I'm sure things are going to come up that I haven't experienced and things will get easier. I have had frustration, crying moments, and fed through exhaustion, but in the end I'm still breastfeeding and I'm happy that I'm continuing.
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