Milk please

I knew from the start that I wanted to breastfeed my children. Neither Robbie or I were breastfed, and we turned out just fine, but I knew it was something I wanted to do. I spent time reading/researching before Melanie was born and felt like I was as educated as I could be without actually having the chance to try it. I told the labor and delivery nurse that she I delivered Melanie, I wanted skin to skin time ASAP as well as the ability to nurse her. What a phenomenal experience to have my warm slippery, tiny baby placed on my chest for the first time. When it came to breastfeeding, all the reading in the world did not prepare me for actually doing it. I put Melanie on my breast immediately after delivering her. For what I knew, she was doing just fine. Over the next 2 days (in the hospital) I continued to breastfeed her. The nurses would come in and watch and see how I was doing. They thought things were going well, as did I. The scale however, was not saying the same thing. My little girl was not gaining any weight, in fact she was losing. We were told not to worry, as weight loss was very common with newborns. But she was also jaundice and the best remedy for her mild case was to flush it out. Wit milk that it. So I knew I needed to really give her some quality nursing time. When it was time to be released, she still had not gained at all so the pediatrician recommended we give her 1/2 ounce of formula when we got home. I really did not want to introduce formula but knew that she needed it. The next day (after our first night at home, we had a follow up appointment with the pediatrician. M was still struggling to gain weight and it was now clear that she was not latching on correctly and getting the milk she needed. So I made an appointment with the lactation consultant. After seeing her, we learned that M had yet to develop her suck/swallow reflexes. Typically, those reflexes are developed in the last 3 weeks in utero, and Melanie was 2 weeks early so she missed out on that.

The journey that followed was rough. We were pumping and then giving M milk via a syringe and tube into her mouth when it was on my breast. She would be "rewarded" for sucking (or what looked like sucking) by Robbie pushing the milk into her mouth. This routine or pumping, giving her breast time and then feeding her as mentioned above look over an hour and because she needed to be fed every 1.5-2 hours, it felt like all I did was pump and feed. Luckily however, after a week or so, M finally figured it out and the rest is history. She is quite the eater too. Breastfeeding had turned into something I really enjoy. I love the time with my little girl. I love the eye contact we make when together and I love when she is so relaxed and her tummy is full.

I tried 2 different nursing pillows and by far the Boppy is my favorite!