{"id":441,"date":"2009-11-19T19:34:03","date_gmt":"2009-11-20T01:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/2009\/11\/19\/breastfeeding\/"},"modified":"2009-11-22T19:32:35","modified_gmt":"2009-11-23T01:32:35","slug":"breastfeeding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/2009\/11\/19\/breastfeeding\/","title":{"rendered":"Breastfeeding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disclaimer:\u00a0 This post is going to include some personal information about breastfeeding my daughter.\u00a0 If for some reason that causes you some issues, please don\u2019t read any further.\u00a0 Thanks!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When I first found out I was pregnant I immediately knew that I wanted to try and breastfeed, for multiple reasons.\u00a0 Here are a few:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Money.\u00a0 I am cheap.\u00a0 It costs me nothing to breastfeed (except for the expenses of the pump, but we will cover that later) and formula is expensive.<\/li>\n
  2. Convenience.\u00a0 If Mikayla gets hungry I can feed her on the spot.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have to worry about making a bottle, I just offer her a breast.<\/li>\n
  3. Health.\u00a0 Breastfeeding is one of the best things you can do to help build antibodies in your child.\u00a0 Not to mention it would help me as a mother lose the \u201cbaby fat\u201d faster because I would be burning more calories (selfish, but true).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Now you know my reasons, let\u2019s begin with the journey of breastfeeding my daughter.\u00a0 The journey began within the first half hour of Mikayla\u2019s life, her first latch.\u00a0 I was on cloud nine, I had a healthy daughter who was eager to eat.\u00a0 That eagerness continued for the first 24 hours.\u00a0 She was eating regularly (according to the nurses, a little more than some newborns) and it appeared things were going smoothly.\u00a0 And then it happened, the pain started.\u00a0 Some women might tell you that it all comes naturally and is a beautiful thing.\u00a0 They are lying!!\u00a0 Breastfeeding is a beautiful thing, but it is also a learning process for both mom and baby.<\/p>\n

    While in the hospital Mikayla started to bring up her lower lip when latching on, which caused some tenderness on my breasts.\u00a0 This only got worse the more she would latch on.\u00a0 I was very sore by the time we left the hospital.\u00a0 By the time we got home and struggled with it for a few days I was ready to quit.\u00a0 I was laying on the bed in tears because my breasts hurt so bad.\u00a0 To all you ladies out there, don\u2019t be fooled, it hurts like crazy those first few weeks.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think people want to talk about the pain, but I wish they had (I like to be prepared and don\u2019t feel like I was for this aspect of mommy hood).\u00a0 If you can get past week two it gets better, and by week six it\u2019s bearable!\u00a0 I digress though, back to the tears in bed.\u00a0 Ben was so supportive and was willing to do anything he could to help, but let\u2019s be honest Mikayla wasn\u2019t sucking on his breast every two hours for an hour at a time.\u00a0 No rest for the weary.\u00a0 If I was going to do this breastfeeding thing I had to persevere.\u00a0 I decided to use a lifeline and phone a friend.\u00a0 I called our friend Michelle and asked her to come over for a little Breastfeeding 101. She gave me some pointers, visuals, and encouragement and was on her way.\u00a0 If she had not come to my house that night I may have given up.\u00a0 Thanks Michelle for your help!<\/p>\n

    Travel down the road a few weeks to my six month check up with the OBGYN.\u00a0 I was placed back on birth control and all seemed well in the breastfeeding world.\u00a0 I was pumping once or twice a day to start building up a supply and Mikayla was growing at a consistent rate.\u00a0 However, after this visit, my milk started gradually decreasing and we couldn\u2019t figure out why.\u00a0 We thought maybe it had something to do with pumping were uncertain.\u00a0 Mikayla was leaving feedings not 100% satisfied, the ounces I was pumping were decreasing and I began to get concerned.\u00a0 At her four month check up she had dropped to the 10 percentile in weight.\u00a0 RED FLAG!\u00a0 The doctor wasn\u2019t overly concerned, he recommended a few things and off we were.\u00a0 Oh and he wanted to increase the amount we were feeding her from 4 oz a feeding to 6 or 7.\u00a0 This was not good news for a mom who was barely pumping a total of three ounces per session.<\/p>\n

    His suggestions included a few things.\u00a0 One \u2013 supplement with formula.\u00a0 Nothing against all those mom\u2019s that use formula because it is a great thing, but I had my heart set on exclusively breastfeeding.\u00a0 (I realize that some mom\u2019s just can\u2019t nurse and I totally get that, but this far in we had no troubles so I wanted to press on until I couldn’t do it any longer).\u00a0 To me this would be a last resort.\u00a0 Two \u2013 increase my pumping sessions (just what I wanted to hear \ud83d\ude09 ).\u00a0 Three \u2013 take some fenugreek tablets a couple of times a day.\u00a0 We opted to begin with the latter option.\u00a0 After a week or two we were not noticing any significant change in my milk production and our freezer supply was getting dimmer and dimmer.\u00a0 Mikayla was eating a significant amount more than I was producing.\u00a0 Next came meltdown number two.\u00a0 I remember sitting on the couch one night trying to nurse Mikayla and there just wasn\u2019t any milk there.\u00a0 I lost it.\u00a0 After all, I am her mom and I should be able to provide for her, but I just couldn\u2019t.\u00a0 Ben got a bottle and while I fed it to her I was crying and contemplating what to do.\u00a0 If you know me at all, you know I have a little stubborn streak in me and once again giving up was not an option.<\/p>\n

    After another call to our pediatrician, a change in my birth control (turns out my OBGYN put me on the wrong type and this was causing a decrease in my milk production), more frequent pumping sessions, an increase of fenugreek tablets, and the occasional supplemental feeding with formula we were on our way.\u00a0 At Mikayla\u2019s six month check up we were back on the weight check and I was producing just enough milk to feed her daily\u00a0 We are six months in and we are trucking along.\u00a0 I manage to nurse her at every feeding I am with her and pump at least five times a day to produce the milk needed for two bottles a day, but it is worth it in the end.\u00a0 Oh and I have a constant odor of maple syrup that follows me everywhere due to the Fenugreek tablets I am taking!\u00a0 We have overcome a couple of obstacles along the way and I am sure there will be more to come, but we are happily breastfeeding.<\/p>\n

    With all this being said, all you mom\u2019s out there struggling with breastfeeding:\u00a0 Don\u2019t give up!<\/p>\n

    \"2009-11-18<\/a>\"2009-11-18<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Disclaimer:\u00a0 This post is going to include some personal information about breastfeeding my daughter.\u00a0 If for some reason that causes you some issues, please don\u2019t read any further.\u00a0 Thanks! When I first found out I was pregnant I immediately knew that I wanted to try and breastfeed, for multiple reasons.\u00a0 Here are a few: Money.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,36,7],"class_list":["post-441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parenting","tag-ben","tag-breastfeeding","tag-mikayla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":447,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441\/revisions\/447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}