Nursing It Along

In October, I wrote about my desire to give breast feeding a fair shot this time. This is my update post. To my amazement, it is actually working and it is true that it REALLY sucks (yes: pun intended) for a while, but it gets better. What I would like to know is why do lactation consultants say that if it hurts, the baby is not latching correctly? Fortunately, there were lots of great nurses at the hospital that knew better. They told me that I was doing it right, but that it just takes a few weeks to toughen up. Plus, I was told that fair skinned people are usually more sensitive (great – I have a higher chance of skin cancer & bf hurts more).

I would have to say that the first two and half weeks were quite hellish. Right about that time, I had serious thoughts of quitting. When I was about to pull my hair out, I decided to call the lactation consultant. She happened to be booked up for the day and then mentioned her prices, which had gone up significantly. She told me I could check out a few websites or we could schedule an appointment. I decided to go another day or two on my own. Suddenly, by the end of week 3, it was a LITTLE better (lots of emphasis on a little). I guess mainly the sore nipples were not as bad.

I guess I should mention how I managed to get that far. You would think that after all the pain of birth, that breast feeding could be a little easier on the mommas. Sore nipples and engorgement are nightmarish by themselves, but throw in a squirmy toddler who wants hugs that end up bumping the painful knockers and it is too much. For the nipples, I used lanolin and gel patches. One side hurt so badly, that I pumped & dumped for a few days so that it could heal a little. I was also switching between the cradle hold and the football hold. For engorgement, I started feeding him every 2 hours, which made doing anything else practically impossible. I think avoiding engorgement kept me going. For sanity, I pumped and gave him a bottle once or twice a day at 2.5 weeks (no problem with nipple confusion btw).

I kept all of that up and engorgement subsided around four and a half weeks. There was still some pain though, but I decided to keep going until 6 months. Now, I am at 6 weeks and I would have to say that everything is ok. I am certainly not ready to rave about it, but I no longer think about how happy I will be when I quit. I still pump and give him a bottle almost every day usually when we are going out. I am a little shy about doing it in public. When I haven’t brought a bottle, I have gone to Steve’s truck. I have fed him once at the park with a blanket over him, so hopefully I’ll get use to that soon.

The biggest advantage at this point is that breast feeding takes less planning. I know the list of positives is long, but less planning is my current motivation.