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| *notes this is NOT me and my baby....but this sure looks like her!* |
So I want to share with everyone my breastfeeding journey. Most new mommies will start producing milk 2-3 days after baby is born and will have Colostroum (pre-milk) almost right away. But because I never went into labour or had contractions, my milk did not come in (pre-milk even) until baby was 5 days old. As a result we had to put her on formula while at the hospital (which was 3 nights).
Pretty much right after you're settled into your recovery room after you give birth (whatever method you had to go through) the nurse will ask the question 'Are you planning on breast feeding your baby?'. If your answer is 'No', I imagine that the hospital would provide formula for your baby until you leave to go home. If you're like me and answered with 'Yes', then they would immediately get you to take your top off and try getting your teeny tiny baby to latch on to your nipples. I was lucky enough and Evie never had problems latching on (sure she didn't open her mouth super wide the first few times but she eventually caught on with no issues). I have heard some moms tell me that their babies never latched on...and there are various reasons to explain this. But I didn't have that problem...luckily.
My problem was that because I gave birth via C-Section prior to going into labour/having contractions/water breaking...pretty much NOTHING was happening close to being in labour for me when I went into surgery, my pre-milk aka Colostroum and milk didn't come in until the night after we went home from the hospital...which was the end of day 5 of Evie's life. It was REALLLLY frustrating for me at the hospital and I even had a mini meltdown. I already didn't have the delivery that I had wanted (I had the complete opposite in fact) but now I wasn't even able to provide my own baby with my own milk. THAT threw me over the edge. It was always very important to me to have my baby breastfed because of all the health benefits that came with drinking Mommy's milk vs. formula. But after 2 days of no pre-milk (no food at all) Evie started crying and crying. She was starving. On top of all that my nipples were totally bruised and sore from all the dry sucking she was doing and I think she sucked more aggressive because she was so hungry and nothing was coming out.
I buzzed the nurse in after Evie cried non-stop for a few hours and told her that this was not ok because she has had nothing to eat since pretty much 24 hours before my surgery since I had to fast too. I told the nurse that I wanted her on formula right away. The nurse also brought in a breast pump for me to use to stimulate the milk to come in rather than having her suck on them since it had become so painful. I pumped every 3 hours for the remainder of my stay at the hospital and there was not a drip of anything that ever came out. Evie stayed on formula and when we got home Ed went out to buy more right away.
I was pretty discouraged at this point and thought that perhaps my milk would never come in because that CAN happen to moms who delivered under my circumstances. We had bought a breast pump to keep stimulating the milk to come in and I just kept trying hoping something will fill the little 5 ounce bottle it came with....nothing. The second night we were home, we went to my mom's house for dinner (she lives a short 8 minutes drive from our house!) and by the end of dinnertime my breasts were completely sore and stinging and were fully engorged!! By midnight there was Colostroum coming out and I was able to start pumping a good 1 ounce of pre-milk for my baby!
We're now almost done weaning Evie off formula (we bought a case of it so we're not going to waste it....), using it only to top off if she seems like she still wants more after her feedings. I still couldn't put her on my breasts even after the Colostroum came in because my nipples were still sore so I just pumped my milk and bottle fed her since she was used to the bottle. The times I did try she still latched on but would tire very quickly because she wasn't having to work so hard for her milk. For a good 5 days we continued the pumping/bottle feeding routine. I also liked the fact that I could monitor how much she was eating to because we needed to get her weight up since she missed out on a few days of feeds.
It wasn't only until the last couple of days that I started putting her on my breasts again and only at night because it's so much easier to just change her diaper and put her on me rather than pumping first. I'm hoping in the next week I'll be more accustomed to physically breast feeding her and using the pump less. Ed is going back to work after the weekend and that means he'll need to sleep at night and I'll have to start trying to do everything at night myself. Luckily, Evie has started sleeping through the night on her own. She's feeding VERY well during the day (an ounce more on average compared to her night time feedings) and she only wakes up once (maybe twice) at night asking for a diaper change/food. I think sleep training her will be easier later on! She's such a good baby!!!!
Pretty much right after you're settled into your recovery room after you give birth (whatever method you had to go through) the nurse will ask the question 'Are you planning on breast feeding your baby?'. If your answer is 'No', I imagine that the hospital would provide formula for your baby until you leave to go home. If you're like me and answered with 'Yes', then they would immediately get you to take your top off and try getting your teeny tiny baby to latch on to your nipples. I was lucky enough and Evie never had problems latching on (sure she didn't open her mouth super wide the first few times but she eventually caught on with no issues). I have heard some moms tell me that their babies never latched on...and there are various reasons to explain this. But I didn't have that problem...luckily.
My problem was that because I gave birth via C-Section prior to going into labour/having contractions/water breaking...pretty much NOTHING was happening close to being in labour for me when I went into surgery, my pre-milk aka Colostroum and milk didn't come in until the night after we went home from the hospital...which was the end of day 5 of Evie's life. It was REALLLLY frustrating for me at the hospital and I even had a mini meltdown. I already didn't have the delivery that I had wanted (I had the complete opposite in fact) but now I wasn't even able to provide my own baby with my own milk. THAT threw me over the edge. It was always very important to me to have my baby breastfed because of all the health benefits that came with drinking Mommy's milk vs. formula. But after 2 days of no pre-milk (no food at all) Evie started crying and crying. She was starving. On top of all that my nipples were totally bruised and sore from all the dry sucking she was doing and I think she sucked more aggressive because she was so hungry and nothing was coming out.
I buzzed the nurse in after Evie cried non-stop for a few hours and told her that this was not ok because she has had nothing to eat since pretty much 24 hours before my surgery since I had to fast too. I told the nurse that I wanted her on formula right away. The nurse also brought in a breast pump for me to use to stimulate the milk to come in rather than having her suck on them since it had become so painful. I pumped every 3 hours for the remainder of my stay at the hospital and there was not a drip of anything that ever came out. Evie stayed on formula and when we got home Ed went out to buy more right away.
I was pretty discouraged at this point and thought that perhaps my milk would never come in because that CAN happen to moms who delivered under my circumstances. We had bought a breast pump to keep stimulating the milk to come in and I just kept trying hoping something will fill the little 5 ounce bottle it came with....nothing. The second night we were home, we went to my mom's house for dinner (she lives a short 8 minutes drive from our house!) and by the end of dinnertime my breasts were completely sore and stinging and were fully engorged!! By midnight there was Colostroum coming out and I was able to start pumping a good 1 ounce of pre-milk for my baby!
We're now almost done weaning Evie off formula (we bought a case of it so we're not going to waste it....), using it only to top off if she seems like she still wants more after her feedings. I still couldn't put her on my breasts even after the Colostroum came in because my nipples were still sore so I just pumped my milk and bottle fed her since she was used to the bottle. The times I did try she still latched on but would tire very quickly because she wasn't having to work so hard for her milk. For a good 5 days we continued the pumping/bottle feeding routine. I also liked the fact that I could monitor how much she was eating to because we needed to get her weight up since she missed out on a few days of feeds.
It wasn't only until the last couple of days that I started putting her on my breasts again and only at night because it's so much easier to just change her diaper and put her on me rather than pumping first. I'm hoping in the next week I'll be more accustomed to physically breast feeding her and using the pump less. Ed is going back to work after the weekend and that means he'll need to sleep at night and I'll have to start trying to do everything at night myself. Luckily, Evie has started sleeping through the night on her own. She's feeding VERY well during the day (an ounce more on average compared to her night time feedings) and she only wakes up once (maybe twice) at night asking for a diaper change/food. I think sleep training her will be easier later on! She's such a good baby!!!!
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| Here's my little Evie on her bottle drinking Mommy's milk!! YUM YUM!! |
No-body tells you how hard breastfeeding can be. Persevere through Daisy, it's worth it. I had a lot of problems and went to weeks and weeks of breastfeeding clinics for help and finally managed to bf Jacob for 10 months (when the biting started we stopped), Katie for 10 months and Ben for 15 months. Keep up the great work.
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