After college I went and worked as a nanny, I worked for a wonderful women named Ryan. When I started there she had just had her fourth child. Ryan was a huge advocate for nursing, she really made me understand all the health benefits to it and all the amazing things that is does for yourself and your baby. She also made it look incredibly easy! So I said well duh, I’m gonna breastfeed. It will be so easy! Adelyn and I will bond and it will be perfect! No. It was not perfect. Honestly it was the worst.
I knew even before I got pregnant that I wanted to nurse our children. Before knowing all the amazing benefits, my main reason was to get baby weight off and the second because it’s cheaper.
After Adelyn was born I knew that I wanted her to latch on and start feeding in the first hour, the lactation calls it the “golden hour” It’s basically this whole hour of amazingness where the baby is supposed to be skin to skin with you and will essentially “crawl” on you to get to your nipple to nurse. I was so worried she wouldn’t “crawl” that I just brought her right to me and we started nursing. Lactation came in what felt like minutes after I gave birth and started telling me all this stuff. I was NOT in the right mind-set. They asked how she was doing, if it hurt and I said yes but it wasnt unbearable. She said it was going to hurt for a little because your nipples have to get used to it. Fine, no worries, I just pushed a baby out.. I can do anything!
About 3 weeks went by and it still hurt to nurse, to the point where I HATED when she needed to eat. I despised her. Every time she latched I would curl my toes in pain. I cried so much over how much it hurt. I once told my husband it hurt more than labor! I was on the phone with my sister-in-law just talking about it and I told her how much it hurt and that they were so red and cracked. She told me I should call lactation. I did, they said it was normal. This was NOT normal. I finally went to see my midwife who also nursed her children and she took one look at my nipples and said “OMG why did you let it go this long?!” I ended up having a staph infection and yeast infection in both nipples.
WHY?! Our latch was great, our hold was great, everything was great except my daughter has a bubble palate and wasnt sucking right. The lactation saw me, only because my midwife had to call them and told them I was having a problem. They put me on nipple shields, antibiotics, creams, and even baby girl was on meds.
We are now 4 months in and it doesn’t hurt. THANK GOD FOR NIPPLE SHIELDS! I am on a year goal of breastfeeding, if we want to go longer great but a year is the minimum unless something happens.
It was honestly the hardest thing I ever did to push through, I wanted to quit so badly. I had people just say it’s not worth it and to just give her a bottle. This is something I am so passionate about now. Yes, there are times where I’m annoyed by nursing, and it’s getting harder as Adelyn gets older and is noticing things around her now. But I know that it will all be worth it in the end!
from lactation « WordPress.com Tag Feed http://ift.tt/292Nxrz
article sponsered by Northern Michigan certified lactation consulting and Mother Hubbards Country Cupboard
No comments:
Post a Comment