With Lilah we struggled with latch issues in the beginning. She ended up being overfed early on (bad advice from a nurse at the hospital), she was given fast flow nipples the first couple days of life, I pumped too much and got an oversupply with too fast of a let down. All of those issues as well as my super large breasts, flat/soft/huge nipples and probably not trying hard enough, we never got a good "nursing relationship". I made the decision to exclusively pump with Lilah. I did so for 8 months and she had milk for over a year. This was a good decision for our family. I had anxiety issues early on and had trouble with the waking every 1-2 hour thing. It was a rough start for me as a Mom. So having my husband to feed her bottles and allow me to pump as needed made this work for us.
So now with Amelia I want to make nursing work. I didn't plan on pumping early on, but she had too few wet diapers and I needed to get my milk in so we could get her enough nourishment. So I pumped at the hospital until my milk came in. We still tried to feed at the breast and continue to with all feedings. When we went to her first doctor visit she was losing a little too much weight. So supplementing continued to be needed. I am struggling to find a balance with pumping just enough for relief and to have a bottle in case. Again I already have an oversupply.
Her latch is doing better, but there is no rhyme or reason to when she will get a full feed off of the breast. I try both breasts, all sorts of positions and sometimes it works. Maybe like twice a day. The other times we struggle for an hour or more and then she gets a bottle to fill her up. She is going 3-4 hours between feedings, which makes the struggle a bit easier. But still it is a major struggle. I am trying so hard to go with the flow and just relax. I think I am handling it well, but not great.
I have a lactation consultant appointment for Wednesday (today is Monday) I hope to get some tips on how to make this all work. Let's see how it all goes.
Monday, July 5, 2010
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