My feeding experience.....just wanted to share!

[PeaPod]

Having recently read a lot of threads about some of the struggles that us mummies face regarding how we feed our babies i just wanted to share my experience and maybe offer some reassurance to any new mummies.

I have been breast feeding my son since birth with no problems. He is now just over 6 weeks old and doing really well except for a bit of jaundice still in his face and eyes (this has been checked and is okay). I feed on demand and somedays this has meant feeding nearly every hour which is exhausting but i just make sure i have cakes,chocolate and lots of water on hand (didnt tell GP about the cakes when she told me that losing weight would help my carpel tunnel!). I use lanolin cream as a preventative measure and so far my nipples have been fine. I also do a lot of babywearing and skin to skin (must make sure i do my PJ top up full when i go answer the door to christians handing out bible leaflets as my preggo belly was all on show.... oops! ). I also started expressing milk at 4 weeks using an electric pump to a) help ease the engorged leaky boobs and b) enable my son to have bottle with daddy and grandma so that i can start getting a little bit of me time back.

My son has a good latch but still guzzles, possets (sicks up a little bit),gets trapped wind and hiccups. He also has moments where he cries and squirms when feeding and sometimes it looks like he is arguing with my boob. When he does this i burp him by either sitting him up and supporting his chin with one hand and patting/rubbing his back or with him laying on me, head on my chest and me patting his back ( PLEASE remember to us a muslin otherwise its messy!!!) And this helps bring up the piggies! If he has trapped wind the other end, a deep bath and massage helps soothe it but this is rare as he is an olympic farter! I also find he sometimes wont feed if he has a wet nappy so a quick change often helps him settle and get back to the job in hand!

Support wise , im pretty lucky that my friends and family actively support me and I've also only had good experience breast feeding in public and i do get my boobs out whenever and wherever! I love breast feeding and have found it a wonderful experience. It has been my choice and i am proud of it. Although i dont really need any support at present i am aware of what breast feeding support i have in my area and i use here and Facebook when needed. I am disappointed that there isnt as much support out there for other feeding methods though and would love to set up a group that supports all mummies with whatever the feeding method, as i feel that all methods can require some level of advice and support.

I would also like to take this opportunity to do a shout out to all the fab breast/formula/combi feeding mummies i know who have made their own decisions and who deserve to be equally as proud. In my family formula feeding has been the norm for my neices and nephews and they are a lively, healthy, too clever for their own good, happy bunch. I have also been a lucky aunty and had the priviledge of being able to give many of them a bottle so i know that you can have that lovely cuddling feeding time with formula feeding as you can with breast feeding.

Basically i just want to a) reassure any new mummies that come looking that it is possible to breastfeed without having any issues; b) say a big well done to all the mummies on here for doing whats best for them and their baby, in many cases through pain, upset, trial and error and perseverance (whatever the feeding method) and c) just say that i love seeing happy mummies with happy babies with full tummies, keep up the good work!

 

[dyscochick]

As a soon to be new mummy and hoping to BF, thank you for this! its great to hear positive stories, as we often only hear on here when people need help to BF, I'm not sure how balanced a view I have of how hard or easy it is! Thanks again x

 

[cosmicgirl]

Great thread, I could have written most of that myself.
My journey with this lo hasn't been as easy.
I have quite a damaged nipple on one side and 4 weeks down the line I am still biting on a towel to latch on this side. Ditto with the wind and fast flow.
My lo also suffered jaundice but I know bf babies can be jaundiced for slightly longer.
I suffered gastroenteritis last week which was awful, my oh had to hold baby to my breast to feed as I didn't have the strength to hold him on. The latch was awful, all wrong and painful but baby fed and that's the aim.
Baby has days where he feeds 1 hourly too, I agree about cakes and biscuits - essential!
I am the first in my family to BF and it's something that I always get stick about, not that I care (not completely anyway).

Hopefully lots of others can post their experiences too x

 

[cosmicgirl]

As a soon to be new mummy and hoping to BF, thank you for this! its great to hear positive stories, as we often only hear on here when people need help to BF, I'm not sure how balanced a view I have of how hard or easy it is! Thanks again x

It's both hard and easy iykwim.
You have to learn the technique. Baby has to learn to latch. You will find moments where it's almost constant and you start to doubt yourself and doubt your body. You may feel pain, oh god the pain! But all of this will pass and when you come out the other side, you'll enjoy it.
That's what I have found anyway x

 

[titch]

Thats a lovely read! Thank you for sharing, I hope and pray it goes like this for me next time I have a baby. I have to be honest, I assumed this was how it would be for me, my mum breastfed all 3 of us no problems and I remember her BFing my younger sister so its what felt 'normal' to me.

I did get baby latched on at 6 weeks in the bath at home, I was so happy I cried! so I wont say I didnt BF, but I battled with my milk supply too, I was very stressed at the time he was born for various reasons and I think that impacted my supply, plus LO didnt have a suck reflex so my boobs werent getting the physical prompts that get the milk flowing. SO many breast pads that I bought when I was pregnant went in the bin lol!

I love reading stories like this, it gets me all excited about being able to do it in the future.

 

[cosmicgirl]

If you are stressed you will struggle with supply hun.
When I had the twins and was in high dependency unconscious for a short time (you can't get more relaxed than that!) and my partner held one baby on one boob and the mw held one to the other - they both fed well.
When I came around and stress entered the situation, it was much less successful and took us a while to get going again.
Stress is a strong emotion xx

 

[Emily0505]

Sadly my breast feeding experience wasn't a success.

I had diminished milk supply and despite feeding baby, expressing day and nignt, domperidone, fenugreek, fennel tea etc could not produce enough milk to feed my baby. I loved bf so much and combi fed for seven weeks which i am so proud of.

But, although i keep telling myself i did well to do it for seven weeks, at times I am so disappointed that i couldn't exclusively bf. I have nothing against formula at all, but for me it been a case of i didn't realise just how much i would love feeding my son myself. I expected there to be issues with latching etc as we were both learning and we overcame those issues with a bit of practice, but i never dreamed i wouldn't have enough milk.

Feeling a bit sad about it today...

XX

 

[Emily0505]

Re: stress...

I firmly believe that is what had an impact on my supply. Cam was poorly after birth and in NNU for a week. I was a total, complete and utter wreck and i think that just screwed everything up completely.

XX

 

[Karate Kid]

Lovely thread! Thank you for sharing.

I have really battled with BFing, now that C is 15 weeks it is the easiest thing in the world and I love every second but the first seven weeks were the toughest seven weeks of my life.

C had Tongue tie, despite C not latching on at hospital, and raising concerns with MWs/GPS/HVs about the tie nobody would listen. So I expressed eight times a day for the first seven weeks to maintain my supply. I was so determined to BD despite everyone around me apart from my mum and MCT group begging me to give C formula so I could 'enjoy him'. As C is my first there was many a time I had a carton of formula and scissors out at 3 am after spilling precious drops of expressed milk whilst transferring it into sterilised bottles.

At five weeks I wondered to a Baby Cafe in tears. Armed with the ladies from my NCT group who were all BFing I spoke to the BFing counsellor. She confirmed C had a 40% posterior tongue tie.... I handed C over to the BFing counsellor and proceeded to cry my eyes out and make a complete wally of myself!

We were referred to the local hospital to get the Tounge tie sniped. Mum and I got there with a spring in our step hoping that this would be the start of BFing for me. We were told that there was definitely no tie and that they could not help us.... I was deflated and nearly gave up expressing.

I picked myself up and trusted my instincts, there is always a reason for the baby not latching. I contacted a private BFing specialist who deals with Tongue tie we booked in for her to do a consolation the next day. The 40% tie was confirmed and divided. C latched on for the first time and I cannot describe how I felt.

It took a further two weeks using nipple shields to get C to feed exclusively from me without expressing but we are now 90% breast fed/10% expressed milk from a bottle.

All of the above seems so negative and depressing but I just want to create awareness of:

A. Tongue tie 1 in 10 babies have TT
B. Baby Cafe's
C. NCT BFing counsellors

Without these and my mum/ NCT groups support I wouldn't be BFing today. Next time I have a baby I will not be leaving the ward without getting LO to latch and feed properly....xx

 

[PeaPod]

Dyscochick - im glad it gives some reassurance, that was my aim. I think the nature of any forum means that it is often focused on advice to solve problems and support through difficult times so we do hear more of the worrying sides of parenthood but with this comes a wealth of advice and support so although you may hear more 'horror stories' you will often also see mummies and babies coming through them with a positive result.

Cos - i take my hat off to you for having such dedication to breast feeding through the pain. I feel a bit sore if my LO starts playing with my nipple and having a lazy latch but i have no idea how painful it must be to have genuinely sore nipples. All of my SIL's have had similar problems though and its heartbreaking when they say that every feed made them sob in pain. I have no doubt though that you will get through it all and continue to succeed in BF.XxX

Titch - my mum couldnt BF my eldest brothed but managed with the next 3 and as with all things baby related from pregnancy onwards, she always reminds me that each one is different so just because it didnt happen as you would have liked the first time, it doesnt mean that it cant happen with the next. Being relaxed will definitely help

 

[MelissaLindley]

My breastfeeding didn't go well at all.
At first I didn't want to do it but then when he arrived I did. I didn't get a successful latch in the first 24 hours and as result he ended up with urates and had a bit of formula to just get something inside his tummy. I kept trying at home but it still wasn't working so I expressed and managed to give him one feed a day that was my milk and then it started to dry up because I didn't have time to express every couple of hours. I only managed to give him one breast milk feed a day for 3 weeks and that was it. Major guilt issues ever since which is probably why I get upset with the whole bf/ff debate
Thankyou for a nice thread though!

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

[cosmicgirl]

Thanks peapod. The problem is that I have an actual hole in my nipple now and the damage is such that it doesn't get the chance to heal because I have to either feed from it or express from it. It's a constant open wound and the pain - omg!
If anyone knows how I can solve this then please let me know, it's almost unbearable x

Sorry the pic is rubbish x

 

[PeaPod]

Thanks peapod. The problem is that I have an actual hole in my nipple now and the damage is such that it doesn't get the chance to heal because I have to either feed from it or express from it. It's a constant open wound and the pain - omg!
If anyone knows how I can solve this then please let me know, it's almost unbearable x
View attachment 27986
Sorry the pic is rubbish x

I think i can see where it is open..... as a nurse, i would be suggesting putting a dressing on it but that wont help as it will only come off when expressing or feeding..... damn i havent had my nursing head on for a while but let me have a think..... im presuming HV and MW havent had any ideas?

Also thanks to the others ladies for sharing. X

 

[Karate Kid]

Thanks peapod. The problem is that I have an actual hole in my nipple now and the damage is such that it doesn't get the chance to heal because I have to either feed from it or express from it. It's a constant open wound and the pain - omg!
If anyone knows how I can solve this then please let me know, it's almost unbearable x
View attachment 27986
Sorry the pic is rubbish x

Ouch!
Not sure how you feel about shields but could you use one on that side until you heal? Medela ones are brilliant. lots of lanolin and airing too. X

 

[cosmicgirl]

Well they suggested a shield or expressing but neither of those worked. They said about lansinoh but I use that anyway?? I'm in a pickle xx

 

[MelissaLindley]

Thanks peapod. The problem is that I have an actual hole in my nipple now and the damage is such that it doesn't get the chance to heal because I have to either feed from it or express from it. It's a constant open wound and the pain - omg!
If anyone knows how I can solve this then please let me know, it's almost unbearable x
View attachment 27986
Sorry the pic is rubbish x

Can you used a shield for a bit or would that effect babies latch?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

[cosmicgirl]

Is this a better pic? Excuse my scruffy nail varnish

 

[cosmicgirl]

Sorry, my nipples have completely hijacked this thread, please resume normal service
(If anyone has had this or know how to fix it though, please let me know) xx

 

[MelissaLindley]

Ide pack that between feeds and get GP to give you some cream (some are beeswax and honey based which are used for packing wounds if u want to keep it natural)

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

[cosmicgirl]

Thanks for the advice hun, I'll try that x