Becca and Ray’s Story ~ Pumping Worked for Me

I was very excited to breastfeed Ray, who was born via C-section 10/6/13.  Unfortunately, we just never got the hang of the mouth-to-boob thing.  He was born jaundiced and wanted to sleep most of the time, so just getting him to stay awake for food was a challenge!  I could never get him to latch without a nipple shield (man, did I hate that thing), and we discovered during a lactation consult at the hospital's breastfeeding support center that he would only transfer about an ounce at a time during a 20 minute feeding.  He wasn't gaining well, and my supply was suffering.  I discovered that I took to the breast pump easily when we were trying to get Ray to take expressed milk from a bottle.  After learning that Ray lost weight instead of gaining at a weight check appointment with his pediatrician, I decided to become an exclusive pumper.  For a few weeks, Ray got a cocktail of breast milk and formula while I pumped religiously to get my supply back up.  Once I was able to stay ahead of him, we went to 100% breast milk.  My supply ended up being so bountiful that I've donated multiple times to Mother's Milk Bank of North Texas.  I'm proud to have not only nourished my baby, but to have helped sick and premature babies, as well.

His birthday was last week, and I'm still pumping.  It's been a challenge.  There have been lots of getting up in the middle of the night and pumping while I fed him a bottle.  Then washing pump parts with one hand because I had a sleeping baby on my shoulder.  It's become more of a challenge now that he's mobile!  We've gone on multiple car rides just so I could pump.  I'm down to 4 pumping sessions a day, sometimes 3.  We started adding cow's milk to his bottle last week so we can slowly transition him off of my milk.  (Getting him off of the bottle will be the next goal!)  It's bittersweet.  While I'm sad to stop providing for Ray, I am pretty excited to never have to look at a breast pump or hands-free bra again.  If we had been successful at the direct nursing, I'd nurse him as long as he wanted.  I did enjoy it for the few weeks that we made a go at it.  But this pumping business is a different animal!  If I could do it all over again, I would certainly have sought out more support outside of the hospital setting.

My goal was to breastfeed for a year.  We didn't go about it quite the way I planned, but we crossed the finish line all the same.  Now we start moving toward the next phase.