My Breastfeeding Journey Part 1 – Missing out on Life!
Katie has three
children, all of whom were/are breastfed. She has had quite a journey and
wanted to share the positive with the negative to show that even in adversity,
there is hope and success! This is a
three part series and one that speaks for itself about an equally difficult and
very rewarding journey. Enjoy!
It all began on October 14th, 2010. At 5:17pm my son entered this world through a
C-section. I never thought twice about
not breastfeeding. Both my husband and
mine’s moms had breastfed us and I knew it was the healthiest, so never once
did my mind ever even think formula. I
had been a part of the WIC program through my pregnancy and the WIC counselor
was so kind and really prepared me and encouraged me even before Carson was
born. The first latch was
beautiful. I had been so looking forward
to this precious opportunity that it went off perfect from day one. After two nights in the hospital, the nurse
had forgotten to walk us through the knowledge of counting wet and dirty
diapers to make sure he was getting enough milk from me and as first parents we
had no idea. Since I was really sore
from the surgery, daddy had been in charge of all diaper duty. Our first night home at 2AM, my little one
began to cry uncontrollable. We tried
ANYTHING and EVERYTHING! I finally
called a friend, who was a WIC counselor, and she had us come to her home right
away (her kids were in bed, so she couldn’t leave the house). Her first question was how many diapers had
we changed that day? My husband and I
both looked at each other, and said “None.”
She calmly but sternly had my husband get some formula and had me do
skin to skin. He came with the formula
and we began to syringe feed with him at the breast and him sucking in
between. Shortly after he peed, so we
knew he was okay. I would continue this
every two hours and continued to also put the pump to my breast. Nothing but blood would come out. I faithfully spent almost all day with baby
on my chest doing skin-to-skin. Only
putting the syringe in with baby on my breast and sucking in-between to keep
the sucking action going. On a Sunday
afternoon, another mom came by, had me take off my shirt and she patiently
worked with me and after a good suck, he released and had milk running down his
chin!! The most beautiful sight I ever
had seen!! Without the other mother’s
help and dad’s encouragement and support, I am convinced I would have not been
able to nurse. Carson also had a severe
tongue tie that lead to a typical clipping and then a reconstructive surgery at
six months. I followed the typical first
time mom actions of breastfeeding. I didn’t
want to go anywhere, fed in dressing rooms, left early from places to go to my
car, fed in bathroom stalls while crying because it stressed me out and missed
many church sermons to feed my baby in private.
After nine months of missing out on life and trying to revolve my life
of sneaking out and leaving early from things, I began to supplement with
formula and by eleven months I was done.
Oh and did I mention that when my LO was 7 months old that I was blessed
with a new baby in utero!!!
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