Sunday, February 1, 2015

Amy and Son ~A Rough Start, But We Did It!




I had a wonderful complication-free natural childbirth at a hospital.  It was a baby-friendly hospital and I had read all of the books on breastfeeding.  I was pretty confident I could figure it out.  However, those first moments after he was born, I couldn't get him to latch.  He was rooting and hungry, but not latching.  It was 10:45 pm and the lactation consultant wouldn't be in until the morning.  That night was hard.  I realized I had no idea what I was doing.  The night nurses were nice, but not helpful.  Finally, Karen came in the next morning.  She was amazing.  I sing the praises of IBCLCs to anyone that will listen.  She made the difference.  I met with her several times before we left the hospital and each time things got better.  By the time we left, my son was nursing like a champ.

About four days after he was born, my milk came in.  And boy, it came in fast and furious.  We had family and visitors at the house.  I was trying to figure out nursing with a cover.  I was in pain and engorged.  It was a hard day.  In the following days, it didn't get much better.  I had a fever.  I had chills.  I felt lethargic.  I assumed it was all normal postpartum hormonal changes.  It wasn't.  In hindsight I'm positive it was mastitis.

We got through it, though.  My baby nursed constantly. Every 45 minutes during the day, every hour and a half at night.  This continued until he started solids.  Oh, and he never took a bottle.  We tried a few times.  I left him with family for several hours and I came back to a cranky, hungry baby, and bottles still full of milk.  So I was with my baby, day and night, never leaving him for more than an hour or so, for the majority of the first year of his life.

When he was around 8 months old, I was sleep deprived and slowly going insane.  He was still waking up every two hours at night, and I just couldn't handle it anymore.  We slowly, gently, started night weaning with the help of my wonderful husband.  During that time I came down with mastitis again.  (Don't sleep on your belly when your boobs are engorged!)  But by 12 months old he was sleeping through the night.  Yay!  Shortly thereafter, I also started cutting back on him nursing in public.  I could offer him food and water instead of sitting down on the nasty grocery store tile to nurse him in the middle of a shopping trip, which was awesome.

He's now 21 months old and we're nearing the end of our journey.  In the last couple of weeks I've started cutting back on the times of day I'll let him nurse.  He's handling it really well.  He'll ask to nurse; I'll say no and redirect him, and he's happy as a clam.  Right now he's nursing twice a day, once before nap and once before bed.  We're going to finish the weaning process around his second birthday.  Part of me is sad to see it come to an end, but I'm glad we made it this far.  If you had asked me when I was newly pregnant how long I would nurse, I would have told you that nursing a one year old that could walk and talk was just weird.  "He's too old once he can ask for it!" I was one of those people.  Well, my son learned the sign for milk at 9 months old, and we definitely weren't ready to stop then.

It's been a wonderful bonding time for my son and me.  I'll always cherish these precious moments snuggling, nursing, and connecting together.

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