I had decided before I was ever married, that when the
time came, and my husband and I were going to start our family that I wanted to
breastfeed my children. I think it came as bit of a shock to my mom, as neither
she nor my grandma breastfed their babies. It really wasn’t anything that I’d
been exposed to a lot, I had only known one breastfeeding mother, who was a
friend of mine, and she really opened my eyes to a whole new way of mothering.
When I found out that I was expecting my daughter, I became voracious for as
much information as I could get my hands on about breastfeeding - I knew that
it was the best option for my baby and had lots of benefits for myself too and
I settled in my heart that I was going to nurse my daughter, no matter what.
In the months
leading up to Kate’s birth, I was both excited and nervous about breastfeeding
- would I be able to? What if I didn’t make enough milk? What if she wanted a
bottle instead of the breast? I decided to trust my body and the way God made
it - He designed my body to carry my baby, He designed my body to labor and
birth my baby, He designed my body to nurture and sustain my baby once she
would be born. I was able to attend a Latch-On event at the Botanical Gardens
about a month before Kate was born - it was such a great experience for me! I
left that event with confidence, after seeing all those mommas nurse their
little ones, I knew I could do it and was even more excited to join the
“sisterhood” of nursing mommies.
The time finally came for Kate to make her world debut!
I had a really long labor and ended up having to birth in a hospital, instead
of the birth center that we had planned on. Because I was so far long in my
pregnancy, forty-two weeks and three days, and the level of amniotic fluid was
decreasing, I needed to be induced to get labor to progress. It was about eight
hours after induction that Kate arrived and it was love at first sight! She was
given to me right away, put on my chest and within a few minutes I was asked if
I wanted to try to nurse her. It was like magic! She latched on like a pro and
nursed for almost ten minutes! I was in awe of her and my body, it was an
incredible moment… and then we hit a wall.
A little while after my daughter was born, we tried
nursing again and it didn’t go as well as before. She seemed really frustrated
and I was in a lot of pain. The hospital was in-between lactation consultants
at the time, so they kept sending in different nurses, each one very nice but
all with very different approaches. Kate would scream and cry and they would
shove her head on my breast and say, “Her latch looks perfect, the pain will go
away.” I knew, from the reading and research, that it didn’t matter how a
latched “looked”, it was about how it felt - and this felt awful, I was raw and
bleeding before Kate was a full day old. Not being able to stand the pain of
her latching or wanting to see her get so frustrated and worked up, I started
to hand-express what I could and give it to her with a small spoon. The day we
were discharged, we were able to go to a Latch Clinic at For Babies’ Sake and
meet with Mellanie Sheppard. Within moments of assessing Kate, Mellanie pointed
out that she had a very severe tongue tie and that highly suggested that we get
it corrected as soon as we could. We were given so much helpful information and
suggestions, and Kate nursed well for the first time, without crying, since she
had been born.
At four days old, we took Kate to a pediatric
dentist, who was referred to us by Mellanie, and he agreed that Kate’s tongue
tie was severe and needed to be corrected and told us that she also had a
slight lip tie that should be corrected too. So we had her ties corrected and
she was given to me immediately afterward so that I could nurse her and it was
such a difference! She nursed wonderfully! The doctor explained that it was
normal for the baby to nurse really well afterwards and then the next few days
would be rough as the wounds healed and then showed my husband and I the
stretches we would need to do in order to keep the ties from re-attaching. The
next week was very hard, there were lots of tears from Kate and me - after a
couple of weeks I scheduled a consult with another lactation consultant,
Rosemarie Anthony, who was closer to where we lived, so that I could get help
because I was still sore and hurting and Kate was having trouble with her
sucking. I had, at this same time, gotten a plugged duct and was trying to
recover as well. Rosemarie was an absolute answer to prayer! She was so helpful
and full of information; she really gave me a wonderful education and explained
how I could finger-feed Kate with expressed milk in order to give myself time
to heal. She then worked with Kate and me and helped us figure out different
positions to nurse in so that Kate could pull the milk from my clogged duct and
showed me how to get better at latching Kate on my breast. It took a lot of
work but around eight weeks, things started to really improve and I actually
started to look forward to nursing my daughter.
We’ve since then, dealt with over-supply issues that
thankfully resolved on their own, and now have started teething - it’s
certainly been a journey! Kate is six months old and growing every day, she
loves to nurse and is a rock star at it! I honestly didn’t expect to love
nursing my daughter as much as I do, the bond that we have is truly a God-given
blessing. I remember very well, before Kate was due, a dear friend told me that
breastfeeding would be one of the most natural things that I did, but that it
may not be the easiest thing that I did - I am so grateful for her honesty
because for me it was very true. I would say that support is key and is one of
the reasons I’m still nursing my daughter, in spite of everything that we have
been through. I have a wonderful husband, great family and friends, and love
going to La Leche League meetings and seeing my “sisters”. I would tell any
woman who is thinking of or planning to breastfeed: read as much as you can,
spend time with other nursing mommies, and get plugged-in wherever you can. While
everyone’s journey looks different, you ARE an overcomer who is capable of
great things!
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