Arthur was born only two days early but we spent three extra
nights at the hospital due to him having low blood sugar. He would immediately
fall asleep at the breast and not nurse; it took those three days for my milk
to fully come in.
Because we had
difficulty latching and nursing, we ended up giving him the formula bottles our
hospital supplied to us. We even took some home. For the next three days the
baby blues hit me hard. I felt like a failure and was heartbroken at the
thought of not being able to nurse my son... I couldn't look at him or hear him
cry without sobbing.
Finally, I called WIC
and asked about getting a pump. I had thought that if I couldn't get him to
stay latched on without falling asleep, I could at least pump for him. We went
in that day and saw both lactation consultants they had employed at the office
and we spent two hours there finding a way to nurse him. I ended up going home
that evening with a nipple shield, feeding tube and syringe, and the pump.
I think that nursing
at the breast finally clicked for my son because later that night I could not
get the shield on and he finally nursed from both breasts and was satisfied!
After another week or so, we were totally off of bottles, I was no longer
trying to pump, and my depression had subsided. Now, in about two weeks, we'll
have been breastfeeding for a year! I feel so blessed to have been able to come
this far and I don't see us weaning any time soon.
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