2nd experience with breast-feeding

As soon as I found out we were pregnant with Miles, I knew I was going to try breast-feeding again. I have always been one to do something over and over until I’m successful. My dad’s motto of “never give up” has been engraved in my brain since I could speak.

Miles birth experience much more enjoyable than Eli’s. I was still tired afterwards, but nothing like I was with Eli, and I felt 100x better! In fact, I was up out of my bed walking around not soon after I gave birth. This was a big factor I think in starting breast-feeding off on the right foot!

Miles took right to nursing and ate like a champ! One of the things I love about the hospital I gave birth at is that they have a lactation department on the floor so consultants come around and check on you quite often. The morning after I had Miles I was nursing and one of the consultants stopped by for a visit. She helped me with my latch and told me something I never knew, which was that it should never hurt when the baby is nursing. If you feel any pain whatsoever, then the baby is not latched on correctly. OH.MY.WORD!! This made total sense and she showed me how to unlatch the baby gently and re-latch so that it was comfortable. At that moment I knew that if someone had told me that with Eli, we would have had a successful experience. Oh well… you live and learn!

Those key words prevented me from having any cracking or bleeding, and I also made sure to use A LOT of Lansonah. (if you don’t have any and plan to nurse, buy some NOW!)

Nursing was still hard! This time it was challenging because I had a 19 month old at home who wanted my attention and didn’t understand why I always had this baby attached to my chest! He had to learn to entertain himself or we would read books together while I fed Miles. I’m not going to lie… he also watched t.v. some of the times (thank you Sesame Street!)

Everything was going great. Miles was gaining weight rapidly like his brother. Milk supply is not ever a problem for me. I know it’s not something to complain about, but for some reason, I have more milk than one baby would ever need. I should feel blessed and most of the times I do. Also, apparently my milk is pure butter cream as my babies gain weight like no other! When Miles was 2 weeks, he was already up to 10 lbs 6oz. (weighted 8 lbs 9 oz at birth).

We still had our issues. Miles started to spit up BIG time around 2 weeks. A few times he would projectile vomit and this scared the heck out of me. I had to kind of stop and think about what was different and realized that he was over eating. He has been an extremely efficient nurser since day 1. He would eat exactly 8 minutes on one side and I thought this was too short for him to be full. I would then feed him on the other side and this is when he would projectile.  When I stopped nursing him on both sides, he stopped with the projectile spit up. I asked his pediatrician if he was getting enough to eat in 8 minutes, and she just laughed, as obviously from his weight gain, he was getting plenty!

Around 3 weeks is when all heck broke loose. My sweet and calm baby turned into a monster. After a feeding he would just scream for 30-45 minutes. His body would go so stiff that I literally could not bend him. This went on for a week or so before I went in to the doctor thinking it was acid reflux. The doctor gave me some medicine and after a week it still wasn’t making any difference. I was about to lose my insanity. I started to even ask myself “what did I do? We had it so easy with 1!” I was exhausted and about to lose my mind from the screaming. I remember one morning when I was trying to calm him down after a feeding and he just wouldn’t stop screaming. Eli was begging for my attention as well and I just started to cry. At that moment my mom walked in to the house and rescued us. She took the baby and gave me some peace. I needed that! Sometimes you just need to ask for help, even though you think you can handle it all yourself.

After another week or so, I started to do some research online. I started to read how some babies have a sensitivity to dairy. I started to look at my diet and realized I consume A LOT of dairy on a daily basis, mainly milk. I’ve always been a huge drinker of milk and when I was pregnant with Miles I started adding Nestle Quick to it to cure my chocolate craving. I was still doing this even after he was born. I decided to give it a try, as I was willing to do anything that would save my insanity!

The same day I cut out dairy was the same day my sweet baby came back to me. I couldn’t believe it. For the last 3 weeks I had been dealing with a screaming baby whose tummy was obviously hurting and all I had to do was stop eat dairy. I was so mad that I didn’t get on the computer sooner as I lost 3 weeks in his little life. Since my babies grow so fast, I have to cherish those first few weeks while they actually seem like a newborn. I was crushed inside that I didn’t get to snuggle as much as I’d like and now he was 7/8 weeks old already.

During those weeks of frustration, I really wanted to just give up breast-feeding. I knew that Eli did fine with formula and frankly I found bottle-feeding to be pretty darn easy. Eli never liked his bottles warmed up. We just used purified water at room temperature, which suited him just fine. So it was as simple as dumping the formula in the bottle and giving it a shake. I could leave him with anyone and not have to worry about returning in 2 hours. Even when we did figure out the problem with dairy, I still had times where I thought I would just switch to formula. In fact, I remember at his 2 month check-up getting some samples from the pediatrician. I tried giving him a bottle (but still pumping just in case) and he seemed to do great, but the problem was it took him FOREVER! I thought that giving him a bottle would allow me to spend more time with Eli, who I felt like was being ignored by all the nursing going on. I was also so tired of having to lift my shirt up every 3 hours and only being able to wear certain shirts, etc. I know that sounds selfish, but it was true. I wanted to be able to wear a normal bra and not have to wonder how I was going to feed discretely if we went out as I've always been a little more on the modest side. 

The next day I tried to formula feed him again for one feeding, but after 20 minutes, and him still eating, I realized that it wasn’t saving me anytime at all. It was only taking me longer. How could I stop breast-feeding when it only took him 8 minutes total to eat? I threw away the formula and told myself that I could do it!

Miles is now almost 6 months and nursing is going great. It doesn’t take any time at all and I always have it with me! I don’t have to worry about packing a bottle for when we go out and I love the bond that we have created. When he does get upset, his mommy is the only one who can settle him down, and I have to admit that it warms my heart. I love to feel him breathing against my skin and hold his little fingers in mine. I love how he will look up and just smile away, while the milk pours out of his mouth.

I’m so happy I didn’t give up this time and kept on trying, even though at times, it was still very hard!