Here is another post I found in my ‘draft’ cue. The last save date was on 5.17.2013 I genuinely have NO idea when I initially started writing this. I’m sure this post has a little bit of TMI.
I posted a bit ago about the struggle I was having with Little Man latching and breast feeding in general.
Well…
Around 8 weeks, Little Man was screaming for food, I’m not exaggerating, he was SCREAMING to be fed. My little boy is serious about his food! I didn’t have a clean bottle in the house while he was screaming I thought I just need to set him down to wash a bottle and pump parts It won’t hurt him to cry for a few minutes. Then I thought, people keep telling me to try to get him to latch, what’s the worst that can happen? So I tried thinking he would just shove my boob away and scream louder if that’s even possible!
I was pleasantly surprised, shocked is more like it, when he immediately stopped crying, latched on, and began eating! Therefore the bottles sat dirty in the sink for a bit longer.
I’ve been going through the learning curve, I guess we both have, for the past month and I do still supplement with the bottle and formula. It is even nicer to only wash bottles once a day rather than 3 times a day. I love that Little Man is getting more of my milk than formula and my supply has increased since nursing. While I do enjoy the flexibility to nurse or bottle feed, nursing isn’t my favorite thing. I have occasions when I loath the thought of breastfeeding him.
I feel like it’s a catch 22.
MAY 18, 2013
We are a little bit further into the breast feeding process. Nursing has gotten so much better and I’m down to pumping only right before I go to bed at night! The whole process doesn’t hurt near as much as it used to! I do get frustrated sometimes when he continually latches, unlatches then cries about it.
Little man has to be going through a growth spurt right now because he will drain both boobs and want more or drain both boobs and want to eat again with in an hour and a half to 2 hours.
Further update: November 19, 2013
I don’t really remember when I quit pumping altogether, Maybe month 5 or 6. Little man has 4 teeth now so I’m in the process of weaning him. In those early months I thought I was never going to get off the pump or ever have my boobs NOT hurt again. But looking back it was really only a short time frame in the whole grand scheme of things!
I have been supplementing with formula the whole time. I had the freezer filled with breast milk but I’m almost to the last bag. I honestly thought about giving up the whole idea of breast feeding more than once. I started telling myself we’ll do our best to make it to month 2 then 3 then 4 etc. My overall initial goal was to nurse for a full year. At one point I was ecstatic I made it to month 3! I’m now in month 9 with a goal of making it to 10 months. At 10 months I’ll see how my supply is doing and shoot for 11.
They say breastfeeding isn’t supposed to hurt, Well I found it to be excruciating at times!!! I would pump (or feed him) because, well, I needed to and would be in tears because it hurt SOOO bad! I had blocked ducts more than once and I’m pretty sure I had a minor case of mastitis at least once maybe twice. (I didn’t realize it most likely was until well after the fact.)
SO for you mommies out there who may be struggling to breast feed I do hope it gets easier for you. Hang in there and keep trying you never know when it might click for both you and baby.
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