Austin is 10 days old today!!! Time has flown by, and yet it also feels like it only creeps on by, 3 hours at a time. Here's what's happened so far, on the breastfeeding front with this baby.
A and I started our breastfeeding adventures early, minutes after he was born. Not much was made at the time, and LOTS of people poured into my L&D room right after I gave birth, so we deferred trying again til around 4 hours after he was born.
Let me just stop now and say that breastfeeding was A LOT HARDER than I imagined.
I prepared in ways that I thought were reasonable - reading about it from my AAP book, reading about it from credible sources on the internet (La Leche League, FamilyCenter.com, etc), absorbing experiences from my good friend, Tya, who is also a new mother, and of course, listening to what my mom had to say about it. All this? STILL NOT ENOUGH.
Why? Every breastfeeding relationship is different. It's hard to predict the behavior of your baby when you haven't met them yet! If you're a first time mother, you've probably never had anything sucking fluid out of your nipples, so don't know what to expect (what is consider painful, what is considered normal, what things look like, etc).
I think I'm pretty on par with most first time breastfeeding mothers when I say that I DREADED feeding hours. My nipples hurt and felt like they were on fire! I was also told that my son had a short frenulum (the piece of tissue that connects the tongue to the bottom of the mouth), which could potentially affect latching (we're still watching to see if this becomes problematic). On top of that, baby A was losing a lot of weight (he lost 8% of his body weight by the day we went home, and peaked at 10.6% when he was 5 days old), so the doctor advised me that I need to up his feeding frequency (youch!) in order for him to get more fluids down, and also stimulate my milk production. Luckily, after 24 hours of PAINFUL PAINFUL feeding (pretty much every hour at night), my milk finally came in, and my boy regained 9 ounces of weight over the next 2 days. Phew. That said, the nipple tenderness didn't resolve just yet. We were still latching on wrong. That took another 4 days to die down. And that, in a nut shell sums up our first 10 days of breastfeeding.
The following are all things I learned within the last 10 days. Lots of these are things that are IMO. No guarantee this works/relates to all babies.
1. Ask for help at the hospital.
At the first feeding, the night nurse helped us get started and we also watched a video about breastfeeding. But that was all that was originally offered. It wasn't until A's frenulum issue came up that the lactation consultant referral was ordered. The second night were there, I got maybe 1 hour of sleep - I felt dumb asking the nurse why my son was crying so much...in reality, if I woud have asked, I would have learned that he was thirsty, and feeding him more (vs. rocking him, holding him, etc) would have helped the issue. Bottom line? ASK! There's no better time to ask these questions - it's certainly easier to ask now vs. being at home calling the advice nurse at 4 AM cause you have no clue what you're doing (yeah, that was me).
2. Lanolin ointment vs. Hydrogel/Soothies.
Both are really useful tools to help soothe nipple soreness (which is usually due to poor latching technique, BTW). These promote moist wound healing, which basically means it heals injuries without allow them to scab over. Lanolin comes in ointments in tubes (made by many companies, including Lansinoh and Medela). I personally prefer the Medela brand ointment - the consistency is lighter than the Lansinoh stuff so it applies easier. Soothies/hydrogel pads are gel pads that both soothes sore nipples and actually absorbs breast milk (you know, should you leak). You can also put them in the fridge for a cooling effect. Caveats to this product, that IMO make it a less favorable option compared to the lanolin: 1) you have to wipe it off before you feed baby (makes it NOT convenient) 2) can only use for 72 hours before it goes bad 3) EXPENSIVE!!! Also, note that you can't mix and match the two products (not because of efficacy, but because lanolin destroys the gel matrix that the soothies come in). I'm sticking with the lanolin.
3. Nursing covers are barriers if you don't have your game down yet.
We started taking Austin out and about 2 days after we came home from the hospital. People thought we were absolutely nuts (especially our asian relatives, who are, BTW, nuts...but that's another post). IMO, spending time in the outside world is one of the best ways to keep a new mother sane. But, if you're gonna go outside, and you're a modest person like me, and your baby is feeding every 2-3 hours, there's a good chance you'll want to use your nursing cover. I tried that today...in a hot car. OMG. Let's say if you've never tried nursing under a blanket before, using a nursing cover and expecting the heavens to part in nursing perfection...is just plain stupid :) It gets hot. You can't always see your baby correctly. Your baby kicks, and if your cover isn't big enough, you'll get exposed. And if your baby is like A and super picky over latching position, the nursing cover becomes a barrier. In fact, he sort of shut down after a while and refused to eat. It took a lot of coaxing and sticking my head into the cover to calm the little fart goblin. What am I saying? Don't use a cover? NO. I believe this is a useful tool - just warning those who haven't used one yet not to expect that the first time you use it (especially if you and baby are breastfeeding n00bs still) will be super successful.
4. Herbs and certain foods may decrease your milk supply, or worse, harm your baby.
Being a pharmacist, I should have known to be more careful with this one. My very well-meaninged mother-in-law made me some herbal tea yesterday that was supposed to help with my anemia. Grateful that she spent the time brewing me the stuff, I neglected to look into what exactly she put into the tea. After a while, I noticed that my milk supply was decreasing all of a sudden. I later found out that one of the main ingredients was dongquai, a Chinese herb that acts much like estrogen. Problem? Estrogen-like compounds are known to decrease milk supply, but as you can imagine, increasing estrogen consumption has other health implications that aren't exactly good either. I spent the rest of the night feeling super guilty that I'd drank that and could potentially be harming my baby.
5. The mother-baby latching dance has a significance.
Well, with baby A anyway. Over the last 3 days or so, I've noticed that it'll take 2-3 minutes every time for Austin to latch on before he starts suckling for real. This frustrated me a lot, because during that time, a lot of milk is being lost (I once soaked an entire burp rag before he started suckling for real). He'd take my breast in his mouth, then spit it back out, squirm a bunch, and repeat x 10 times before he decides to stay on. After thinking about it a bit, and observing the outcomes of this behavior, I realized that this is A's way of giving me feedback on positioning to increase efficiency. I figured this out because despite the increased time spent upfront and frustration on both our ends, he was becoming noticeably more satisfied, not needing to feed as long (but still draining my boobs as efficiently), and my nipples hurt less now. Hmm, this kid is smarter than I think. Now, time to take notes on what exactly his sweet spot is.
6. Real nursing tops are overrated. Loose, low-cut shirts are just as good. Or stuff from Target.
I must admit, I spent quite the fortune in my last weeks of pregnancy "preparing" for my nursing wardrobe. Stuff from A Pea in the Pod (read: EXPENSIVE!!) and various other novelty nursing brands that promised of the sweet stuffs of nursing nirvana. These are shirts with "innovative" mechanisms for exposing the breast for nursing yet preserving modesty and style. I actually spent as much as 40 dollars on one such T-shirt (embarrassed, I am) thinking it will make my life easier. LIES! First of all, no matter how "innovative" these shirts are (cutouts, peekaboo holes, etc), it doesn't address the fact that you WILL be wearing a bra under them (the "innovative" holes don't always fit compatibly with your nursing bras). Also, you will cry like you're crying over spilled milk when you get the inevitable spit up, vomit, urine, poop (insert your bodily fluid), or lanolin ointment on your shirt. What works just as well is a nice low cut top (so you can easily unhook your bra and pull your boob out). These are cheap and easy to find. If there's one piece of nursing clothing I do like, it'd have to be the nursing cami's they sell at Target. They are cheap, do the job, and not bad to look at.
SO MUCH MORE TO DOCUMENT! But A is fussy now for his 9 PM snack. Signing off til laters!
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