I am happy to say that now we are nursing exclusively, but at first I was both nursing and bottle feeding (except for 4 days of exclusively nursing when he first came home which did not go well). My little guy had low blood sugar and jaundice and then as soon as he came home he caught a cold from his brother and sister, so we got off to a rough start with nursing, which caused me to have a dip in supply and he was losing weight after the first week. I started nursing him (when he had the energy to latch), pumping afterwards and topping up his feed with a bottle of pumped milk and/or formula. I also started taking Domperidone (prescription), Fenugreek, Blessed Thistle ( both capsules from the health food store) and drinking Nursing Mothers Tea. It took a couple of weeks of doing a lot of pumping/bottle feeding as well as nursing before I felt like he was able to nurse exclusively again. Now things at 6 weeks are going wonderfully, it has been a couple of weeks since he has had a bottle at all.
Some tricks/things I think helped get to this point (for anyone who is like me and wants to avoid having to wash/sterilize/pump/bottle feed etc.and wants to exclusively nurse):
* I would use an oz or so of pumped milk or formula in the bottle and would get him started sucking on that, then would quickly switch him onto the breast. I called it his "primer". It helped trick him into latching on the breast. Sometimes I had to "prime" him a few times during a feed to keep him on the breast. I no longer need to do this.
* I breastfed on demand, if he was awake I offered him the boob and let him suck as much as he would. I woke him up every hour or so through the day and every 3 hours at night to nurse as well if he didn't wake up. This helped get my milk supply up. I also let him cluster feed ALL evening. He still does this, and from 8 until 11 I feed him about every half an hour.
* I used the Medela Calma nipple system to bottle feed with. This works similarly to a human nipple, only giving them milk when they latch on and suck. I think it helped to avoid him developing a preference for a faster (easier) flowing bottle nipple.
Those few weeks at the beginning when I was scared I wouldn't be able to exclusively breast feed him were hard. I ended up in tears a number of times. I am so happy that I persevered and didn't give up on the nursing. I am doubly happy when I have to leave the house and don't have to stop to think if I have the bottles, pump, formula, boiled water etc. all packed. I carry his food supply with me wherever I go :)
No comments:
Post a Comment