Nursing story
After what seemed like a very short pregnancy, I gave birth to Jason Robert on July 13, 2006 at 12:44am. He weighed 7lbs 14 ozs and was 19 1/2 inches long. He was gorgeous in my opinion. I wasn't allowed to hold him until his temperature stabilized so it was about 45 minutes before I could hold him. As soon as I was done getting stitched up (since my sucky OB cut me TWICE), they handed me my little man and we got to start our nursing relationship. He latched on like a pro and ate for about an hour before falling asleep in my arms. The nurse came in and took him away for a bath where I gave her strict instructions that he is not to receive a pacifier, bottle, or any formula or gluclose water. She put a sign on his bassinet for me and thankfully followed what I said.
During the day he did not want to eat at all. He just stayed asleep. After about 6 hours the nurse came in and we tried to wake him up by poking at him, tickling at him, and everything else and it didn't work. After 9 hours of him not eating we tried the gluclose water just to get him to latch onto my breast. Finally, he woke up enough to latch on but only nursed for 45 minutes.
We were released on Friday evening, less than 48 hours after he was born. I was scared about nursing on my own without the help of the nursing staff at the hospital but excited at the same time. I had to deal with everyone asking me if he was getting enough constantly, and obviously he was...He was having the right number of wet and poopy diapers a day and he was gaining weight...Slowly but surely. I had such sore nipples that I bought everything I could to make them become unsore. Soothies, Breast Therapy cream, Lanolin and it worked. As we continued our relationship, my nipples became less and less sore.
At his 2 week appointment he was up from 7lbs 9 ozs when we left the hospital to 8lbs 4ozs. At his one month appointment he was up to 9lbs 12ozs. This past month of breastfeeding has been the hardest with us moving to Kansas. We had at least a 10 hour drive to Kansas from where we lived and with having to stop to nurse him (since we drove separately) every few hours it turned into taking 18 hours to get to Kansas. Frustrating, believe me. And then it got even more frustrating when I had to unpack everything and organize my home and all Jason wanted to do was nurse, nurse, nurse because he was going thru a growth spurt. Unfortunatley I supplemented during that time and lost some of my supply. But I asked the advice of mom's in the breastfeeding community and took their advice. Now we are down to only 4ozs a day, if that at all, of supplementing. Everything else he gets directly from me.
During the move and all the unpacking I came down with mastitis. Oh that was the most painful thing I had ever had in my entire life. I do not ever want to wean this child or miss a feeding at all because I'm terrified of coming down with it again. I felt like crap for two days with a very high fever.
Now he's 2 months old, and we have yet to get a weight on him. He goes in for his first round of shots next week. Our nursing relationship doesn't have any problems other than the small case of mastitis. He's had an awesome latch and no nipple confusion (I do pump occasionally and give him EBM in a bottle ... Well my husband gives it to him). He occasionally takes a pacifier but not often. He's almost sleeping thru the night now. He makes it right around 5-6 hours without eating. And we found out the warmer he is the longer he'll sleep. :)
I love breastfeeding Jason and we have such a different relationship than Ryan and I do. I love both my boys equally and I really regret I didn't try harder with Ryan.
For the most part Eric is okay with the breastfeeding. He gets frustrated when he can't comfort Jase when he's crying and I'm off tending to our other son. He doesn't like the co-sleeping either but I have explained to him time and time again that it's just easier for me to feed him in the middle of the night if he's right there. We've started moving him to the bassinet once he goes to sleep and when he wakes up in the middle of the night he gets pulled into bed with me.