I had a long labour- more than 36 hours. I had planned a home birth, but had to transfer to hospital for failure to progress. I was pretty upset that labour and birth had not happened as I had planned. I hated the epidural and iv and the hospital atmosphere, but I was looking forward to breastfeeding.
My daughter, Jocelyn, was sleepy and uninterested. My midwife, Andrea Robertson, called us when we got home and I told her that she was having uric acid crystals in her diaper- a sign of dehydration. My midwife came over, confirmed that my daughter had lost too much weight and was jaundiced.
Other women I talk to in this situation were just advised to supplement with formula. However, that will just kill a woman’s supply, and led to the end of their breastfeeding relationships. However, my midwife Andrea knew better. She put us on a feeding regiment. I had to feed Jocelyn on demand, but not let her go any longer than 3 hours from the start of one feeding to the start of another, even if it meant waking her. It is not an easy task to wake a sleepy, jaundiced baby. I had to feed her at least twenty minutes at the breast with a nipple shield. Afterwards, I had to pump and offer her a supplement of expressed breast milk via a tube to avoid nipple confusion.
This was a very exhausting process. It felt like as soon as I fed her, pumped, gave her the supplement, got her settled, washed and dried the pump, it was time to do it all over again. My husband and I rented a lot of movies and tv series seasons on dvd in those first couple weeks.
My midwife suggested that a good weight gain would be a a half-ounce to an ounce in two days. However, when my midwife weighed Jocelyn the next day, she had gained six ounces! I was never so relieved. Our feeding regiment was working.
My midwife had put me in contact with a great lactation consultant, Eileen Shea. By the time I saw her, Jocelyn was back up to her birth weight, so we were able to stop the pumping and supplementing. This was fantastic as it was so tiring. Our lactation consultants helped us with positions and gave us tips to wean Jocelyn off the nipple shield. A couple weeks later, we had stopped using the nipple shield, and our breastfeeding relationship has been an ultimate success since then.
My daughter is six and a half months old now, in the 95th percentile for weight and height, and just recently started on home made baby food. It was a bittersweet moment for me because my daughter is growing up so happy and healthy, but it is sad to say goodbye to my exclusively breastfed newborn infant.
I am a bold public breastfeeder. I feel that breastfeeding in public is a great way to normalize breastfeeding for future mother. I find it sad that most children I meet have no idea that babies are breastfed. I have been lucky enough to only been asked to stop once- ironically enough by the staff at the Hamilton Catholic Children’s Aid Society.
Breastfeeding my baby has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. I feel like it is a wonderful accomplishment. Nothing can compare to Jocelyn’s wonderful content look. Sometimes, she will take a break in the middle of eating, look up at me, and give me the biggest, most appreciative smile. I also feel proud knowing that I did the best thing for my child’s health and development, and our bond is amazing.
Hmm let's see. Jocelyn lost too much weight, was dehydrated and jaundiced, and was passing uric acid crystals (brick coloured stuff in the diaper if anyone needs to know.)
My midwife came over and helped me with getting her latched properly. We used a nipple shield for a couple weeks because J was so sleepy from the lack of food that she couldn't really work at latching or bfing.
I had to feed her at least every three hours, but usually more, for at least twenty minutes.
I had to pump, put the milk in a shot glass, put in this tube, hold the other end against my finger, suck on it to get the milk going, then put my finger and tube in J's mouth. She would then suck kinda like bfing to get the milk out. We had to keep the glass lower than her mouth or the milk ould just pour through the tube and choke her. A couple times I taped the tube to my nipple as a makeshift sns. Mostly, I would let scott finger feed her when I got ahead, so I could keep up with my pumping at the same time. It was very exhausting to feed her every 1-3 hours for at least 20 minutes, very challenging to keep her awake, then pump, finger feed her, clean and dry the pump, and then it was time to do it all over again.
We watched a lot of tv seasons on dvd then. It was total sleepless zombie time. When j got back up to her birthwight, I got to stop the feeding regimen, and it was so happy and relieving.