My breastfeeding story... (first time mom)

What a roller coaster it has been for us.

Nicholai couldn’t latch on his first day. A Lactation consultant was able to help a few hours after he was born but I had to hand express into a spoon to feed him while in the hospital. In between feedings I would practice with him to get him to open his mouth wide so he could learn to latch... by his second day he was starting to get it but not a deep latch just yet so I was still hand expressing but I did not give up on teaching him how to latch. When we were finally home, my milk began to come in. Talk about engorgement! My breasts were like ROCKS. I had no choice but to pump because they were so engorged that my son would not latch at all. I could barely practice with him while they were engorged. Now we had to use a syringe to feed him. This went on for days because I have an oversupply, I had to pump a lot. When Nicholai was almost two weeks old, the one thing I was scared of happened. He still wasn’t latching, and with using the syringe to feed him it was much harder to keep him awake during feedings so he was not getting enough milk (he hadn’t gained much weight after he lost 10%)... we had no choice but to try a bottle with my pumped breastmilk. Talk about TEARS - I was balling the whoooole day thinking that now he is never going to latch and would have nipple confusion but of course I was happy that he was eating more, staying awake longer & gaining weight. I was STILL trying to latch him in between feedings every 1-2 hours. After a couple of days - I was one very proud and amazed momma! He was LATCHING! Using the bottle (and still trying to get him latched to my Breasts) helped him learn how to latch by his mouth opening wider, and his tongue staying down. 😭 So now we have stopped using the bottle. Though there were still times where it would hurt because he wasn’t latched correctly I started using a nipple shield temporarily ... I would feed sometimes with it and sometimes not but I felt I needed more help now to get away from the nipple shield. I went to see a Lactation consultant... she helped me tremendously with positioning and ways of latching him better and getting away from the nipple shield. After the first appointment with her I stopped using the nipple shield. I seen her one week later & I hadn’t realized how much more confident I had become Just from one week of seeing her. Nicholai had been doing so much better with latching but he was still learning. I seen her a couple more times to follow up so she could see the progress, answer any questions I had & give me advice.

Nicholai is now 6 weeks old & the past two weeks he has been latching perfectly and I am now able to feed him in public, in the car, wherever and also do different positions.

If I had not been so determined & patient, I would not have a breast fed baby. I did not give up. Everyone who told me breast feeding is HARD was right. Although I believed them I never knew how it was going to turn out for us. But I am so proud of my baby boy. Breast feeding was important to me before I got pregnant, I knew I wanted to breast feed my baby & I did what I needed to to make it happen.

Please Don’t give up mamas! Breast is best! ♥️