Nursing Sasha

I see there was a "thing" yesterday of discussing breastfeeding and your experiances.
I'm late, but here are mine with Sasha.

I had a fairly quick emergency c-section that didn't leave me terribly out of it. Mostly, I was afraid for my baby and once he was out and declared in good shape I relaxed. They released him directly to my husband once they did the initial check.

Hubby left for a little while to go show him off to the waiting family, but came back just as they were wheeling me out to recovery. I concentrated on getting out, since they said I'd have to move my feet and toes to do so.

Sasha was crying in his bassinet and I tried to nurse him. I really did. But it wasn't working. He couldn't seem to get it in or something.

We tried and tried over the next couple of days and several visits with the lactation nurse. I had a bunch of problems to include inverted nipples, a groggy drugged baby, and so on. I finally got the idea from my mom to try a nipple sheild. It worked like a charm and he was finally able to latch.

The nurse caught me using it and was NOT happy. According to her it was an unhealthy crutch. But it worked. It reshaped everything so he could figure it out and he was able to nurse. Incessant pumping with the hospitals equipment also helped and really, i think, helped my milk to come in. I didn't care for the attitude of the nursing staff. Constantly telling me my baby wasn't thriving, that they'd have to keep him after they released me. That my use of a sheild would be detrimental to his getting ample milk.

On day 3 my milk came in. I was syringe feeding formula at that point with a tube taped to me because he was so skinny to start out that his further weight loss was bad. But I wanted him to get the colostrum. So this was a middle ground where we could do both. Once the milk came in, that was that.

He gained back all his weight (and then some) 3 days after we had been released. We used the sheild until we just didn't need it anymore because he'd gotten the idea and things had been permanently reshaped to the way they should have been. Now he won't even take one (much to my distress...he's a biter!). We've been having our on and off struggle with supply, but that's more related to my own body than anything else. I pump the days I'm at work and when I'm home I still pump, but in addition to nursing. To keep up the supply. I went back to work when he was 8 weeks, so it has been a lot of pumping.

Right now he waffles between wanting to nurse still all day long and deciding he only wants it to sleep. I waffle between wanting whats best for him and wanting to stop the bloodletting rite that is what nursing has become.

All in all, he's 9 months old. My plan was to do it for 6 months minimum. Try as long as I could after that but not feel too badly if for some reason at that point it ended. I feel good about what we've managed to accomplish.