A short but sweet story from A.D about her experience of feeding her daughter H. After a tough time with her son, she wasn’t looking forward to feeding this time round, but managed to get to 8.5 months! Here’s what she had to say….
“After being unsuccessful with breastfeeding my little boy C, I was nervous to try again when I fell pregnant with number 2. I started going to an antenatal class ran by a very pro-breastfeeding lady. She was fantastic – she really gave me the confidence to try again.
So 1st February 2007, baby H was born – within minutes of the placenta being delivered and the midwives giving us some time alone I put her to the breast and she started to feed. It was going great – with C’s first breast feed, he fed for about 5 minutes and even then that was a struggle, but H took to it brilliantly and had a good feed. Of course 5 minutes later she vomited it back up but I still felt great that she’d taken a decent feed. I had planned on staying at the birthing centre for a few days to ensure breastfeeding was established – but I left the following morning as she was just doing so well.
Of course, within a couple of days things changed a little bit – I started getting a little bit sore and I was exhausted by the constant feeding. I started going to a Breast feeding support group who truly were great – they helped me adjust the latch which was a little bit wrong and that stopped the pain and I learnt how to feed lying down which made it easier during the night.About 3 weeks after H’s birth we were still going strong – her latch was fantastic and the pain had stopped – I’d already fed longer than I had with C and I was feeling great. Still pretty exhausted by the night feeding – but I just tried to rest as much as I could.
Things went well for a couple of months – then we had a bad day – H just would not feed! Every time I put her to the breast she would scream – I tried to force the breast into her mouth but she wasn’t having any of it. I pretty soon got sore as my boobs were filling up and I was panicking as she hadn’t taken any liquid all day. By about 6pm I was distraught so ran to the doctors and demanded to be seen. The doctor could see that she was unsettled but couldn’t explain why she wouldn’t feed – she said if she hadn’t had anything by 8pm we were to take her to A&E because she would soon get dehydrated. I went home and tried to feed her again – still no good.
Then I remembered I still had a breast pump from when I had C – I dug it out and sterilised it, along with one of C’s bottles – I began to express – oh my god, the relief in my boobs was immediate. I gave H the bottle and she fed from it straight away – what a contrary little madam! I was then devastated – convinced this was the end of breast feeding – but when her next feed came round she took her milk from the breast with no problems – I have no idea why she wouldn’t feed that day but it just seems to have been a blip!
I fed H for 8 and a half months – I desperately wanted to get to a year but then teeth came through and Hope started biting. If I’m honest I just didn’t have the patience to get her to stop – I tried a couple of things but it was just so painful when she did it, it made me cry so I decided to stop and put her on bottles. It took a couple of days to get her to take formula – but now she’s fine. Its improved her sleep, and my H can now help me during the night which is fab. But I do miss my little cuddles with her – she’s quite independent and insists on holding her own bottle and doesn’t like to be cuddled whilst she feeds.
But I am very proud that I fed for so long compared to the 10 days with C and its definitely given me the confidence to try with number 3. Oh oh oh – and I breastfed in public and in front of my inlaws – something I thought I’d never do!”
Thank you,
Becky + Baby Thor
Our Breastfeeding Experiences 