Battle of the Breast

Triumph!

For those of you who have been playing along at home, I believe we have turned a corner in our ongoing attempts at breastfeeding. In short, we have had almost every common breastfeeding problem, and even some of those that aren't all that common:

We started out with a poor latch - which caused me a lot of pain and led to our first visit to a lactation consultant (yes, there is a whole cottage industry!), who promptly diagnosed John's . . .

Tongue-Tie - had to get his tongue clipped at two and a half weeks - what an ordeal! The ped was against it but the breastfeeding pros said it had to be done (along with the grandparents). We eventually visited a 2nd lactation consultant who agreed with the first - and who we've now been seeing weekly to the tune of $65 an hour - so much for the affordability of breastfeeding! Before the clip he couldn't stick out his little tongue, let alone suck and swallow, all of which he now does with relative ease - and improvement every day! Of course his tongue contributed to both low weight gain and . . .

Mastitis - caused by the tongue tie and his inability to eat well when my milk came in. I actually got it twice! The first time I stupidly ignored my high fever as I was totally focused on John. The second time I got antibiotics promptly, unfortunately the prescription was for penicillin, which put me into anaphylactic shock as a toddler. So after I took one pill the three of us spent an evening in the ER to make sure I didn't die. I didn't. So I got a new Rx and it cleared up, but unfortunately also contributed to my low milk supply, which led to my efforts at:

Increasing low supply - this was the toughest part of all (besides of course worrying the small guy wasn't getting enough to eat). I had to rent a hospital-grade pump and pump EVERY HOUR in addition to feeding John. This was tough! I also took Fenugreek, an herbal supplement with the added bonus of making my sweat smell like maple syrup. Amazing. My milk returned not once, not twice, but three times, so my supply still is a little inconsistent, but only pumping three or four times a day seems like a vacation! Best of all we were giving him the pumped milk back through a supplementer that really defies description - only a picture can do it justice: SNS. This made feeding John a two-person, four-hand ordeal. Again, breastfeeding - so convenient! We also had to supplement with some very expensive formula, which smelled like fish food and made the baby gag (and us, too).

But now John is at a healthy weight which pleases the pediatrician, lactation consultant and everyone but his mommy, who would be shoving milk down his throat 9 times a day if daddy would let her get away with it. He is eating like a normal breastfed baby and gets one bottle of breast milk from daddy before he goes to bed. (Of course, he now has reflux, but I'll leave that for another time.) Happy and relieved does not even begin to describe how I am feeling. Breastfeeding John was and is very important to me and I am so happy I did not give up! Special thanks to Grandma and Nana for all their encouragement.

I also want to take a sec to brag on Quinn for being the best husband and daddy of all time. He is so supportive and he never ever once let me feel guilty for any of these problems. He was there for every visit to the lactation consultant, held John while I was pumping, mixed the yucky formula, and took him in for weight-checks when I was too upset to face the baby scale and the pediatrician. John and I are both very, very lucky to have him.