I never thought breastfeeding could be so difficult. At least the books and internet info did not prepare me for the trauma I'm experiencing -- sore nipples, bleeding, infection, pain... It was ever-so-frequently reiterated that if the latch-on is correct, the mother should not feel any pain. I did not understand this because it is always painful.
For the 1st week of breastfeeding, my nipples started to bleed, get sore and very painful. I was in a dilemma whether to let baby drink blood-stained breast milk. I spent $100 getting a lactation consultant (LC) to make a home visit. Some useful advice were given and I thought things were getting better. I also started to express the milk. However, LC's advice was not to feed from the bottle lest he doesn't latch on properly anymore. Use spoon or cup feeding. It was really difficult because baby has only known suckling all his 1st week of life. It was a struggle.
On the 2nd week, we visited the PD for baby's wheezing and found that he wasn't gaining enough weight -- only 100g in a week when the norm is 200g. PD suggested supplementing with formula milk. I was thrown into a greater dilemma. FM became the easy way out when I was too tired. Naturally, the bm supply was affected.
And so, it has been like that since. The fm quantity per feed kept increasing while my bm amount expressed remained more or less stagnant with one major regression when I first introduced fm to baby. I was depressed over this. When he was in my womb, my placenta couldn't supply enough for a while. Now that he's out, my bm supply isn't enough to sustain him that I've to resort to fm. How in the world can I get the bm to increase so I can proudly say I'm doing full breastfeeding to my son???
Till now, I'm still trying to express bm hoping (against all hope, perhaps) the supply would come. I bought lactation milk powder for nursing mums, fenugreek capsules (known to help increase bm), drinking lots of low fat milk, and lots of soup and other fluids. No great improvement yet. I suspect the biggest factor is my lack of sleep. Bm cannot be 'manufactured' adequately. I heard it gets manufactured while the mum is sleeping. So I'm working on this. Tough (because of all the chores to be done for baby), but I'm hanging on.
For the 1st week of breastfeeding, my nipples started to bleed, get sore and very painful. I was in a dilemma whether to let baby drink blood-stained breast milk. I spent $100 getting a lactation consultant (LC) to make a home visit. Some useful advice were given and I thought things were getting better. I also started to express the milk. However, LC's advice was not to feed from the bottle lest he doesn't latch on properly anymore. Use spoon or cup feeding. It was really difficult because baby has only known suckling all his 1st week of life. It was a struggle.
On the 2nd week, we visited the PD for baby's wheezing and found that he wasn't gaining enough weight -- only 100g in a week when the norm is 200g. PD suggested supplementing with formula milk. I was thrown into a greater dilemma. FM became the easy way out when I was too tired. Naturally, the bm supply was affected.
And so, it has been like that since. The fm quantity per feed kept increasing while my bm amount expressed remained more or less stagnant with one major regression when I first introduced fm to baby. I was depressed over this. When he was in my womb, my placenta couldn't supply enough for a while. Now that he's out, my bm supply isn't enough to sustain him that I've to resort to fm. How in the world can I get the bm to increase so I can proudly say I'm doing full breastfeeding to my son???
Till now, I'm still trying to express bm hoping (against all hope, perhaps) the supply would come. I bought lactation milk powder for nursing mums, fenugreek capsules (known to help increase bm), drinking lots of low fat milk, and lots of soup and other fluids. No great improvement yet. I suspect the biggest factor is my lack of sleep. Bm cannot be 'manufactured' adequately. I heard it gets manufactured while the mum is sleeping. So I'm working on this. Tough (because of all the chores to be done for baby), but I'm hanging on.
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