Breastfeeding Problems in the First 2 Months

After reading my post Breastfeeding after C-Section, you may think that it is all about hard work? No, not at all. It takes a lot of determination and will-power as well. I really salute all the Mummies out there, no matter how long you were able to breastfeed your baby. It was really not easy.

For me, it was certainly a painful experience. The first few days, when there was only colostrum, it made sense to me that I would not have much to fill up my Little Jen's tiny tummy. However, to my Mother, it was a sign showing that Little Jen would never ever be satisfied with only my breast milk. She was repeating over and over again that Formula was still the easiest and the best. After doing so much reading on breastfeeding, I was not going to give up that easily.

Every time Little Jen wanted to feed, even during middle of the night, I would wake up and made him latch on first and then let my Mother feed him with Formula while I continued pumping. It was really a painful experience to watch him gulp down the Formula milk.

But, it was also physically painful every time he sucked. The reason was because during the first few times, he was really impatient with the slow milk let-down. So, after sucking for just a short while, he would start to howl and I wrestled to put him back at the breast and then, he would bite!

I almost gave up as I was already in pain with a cracked nipple after a few wrestling sessions. But then, not feeding and pumping at all, it would also be really painful due to engorgement.

So, finally, I resorted to pumping exclusively. I started using the electronic pump but it was also painful. BGy lowering the suction power, the milk was not flowing, so I had to pump with maximum suction power. The consistent pumping made me felt really sore as well. So, then, I tried manual pumping. It felt a little better as I could adjust the suction power and frequency manually.

So, I pumped exclusively for the first 1.5 months.

After some time, I was suddenly feeling like a cow. I was the one pumping but someone else would be giving him the milk. That felt really wrong. What made it worse was that a Lactation Consultant told me that by exclusively pumping, the milk supply would almost dry up for sure over a shorter period as compared to direct latch on.

I started to try latching on Little Jen again and this time, he cooperated well. That was probably because by then, let-down was much faster and there was s subtantial amount of milk every time he sucked.

It felt good to be able to nurse Little Jen directly and my Mother is now proud of me as well, I guess.. :)