I came across this video on a web search. I found it very interesting in light of some of my posts in recent months. Watch and see for yourself... (and I wanted to see if I could be fancy and embed a video from another website in my blog... woo hoo html codes! I feel smart now!)
P.S. I guessed right on the little quiz. Intuitively makes sense to me...
Showing posts with label nursing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nursing. Show all posts
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
On Making a Decision and Being Okay With It (part II of III)
Lately (and over the last 3 years) I have heard all kinds of stories of women, my friends and my family making the best decisions they can regarding breastfeeding and their baby.
One friend was determined to breast feed. Her daughter had a very difficult time latching on and had a tongue thrust. She tried nursing when she could and then pumped and fed her daughter expressed milk through a 5 cc syringe attached to a tube. Dad would tape it on his finger and try to get baby to latch on to his finger while releasing milk from the tube. They were advised to do this at 2-3 hour increments around the clock. The whole fiasco, from waking to feeding to changing took at least 45 minutes, which meant, once you settle back into bed and will yourself to fall back asleep, very little sleep at all. But, baby caught on and began latching and nursing properly. Mom was happy, baby was happy, all was well.
One friend suddenly stopped producing fat in her milk. This after successfully nursing for 10 weeks. If you know anything about breastfeeding, you know that the first milk the baby gets is foremilk, it is sweet watery milk designed to hydrate the baby. The second milk they get, from the same breast, is hind milk, this is fatty milk designed to fill the baby up, make them feel full and give them calories to burn. The hind milk also produces a type of laxative - thus explaining the constant pooping of breastfed babies! So, anyway, this mom’s baby suddenly became fussy, gassy and spitty-upy (after previously not gaining as much weight as expected), as she was trying to sustain herself on essentially sugar water. She probably felt a little hungry and did not have the fat to keep her full and help her keep the liquid down and digest it. This problem was discovered during a consultation with a lactation nurse for her county. The lactation consultant suggested that she pump, spacing her pumping out longer than her daughter usually ate so that she was not emptying her breasts as often as before, which sometimes would stimulate fat production. She also suggested that mom think about giving the baby some formula and see if it improved her fussiness. The formula did that, right away. No more gassy, spitty, fussy baby. And, mom continued to pump and mixed her bottles half-and-half. The doctor suggested that she could give herself injections of oxytocin to stimulate release of hind milk. With only 2 weeks to go on her maternity leave, she opted to wean her from nursing and switch over to formula, keeping her expressed breast milk for rice cereal later. Baby is happy, mom is happy, all is well.
Another friend had a baby recently and started nursing in the hospital. She had intense pain with nursing, but thought that was normal, so she continued. She endured it for her daughter. But, after arriving home, her daughter pulled off after nursing and had blood in her mouth. Blood from her mom’s nipple. Ouch! So, she has been consulting experts and trying different things to help her breasts heal, including pumping. She had to start mixing formula with the expressed milk because she wasn’t able to pump enough and wants to go back to nursing after her nipples heal a little, but is worried about supply issues since she is already supplementing. Baby is happy, mom is getting there…
And, yet another friend has a one week old baby. The baby wasn’t gaining weight like the nurses had hoped after leaving the hospital. This, of course, worried mom, who had been pumping the side that baby didn’t nurse on at each feeding to start stock piling milk for when she returned to work. Dad gave the baby a bottle of expressed milk between feedings and baby sucked it dry. She was having trouble latching on again and mom and baby decided that, to make everyone happy, baby would drink expressed milk. Baby is happy, mom is… guilty.
Mom is guilty. That’s the underlying theme in all of this trouble. If you could press “pause” on the baby’s hungry little tummy, figure out some solutions and then press “play” again, we could all nurse long term. But, let’s face it, while we’re learning, and hurting, and asking and consulting, baby is still hungry. And growing. And we’re trying to make a good decision.
Stay tuned tomorrow for the conclusion...
One friend was determined to breast feed. Her daughter had a very difficult time latching on and had a tongue thrust. She tried nursing when she could and then pumped and fed her daughter expressed milk through a 5 cc syringe attached to a tube. Dad would tape it on his finger and try to get baby to latch on to his finger while releasing milk from the tube. They were advised to do this at 2-3 hour increments around the clock. The whole fiasco, from waking to feeding to changing took at least 45 minutes, which meant, once you settle back into bed and will yourself to fall back asleep, very little sleep at all. But, baby caught on and began latching and nursing properly. Mom was happy, baby was happy, all was well.
One friend suddenly stopped producing fat in her milk. This after successfully nursing for 10 weeks. If you know anything about breastfeeding, you know that the first milk the baby gets is foremilk, it is sweet watery milk designed to hydrate the baby. The second milk they get, from the same breast, is hind milk, this is fatty milk designed to fill the baby up, make them feel full and give them calories to burn. The hind milk also produces a type of laxative - thus explaining the constant pooping of breastfed babies! So, anyway, this mom’s baby suddenly became fussy, gassy and spitty-upy (after previously not gaining as much weight as expected), as she was trying to sustain herself on essentially sugar water. She probably felt a little hungry and did not have the fat to keep her full and help her keep the liquid down and digest it. This problem was discovered during a consultation with a lactation nurse for her county. The lactation consultant suggested that she pump, spacing her pumping out longer than her daughter usually ate so that she was not emptying her breasts as often as before, which sometimes would stimulate fat production. She also suggested that mom think about giving the baby some formula and see if it improved her fussiness. The formula did that, right away. No more gassy, spitty, fussy baby. And, mom continued to pump and mixed her bottles half-and-half. The doctor suggested that she could give herself injections of oxytocin to stimulate release of hind milk. With only 2 weeks to go on her maternity leave, she opted to wean her from nursing and switch over to formula, keeping her expressed breast milk for rice cereal later. Baby is happy, mom is happy, all is well.
Another friend had a baby recently and started nursing in the hospital. She had intense pain with nursing, but thought that was normal, so she continued. She endured it for her daughter. But, after arriving home, her daughter pulled off after nursing and had blood in her mouth. Blood from her mom’s nipple. Ouch! So, she has been consulting experts and trying different things to help her breasts heal, including pumping. She had to start mixing formula with the expressed milk because she wasn’t able to pump enough and wants to go back to nursing after her nipples heal a little, but is worried about supply issues since she is already supplementing. Baby is happy, mom is getting there…
And, yet another friend has a one week old baby. The baby wasn’t gaining weight like the nurses had hoped after leaving the hospital. This, of course, worried mom, who had been pumping the side that baby didn’t nurse on at each feeding to start stock piling milk for when she returned to work. Dad gave the baby a bottle of expressed milk between feedings and baby sucked it dry. She was having trouble latching on again and mom and baby decided that, to make everyone happy, baby would drink expressed milk. Baby is happy, mom is… guilty.
Mom is guilty. That’s the underlying theme in all of this trouble. If you could press “pause” on the baby’s hungry little tummy, figure out some solutions and then press “play” again, we could all nurse long term. But, let’s face it, while we’re learning, and hurting, and asking and consulting, baby is still hungry. And growing. And we’re trying to make a good decision.
Stay tuned tomorrow for the conclusion...
Sunday, May 2, 2010
On Making a Decision and Being Okay With It (part I of III)
(This post got kind of lengthy, so I'm givin' it to you in parts...)
My sister wanted me to write a blog post on nursing and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to. Its kind of a hot topic and people take it so personally, but recent events have led me to want to write about what I’ve heard, what I’ve learned.
The story starts with my first-born. I thought I wanted to breastfeed. Neither anyone on my side of the family nor anyone on Riley’s side of the family really breastfed. A few of my cousins tried it or nursed for a little while. I think one of my cousins breastfed one or two of her kids for more than a few months, but we do not come from a line of breast feeders. (By the way, none of us have permanent detachment disorders or anything, and some of us are even smart, but more on that later). When dear daughter was born, I tried nursing her right away. The pain was excruciating. Nothing could have prepared me for what that felt like, but I had heard that it hurt at first and I tried to toughen up. I listened to advice from the nurses and lactation consultants in the hospital, gritted my teeth and hoped that things would get better. It didn’t. I was sent home with this new little baby who wanted to eat every time she woke up. And, every time, I tried to nurse her. After the first few sucks, things felt better, but I still had to curl my toes for the first little bit each time. I was too nervous, private and, well, bull-headed, really, to ask for help, I just knew I didn’t like it. I sat in the afternoon and cried each time I fed her. This was not for me. I kept it up for 2 weeks, which was the goal I set for myself in the beginning and then decided it was not my cup of tea. I pumped a bottle for her and she took to it like a champ. So I continued to pump a little bit and mixed it with formula and slowly weaned her from breast milk. No repercussions. I was happy, she was happy, all was well.
Enter Mr. Baby J. Again, I decided to give it a try. I didn’t have a good first experience, but was older, wiser (ha) and maybe more determined the second time. Baby J and I had a distinctly different experience. We were totally compatible right from the start. I don’t tell a lot of people this, but, with him, it never hurt at all. Okay, so I was hopped up on pain killers from my c-section at first, but really, no pain, no tenderness. Just a simple connection. So, I nursed him. He had pumped bottles occasionally, but since I was on maternity leave (+ summer vacation) for almost 6 months, there wasn’t much of a need for bottles. I went back to work in December and, determined to make it to his 6 month “birthday,” pumped in the car on the way to work, and sat in solitary confinement to pump at lunch. Things went well. My production stayed just slightly ahead of his consumption, so I knew he wouldn’t starve. Just in case, I wanted him to be able to have some formula, in case I somehow ran out of breast milk in the freezer. So, he started having 1 bottle of formula per day over Christmas break. Then, I went back to work again in January, continuing my pumping regime. Only this time, I started getting less milk. Then I worried that I had less milk, which probably didn’t help me. I spent my 25 minute lunch pumping and sometimes only got 1.5 ounces… that plus the 3 ounces I got on the way to work would not for a happy boy make! So, I re-examined. Was 4.5 ounces, not even one whole bottle, per day of breast milk worth not carpooling and spending my lunch period alone in a 4x6 cement wall room? Not to me. So I stopped. I nursed him in the evening and in the morning and at night if he needed it. Then, one fateful day in the beginning of February, when life seemed to get suddenly busy, I realized that I had not nursed the child in 3 days. He didn’t seem to miss it and either did I. And, he was weaned. I really couldn’t have asked for a more wonderful breastfeeding experience. No one cried. I was happy, he was happy, all was well.
Stay tuned for more thoughts coming up!
My sister wanted me to write a blog post on nursing and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to. Its kind of a hot topic and people take it so personally, but recent events have led me to want to write about what I’ve heard, what I’ve learned.
The story starts with my first-born. I thought I wanted to breastfeed. Neither anyone on my side of the family nor anyone on Riley’s side of the family really breastfed. A few of my cousins tried it or nursed for a little while. I think one of my cousins breastfed one or two of her kids for more than a few months, but we do not come from a line of breast feeders. (By the way, none of us have permanent detachment disorders or anything, and some of us are even smart, but more on that later). When dear daughter was born, I tried nursing her right away. The pain was excruciating. Nothing could have prepared me for what that felt like, but I had heard that it hurt at first and I tried to toughen up. I listened to advice from the nurses and lactation consultants in the hospital, gritted my teeth and hoped that things would get better. It didn’t. I was sent home with this new little baby who wanted to eat every time she woke up. And, every time, I tried to nurse her. After the first few sucks, things felt better, but I still had to curl my toes for the first little bit each time. I was too nervous, private and, well, bull-headed, really, to ask for help, I just knew I didn’t like it. I sat in the afternoon and cried each time I fed her. This was not for me. I kept it up for 2 weeks, which was the goal I set for myself in the beginning and then decided it was not my cup of tea. I pumped a bottle for her and she took to it like a champ. So I continued to pump a little bit and mixed it with formula and slowly weaned her from breast milk. No repercussions. I was happy, she was happy, all was well.
Enter Mr. Baby J. Again, I decided to give it a try. I didn’t have a good first experience, but was older, wiser (ha) and maybe more determined the second time. Baby J and I had a distinctly different experience. We were totally compatible right from the start. I don’t tell a lot of people this, but, with him, it never hurt at all. Okay, so I was hopped up on pain killers from my c-section at first, but really, no pain, no tenderness. Just a simple connection. So, I nursed him. He had pumped bottles occasionally, but since I was on maternity leave (+ summer vacation) for almost 6 months, there wasn’t much of a need for bottles. I went back to work in December and, determined to make it to his 6 month “birthday,” pumped in the car on the way to work, and sat in solitary confinement to pump at lunch. Things went well. My production stayed just slightly ahead of his consumption, so I knew he wouldn’t starve. Just in case, I wanted him to be able to have some formula, in case I somehow ran out of breast milk in the freezer. So, he started having 1 bottle of formula per day over Christmas break. Then, I went back to work again in January, continuing my pumping regime. Only this time, I started getting less milk. Then I worried that I had less milk, which probably didn’t help me. I spent my 25 minute lunch pumping and sometimes only got 1.5 ounces… that plus the 3 ounces I got on the way to work would not for a happy boy make! So, I re-examined. Was 4.5 ounces, not even one whole bottle, per day of breast milk worth not carpooling and spending my lunch period alone in a 4x6 cement wall room? Not to me. So I stopped. I nursed him in the evening and in the morning and at night if he needed it. Then, one fateful day in the beginning of February, when life seemed to get suddenly busy, I realized that I had not nursed the child in 3 days. He didn’t seem to miss it and either did I. And, he was weaned. I really couldn’t have asked for a more wonderful breastfeeding experience. No one cried. I was happy, he was happy, all was well.
Stay tuned for more thoughts coming up!
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