From the beginning we have struggled with breastfeeding. As a breastfeeding believer, I have had to dig deep at times to keep the faith. As soon as we barreled through one obstacle, another one was just around the corner. You name it, we dealt with it. But I was (am) destined to keep the holy booby juice flowing, despite our trials and tribulations (see below).
Latching On: Due to complications from my epidural, I leaked cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), resulting in a headache, light sensitivity and excruciating neck stiffness, making the first few days of breastfeeding almost impossible to do on my own. I relied on others to literally bring Haven to my breast to nurse, because I was unable to look down due to the pain. About three days after she was born I returned to the hospital to have epidural blood patch and began having better luck with nursing.
Mastitis: One morning during the first week home from the hospital I developed flu like symptoms, complete with an unusually high temperature and breast pain within a matter of hours. A dose of antibiotics knocked out those symptoms, along with frequent nursing, but it was definitely a speed bump in our breastfeeding path. (The subsequent drug rash from all the antibiotics wasn’t that fun, either. But, that’s a whole other story in itself.)
Ankyloglossia (aka tongue tie): At around five weeks we had Haven’s frenulum clipped. Most babies with tight frenulums have them clipped much earlier than Haven, because they are having difficulties nursing. Haven must have figured out how to make her tongue work, despite her tight frenulum, because she was definitely getting the milk she needed. However, my right nipple was suffering from her herculean efforts. After a consultation with a lactation consultant, who determined the nipple damage wasn’t due to poor latch, we had the frenulum clipped and shortly my nipple was on its way to healing.
Cracked Nipples: Several of my friends told me that breastfeeding makes your toes curl at the beginning and that is the most accurate description I can think of to describe some of those early days. Because of the tight frenulum, my right nipple was damaged essentially the first three months of nursing. My nipple is fully healed, however Haven now prefers to nurse on my left breast. I wonder if I subconsciously encouraged this (due to the painful nursing on my right)? Or, if my nipple has scar tissue from healing and the milk flows out differently?
Low Milk Supply: When Haven was around 5 1/2 months, she began nursing poorly during the day and waking at night to nurse. I assumed she was either teething or going through a growth spurt, but in the end it was all in part of a low milk supply. Through double pumping, fenugreek, Mother’s Milk Tea, oatmeal and an increase in my fluid intake, Haven soon began to nurse better. However, at around 7 months, she was stalling in her growth, and even after renting a hospital grade breast pump (in addition to the previous efforts) my milk supply remained low. Of course, nursing isn’t an exact science, but I don’t imagine Haven gets more than 20 oz. of breastmilk a day, including the milk I pump and at minimum she needs 24 oz.
After weeks of discussion, we decided last week to start supplementing with organic formula. This was an incredibly hard decision to make and we felt it was our best option. We did consider that I take Reglan, but the side effects include depression and while I am not an at risk candidate for depression, the last thing Haven needs is a dried-up depressed mama, because that won’t do her any good.
I am continuing all the tactics to keep my milk supply up. Whatever milk I pump, I give Haven through a sippy cup and have gradually introduced formula. Depending on the day, and how much I pump, she gets somewhere between 4 oz. and 8 oz. of formula. My hope is that I will be able to continue breastfeeding, while supplementing, until she’s one year and at the very least nurse her in the morning and the evening.
I am sure there are those who think I am crazy for continuing with this struggle. Many wonder why I don’t just stop. Honestly, I don’t know anybody else who has had this much difficulty nursing. Yes, I could stop nursing and exclusively give Haven formula, but for me that is the last resort. I’m planning on shaking my tatas for all they are worth…apparently, shaking your breasts prior to pumping helps empty the breast! I’ve been massaging while pumping and this weekend am going to try power pumping (Pumping for 10 minutes, resting for 10 for a total of 60 minutes. Basically, mimicing a baby who is cluster feeding.) to try an increase milk production.
Hi, ho. Hi, ho. It’s off to nurse I go.
Not to minimize any of your struggles, as any breastfeeding hurdles are truly incredibly difficult, but yes — you definitely know someone who had that much difficulty, if not more. It’s not a surprise that you wouldn’t realize it as I went through it alone years before any of my friends would have anything related to childbearing on the brain.
I think that these problems are more common than anyone realizes — mostly because it’s more often than not that women stop so quickly at the sign of any problem. When I think of where I’ve worked and how there are absolutely NO breastfeeding problems… the difference (that I attribute) is the constant stream of women helping. And growing up with babies and nursing everywhere. There aren’t even words for breastfeeding problems, because they literally don’t exist.
What is really great about your experience is how you manage to deal with each problem with the combination of your knowledge on the issue, your supportive and accessible family (not only close geographically, but also medical professionals in the know), and a supportive spouse (with paternity leave). It highlights how important PEOPLE are in our lives when raising a child. I think if I had had even one of the above it would have helped tremendously. I was clueless, was surrounded by people who were clueless, I was alone, and no family or friends around. The most helpful lactation consultant I saw was the one who said she’d never in almost 30 years of consulting seen any woman succeed with even half of our struggles! Will was 5 months old before he was even able to get on the breast, so to say we had problems breastfeeding is almost funny… it took 5 months of constant pain and tears to get to the point where we COULD have “normal” breastfeeding problems!
I’m curious about your low supply so far into everything. Especially if it’s just related to her growth. Unless she’s crying all the time from hunger and/or has experienced a huge (i.e.: more than 10%) drop in weight, how is your production the issue? Maybe she just is eating less or burning more calories from starting to crawl, etc.? I hate thinking that you’re worrying about something that may just be a completely normal shift in her diet/caloric needs, which is to be expected as she approaches age 1. As far as supplementation goes, I don’t know of any parent who doesn’t do this at some point. Whether for extra calories or just to get a break!
I had no idea you were going through this. I hope and pray that it all works out for the best for you and Haven.