My Breastfeeding Journey-Part 1
Let me start from the very beginning. When I was pregnant I knew that I wanted to exclusively breastfeed. I felt like this wasn't even a decision to be made, I just always knew this is what I wanted. I wanted to breastfeed for a few reasons, one was that it is THE best thing for your baby. Breast milk is better for your baby than formula any day. Also, breast milk is free while formula is quite expensive. And, the feeling of being able to feed your baby from your body and the bond it creates between you and your child is unmatchable.
In my mind, Why wouldn't you breastfeed if you could? I still do not understand why parents choose formula over breast milk. No offense to people who choose formula, I personally just do not understand. I have heard that women are uncomfortable with breastfeeding, but there is pumping too! I think that if you have a supply of breast milk, you should give it to you baby one way or another whether that is thru breastfeeding or thru pumping and giving it by bottle- just my honest opinion.
So, back to my story. My mind was made up that I would breastfeed. As I mentioned in my previous posts, I had my baby by c-section and then had a hemorrhage while in recovery. Before the hemorrhage happened, while I was in recovery, they were checking vitals on my son and he had a bit of a low blood sugar. To fix this, he needed to eat. Well, trying to get him to latch and breastfeed for the very first time while I was lying there feeling terrible was just not happening. Since he was not latching I gave the 'OK' for them to supplement with formula to get his blood sugar up. Well, at that point in time I didn't know that my milk supply wasn't coming in anyways.
I had some leaking while I was pregnant but nothing major but once I had a c-section and then an emergency surgery there was NOTHING coming from my breasts. at all. not even a drop. So for my son's first 4 days of life, we were supplementing with formula while I pumped for 15 minutes every 3 hours. For the first 4 days, I was pumping and getting nothing. I remember getting literally ONE drop, during ONE of my pumping sessions out of the many that i did on those days. But this one small drop gave me hope.
Well then it was Friday morning and I was being discharged that day but on this day, my baby was rushed to the NICU. (I have not posted about this yet, but I will) I am not sure if it was the 4 previous days of pumping or it was the idea that now my son was in the NICU and i needed to provide for him, but I was pumping and there it was my 'liquid gold' spilling into the bottle. I was only able to get one ounce but I proudly brought that 1oz to the NICU for my baby! That Friday was craziness between my discharge, the NICU, deciding to stay the night in the 'boarding room' and my engorged breasts on top of all the stress.
As my husband and I sat in the NICU's boarding room, I pumped and I got even more milk this time, so I knew I was well on my way to a good milk supply. I was happy that my baby was getting my breast milk even if it wasn't from breastfeeding quite yet. I continued to pump at home as well as during the day, in the NICU's small pumping room. I was shocked when I was able to pump TEN ounces in one 20 minute pumping session!!! I had an amazing milk supply and I was SO thankful. I was overjoyed that my supply was so plentiful and I was able to provide the very best nutrition for my baby!
I will post a part 2 of this whole story...
In my mind, Why wouldn't you breastfeed if you could? I still do not understand why parents choose formula over breast milk. No offense to people who choose formula, I personally just do not understand. I have heard that women are uncomfortable with breastfeeding, but there is pumping too! I think that if you have a supply of breast milk, you should give it to you baby one way or another whether that is thru breastfeeding or thru pumping and giving it by bottle- just my honest opinion.
So, back to my story. My mind was made up that I would breastfeed. As I mentioned in my previous posts, I had my baby by c-section and then had a hemorrhage while in recovery. Before the hemorrhage happened, while I was in recovery, they were checking vitals on my son and he had a bit of a low blood sugar. To fix this, he needed to eat. Well, trying to get him to latch and breastfeed for the very first time while I was lying there feeling terrible was just not happening. Since he was not latching I gave the 'OK' for them to supplement with formula to get his blood sugar up. Well, at that point in time I didn't know that my milk supply wasn't coming in anyways.
I had some leaking while I was pregnant but nothing major but once I had a c-section and then an emergency surgery there was NOTHING coming from my breasts. at all. not even a drop. So for my son's first 4 days of life, we were supplementing with formula while I pumped for 15 minutes every 3 hours. For the first 4 days, I was pumping and getting nothing. I remember getting literally ONE drop, during ONE of my pumping sessions out of the many that i did on those days. But this one small drop gave me hope.
Well then it was Friday morning and I was being discharged that day but on this day, my baby was rushed to the NICU. (I have not posted about this yet, but I will) I am not sure if it was the 4 previous days of pumping or it was the idea that now my son was in the NICU and i needed to provide for him, but I was pumping and there it was my 'liquid gold' spilling into the bottle. I was only able to get one ounce but I proudly brought that 1oz to the NICU for my baby! That Friday was craziness between my discharge, the NICU, deciding to stay the night in the 'boarding room' and my engorged breasts on top of all the stress.
As my husband and I sat in the NICU's boarding room, I pumped and I got even more milk this time, so I knew I was well on my way to a good milk supply. I was happy that my baby was getting my breast milk even if it wasn't from breastfeeding quite yet. I continued to pump at home as well as during the day, in the NICU's small pumping room. I was shocked when I was able to pump TEN ounces in one 20 minute pumping session!!! I had an amazing milk supply and I was SO thankful. I was overjoyed that my supply was so plentiful and I was able to provide the very best nutrition for my baby!
I will post a part 2 of this whole story...
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