Breastfeeding Trials and Tribulations

Just when we think we have things figured out, Alex changes the rules. The first few days were fine, but then on Day 4, we had huge problems getting Alex to latch on. My milk had arrived and my breasts were too big for him. Go figure!

We soldiered on though and managed to get him to eat - it was just difficult. The next day we were still having problems, and our ante-natal teacher suggested pumping to relieve some of the pressure to try to make it easier for Alex. It seemed to work, so we did that through the night, but by morning he still wasn't eating well and had to eat every couple of hours. We were both really tired.

The Kraamzorg arrived and suggested that we use some nipple shields to try to make it easier for Alex. Duncan jumped on his bike and cycled around all the baby shops until he found something. We didn't really like the concept of the shields but were desperate to get him to eat so we tried them in conjunction with the pumping. He seemed to be feeding a little better.

Saturday, Day 6 and we'd had another long night. Alex was sleeping a lot and wouldn't wake up to feed despite all sorts of rubbing, tickling and cold face-cloths on his head. The Kraamzorg decided it was time to start feeding him with a syringe so that we could be sure that he was eating and to try to get his energy levels up - also he was starting to get a little dehydrated because he wasn't having many wet nappies. Fortunately, there was plenty of milk, so I kept expressing and we fed him 60ml with a syringe. We got him sucking on our finger and then slid the syringe down the side so that he thought he was getting the milk from our finger.

Duncan and I decided that we needed to do something else, and needed some more advice, so we called one of the Lactation Consultants on Tina's website (Sharron). She's a New Zealander, so we decided that if nothing else, there would be absolutely no communication problems.

We were so pleased that we called her. She wasn't able to wake him to see what he was like feeding, but she reassured us that using the syringe was the best thing because it would allow him to get his energy back and then he would be able to feed again. She said that because he had fed off the breast before, he would be able to do it again. Although it was basically the same as what the Kraamzorg had said, it seemed much more reassuring hearing it from Sharron.

Sure enough, the next day. After a few syringe meals. Alex was back on the breast and had a wet nappy every time we changed it. Even better was the fact that he had gained 80g so we knew that we were doing something right. We were so relieved!!

Every day, he seems to do a little better. Sometimes it still takes a while to get him on the breast - he can get very frustrated and fussy, but then - for no apparent reason, he just latches on and we're away laughing!!