breastfeeding

The whole time I was pregnant Ryan and I had decided that I would definitely breastfeed if everything went well and I could..We went to the breastfeeding basics class and the class helped alot and the lactation consultant was helpful with questions and explaining everything and had said that she would be there to help with breastfeeding in the hospital. After I had Kale and I was still in the labor and delivery room he was crying because he was hungry, I asked one of the nurses if I should go ahead and feed him and she said yes, I could. So I gave it a shot. She helped a little bit and we got him to where my nipple was in his mouth but he would not suck. He just sat there and didn't do anything. Well after a few minutes I told one of the nurses he was not sucking and asked if they could get the lactation nurse she told me that the lactation nurse would come in and help me as soon as I got into my postpartum room. So they took Kale and got me ready to transfer me to postpartum. Well in postpartum the lactation nurse still hadn't come to see me after Kale had been out of the nursery for about an hour. I knew he had to be hungry so I said something to one of the nurses asking her if the lactation consultant was ever going to come see me because my son had still not eaten. This nurse then tried to help me get him to eat and she could not succeed either. She had told me the reason the lactation nurse didn't come in was because the nurses in labor and delivery had said that he had eaten after he was born. FALSE! The nursery nurse couldn't get him to eat so she brought in a pump and told me to try and pump because he needed to eat before they had to take him back into the nursery. They brought me a pump and I tried pumping and could not get anything. I began to worry that maybe I didn't have any milk inside me. I called her back in and told her that I had not gotten anything and asked her if this meant that my body had not produced it and she told me no, that he was the best pump out there and even though the pump hadn't gotten anything didn't mean that he wouldn't be able to. Finally they got him latched on except he was dimpling when he sucked so finally the lactation consultant came to see me. She tried to get him to suck and he wouldn't she then stuck her finger in his mouth and said that he didn't even act like he was interested in her finger so he ovbiously was not hungry and we would try again later and she left. This kind of made me mad because it had been five hours or more since my son had been born and he still had not eaten anything. They had to take him to the nursery and she said since he had not eaten they would try and give him a little formula in the nursery. I said ok because my little boy was not cooperating with my breast and I did not want him to go hungry. They gave him a little formula in the nursery and then brought him back and one of the nursery nurses came in and helped me and finally we got him to suck. But it seemed that as soon as anyone saw him latch on to one boob they would leave and he would fall off and then I wouldn't be able to get him back on. I ended up leaving the hospital really nervous about breastfeeding. I had only gotten him to latch on by myself once and it was pointless to ask for help because no one really helped in the hospital. Luckily when I got home everything went well and he attached just fine. However, the lactation consultant said it shouldn't hurt and it did hurt but I got some cream and that helped and once my nipples toughened up now I don't feel a thing. However, when I was breastfeeding and pumping I got kind of depressed and didn't really want to do it anymore. It seemed like all I did with my dad was pump and feed him pump and feed him. When Ryan's mom came down we started to give him more formula and I started to kind of shy away from breastfeeding. When I was pumping I noticed a HUGE decrease in my milk production and I started crying. I wanted what was best for my baby and I wanted to breastfeed so we started to work really hard at getting my milk back. Also by giving Kale a bottle at first everything was going well and he would still take my boob but then he started to cry and fight with me when I tried to breastfeed him. I talked to my mom about it and she said it was a really bad idea to give him a bottle that what he was doing was he was starting to resist my boob because he has to work to get the milk out of there and with a bottle it is easier. So now we are not giving him any more bottles unless we are out because it's not like I can whip out my boob and it has been hard because sometimes I can tell he wants a bottle and i want to cave in but I don't. So things are getting better. But I definitely know why so many moms quit breastfeeding it is work