Tag: breastfeeding

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Success!

If you havent yet, go and read this post about Faith, breastfeeding and biting…

After getting advice from all the wonderful mommies on twitter and that read my blog as well as IRL friends and of course my mommy I decided that we would try formula.

I know that ‘breast is best’ and that since we were doing so well we should probably continue but the truth is I have been saying for a while now that Im looking forward to stopping.  Also, once the biting started, I found myself actually dreading feeding time.  I was very hesitant to put my boobs anywhere near Faith’s mouth and that was effecting my enjoyment of feeding Faith.

Yesterday I gave Faith a bottle at lunch time.  She cried for all of 2 seconds before tasting the milk and then quite happily drinking 150ml.  I gave her another bottle at bed time and she was quite happy with that too.  She woke up twice last night, first time I just gave her the dummy, the second time I made her a bottle and she drank half of it before falling asleep again.  She woke up at 7 this morning and had another small bottle.

I call that a success.  She is happy and getting a nutritious bottle and Im not afraid of having my nipples bit off!

The big thing at the moment is that my boobs hurt!  Actually only the right boob hurts.  Anyone know how long it will take for my boobs to stop producing milk, or at least stop hurting??

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Once bitten twice shy…

I always said that the day Faith bites me is the day I stop breastfeeding.

Tonight Faith bit me for the second time.

The first time was the middle of the night, she wouldnt go to sleep and was screaming and wouldn’t be calmed, I offered her the boob to see if that would help and she bit me.  It wasnt her fault, it wasnt mine.  She was angry and frustrated.  Children bite when they cant contain or express anger and frustration.  Especially when they cant talk.

In fact I thought it was quite funny because earlier that day I was speaking to Sharon about breastfeeding and biting and had said that Faith had never bitten me… Ok, Im not sure why that would be funny 🙁

Tonight I came home and Faith was still awake, very sleepy and about to doze off and I decided to offer her the boob since the last time she had milk was 3 hours earlier and it often sends her to sleep.  Well, she opened her mouth no problem, didnt make a single sound and then bit me again.

Those two little chompers are bloody sharp!

Im a little hesitant to put my boobs anywhere near her mouth again.  Im not sure what to do.  Do I stop breastfeeding and go with formula?  Do I keep trying, never knowing when she will decide to bite?  Do I express and offer bottles (that she doesnt take from me, the one who gets up for her in the night…)?

I also always said that I would only breastfeed until she was a year old, thats in just under two months time.  Also, expressing isnt that great, I definitely dont get as much milk expressing as I do when she sucks.  Also, if I stop breastfeeding her I will lose my beautiful C cup boobs (selfish reason to keep going, I know).

So, what do you guys think?

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Oink!

So after 4/5 days of feeling flu-ish then gastro-ish I decided to go to the doctor.

Good idea!

He seems to think I may have the dreaded Swine Flu! Oink!

He isnt 100% certain and has based his diagnosis on symptoms not a test.  Because I am breastfeeding Faith and because there is no definitive certainty that Tamiflu is safe in breastfeeding we decided to try a general antibiotic first, if by this time tomorrow I am not feeling better at all then I will go onto the Tamiflu.

Im really really grateful that I am a very good cow and that I have a freezer full of stored breast milk.  Today and up until I have to go onto Tamiflu I will be expressing after every feed or between if I feel ‘full’ so that I can add to the stock.

Then, if I do have to take Tamiflu I will bottle feed Faith from the supply and ‘pump and dump’ as many times a day as possible while I’m on it so that I can keep my milk supply up.

I really really hope that I start getting better because I really dont want to bottle feed Faith (she hates it) and I dont want to compromise my supply.

Oink!!!!!!

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Breast feeding and vomit and sleep deprivation… Oh my!

Breast feeding

So far so good.  Faith latched straight away and basically hasn’t stopped.

With Aaron, my milk only came in on day 4 or day 5, I started pumping as soon as it did so that Paul could do some night time feeds.  Im not sure if the pumping or bottle feeding effected my milk supply but by the beginning of the 2nd month we were supplementing with formula.  Part of that was also to do with not being comfortable breast feeding in public.

This time round Im determined to breast feed as long as possible, I havent started pumping yet, but I will in the next few days or so.  I want to freeze a good supply so that when I go back to work Faith will still get breast milk.  Also, being older and wiser (haha), I just dont give rocks what people think if I breast feed in public.  In fact I almost want someone to make an issue out of it so that I can take a stand, whip out a boob and say that I am proud to be a public breast feeding mommy!

The other main factor to keep breast feeding is cost.  Formula  is freaking expensive and as long as I can provide milk why not!

 

Vomit

Oh yeah… vomit… Thank heavens Faith is not as bad as Aaron was.  Aaron projectiled. Faith just spits up.  Usually while I am lying with her on top of me, so it goes all over me… yuck!

Still, newborn vomit is soooooo much better than  3 year old vomit!

 

Sleep deprivation

I have not missed sleep deprivation at all.  I am a zombie.  My worst time during the night is between 12am and 3am… Faith likes to cluster feed during that time, so I just lay on the couch in her room with her attached to one or other of my boobs, catching cat naps while she feeds.  Unfortunately buy the time she goes to sleep again I am wide awake…  Also I am really not a morning person, so when she wakes up and the sun is shining and she wants to be alert and held and played with all I want to do is sleep.

Paul has been great, he usually gets up with her when the sun rises, changes her, rocks her and talks to her until she gets cross because he isn’t feeding her, then he brings her to me in bed and she feeds while I sleep.

Like I said earlier, Im going to start pumping soon and as soon as we hit the 6 week mark, Paul is going to introduce his daughter to the wonders of bottle fed breast milk and 12am feeding/bonding time with dad 😉

 

All in all Im doing ok, just a few small hurdles to overcome, a few things to get used to and before you know it we will be in a routine and we will both be happy and  a bit more awake 🙂