"You can try breastfeeding once you are in your room", said my doctor, after stitching up my c-section wound. All was well till then. They just showed me the baby for a while before whisking him away to the special care nursery. The baby was not crying as loudly as he should. So he needed special attention. A couple of hours later, his crying had got better, but he was not suckling effectively when they gave him a bottle. So they were 'training' him to drink from a bottle.
I was too weak to to see the baby in the special care nursery, which was in another floor of the building. So, about 1 and a half days passed before I could sit. Then, a lactation consultant helped me to pump. I pumped, and there was almost nothing. The consultant advised me to keep pumping every 3 hours, and whatever little milk we got, would be sent to the baby in a bottle.
Then I was taken in a wheelchair to see my baby. By then, he was good at the bottle and was to come to me late afternoon. I put him in my breast, he wouldn't suckle. I tried nursing him for a while before I got too tired to sit. So I was sent back to bed where I waited for the baby.
When he finally came to my room, he was great at the bottle and was drinking so well. He was in fact taking much more than what he was supposed to drink. As happy as I was to see my baby's big appetite, I was also secretly sad at our failure in breastfeeding. I was still pumping every 3 hours, but my supply was much lesser than his demand. He was quickly increasing the amount of formula he would take with every feeding. I couldn't interfere and start to breast feed him exclusively. The baby couldn't wait for the slow breast milk to flow while he could take faster bottle milk. Since then, I fed the baby expressed milk in a bottle and topped it up with the required amount of formula.
By one month, my supply was much better and I was physically and mentally ready to wean him off the bottle. I got mixed advice from other mothers who warned against weaning him completely off the bottle for various reasons. They said, if my milk supply goes down later, the baby wouldn't take milk from bottle then.
But I was strong. I took advice from the lactation consultant and started to breastfeed often and resisted from giving the bottle. The baby had a trying time too. Often, he engaged in a nursing strike and would take breast milk from a bottle. During the next month, I struggled with an infant crying just because he wouldn't want to nurse but the bottle. It took a whole month for both of us to catch up with breastfeeding exclusively.
Now, my baby is 5 months old and I had been breastfeeding exclusively for the past 3 months. When I look at him nursing like a baby that he is, looking at me eagerly, I couldn't help but remember what a journey we have been through and how I never imagined I would be able to breastfeed him one day. I am the happiest mother in the world and the proudest too, for all the efforts I have put.
| Quick Finder: |