Laurens Breastfeeding Story

Hi Friends, Lauren here! I am going to share a glimpse of my breastfeeding (BF) story and strategies used/use. To start out, I want to say a FED baby is the BEST baby- no judgement here on how you chose to feed your baby!

My journey began before I gave birth! Why? Honestly, I was so worried I would not produce enough milk with my history of PCOS and small breast tissue, I wanted to be prepared. Prior to giving birth our lactation consultant (LC) came over to strategize our first feedings, provide tips for feedings in the hospital, and we developed a plan to help my production. In my opinion, this was one of the most valuable things I did while pregnant. I would have had a meltdown in the hospital if I had not already been told the first few days, I would be expressing milk into a spoon or syringe to feed my baby!

February 26, 2020- the day I became a momma! Reid placed Reece on my chest so he could root to my breast once he was born and he did- I was shocked! The first feed was a little overwhelming with all the people in our room, delivering my placenta, so on and so forth. We had an amazing nurse who stayed by my side the whole time and helped me express milk and get Reece to latch well. First feed, check for our second feed, we were in mommy baby and a LC came in to coach us through his second feed- I was feeling supported and gaining hope this would work right off the bat.

Our first full day went verily smooth. My goal after each feed was to express milk (colostrum at this point) to signal my body to produce more and to help supplement Reece. Expressing milk was hard! Maybe I am just not coordinated but… I struggled some. Our first nurse on mommy-baby was a champ and actually expressed one of my boobs while I did the other (after labor you have no modesty). Aside from needing some help with expression, we were doing well until night two came along.

No one told us that cluster feeding was common night two. Reid and I were convinced we w ere awful parents because he went from a great sleeper night one to pissed night two. After calling in our nurse a few times because we had no idea what to do, she finally explained he was cluster feeding (aka eating ALL the time). I don’t remember much more from that night other than sleep deprivation and being ready for a nap while he had his circumcision in the morning.

Yes, day two was circumcision and going home day! They took Reece early for his surgery and we were anticipated to go home by lunch, once he peed. Lunch time turned into dinner time…. Reece was so lethargic after surgery we could barely get him up to eat. This turned into our only poor experience at this hospital. I asked for lactation to come in to help me feed him or at least express milk. This session did not go well, I felt judged and defeated. Luckily, I remembered our LC said we could use syringes to feed him. I asked more small syringes and we ended up feeding him with expressed milk. In case you’re wondering, feeding him didn’t help him pee. Hours later we finally resorted to a rectal temp to get

things going :P

Overall, we had an amazing hospital stay. I would say, I felt supported as a breast feeding, new momma. Now we were home and had to start navigating life without someone checking in on us every few hours. Our first night home thank goodness my mom stayed with us. I highly recommend that you have a family member or friend come help if you can!

First night at home, first feed. I thought I was supermom and could do it all. I got him up, we fed, swaddled him, put him back in the bassinet. Thirty seconds later, spit up everywhere. This was so close to my first breakdown. I sat in the floor and took a few deep breaths while Reid helped me get little man all cleaned up.

+ hindsight I learned off taking cara babies that the amount of spit up usually isn’t as much as what it appears to be

Lesson learned.

Second night feed, grandma came to the rescue and stayed up with Reece after I fed him for a bit, then swaddle and put him back to bed for us. LIFE SAVER.

The next day my boobs started to feel hot and hard. I was terrified of mastitis, clogged ducts, etc. and was beyond anxious for our LC to come over. Cue, my first melt down. I had scheduled our LC to come but Reid had told family they could visit so I had to push back my appointment one day.

Twenty-four hours later, still mad at Reid, our LC visit happened. We did a pre and post feed weigh which went well. She helped me navigate holds better and techniques to help my boobs drain and avoid a clogged duct. Shewww... we were good!

+ techniques including dangle feeding, expression and using heat/massage

…For about a week. Somewhere between week 1-2 Reece started not being happy or appear satisfied after feedings. He also started falling asleep during feedings on occasion and tearing up my boobs in the process. My boobs were turning bright pink and white at the tips, they burned, I was miserable.

Our LC came over to do a quick pre and post feed weight which showed he was not transferring much food. We set up a time for her to come over and do an oral exam then next day and discussed ways to supplement Reece for now. Our supplementation trials were giving him a preemie bottle with breast milk, taping a tube that was in a bottle to my boob, syringe feeding. As much as it pained me to give him a bottle so early, that was easiest and that’s what we needed at the time.

Upon oral exam, our LC found that he had a lip and tongue tie. Bring on the tears! I sat sobbing (sleep deprived) over the fact our little boy would need surgery and then a few weeks of stretches every 4 hours. In retrospect, I completely overreacted. We were beyond lucky to get into the dentist prior to covid. Surgery took all of 5 minutes and Reece slept all the way home. Stretches were fine and in fact, he slept through the night stretches 95 percent of the time.

The release followed with chiropractic work and oral exercises did the trick. Reece was feeding well and transferring plenty right after! Medihoney and a better latching boy fixed my nipples (thank goodness).

We were in a rhythm a few weeks in!

What did our rhythm look like? I continued to feed on demand or at least every 3 hours during the day. We were lucky that Reece started sleeping through the night very early so we let him sleep and momma got up to pump. After feedings, I continued to try and pump or express milk following to signal my body that it needed to make more milk in hopes to keep my supply up. The expressed, night pump, and Hakka milk began my freezer stash during maternity leave.

Finally, at Mother’s day, which was a few weeks before I returned to work, I gave up the night pump. I felt selfish at first but knew getting a full night, uninterrupted sleep would be best of me. My body regulated after a few nights so that I no longer leak at night but I do usually feed and pump in the mornings.

Currently, I breastfeed when I am with Reece then pump at work. Our normal day looks like 1 feed in the morning (I usually pump some as well), pump every 3-4 hr. at work, then feed him after work and before bed. I work in home health so I plug my pump into my car, clean my parts with the medela wipes, and got a hard plastic cooler for his milk.

What is my plan from here? We will see! I said my short-term goal was 6 mo. and my long term goals is 12 months. If I have learned anything from being a momma, it is that I can actually go with the flow (even though it still kills my planning self a little). I trust the two of us will figure it out as we go and do what is best along the way.