Breastfeeding is hard!

Wow!

Matt and I had decided that breastfeeding would be the best way to go with Camryn, but it was a challenge from the very beginning.

I started with it right away....like 2 hours after she was born. The nurse that helped show me what to do initially was a bit agressive and didn't realize that Camryn was actually bruising the heck out of my nipples. So, from then on, I had tremendous pain, not realizing that it was getting worse with each try. Evidently, she was holding her tongue back and not taking the amount of milk she really needed as well as not latching on properly.

We saw three different lactation nurses and they all had different information. By the time we left the hospital we had so much gear just for breastfeeding alone. They had set me up with a breast shield along with a hospital grade pump and plenty of syringes. We also got some additional small bottles for milk storage. The last item was very small tubing to give Camryn supplemental formula just to make sure she was getting enough to eat. We were put on a strict schedule to feed her every other hour.

Matt was so helpful in all of this! Camryn was having a hard time using her tongue, so he helped train her to suck properly using his finger. He actually was able to be so much more involved this way. So, rather than this being a negative, it turned out to be a positive. Below are some photos of him feeding the baby the milk I had pumped with a syringe:

After leaving the hospital we went to have a private consultation with a lactation specialist-she remembered me because of my bruising and scabbing and made a point to set up an appointment for me that week for a private consult. This was a tremendous help. She spent 2 1/2 hours with us the first meeting. We ended up seeing her 2 more times. I don't think we would have been able to do it without her help. It was totally worth the money! Also, she suggested a really great cream called "Jack Newman Nipple Ointment". It needs to be made special by a pharmacy that can do compounding and really helped with my pain.

It seemed like forever before we got off the strict schedule and made it to on demand feeding. I am still using the breast shield and have some pain, but we are getting better at it every day.