Our Breastfeeding Journey, Part 1 - Jaundice, Supplementing, Tongue Tie Revision

I wish I would've been able to keep up with the blog to track our breastfeeding journey. Through early struggles, a tongue tie, pumping at work - I did manage to breastfeed until my son was 14 months old. I'll try to write a summary!

Jaundice
The first month was tough with Baby C having jaundice. We began supplementing with formula right away and I started pumping right away. Not what I had planned. The first month was difficult, where I would try and nurse, then supplement with formula, then pump - to keep my supply up. Very little sleep during that time.

Nipple Shield
When he hit one month, my pediatrician finally gave the green light to stop supplementing and exclusively breast feed (EBF). Then the next issue came, trying to get off the nipple shield. The nipple shield worked great for the beginning, as my baby had a horrible latch. It took about one week of purposefully trying to get him off of the nipple shield before he would latch on his own.

Thrush
I thought we were getting the hang of breastfeeding, when all of a sudden I had a lot of pain. My pediatrician told me it was thrush. Thrush it it's own monster... both of us had to get on meds for it. Couldn't use breast pads for very long, had to wash bras constantly. It was a mess. I decided to go to a lactation consultant (LC) at that time.

Lip and Tongue Tie
Turns out... it wasn't thrush. My baby had a lip and tongue tie. Which EVERYONE missed. I had gone to a breastfeeding support group and the LC there missed the ties. The hospital LC missed the ties. My pediatrician missed the ties. After I had gone back to work, he got his tongue tie revision at 3.5 months old. Which, kinda sucked because he had just started sleeping for longer stretches of time and I had to wake him up every 4 hours to do tongue stretches. It was also VERY hard to have him go through the procedure, I cried when they took him away and cried when he came back crying. It was quick and fast... but it just sucked big time.

His latch did get better. I'm not sure if it was because of his tongue tie revision or just because he got older and more efficient? However, it did push back his sleep patterns and he wouldn't start sleeping through the night until closer to 6 months old.

I would say by 4 months old, I felt like breastfeeding was going extremely well. I had a bit of an oversupply, but I was happy to have that extra in my freezer (which I would eventually use when my supply started to go down!).

I'll write another entry on pumping and nursing an older infant (Biting and niplash!).

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