the milk machine – my tips from experience

So I wanted to chat about breastfeeding a little.  I understand this may turn some people away from this blog but its obviously a big part of my journey .

Everyone has different challenges breastfeeding and these were mine.  Now the usual challenges you hear about, and the ones I had heard about were mastitis, engorged boobs and the baby just failing to latch properly to start with.  I had heard horrible things about mastitis so going into this journey I was worried about it – and I was anxious about her latching as I really wanted to breastfeed.

I was lucky enough that she latched straight away when she was born – so tick – that was fine – thank goodness – we nailed it. Then when we got to our room and the midwife came to discuss breastfeeding and all the ins and outs and need to knows – I asked her what was the best way to help prevent mastitis.  She said regularly massaging my boobs, especially in the shower with the warm water pouring over them, and if I noticed any lumps or they felt engorged to massage them out straight away under warm water until the lumps cleared away. I was right on it – and even Chris had my back – reminding me each time I jumped in the shower.  The first week was fine – however I was a little concerned as she would only feed for 1-5 minutes at a time – so I was worried she wasn’t eating enough.  Other mothers who had come to see me at the hospital had also mentioned it – and said there babies used to feed for a minimum of 10minutes EACH SIDE – holy moly – there was no way Harper would feed for that long.

When we got home it continued this way but by the start to middle of her 2nd week hearthside she started screaming after every feed.  I would feed her for the normal 5 minutes but would start to notice her mouth overflowing so would either wait for her to pull off or pull her off – hold her upright and she would just scream – for hours.  Every night was the same – feed for 5 minutes – then Chris and I would take turns in burping her while she screamed for at least an hour.  It as getting exhausting and not only that – I started to feel so sad for her.  Whenever she was awake she was crying.  I felt so bad that she wasn’t happy – ever.  Something had to be wrong – and then she had 2 huge projective vomit’s and I felt absolutely helpless.  At her 1 week weigh in she had put on the right amount of weight so I felt she was getting enough milk – but I was at a loss.  I mentioned what as happening to mum (so great that she’s a doctor) and she thought that maybe my milk was flowing out too fast and it was giving Harper some reflux which was was in turn hurting her.  We decided to take her to the doctor just to make sure there was nothing more sinister going on – and she said we could try Infant’s Friend but it would eventually clear.  We had also been told to hold her upright for at least 20-30 minutes after a feed – as their little stomachs weren’t developed enough to hold the milk down – and if we put her down to soon – it would just wash back up and irritate.  We tried the Infant’s friend -and although it did at times settle her a little it wasn’t solving the problem.  Then I was talking to my best friend one day and she said that she was chatting to her mum about my little issue with Harper and she mentioned that used to happen to her – and that she used to feed either lying down – or on a incline to stop the milk coming out so fast.  I tried that and all of a sudden she was feeding for longer period – going from 5 minute maximum – to at least 10 minutes and then even going back for more on the other side. I felt we were finally getting somewhere – she wasn’t crying for as long and her mouth wasn’t overflowing and we didn’t have any big vomit’s.  Thank goodness – however she was still crying after feeding and I still knew something was hurting her.  Mum decided to prescribe some baby Zantac for her – which we gave her twice a day.  Within 2 days – we had a new baby.  I couldn’t believe it.  Night feeds changed entirely.  Rather than feeding, burping and rocking back to sleep which was taking sometimes 2 hours – I would feed, burp and she would go straight back to sleep.  45 mins and we were done.  I felt like a new human.  

Not only was I feeling sorry for her during that time – but the exhaustion from hardly any sleep really started to get me down and really taking it’s toll on Chris as well.  We would be getting 4 hours broken sleep a night max.   

I had never heard of any one talk about this breastfeeding hurdle before – and although I didn’t and haven’t had mastitis, engorged boobs, or latching problems – this definitely had it’s challenges and I wouldn’t wish this on anyone either.

So – new mommas – here are my tips for breastfeeding. This is what worked for me, what I learnt. I have no training in this area – but experience – hopefully these help some of you

• Massage your breasts every day in the shower
• Massage out lumps straight away in the shower – with warm water
• Use an app so you’re alternating breasts feeding – so you don’t get one over full one
• Feed lying down, or on an angle
• Keep baby up for at least 20-30 minutes after feeding (this one is really important)
• If your boob is really full before feeding – pump a little out first before feeding ( I WISH someone had told me this before hand) this way it won’t come out too quickly
• If you have full boobs – don’t offer the second side after the first burp – offer the same side – they may overflow ( this happened to me)
• They will unlatch – keep popping them back on until they reject it.  I found I wasn’t feeding for long enough so had to feed every 30 minutes sometimes

I hope these helps

I’d love to hear your stories and if these have helped you

Love and Life

The Figure

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